Live data from Hacker News

No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

robkhenderson.com

251–260 of 600 posts

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Institutional housing ownership in the US is not a material contributor to housing price inflation [1]. With that said , we are approaching a housing shortage of +4.5M [2] units, and in concert with YieldStar's Backpage revenue maximization engine [3] (which is laundering landlord price fixing), renters are being squeezed (because where are you going to go if you can't afford to buy? you will pay, or you will be home…

Your first statement is flat-out wrong. The supporting citation does not actually support it, though it hints at how institutional housing ownership has contributed to housing price inflation. To wit: it explains how innovations during the GFC turned direct investment into an appealing proposition for investors. These investors helped to backstop housing values that would have fallen even further than they already ha…

Fannie Mae [1], a GSE, and the Federal Reserve [2] also provide data that confirms a housing shortage. I agree Zillow is potentially non biased, they are simply the most recent data point I've come across wrt to total shortage amount vs the slightly stale citations below.

[1] https://www.fanniemae.com/research-and-insights/perspectives...

[2] https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/feds/files/2020044pap...

> The actual solution to housing price inflation is a full correction that wipes out the inflated value of housing in this country, cutting each property's worth back down to its intrinsic value. Affordability and use would reset to what the real market actually can sustain, as when the income tax forced wealthy property owners to divest of and demolish or convert their grand mansions into apartments for people to actually live in.

Your thesis is not grounded in reality, and will never occur due to how durable the economy is (preventing mortgage defaults) due to structural demographics as well as how much equity exists in housing in the aggregate (~$17T as of this comment), preventing a correction from MBS investment failures. As long as demand outstrips supply, no correction will occur, as owners and sellers can outlast buyers. There is no bubble, housing is what housing is worth based on limited supply. The market can sustain this as long as people are willing to buy at the prices on offer, and if demand diminishes (unlikely due to population growth, household formation, and immigration), prices will slowly deflate over years as sellers organize themselves in time series by motivation. Gotta live somewhere.

"We are selling to willing buyers at the current fair market price."

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YIMBY policies just end up with a small number of luxury condos being built. You need SHIMBY policies, social housing in my back yard.

As long as you're not tearing down 10 units to build 5, more supply is more supply. Doesn't matter nearly as much whether they are luxury or basic.

Not if the investors are willing to warehouse units to keep prices high, rather than lower prices in order to sell. If prices of luxury units are high enough, you're talking a significant percentage of units that can just be held while investors still break even or profit. Why lock in a loss or low profit (and, in doing so, hurt the value of your other holdings)?

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and there is almost no increasingly-terrible situation in which a mother will not love her son. Could someone please rephrase this? I'm having trouble understanding it.

You see mass murderers and serial rapists whose mothers still love them.

In jail the first phone call everyone made was to their mom. The toughest skinhead, face-tatted nazi mofos begging to get on the phone and sobbing as they talk to their mom. That opened my eyes.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#254

The author makes good points, but there is no mention of the demise of religion or the social factors leading to the dismantling of the nuclear family as causes.

I was telling my wife about the loss of religion and how that leaves many people without without purpose. Religion is often a precursor to the cultural norms we live, without even being aware of. Sunday is for resting in the west for example. To find a reason to keep living is very hard and may entail an acceptance that all is for nothing and being content with that. Many people cannot walk that path or have deep anx…

Pretty sure its the other way around.

Religion co-ops practices that people enjoy into being part of them. Christianity is a great example with its adoption of pagan practices such as Christmas.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We wanted ever-increasing returns for shareholders And ever-decreasing prices for consumers. Don’t forget that! Free trade results in more goods for everyone, by enabling different places to focus on what they do best. > while doing nothing on the whole to retrain the workforce. I completely agree that some more attention needs to be paid to retraining. The answer to disappearing jobs is to prepare folks for new on…

> And ever-decreasing prices for consumers. Don’t forget that! Except that's not happening for major purchases. Housing is more expensive than ever. Education is more expensive than ever. Healthcare is more expensive than ever. Cars and Trucks are more expensive than ever. Besides taxes, the above are the biggest slice of the consumer's wallet, and those prices have almost never decreased. Shareholder returns keep go…

Agree that housing, education and healthcare are more expensive than ever.

But I lived through the 1980s and let me tell you, in many ways consumer goods are better and cheaper than ever before. It was just normal and expected that cars would have holes rust in them, and sunroofs that would leak. A home computer was an exotic rarity, and a monitor with a 15" viewable area was considered big. There was an entire industry dedicated to renting TVs, not just because of the high upfront cost but also because they often broke down, and the rental company would provide the repair or replacement.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#256

Men* have to have a purpose for being. They will either find a constructive one or a destructive one. If they fail at either, they'll find a way to self-destruct. It's really that simple. * Can't speak for women.

Why would you be able to speak for all men?

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#257
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wtf? If all of your neighbors don't like the smell of meat they absolutely can tell you not to cook it. That's what democracy is. Don't like it? Be a king.

And if all of your neighbors don't like your skin color or religion, can they drive you out of town? That is why no country in the world actually employs limitless democracy. There are usually guaranteed and protected civil rights that you can enjoy regardless of current majoritarian (and fickle) opinion in your town. There are more systems in the world than absolute monarchy X absolute democracy that votes on everyt…

Yes they can, and historically they have. The places where this doesn't happen are places where most people have decided that these traits don't matter that much.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#258
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead of encouraging healthier diets which have lots of follow-on nutritional and long-term medical benefits This has been done for a while and mostly doesn't work.

Cool statement. Why not?

Does it matter? If snake oil doesn't work and a better drug comes along and it works, why would you care why snake oil didn't work?

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most doctors refuse to perform sterilization procedures on young people, at least until after they have had children. After all, what if they change their minds? My girlfriend couldn’t get hers done until she was over 30.

I got mine done at 37, after having two kids, and they still asked me if I was sure. I can see why you'd be hesitant to do it on a 22-year-old. If you asked me at 22, I'd probably say I don't want kids. But I completely changed my mind as I approached 30.' Also, vasectomies are less reversible than people think.

Why not adopt? There are plenty of kids already who need a parent or two.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#260
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you legally own your property. So long as you make your payments on time, the lienholder cannot confiscate your property to make the pie whole. The money might be theirs, but the property is yours.

Depends on the jurisdiction but they are often within their rights to call the loan especially if it goes into negative equity.

Bullshit. US residential mortgages can't be called, even if there's negative equity.
Post reply on HN