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Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

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Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#151

Post by Ferret7446 »

daedrdev wrote: post #44

It's basically illegal to build dense homes in most cities. And despite what people say, the vacancy rate is at historic lows so its not just "people are keeping them empty" Its a disgrace that people deny the supply crunch we are in

Devil's advocate, I don't think we should keep building more housing insofar as it encourages population growth (which it does). Like highways, there will always be barely enough, no matter how many lanes/houses we build.

But population growth is the overwhelming factor in all of our sustainability issues.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#154

Post by mathiaspoint »

roncesvalles wrote: post #126

Lack of universal healthcare is the single greatest hurdle to job mobility and entrepreneurship in America in my opinion.

Almost no one under 40 cares. In fact for most of us we'll net a profit (not expected, straight up in most cases including one or two events) just self insuring.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#155

Post by daedrdev »

Ferret7446 wrote: post #151
daedrdev wrote: post #44

It's basically illegal to build dense homes in most cities. And despite what people say, the vacancy rate is at historic lows so its not just "people are keeping them empty" Its a disgrace that people deny the supply crunch we are in

Devil's advocate, I don't think we should keep building more housing insofar as it encourages population growth (which it does). Like highways, there will always be barely enough, no matter how many lanes/houses we build. But population growth is the overwhelming factor in all of our sustainability issues.

So in response to the rapidly rising prices, we should not build any housing because it doesn't matter? Surely there is still a positive benefit since there must be less than one person wanting to move in per new unit otherwise they would have already moved in?

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#156

Post by mathiaspoint »

Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #127

In a way this is the ultimate goal of conservatism in its literal sense to conserve. The rich want have their place in society safely entrenched at the top, with no risk of people rising from below to displace them. Those at the bottom should stay locked in there and work and toil because that is the natural order of things.

Oh cool you've nominally gone after the rich and then pointed at the middle class again. I'm sure this will make you and your ideas popular.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#157

Post by forducks »

donatj wrote: post #22

I've been casually job hunting for a couple months since rounds of layoffs started at my company. I've applied to umpteen places and haven't had a single callback. In my twenty+ years working as a dev, this is the worst I've seen it since about 2005.

Laid off from tech and out of work for two years. Thousands of applications. Ran out of contacts, luck, savings, patience, everything. I start my retail career next week earning $12/hr. I can't even provide for my own rent and utilities anymore, even after moving.

I almost can't believe it's come to this, sometimes. But another part of me says that's just ego talking, and anyways plenty of others are also desperate for any and all scraps to feed themselves. Problems like mine aren't difficult to come by.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#158

Post by mathiaspoint »

dismalaf wrote: post #27
abbycurtis33 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money doesn't sit in the stock market. Value, sure, but the money goes right back into the economy.

Money only goes to the company to get reinvested when the company sells shares, so at IPO time, when an insider sells, when more shares are issued, etc... Otherwise, it's one asset holder selling to another asset holder, usually at ever increasing prices. So yes, a lot of money is simply sitting in the stock market. Now, some does come back in the form of share buybacks and dividends. That being said, the average div…

The secondary market drives the primary market.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#160

Post by pragmatic »

Dig1t wrote: post #45
chao- wrote: post #30

It is difficult to balance the competing priorities of "home ownership is widely affordable" and "home prices must always go up". When the balance is not broadly possible, our system seems to favor "home prices must always go up", at least in the short term.

There are many places in the US where you can buy a house for less than 50k. If you want prices to drop in popular areas then we have to make it easy for people to actually build houses and increase supply in popular areas. Of course giving homeowners a say about whether housing is allowed to be built near them, of course they are going to vote against it because they have an incentive to keep prices high.

Many such cases!
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