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I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

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Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#211

Post by _petronius »

nic547 wrote: post #156
_petronius wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switzerland has the best rail system in the world (IMHO). One app can manage ticketing across all public transit in the entire country, and it is extremely fast and reliable. Lots of people who work in Zürich, for example, commute in from Zug (due to lower taxes in the neighboring canton).

> extremely fast It's generally called "as fast as necessary", more focused on total journey lenght with the clock-face schedule across the whole country. Other countries certainly have faster trains.

I guess "fast" is what I mean when I think "on time, efficient" (compared to, say, the struggles Deutsche Bahn has had in recent years). There are no bullet trains laterally crossing Switzerland in under an hour, I suppose.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#212

Post by bitlax »

freeone3000 wrote: post #205
bitlax wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Marijuana usage is now in the mainstream. You might as well ask how to prevent your property from smelling like cigarette smoke.

My property doesn't smell like cigarette smoke. I've had various mechanisms of enforcement to prevent it. Also marijuana usage is not in the mainstream in my community. In order to prevent it I will not make the investments advocated for here.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#213

Post by PaulHoule »

jccalhoun wrote: post #197
diet_jerome wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel you there with only luxury housing being the only kind of housing being built in many areas. Honestly, a lot of it is damn ugly too. Allowing developers to construct non-luxury housing would help much more than only allowing them to build luxury housing.

Same here. I am in a small midwestern USA city of less than 100k people. Someone got a grant to build some housing. Instead of building affordable housing they tried to build a huge "luxury" apartment complex with rent way above average for the city.

Ithaca built a lot of housing in the last few years but is still said to be the most expensive small city in the US. Some of these buildings have a high fraction of "affordable" units, but one "luxury development for seniors" is about as late as a nuclear reactor and hasn't found any tenants because... seniors who have money go to Florida and don't stay in upstate NY.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#214

Post by astine »

18172828286177 wrote: post #192
aqme28 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I buy that to some extent. But according to the studies I've read, the primary driver of homelessness is rising rent, not mental health issues. See e.g. https://www.statista.com/chart/32585/change-in-median-rent-a...

I mean, I hate to be cliched, but correlation does not imply causation. There are many possible confounding factors that could be at play here.

Correlation may not imply causation, but where there is causation there usually is correlation. So, if there is a rise in homelessness there is likely some factor contributing to that and if a factor is correlated there is a good chance that it's causal. Homelessness may caused by multiple factors but if it's increasing and those factors are mostly remaining static then looking for the one that is also increasing seems like a good bet.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#215

Post by jvanderbot »

bmicraft wrote: post #100
jvanderbot wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mentally ill and drug abusers are also the ones who need to be dealt with in a way totally separate from those who are struggling but trying to get back on their feet and need a place to shower and sleep safely. They cause disproportionate damage to cities and the cause of aiding homeless itself. It's asinine to conflate the two issues and waffle back and forth between "more houses" and nimby name-calling. Neithe…

And yet it works almost flawlessly everywhere it's been tried. But sure, the US is different, special. That's always the argument, right?

You're stuck in a false dichotomy. There's nothing wrong with adopting all the housing reform you want. But we also (additionally not instead of) need something immediate to treat the acute, highly localized problem of mentally ill and drug abuse in encampments. If in fact you have not been to one (e.g. Venice Beach a few years ago) and seen the enormous encampments and destruction they inflict on nearby property, it's hard to understand. Maybe you have?

This isn't about American exceptionalism, because either A) other countries don't have this problem (great!) or B) they do and all the "do it like they do" was just proven wrong as a solution to both the problems or C) they did have this problem and it was solved by these policies - great! The immediate intervention of getting the worst offenders off the street is a temporary solution and housing policy wins long term.

But no matter what there's no reason to push back on two heterogenous solutions because it includes more than just your favorite one.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#216

Post by PaulHoule »

energy123 wrote: post #43
_dark_matter_ wrote: post #6

This isn't everywhere. I live in Nashville and we have SO MUCH housing being built. Just apartment building after apartment building after apartment building.

It is a big problem in Democratic states like California, where the leftists (Dean Preston and other leftist NIMBYs) have allied themselves with homeowner liberals to make it impossible to build housing. Republican states like Texas do a significantly better job, as you can see by looking at annual per capita new housing, and lower rental inflation. There's a growing liberal movement to change this status quo but the…

Housing costs in Texas are going up too: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/messing-with-texas-how-bi...

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#217

Post by spwa4 »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #141
spwa4 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... because after Ireland agreed to implement the OECD minimum corporate tax rate (15%) same as everyone else, Ireland just didn't do as agreed, came up with some excuse (I would tell you which excuse, but they keep retroactively changing it), the prime minister explained in at least 5 extensive speeches how fabulous, fantastic and great he was for implementing it, and kept it at 12.5%. Then the minister of finance s…

> ... because after Ireland agreed to implement the OECD minimum corporate tax rate (15%) same as everyone else, Ireland just didn't do as agreed, came up with some excuse (I would tell you which excuse, but they keep retroactively changing it), the prime minister explained in at least 5 extensive speeches how fabulous, fantastic and great he was for implementing it, and kept it at 12.5%. Then the minister of finance…

> Can you provide a source for this assertion?

https://www.google.com/search?q=current+tax+rate+for+multina...

> They all look to be 40+ from the linked page

Not really. 30, some even less. Average age is probably 40. So indeed, suspiciously young the positions they hold. How many leaders of a large investment fund are under 60 at least?

> Look, I get that this is tax avoidance in some sense, but

(it is)

> Do you think that Ireland should have had to bail out banks with a debt exceeding the country's GDP?

(yes, that is, after all, the promise a country or anyone makes when they borrow money. Alternatively you could NOT bail them out)

> And lets be honest, the same multinationals would have found a different country to launder money through if Ireland wasn't there ...

I couldn't make my point any better than you did here. This is stealing, simply because it is not Irish tax revenue.

> Basically a lot of the above are problems of success, ...

Enabling tax avoidance, especially after signing international treaties that you would do the opposite is not success.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#218

Post by smegger001 »

ty6853 wrote: post #187
aqme28 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I buy that to some extent. But according to the studies I've read, the primary driver of homelessness is rising rent, not mental health issues. See e.g. https://www.statista.com/chart/32585/change-in-median-rent-a...

Having actually built, planned, and done all the paperwork for a house myself most the extra costs that can't be worked around (you can DIY everything if you want) is permitting, inspection, and codes. I just didn't get my house inspected nor did I submit engineered plans, so saved tons of money, but most people don't have the option to bypass 'safety' inspections and they get gutted like a pig following all those ru…

They may be desperate to hire anybody, but not everyone is willing, with good reason, to work 16 hour days with no overtime pay and sub-minimum wage no benefits and work for only part of the year and get paid under the table. only reason it make since for migrants is the low cost/standard of living back home and currency arbitrage where us dollar are worth so much more than their own currency.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#219

Post by PaulHoule »

CBarkleyU wrote: post #132
energy123 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dean Preston is a self-described socialist. A socialist is not a conservative.

Well, but a self-described socialist might just not be a socialist.

My guess is that a Chinese communist is not a leftist.
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