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

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#181

Post by crimsonalucard » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 1:48 PM UTC

The concept that you can "own" property and charge "rent" for it has been an economic drain on the world.

When a cash exchange or transfer is made, it is usually for a product, aka GDP. There is no GDP involved with paying rent. A landlord is someone who can sit on his ass and live off of the GDP the tenant generates in the form of "rent" while offering no GDP back to the economy. The landlord is essentially a parasite, offering nothing beneficial to the economy, he simply can suck the life blood out of you through this strange concept of "owning" the habitat in which you live. Life is a bitch, but it is what it is.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#182

Post by marcosdumay » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 1:50 PM UTC

tcbawo wrote: post #74

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…

This is a gray area. If we allowed a large automaker to go bankrupt, we probably would have lost the supply chain and many supporting industries which would be gone (from the US) forever. Same with banks. As much as we detest bailing out bankers, allowing the US to economy to be cut off from credit would create lasting collateral damage.

> If we allowed a large automaker to go bankrupt, we probably would have lost the supply chain and many supporting industries

And you'd free a loot of resources (people, money, etc) to create something that people really want, instead of forcing them to work on stuff the government has to pay people to buy.

Anyway, what is sending companies out of the US is your government fiscal policies. Start paying the stuff you take from there (instead of buying on loans), and those companies will be back.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#183

Post by crusso » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 2:10 PM UTC

andreasklinger wrote: post #136

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…

markets dont self-regulate to normal distributions they seek monopols

... but normally only achieve them through government backing of the larger players. It's called cronyism and it's not free market capitalism.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#184

Post by hiou » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 2:14 PM UTC

crimsonalucard wrote: post #181

The concept that you can "own" property and charge "rent" for it has been an economic drain on the world. When a cash exchange or transfer is made, it is usually for a product, aka GDP. There is no GDP involved with paying rent. A landlord is someone who can sit on his ass and live off of the GDP the tenant generates in the form of "rent" while offering no GDP back to the economy. The landlord is essentially a parasi…

I would love it if the person who downvoted this anonymously would chime in as to why. Because this is exactly what a landlord is.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#185

Post by dgreensp » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 2:19 PM UTC

Can someone explain why worker productivity increases would ever enrich the worker? This sounds like a Golden Age fallacy. What forces in a capitalist system lead to paying workers more? Workers are not entitled to the value they create, they are just compensated for their labor. It would have to be competition from other employers who are paying more (because they too are making more money for what they are paying workers, but have strategically decided to apply it to raising salaries). However, if you have an oversupply of workers and a shortage of jobs, this dynamic does not really exist.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#186

Post by ectoplasm » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 2:20 PM UTC

danieltillett wrote: post #169

ectoplasm wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 individ…

Ok re: IQ. Re: means, I still can't parse what you wrote the first time and I'm a native speaker. will be with ?

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#187

Post by eots » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 2:24 PM UTC

webosdude wrote: post #36

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…

I think that zero interest rate policy should have ended 2-3 years ago when economy got back in shape. The zero interest rates are benefiting housing market thereby increasing housing prices. I don't understand why Feds inflation gauge doesn't take into account the housing prices/rents that well? Every month Feds see unemployment rate and review the rates accordingly. I think they should also take into consideration…

Total econ noob here, could somebody please explain how zero interest rates cause increasing housing prices?

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#188

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 2:32 PM UTC

marcosdumay wrote: post #182

tcbawo wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a gray area. If we allowed a large automaker to go bankrupt, we probably would have lost the supply chain and many supporting industries which would be gone (from the US) forever. Same with banks. As much as we detest bailing out bankers, allowing the US to economy to be cut off from credit would create lasting collateral damage.

> If we allowed a large automaker to go bankrupt, we probably would have lost the supply chain and many supporting industries And you'd free a loot of resources (people, money, etc) to create something that people really want, instead of forcing them to work on stuff the government has to pay people to buy. Anyway, what is sending companies out of the US is your government fiscal policies. Start paying the stuff you…

[deleted]

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#189

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 2:36 PM UTC

adam419 wrote: post #151

tcbawo wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The analogy only stretches so far but I think letting nature take it's course isn't as dangerous you think.

[deleted]

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#190

Post by andosa » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 2:41 PM UTC

dgreensp wrote: post #185

Can someone explain why worker productivity increases would ever enrich the worker? This sounds like a Golden Age fallacy. What forces in a capitalist system lead to paying workers more? Workers are not entitled to the value they create, they are just compensated for their labor. It would have to be competition from other employers who are paying more (because they too are making more money for what they are paying w…

Unions for example.