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Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

inpractice.yimbyaction.org

241–250 of 539 posts

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty much where liberal politicians end up targeting most of their policymaking and even a sizable portion of their campaign platform (as demonstrated in the Harris platform). Yet "tangled up in social issues" remains a popular misconception. Why?

> Yet "tangled up in social issues" remains a popular misconception. Why? It’s not a “misconception.” Democrats choose to spend their political capital changing the status quo on social issues. For example, Americans overwhelmingly oppose affirmative action: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/06/16/americans... Affirmative action was banned in California in 1996. Which party tried to repeal the ban in 2020?…

I hardly think most (any?) democrats or their constituents are talking about affirmative action in this day and age.

It’s pretty shocking that this extremely fringe issue is the only thing you can find to support the narrative that dems are “spearheading” radical social change.

Whats actually happening is that conservative fear monger about random various minority groups, as they have for all of time, and then enact policies intended to harm them. The dems have no choice but to respond.

You would think that conservatives continuing this playbook for, well, ever, would cause people to stop and say “wait… are the conservatives really the ones stirring up the culture war?” But no, somehow it hasn’t. Somehow, we’re all still living under the delusion that conservatives just maintain the status quo and oppose radical change, and not that they’re the ones creating the need for opposing action.

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#242
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m all for higher property taxes to increase courtroom bandwidth, but I doubt most landlords are.

Those higher property taxes will be passed on directly to the renters.

Prices are not solely a function of the seller’s cost of goods sold. Supply and demand determine price, so if there is sufficient supply, then rents will be too low for large landlords to recoup their tax costs, so they will be incentivized to sell the property. This means less rent seeking, and higher supply of housing for buyers.

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#243
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>* There's a general fear of being a landlord. Tenants have a lot of legal rights, and the risk of inviting someone onto your property who could start squatting or doing drugs and not being able to evict them is beyond the pale for most families.* This is a big problem in a lot of places. It's really hard for cities to strike a good balance between renters and owners, and I think few do it well. Especially for the ed…

> This is a big problem in a lot of places Where is your evidence of this "big problem"? No state allows what you describe. This being some sort of widespread problem is a myth that's been running around for decades after Pacific Heights which was part of Hollywood cashing in on white fright in the late 80's early 90's. For example, in super-liberal Massachusetts: if you are one day late with your rent, the landlord…

It's amusing that you picked Massachusetts. You can get rid of all eviction records as part of the Affordable Homes Act.

What this means is that you can rent somewhere, not pay, it will take a minimum of 6 months to get rid of them since they can request RAFT and you must wait until the application is processed before the trial can proceed. After they're successfully evicted, after 4 years of no evictions, they can have it sealed, regardless if the judgement is paid or not.

Or, you can pay the judgement and have it sealed immediately, effectively getting a free loan. Not to mention, if you don't pay and proceedings are brought against you, if you pay to cure, prior to going to trial, you can have those sealed immediately with or without the landlord, so other landlords can't even know about that either.

Repeat. Free rent.

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. Americans (esp white Americans) have a lot of individualist, anti-collectivist, anti-government cultural attitudes. The last time a situation like this happened, it took a Great Depression and intense widespread economic pain for them to snap out of it. So what is it gonna take for Americans to demand universal healthcare? Idk, but 1 pandemic didn't…

Yep basically sums it up. Enough "middle-class" people are insulated from collapse that they still defend the system even though it has already been torn up. Collapse is happening and has already killed people, it just hasn't been equally distributed yet. Once a "critical mass" of people feel collapse and it becomes "real" to them, they will be able to internalize the reality of the class conflict that caused it. Unt…

On a more hopeful note, there's a chance it might happen when China's happiness level passes America’s.

https://data.worldhappiness.report/chart

Around 2030, based on a simple linear trend.

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s amazing that this gets upvoted while it is completely uninformed about what liberal politicians actually run on. This is what the Kamala campaign ran on, it didn’t work. People love getting tangled on social issues as it’s the most provocative. This conception that most people actually care about rational policies is false and has been false for at least the past decade.

Where exactly did you get the idea that Kamala was running on this? Where was she advocating for, say, Medicare for all? Or fighting vested interests by running on campaign finance reform, to get money out of politics? She was running on an abstract, classical centrist non-program of "we've done great under Biden and we're going to keep doing the same". That is the exact opposite of what GP was suggesting.

She wasn’t running on an abstract program, people just weren’t paying fucking attention. For just one example: https://www.kamalaharris.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Poli...

