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The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

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Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#201
post #73
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Generally immigrants are job creators and entrepreneurs, and take less from the system than native born people do I don't want to generalise things, but since you're doing it yourself: In France migrants and descendant of migrants are between 50% and 100% more unemployed than the rest of the population. They also represent 28% of social spending despite being 12% of the population https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiqu…

The same is not true in the US. It’s probably a cultural difference. Anyone can come to America and become American, but if you are not French it’s pretty damn hard to become French. Migrants can’t integrate as easily so they become an underemployed class.

"Integration" is mostly myth when it comes to people from different cultures. Does anybody ask the question if the immigrants to France actually want to integrate? Did immigrants to America want to integrate with the native people there?

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#203
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The same box of cereal increased from ~$3.75 to ~$6.59 and gone from 19oz to 17oz. Your claim is that cereal has experienced 96% inflation? Over what time frame?

Since the beginning of 2020, yes. Even the delayed statistics appear to support my anecdotal evidence. However, thanks to Publix sending receipts to my email account I can provide a more concrete example. Kellogg’s Fruit Loops “Family Size” 01/16/2020 21oz $4.79 ~$0.23/oz Today 18.4oz $8.59 ~$0.47/oz So yea, over a 100% increase…

Ouch, Publix has the 18.4 oz Family sized and Kroger has a giant sized 23 oz for $7.53. I can’t see the price for Publix but they do have a buy one get one 17oz for $6.59. In my state you can buy a single bogo and get it for half price.

I’m diehard Publix but I may look elsewhere for boxed kids items.

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#204
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the beginning of 2020, yes. Even the delayed statistics appear to support my anecdotal evidence. However, thanks to Publix sending receipts to my email account I can provide a more concrete example. Kellogg’s Fruit Loops “Family Size” 01/16/2020 21oz $4.79 ~$0.23/oz Today 18.4oz $8.59 ~$0.47/oz So yea, over a 100% increase…

Not sure if you are cherry picking that example, but I looked up that cereal in my local grocery store in a VHCOL area and it is $6.99/23oz ($0.30/oz).

You're both correct. Individual SKUs varying by $1-2 between two different metros isn't surprising or unrealistic. Stores also adjust pricing weekly, and items on offer tend to rotate as well, so comparing point-in-time prices could be volatile. None of this means the inflation didn't occur, just that one specific example may not be telling the full picture.

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Metro areas do not have enough affordable housing. It's well established that local governments cannot build enough new affordable housing, partly because any contractor that bids goes way over the value of a private housing venture. The idea that there's enough housing but "in the wrong place" is like saying there's plenty of jobs, they're just in third world countries and Scandinavia. The idea that the solutio…

I wonder why the Robin Hood issue is never a problem when money is moved in the opposite direction :-)

"One day -I- will be Sheriff of Nottingham, so it's in my interest to sell out my neighbors to King John."

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#206
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the richest country because everyone is in survival mode and has a strobg pressure to get their head above the water. In socialist euro countries you can go with the flow created by the welfare state.

It’s the richest country because it has tons of natural resources and wasn’t bombed to pieces in WW2

Americans (myself often included) so easily take our insanely beneficial geography and natural resources for granted!

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#207

In places like the bay area with a housing crisis and limited space to expand, the state should seize office buildings (remote work is the future and would help alleviate the shortage while new housing is developed) by eminent domain and set up a scheme like Singapore's HDB system [1] to develop affordable housing. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_and_Development_Board

I agree with the sentiment but it's legally and politically untenable in the US (edit: to use eminent domain)

Singapore was able to build out the HDB because it was a One Party State that didn't take kindly to activists.

For example, when the HDB program was being built out, there was massive resistance by the people living in the villages used to build those HDBs.

Those villagers often leaned socialist (Barisal Sosialis), and that party was largely neutered under emergency acts [0] with trade unionists and party activists being sent to Chaangi Jail indefinitely, along with protests and conspiracy theories about the ruling party burning down Kampongs/Villages to force residents to move into HDBs [1]

While this in hindsight was the right move, the cost is VERY HIGH.

The point is, redevelopment while caring for human rights and property laws is HARD. If you are a One Party State that can jail pesky activists willy nilly and owns all the newspapers, it's possible. But this is not how America works, and sure as hell not California.

[0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Coldstore

[1] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukit_Ho_Swee_fire

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is that specific definition? It seems in many cases the term is used to AVOID being pinned to any specific definition.

Affordable housing is defined by the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as housing that does not require a household to spend more than 30 percent of its gross monthly income on housing costs. For rental housing, these costs include monthly rent and utility payments; for owner-occupied housing, these costs include mortgage payments and additional expenses associated with homeownership. A household…

It appears to me that the definition is compatible with the poster's notion 'affordability is not an intrinsic value of a building' in the sense that the definition depends on income as well as the housing itself. Problems could be addressed by increasing housing or by increasing household income, or by decreasing price, or some combination thereof.

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#209

It's "I got mine and don't care" until what you've got melts in your hand like an ice cube and then nobody cares.

Indeed, the perpetuators of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" are finding themselves short of said bootstraps.

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#210

Part of the problem is government regulation. In some places, it's almost impossible to build new houses due to regulations. Some portion of the population wants to see house prices continue to increase and they will vote for politicians who will implement policies which will support that agenda. Of course this happens at the expense of another, also large portion of the population who do not own a house and have to…

> Some portion of the population wants to see house prices continue to increase and they will vote for politicians who will implement policies which will support that agenda.

To be fair, nobody wants to see their home value drop except in terms of tax liability. If you buy your house for 400k you don't want the value to drop to 350k

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