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Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

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Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#371

Post by Jyaif »

brownbat wrote: post #321
iandanforth wrote: post #180

The more interesting thing about this is that it is part of a new type of economics, contraction economics. The global trend toward birth rates below replenishment means that first-world countries are maintaining their population growth through immigration. As some countries embrace restrictions on immigration, and ultimately all countries plateau in their population growth (projected to be around 2100) it means that…

George Friedman wrote a book of creative predictions called "The Next 100 Years" that argued mounting depopulation pressures and labor shortages would lead countries to begin competing for migrants. Interesting that has not been Europe's solution so far... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Next_100_Years:_A_Forecast... Japan's politics, with a strong aversion to open immigration and a desperate need for labor, have l…

> Interesting that has not been Europe's solution so far

Not all immigration is of equivalent "quality". The worsening IQ test results in europe is often credited to the african immigration. On the other end of the spectrum, asians are being actively restricted from entering the top schools in the US.

Europe (and pretty much every country in the world) is already competing for qualified immigration.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#372

Post by mrunkel »

loveyourmother wrote: post #360
crc32 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Twice as many unarmed white men are shot by police I visited your link and could not see a matching statistic. Filtering by "unarmed" and hovering over "Race" I got a count of 19 White, 15 Black, 4 Hispanic. I then also had a quick look at the article for "Brett Luengo", [0] (White) which states i.e. "Luengo attacked a woman first..." etc. etc.; I mean it goes on for quite a while. So seems like there's a big varia…

> I visited your link and could not see a matching statistic. I was wrong. Police kill twice as many whites but I shouldn't have included the unarmed qualifier. > I then also had a quick look at the article for "Brett Luengo" He did attack but I think it still qualifies. I personally didn't hear of this one but a google search shows it was covered, even if not very extensively. It was picked up on national news. Even…

Given that there are 5 times as many white folks as black in the US, that stat isn't saying what you think it is.

Black people are still more likely to be shot than white people.

I don't think that anyone reasonable ever claimed that the police were 'wholesale killing young unarmed black males,' just that it happens too often.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#373

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

ticviking wrote: post #117
pj_mukh wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it just me or is the prospect of working from home in the middle of nowhere terrifying? When you work from home, you wanna leave home often, where do you go if you're in the middle of nowhere? I work from home in the middle of a dense city, pay a premium for it! You leave home and there are about 100 places (cafes, theatres, museums, parks etc.) I can go to that are walking distance. Is that possible in say rural…

>Is it just me or is the prospect of working from home in the middle of nowhere terrifying? That situation is literally my dream. I live in a suburb now and literally go 3-4 days without needing to leave home. I most often leave to go get firewood or meat to BBQ out back. In my dream I'd be on a full acre(instead of the little 0.2 acre lot we're on) with enough room for a normal family home, and a "mancave/study" so…

What's your house budget? For a place with a man cave you'd probably need 250k here in southern Japan. While not really remote, it's far from the busy likes of Tokyo. All of my work is with companies around the globe in all sorts of time zones. I'd say it's boring for a single person out here, you'd definitely only put up with it if you had a family. Securing a visa would be another challenge unless you married a Japanese citizen, which you wouldn't want to do after coming here as divorce rates are high for mixed couples. Culture can be very frustrating too after a while.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#374

Post by nihonde »

sambroner wrote: post #335
nihonde wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$750k in Kyushu must be a mansion! Those home showcases are great aren’t they? Would you build wood or steel frame?

Could you explain one of the home showcases? Sounds like an interesting idea.

It’s basically a large lot where all the major home builders set up their model homes and have detailed sales walkthroughs. Home builders in Japan are at an industrial scale with lots of economies of scale and modular parts, yet a surprising amount of customization is possible. Companies like Toyota and Mitsubishi have home divisions.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#375

Post by zid3nt »

dvtrn wrote: post #198
zid3nt wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you find there are a lot of places to camp around there? I'm in San Antonio, and I find it very sparse compared to places that feel made for camping and hiking (looking at you, PNW).