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#246

I've grown a little bit more skeptical of what can realistically be achieved by the passive nature of YIMBY-ism. In Portland, they passed some radical new zoning laws a few years ago that allowed anyone, anywhere the ability to zone ADUs on their property. And the cost to get permits is almost nothing. I have lots of friends and family in the area with property. But not a single one has added an ADU. It seems like it…

I live in an area in Los Angeles that passed a similar law a few years ago (actually I live in an ADU) I can say the exact opposite has been true here. SO many houses have added ADUs - some rented out - but the vast majority are turning their properties into multi-generational living. Can't say that rent has come down per-say, but I have managed to rent one at below market. Having individual landlords with the pressure of paying their HELOC means they are less likely to sit on an empty unit for 5 months waiting for the most high dollar tenant. I 100% feel like this policy has been a big net positive.

what I would really like to see now is allowing owners to sub-divide and sell the ADU. This could bring back the "starter-home" that no longer exists and has kept me out of the market

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s amazing that this gets upvoted while it is completely uninformed about what liberal politicians actually run on. This is what the Kamala campaign ran on, it didn’t work. People love getting tangled on social issues as it’s the most provocative. This conception that most people actually care about rational policies is false and has been false for at least the past decade.

Because people have memory that lasts longer than a goldfish’s. People remember the DNC and its politicians hyperfocusing on controversial social issues for the last decade to the exclusion of everything else. They remember Kamala’s fringe and cringe positions and statements from her California and 2019 campaigns and don’t believe she’s a proud gun owning moderate that just wants to make government work for us. Bonus…

Republicans are even more focused on controversial social issues, so it’s not obvious to me that’s the real problem.

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yet "tangled up in social issues" remains a popular misconception. Why? It’s not a “misconception.” Democrats choose to spend their political capital changing the status quo on social issues. For example, Americans overwhelmingly oppose affirmative action: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/06/16/americans... Affirmative action was banned in California in 1996. Which party tried to repeal the ban in 2020?…

Did you read your own link? It says that affirmative action enjoys at least plurality if not majority support: > Americans who had heard the phrase affirmative action in the Center’s December survey were asked whether they saw it as a good or a bad thing. Among those who had ever heard the term, 36% said affirmative action is a good thing, 29% said it is a bad thing and a third weren’t sure. > By comparison, Gallup h…

Affirmative action is reparations by another name. It's like saying I should pay for my ancestors crimes.

I am a pretty liberal person, but watching a white male candidate pass the interview but not get a job explicitly because he was a white male (because the only slots left were for "diverse" candidates) even makes me uncomfortable. That's a lived experience. I watched it in real life.

Jon Stewart has had two guests that he pushed back on that were both right while Stewart was wrong.

The first guest was on his Apple TV show, and he said something to the effect of "there's more of us [who disagree with reparations]," and Jon Stewart spoke over him and generally denied his opinions as rational. Current events show that that wasn't something to ignore.

The second was a guest talking about how these "social issues" are bad democratic strategy. Social programs are popular when they help the disadvantaged, but not popular when they help a particular group (which I think is in some way related to "intersectionality"?). Jon Stewart became emotional focusing on the injustice rather than pragmatically solving the problem.

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people have memory that lasts longer than a goldfish’s. People remember the DNC and its politicians hyperfocusing on controversial social issues for the last decade to the exclusion of everything else. They remember Kamala’s fringe and cringe positions and statements from her California and 2019 campaigns and don’t believe she’s a proud gun owning moderate that just wants to make government work for us. Bonus…

> she couldn’t think of anything she would do differently than Biden when asked Which, though definitely suboptimal, would have been a pretty reasonable alternative to her opponent’s plan to self-cannibalize the government, threaten the sovereignty of long-standing allies, and chaotically disrupt world trade.

To be clear I didn’t support the winning candidate either. I feel this election was well characterized by that South Park episode in the 90s.

Re: Abundance isn't going to happen unless politicians are scared of the status quo

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a big problem in a lot of places Where is your evidence of this "big problem"? No state allows what you describe. This being some sort of widespread problem is a myth that's been running around for decades after Pacific Heights which was part of Hollywood cashing in on white fright in the late 80's early 90's. For example, in super-liberal Massachusetts: if you are one day late with your rent, the landlord…

It's amusing that you picked Massachusetts. You can get rid of all eviction records as part of the Affordable Homes Act. What this means is that you can rent somewhere, not pay, it will take a minimum of 6 months to get rid of them since they can request RAFT and you must wait until the application is processed before the trial can proceed. After they're successfully evicted, after 4 years of no evictions, they can h…

So what does the abuser do for the 4 years they're not able to get an apartment due to the eviction?
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