Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#161

Post by ectoplasm » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 8:24 AM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #160

danieltillett wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People said the same thing about George W. Bush. We have yet to see any evidence for that assertion, both for him and Hilton. GWB got a SAT mark that implies a IQ over 130. While he certainly liked to play the fool for his audience, I saw no evidence that he was stupid, just totally corrupt. >Quite a bold claim. I'd like to see a citation. Any trait that has more than a few hundred genes influencing it will be norma…

>>GWB got a SAT mark that implies a IQ over 130. Huh? He scored 566 on verbal and 640 on math for a total of 1206 points -- around 140 points below his Yale classmates. I'm not sure how this implies an IQ of over 130, unless you believe that Yale is attended by pure geniuses (hint: it isn't). Furthermore, both SAT and IQ scores are highly correlated with the quality of education one receives. They don't measure innat…

The better the quality of your education, the greater the influence of genetics on your IQ score. At least, that was my understanding of the WP article, which says poor environment means poor heritability.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#162

Post by mrbig4545 » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 8:35 AM UTC

switch007 wrote: post #149

mrbig4545 wrote: post #39

My rent is low and my pay is high. North England is good for that.

Tell me more. High by southern standards? I'm hearing more and more about high paid tech jobs in the north but haven't seen any figures. I'm sick of the south and seriously considering moving north.

I don't know, I haven't worked in the south. But I earn £45k, my rent is £650 for a house with a big garden and a garage, a loaf of bread is 75p and a beer is in the range of £1.30-3, usually around £2.20

When I was in London, I couldn't get a beer for less than a fiver

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#163

Post by pjmorris » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 8:49 AM UTC

akamaka wrote: post #49

Can anyone recommend further reading that gives an in-depth analysis of housing costs? There's no end to articles exploring the various political angles, but what good are those without understanding the underlying economic constraints? I'd be most interested in sources that use raw data, introduce mathematical models, and take into account measurable factors such as land availability, construction costs, incentives…

Not a complete answer, but Bill McBride's Calculated Risk blog is an excellent resource for housing analysis (among other things). Follow for awhile, and you'll pick up much of what is needed.

[1] www.calculatedriskblog.com

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#164

Post by Offler » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 8:56 AM UTC

adam419 wrote: post #48

nostromo wrote: post #6

This article doesn't answer the question and seems primary based on nostalgia. My theory: the Fed's zero interest rate policy is very good at inflating asset values: S&P500, housing, you name it. Rising income is a second-order effect: we hope that rising asset values will lead to increased wages. That used to be the case, but no longer is. Why? Because of automation and globalization probably. So, the Fed has the pe…

Here's another solution: Respect the wisdom of markets. Allow corrections to take place and don't bury malinvestment under the rug only for it rear it's ugly head worse later on by acting as if you have a better intuition on what the price of money should be. Most people accept the virtue of free markets. Yet many don't see that the actions the Fed has been taking destroys the concept of a market by artificially supp…

Respect disease let people die when they contract them.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#165

Post by J-dawg » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 9:17 AM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #47

danieltillett wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a bug it is a feature. The rich are a lot smarter today than when they were the descendants of feudal landlords - 100 years of meritocracy combined with assortative mating makes for a very clever ruling class. Edit. Spelling.

Counter-data: Paris Hilton.

Not sure if this proves or disproves anything, but there are rumours she's a vintage radio enthusiast

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/the-truth-is-out-there

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#166

Post by Nano2rad » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 9:42 AM UTC

tcbawo wrote: post #143

adam419 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Creating too bigger to fail out of already too big to fail industries does nothing except throw good money after bad, and increase systemic risk for an even worse repetition of a failure. Not to mention the fact that continuously proceeding with such bailouts is simply unsustainable. The problem lies in our modern inability to stomach losses and handle austerity. It's something no one rightfully wants, but when marke…

Morality aside, the US government acted in its own self-interest by protecting industries within its borders. It is likely had any major US automakers been liquidated, more wealth would have been destroyed than created. Extending the organism metaphor, forest fires can be a naturally occurring healthy event that promotes renewal. Sometimes, a fire will burn with enough intensity that the forest itself is destroyed. S…

Politics also needs consideration. If other countries protect their industries and US does not what will happen?

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#167

Post by legulere » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 9:47 AM UTC

Reasons why rent is so high not named:

- A constant influx of people into the cities especially as inner city new york had a bad reputation

- Apartments get bigger. Even if you rent a small one others are causing high rents through making space more scarce

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#168

Post by switch007 » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 10:21 AM UTC

mrbig4545 wrote: post #162

switch007 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me more. High by southern standards? I'm hearing more and more about high paid tech jobs in the north but haven't seen any figures. I'm sick of the south and seriously considering moving north.

I don't know, I haven't worked in the south. But I earn £45k, my rent is £650 for a house with a big garden and a garage, a loaf of bread is 75p and a beer is in the range of £1.30-3, usually around £2.20 When I was in London, I couldn't get a beer for less than a fiver

Useful, thank you. I know people paying that and more for a room in a shared house down here :)

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#169

Post by danieltillett » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 10:36 AM UTC

ectoplasm wrote: post #158

danieltillett wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People said the same thing about George W. Bush. We have yet to see any evidence for that assertion, both for him and Hilton. GWB got a SAT mark that implies a IQ over 130. While he certainly liked to play the fool for his audience, I saw no evidence that he was stupid, just totally corrupt. >Quite a bold claim. I'd like to see a citation. Any trait that has more than a few hundred genes influencing it will be norma…

Per the intro to that article, presumably high intelligence also has a large environmental component, in that you need a good environment not to squash the heritability. btw, I think you didn't finish editing: > normally distributed with the mean of the offspring the mean of the parents > normally distributed with the offspring mean the mean of the parents

Yes even if you have the genetic potential for high intelligence environment can destroy it. What counts as a good environment is pretty basic though - the vast majority of people grow up in an environment which won't kill their genetic potential.

What I wrote about the means is correct. Over the population the mean intelligence of the offspring is equal to the mean intelligence of the parents. Of course with individual parents and offspring you can have sets of children where the means are not the same, but averaged over a large group the means are the same.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#170

Post by caf » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 10:38 AM UTC

BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #144

adam419 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's another solution: Respect the wisdom of markets. Allow corrections to take place and don't bury malinvestment under the rug only for it rear it's ugly head worse later on by acting as if you have a better intuition on what the price of money should be. Most people accept the virtue of free markets. Yet many don't see that the actions the Fed has been taking destroys the concept of a market by artificially supp…

The value of money is completely determined by fed actions and allowing it to drift in detrimental value paths would be the farthest thing from respecting the markets. Economy wide "malinvestment" is not a thing. It entails that a person living off of others is more productive than a person working. It's nonsense. Although money should be just an intermediary tool for trade and negotiation, an artificial asset that i…

Isn't the value of bonds, which are essentially debt denominated in the fiat currency, intrinsically linked to the value of that currency? Debt isn't an independent store of value in the same way that equity or real property is.