Live data from Hacker News

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

robkhenderson.com

531–540 of 600 posts

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

#531

Man I hate when people use the phrase “broken home” unironically. My parents divorced when I was young and I can assure the writer that both of my homes were always whole. Do you know what breaks a home? Two people who no longer want to live together being forced to cohabitate because of regressive notions of the what makes an effective family. Definitely preferred swapping weekends with each parent to having to list…

every experience is unique. It's simply that, as a statistic, a non-nuclear home setup is one disproportionately rife with instability, chaos, and sometimes abuse. My single parent did the best for me, but it'd be hard to convince there's a "whole" home, when there were some days where I had to fend for myself with rice and beans a 12 years old, or when rent gets too high and we ended up rooming together with a 2nd s…

You are comparing apples with oranges. Life in a stable family is not like life in a parental war zone. Separated or not, the latter is worse off.

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

#532
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?

Advice doesn't work that well in general, especially when it's vague and general advice like that. I would also guess that there are competing forces trying to make you eat their product and that they put a lot of money into that.

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

#533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was telling my wife about the loss of religion and how that leaves many people without without purpose. The hole left by religion is being quickly filled in by politics, which are taking on increasingly quasi-religious properties.

Which is frankly a lot more dangerous, considering there's no more clear separation between church and state, since the state becomes your religion and allows you to make real policies. Basically, belonging to a church didn't mean you could lose your house, but with someone who creates a policy targeting the other end of the political spectrum could very easily affect you negatively economically. Which is batshit ins…

I think the holy inquisition would like to talk with you. The separation of church and state is modern and likely a consequence of the church becoming socially weaker. I think religion has an important place but definitely at arms length from power and, kept, so.

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

#534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see more single mothers here in Africa than i have ever come across in western countries. Lack of work leaves men unable to care for their family causing them to simply give up and walk away, leaving the mothers to fend for themselves. I see no supportive structures, discipline or culture to counteract that. I haven't been here long, so my impressions are not founded on a lot of experience, but it looks like what i…

I would wager that in terms of percentage of population the situation in Africa is not that bad as in Western countries. Some very poor countries may suffer to a larger degree but not Africa as a whole. To give a counter example, take a look at India and China, the two most populous nations. In both cases there is a huge migration from rural to urban centers but Social expectations, Cultural norms, Family structure a…

Mate, China's demographic situation is extremely worse than any western country.

If anything, cultural shift has been way more extreme and fast in China than in the west.

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

#535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gen Z is becoming homeowners at a record pace: https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/21/ge...

Record pace for only the last two generations: > Roughly 30% of 25-year-olds in 2022—the oldest of the Gen Z (born between 1997 to 2013)—owned their home in 2022, a slightly higher percentage than the 28% of Millennials (born between 1981 to 1996) who owned homes at that age and the 27% of Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980)—but lower than the rate for Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), 32% of whom owned ho…

I'll be honest, how is it physically possible for a 25yo to own a home?

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

#536
post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretending there is no difference between men and women is a total dead end. Emotions and social games are a lot trickier to navigate for men, who didn't have umpteen years of evolution to practice. In a lot of ways, we're expecting men to be more like women, and women more like men, while hating each other for it. Divide and conquer, the oldest game in the book.

> In a lot of ways, we're expecting men to be more like women, and women more like men, while hating each other for it. Can you provide some specifics?

Men being expected to be in tune with their emotions to the same level, and women expected to be has ruthless and dominant as any male in business; just to pick two.

The sad part is that most men "need" feminine energy to complement their own, and vice versa.

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

#538

Something that intend to write on someday that I'll excerpt here: the phenomenon of "young men with nothing to do" is driven by a society-wide misallocation of capital that is itself driven by wealth inequality - specifically, old people and elites who command too large a proportion of wealth. This concentration of wealth in the hands of a cohort that is less diverse, and has less diverse interests, than the general…

Finally, some material analysis.

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

#539
post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Source this is happening? Here is a conservative think-tank using its existence as the premise for arguing against rent control: https://www.aei.org/op-eds/want-to-end-apartment-warehousing... >Because you have to pay upkeep on those units so they don't fall apart, and repay the bonds you raised to build those luxury condos in the first place? If you raise rates on the buyers that do exist, you can cover these expen…

>Here is a conservative think-tank using its existence as the premise for arguing against rent control: https://www.aei.org/op-eds/want-to-end-apartment-warehousing ... Your claim: "Not if the investors are willing to warehouse units to keep prices high, rather than lower prices in order to sell." Their claim: "If it costs more to maintain a unit — and keep it in compliance with housing codes — than rental income jus…

I don't assume that what they say is true; in fact, I think that they're wrong. It was an example of even the people in whose interests it is to deny that warehousing happens, not denying that it happens.

As for the difference between renting and selling, luxury and non-luxury, apparently "supply is supply", so it doesn't matter in the aggregate. The details kind of don't matter, because at market scale, some factor should make "move it or lose it" on empty units the norm. Homes are to live in; if you're not filling them with people who are living in them, something has failed, socioeconomically. It used to be a matter of taking a lower profit in the interests of community stability and vibrancy (which a local landlord or seller would want; many aren't local), but now that everything is hyper-efficient, perhaps the cost of holding unproductive property isn't high enough.

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

#540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 actua…

>While the United States does indeed have a national shortage of affordable housing

Note, an affordable housing shortage, not a housing shortage. In other words, there are not enough suitable houses on the market at affordable price points, not an absolute shortage of housing. This does not need new builds to remedy, in full; transfer or rehabilitation of underutilized housing would be a major component of a solution. A major and full correction incentivizes owners and investors to sell-at-loss or walk away from unsustainable ownership of housing that then becomes available as affordable units. Affordable unit count must increase with the basic affordability of units.

>as owners and sellers can outlast buyers.

That's a big assumption to make. Unfortunately for owners, their housing values are tied to other parts of the economy that are not as resilient, and vulnerable to developments that are already well underway. For example, the commercial real estate market is going to correct, if not collapse. This is a certainty. Admittedly, the timeline has been shifted back, but through tactics that, ironically, reveal the fundamental weakness of the market. These are foundational holdings that support - as collateral, as capital - the positions of the entities who themselves support residential property values with their activities.

You should also look for the rental market cartel to be broken soon. The RealPage lawsuits will dismantle the unlawful pricing power property managers have wielded. That will increase competition and affordability. Hopefully attacks on unfair pricing schemes ("specials" that amount to lowered rents that only apply for the first year) follow, further increasing affordability.

>There is no bubble

I'm just highlighting this so that others can see how disconnected your argument is from reality.

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

Now you're just taking the piss. I'll bite the bait. We're both aware of the context of that quote and how it refers to grossly unethical, quasi-legal actions taken by a desperate entity on the precipice of biting the curb for their financial hubris and malfeasance. I don't know that you want to be taking that affect? It would mean that your stance is one that's in grave jeopardy if people figure out what you're doing before you can lie and cheat your way to safety.

Post reply on HN