I think this a problem in everywhere. Take for instance, Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Housing is a disaster. The home ownership percentage is so negligible it is a shame. Land and housing price is so high, it is almost impossible for most people to own a house in one life time. I hear the same kind of scenario in many other developing countries.
Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)
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Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)
#32Investment bubbles are at the root of houses. Undertaxation is at the root of investment bubbles. Accumulating economic energy devouring the containment of the system that created it, as at the root of the root of the rootproblem. We need a dependency manager for discussion topics.
you didn't even hit the core dependency: a capitalist operating system which inherently directs capital to a small pool of people
As much as I'd like to throw capitalism under the bus, communist Russia was well known for its housing problems too.
Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)
#33Our economic system is set up such that you either hit a bar at which you accumulate capital forever unless you make a mistake, or you're loss-making forever. Once you hit that bar, your job becomes buying up housing like it's a Monopoly board. As an individual you can either choose to win or lose this game. We're not going to change it, at least not within our lifetimes.
the fatal flaw in capitalism imo, a lot of wealth gets created which is good for everyone but eventually, a lot of that wealth also gets held by a smaller and smaller minority while the rest try to desperately compete over whatever is left over. After a certain point a certain portion of any new wealth created somehow trickles up to the capital owning class (think your VC's, fund owners, other rich investors), this capitalist system only works if "progress" happens in perpetuity, which if history is any indication society can always backslide
Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think young generation needs to engage in the politics with the uncompromised goal to crush the housing price At least where I live, the “bank of mom and dad” either use their home equity to help their kids buy OR the kids are banking on getting the family home when they die. We’re in too deep now. We basically painted ourselves into a corner where the economic engine is so intertwined with rising home prices that…
I'm an immigrant :). Banking on your family dying - this is like saying "I am a worthless loser". I want old generation to live eternally, and still afford housing.
If the old generation cannot work for eternity, what would be your solution to a declining labor participation rate?
Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)
#35Not housing per-se, but concentrating too many jobs in few locations. Which causes issues with housing.
It is very good for productivity when many jobs are concentrated in one location. This unlocks the possibility for serendipitous connections. It is awesome when you can meet a founder, a leading engineer, an investor, a designer and a PR person in a coffee line, forming a new company before finishing your morning coffee. Talents concentrated in one place gives significant boost to their productivity. This is called a…
Can you really meet them if they're scattered over a multi-million city? I find the opposite. A digestible size (But even here in just-over-500k city people are already resorting to Zoom calls from one's office/home (or lake-side getaways) over meeting in coffeeshop.
Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)
#36I think this a problem in everywhere. Take for instance, Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Housing is a disaster. The home ownership percentage is so negligible it is a shame. Land and housing price is so high, it is almost impossible for most people to own a house in one life time. I hear the same kind of scenario in many other developing countries.
If the ownership percentage is negligible, does that mean that most real estate is owned by a few super-wealthy, or who owns it then?
Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)
#37Nothing will change while the homeowners have more political power than the renters. Even in the cities where the renter population is bigger than the homeowners, such as in Seattle, half of the votes come from people of > 65 years old (all of whom are homeowners, likely more than one home). Young people simply won't vote at all. There is very little incentives for the young people to vote. Even if you cancel all the…
Although I don't disagree with you, I will just mention that housing affordability is also a problem in Australia where voting is mandatory
how do you think politicians make money? They usually own assets.
Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read this kind of thinking a lot lately, people trying very hard to come up with solutions that don't address the main issue. Just guessing, you already own a house? The fix is to enable builders to build enough housing, and not just single family detached housing, by removing regulations which allow NIMBY-ism. At the same time, prevent investors from hoarding houses and jacking up the prices. I find it similar to…
> Just guessing, you already own a house? LOL, I wish. Renting in Munich for enough money that I'll never be able to save enough for a downpayment. If I ever want to own my home, I'll have to move to the German equivalent of Alabama, with all the issues that come with that. > The fix is to enable builders to build enough housing, and not just single family detached housing, by removing regulations which allow NIMBY-i…
If zoning/regulations were relaxed, the density would almost instantly start to increase. Land value is high where I live, but there would be new, denser building projects in the suburbs and CBDs alike. I'm not arguing that it would be ideal in all cases, but it answers the "where" question.
Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)
#39Investment bubbles are at the root of houses. Undertaxation is at the root of investment bubbles. Accumulating economic energy devouring the containment of the system that created it, as at the root of the root of the rootproblem. We need a dependency manager for discussion topics.
Undertaxation is rarely at the root of investment bubbles. Housing is the only one off the top of my head where I can envision a convincing argument for it being the chief reason. For like 80% of recorded asset bubbles in history undertaxation of operations with the underlying asset/security would never be mentioned by finance people.
Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even that probably has a root cause. Capitalism, efficiencies gained from concentrating resources in a single location, network effects etc? In the UK, jobs used to be at local factories and offices. It was rare for people to move for university then move to another city for work. My Grandad worked at a local electronics factory. My Dad worked at a local auto parts refurbishment factory. My mother in her early 20s wo…
+ specialization most of those jobs in the 80s require only basic education but when you have thousands of graduates coming out of universities, they'll be looking at very specific job positions, not any office job near home
+ job hopping. Moving to factory town is fine if you can see yourself working here for decades. But nowadays when people are expected to switch jobs frequently... Both sides could win a lot by agreeing to loyalty.