What's the limit of how far you're willing to drive? Big Bend and Marfa are great road trips if you've never been to either.

I haven't done Big Bend yet, but that's on the list this coming spring!

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#376

Post by zid3nt »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #274
zid3nt wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you find there are a lot of places to camp around there? I'm in San Antonio, and I find it very sparse compared to places that feel made for camping and hiking (looking at you, PNW).

Yeah, there is very little public land in Texas. I've been to a lot of the state parks (there are some good ones). The dinosaur tracks in government canyon are cool, lost maples is nice. I've spent a whole lot of time at Enchanted Rock. None of the places is very big, but if there should be enough to keep someone busy for most weekends if they are motivated. As you get farther, Mustang Island state park is nice, and…

Appreciate the list! I've enjoyed Government Canyon, and I'm headed to Lost Maples next weekend. I'll have to check out some of those adventures further away.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#377

Post by TulliusCicero »

mettamage wrote: post #369
TulliusCicero wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could probably move to a cheap part of your own country already with much less hassle and fewer integration issues. The reason you don't is that cheap places in rich countries are usually cheap for a reason.

Hmm... in my country it'd only be affordable not cheap (The Netherlands). We're pretty populated over here and the government has every square meter planned out. We have a name for it in Dutch "bestemmingsplan" (literally: destination plan or purpose plan).

I bet I could find some cheap parts of the Netherlands. Although I guess it depends on your definition of cheap.

Looks like there are some cheaper areas here: https://www.koopwoningen.nl/nieuws/487:de-20-duurste-en-goed...

Now, compared to cheap places in the US, the house price is still somewhat high. But cheap areas in the US, you often have to live in a detached house, as apartments are often very uncommon, or even non-existent, whereas in the Netherlands multi-family housing is much more common(1). And in the US, cheap places you almost always need to own a car, which is inherently expensive, whereas in the Netherlands you can get by with just walking and biking. Plus, the safety net means that even if you're poor as shit, you're taken care of for things like healthcare, to a greater extent than the US.

1 - Looking at the example of Delfzijl, you can rent an okay-sized 1br apartment for ~600 EUR/month: https://www.iamexpat.nl/housing/rentals/delfzijl/apartment

Factoring in extremely low transportation costs, that makes for a pretty damn cheap lifestyle.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#378

Post by visarga »

snowwrestler wrote: post #227
iandanforth wrote: post #180

The more interesting thing about this is that it is part of a new type of economics, contraction economics. The global trend toward birth rates below replenishment means that first-world countries are maintaining their population growth through immigration. As some countries embrace restrictions on immigration, and ultimately all countries plateau in their population growth (projected to be around 2100) it means that…

I disagree that there is a significant correlation between expanding population and an expanding economy. In fact there are plenty of examples of countries whose economy expanded way faster than their population, which implies that factors other than population dominate economic growth. (If population was the dominant factor in economic growth, we would see a consistent correlation between the two.) Every day we read…

Yeah, but fewer people will still need fewer houses while construction will be more and more efficient.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#380

Post by rayraegah »

pax wrote: post #326
rayraegah wrote: post #240

This is just one of the many initiatives by the government or a local body to give away houses. The population in remote areas of Japan (aside from tourism) is declining quite fast. I've had friends who have bought houses for as cheap as $600 in remote areas of Japan. [1] If you are interested in owning a house in Japan then Okutama (a town close to Tokyo) is giving away houses with certain conditions. [2] There are…

> If you are a tourist you'll get accommodation and travel tickets to these "reviving" towns (free of charge) as well. https://www.detouur.com/rikuzentakatamain/ This particular example you gave, while probably cheap, is not free (~$225/day)

oh wow, didn't see that charge added there. We took the trip for free but that was six months ago.
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