this is the generation that had it best: jobs for life, good benefits, cheap houses, etc. they also destroyed the planet with their "American dream" style consumption.
what's coming for the new generations if these are suffering ?
The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
91–100 of 1001 posts
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. We're in this mess because of unregulated capitalism, but sure, removing even more regulations will definitely solve it! (for the people who are fortunate enough to "have a venture" goes unsaid - the rest will be left poor, and they deserve it, for they weren't good / useful enough) There is absolutely an argument to be made here about regulatory capture with respect to zoning laws, parking minimums, etc maki…
> We're in this mess because of unregulated capitalism, but sure, removing even more regulations will definitely solve it! How can there be regulations to remove if it's unregulated? There are hundreds of thousands of regulations.
Insufficiently regulated, then.
The parent comment looks at regulations on home building (zoning, etc) that are harmful, and extrapolates from that that all regulations are harmful and that the root cause of inequality is regulation preventing poor people from starting venture businesses. Because everyone knows that the startup world is definitely not inequitable at all, where some people walk away with hundreds of millions and others lose everything.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#93It never ceases to astonish me how the richest country on the planet is still in 'survival mode' where everyone has to justify their claim to, well, anything at all. In Europe (even as it was largely laid waste after WW2), it is understood that we are all together, and simply by existing we have a right to at least a basic level of living. Perhaps part of that is that because communism was so close, for so long, it w…
> where everyone has to justify their claim
but why shouldn't that be the case? There's no natural rights to anything, and it's the law of the jungle.
There's a veneer of civility so as not to cause anarchy with people killing each other for some food.
But just because someone exists, doesn't give them any privileges to own anything, except for what they worked for (or get given from parents).
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
The issue is not supply and demand for houses - there are plenty enough to go around (though often in the wrong place). The issue is that a sizeable underclass is being created that have no wealth, not least because what wealth they did have has been funnelled to the very wealthy. For example, medical bills. For example student loans. For example zero interest rates with zero wage inflation meaning accommodation cost…
The issue is absolutely supply and demand for houses, otherwise housing would be affordable for more people. Housing markets are local. Their supply and demand dynamics are local. Affordable housing in Kentucky does not help people in San Francisco or Seattle unless everyone can telework. Unaffordable housing is a major contributor to inability to build wealth. In most cases it’s no high paying jobs or unaffordable h…
Housing is unaffordable for labourers everywhere.
The main reason people move into the expensive cities chasing the high paying jobs is because they cannot afford to live in the rural communities or small town they grew up in, since wages there have stayed low while cost of real estate has exploded.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#95Part of the problem is government regulation. In some places, it's almost impossible to build new houses due to regulations. Some portion of the population wants to see house prices continue to increase and they will vote for politicians who will implement policies which will support that agenda. Of course this happens at the expense of another, also large portion of the population who do not own a house and have to…
This can’t be a real, thought out, response. I’m living in Florida. I will agree with you that rent-seeking and increasingly abusive landlords are a huge problem here. However, the largest drivers of pricing out retirees in my anecdotal observations is uncontrolled healthcare, insurance, and food costs. The electric companies have also increased their rates and been allowed to add insane flat infrastructure recovery…
> The same box of cereal increased from ~$3.75 to ~$6.59 and gone from 19oz to 17oz.
Your claim is that cereal has experienced 96% inflation? Over what time frame?
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
The issue is not supply and demand for houses - there are plenty enough to go around (though often in the wrong place). The issue is that a sizeable underclass is being created that have no wealth, not least because what wealth they did have has been funnelled to the very wealthy. For example, medical bills. For example student loans. For example zero interest rates with zero wage inflation meaning accommodation cost…
Most Metro areas do not have enough affordable housing. It's well established that local governments cannot build enough new affordable housing, partly because any contractor that bids goes way over the value of a private housing venture. The idea that there's enough housing but "in the wrong place" is like saying there's plenty of jobs, they're just in third world countries and Scandinavia. The idea that the solutio…
>Most Metro areas do not have enough affordable housing.
Not only that, the definition of "affordable housing" is skewed. In the big metro area near me, "affordable housing" means 1500 to 2000 USD per month. That is not affordable to any normal person. To me, affordable rent should be below 1000 USD.
You think this homeless crises is bad, wait 30 years and then you will see Cities with large slums like many "third" world countries have.
And yes, it is the Gov. job to fix this, but the politicians wants to continue receiving their "bribes" from companies, some of which are buying up rental properties as fast as they become available. Ever see "cash for your house" ? Those properties are probably being bought up for use with AirBNB or being turned into rentals for around 3000 USD.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not only the regulations, but that regulations put Boomers in control of allowing housing locally. The combination of a generation that pulls up the ladder as soon as they have something, plus a government that caters to local homeowners has created a catastrophe for all but the wealthiest. Housing austerity benefits the wealthy (by which I include all homeowners) by extracting economic rent from everyone less w…
It really isn't just the boomers. It is landowners/homeowners of many different generations. The whole "blame the boomers" thing plays into the hands of the landowners shaking down the rest of us. Don't fall for it and focus on the actual problems not attacking a group.
it’s not just the boomers (but mostly them) - look at our congresspeople, mostly boomers
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
The issue is not supply and demand for houses - there are plenty enough to go around (though often in the wrong place). The issue is that a sizeable underclass is being created that have no wealth, not least because what wealth they did have has been funnelled to the very wealthy. For example, medical bills. For example student loans. For example zero interest rates with zero wage inflation meaning accommodation cost…
Pretty sure the under class is by design. Anyone who's ever used the phrase "real job" believes in the necessary existence of an under class.
Not at all, there a jobs that are good for students and other low skill/low experience workers... you can walk in and generate value, the phrase real job as I've heard it means career where with experience the amount of value increases.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. We're in this mess because of unregulated capitalism, but sure, removing even more regulations will definitely solve it! (for the people who are fortunate enough to "have a venture" goes unsaid - the rest will be left poor, and they deserve it, for they weren't good / useful enough) There is absolutely an argument to be made here about regulatory capture with respect to zoning laws, parking minimums, etc maki…
> We're in this mess because of unregulated capitalism, but sure, removing even more regulations will definitely solve it! I'm not arguing that removing regulations will solve it, but it is possible to have an island of misery in the middle of two more pleasant extremes. Meaning that both more and less regulation would make the problem better, just in different ways. To your point, you can't simply ridicule the solut…
I didn't think I had to be explicit - to look at some regulations with negative effects (zoning protectionism for nimby homeowners) and then extrapolate from that that all regulation is bad, is farcical.
There is a decent argument to be made that I would agree with that regulatory capture on home building is a serious problem. But that's not the argument that was made, instead the parent comment went on to claim that the actual problem is "freeloaders" and all that government regulation preventing the few worthy people from getting off the ground.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#100I moved to Portland a year ago. We certainly have a lot of homeless people, many of which are people caught up in the substance abuse cycle with particular drugs. However, one day I was driving back to East Portland, I drove under an underpass that's a particularly rough place. I saw a woman that looked to be my mom's age with what appeared to be a modern suit case, she was well dressed, and sober looking. The blood drained from me head to toe; as I said, I saw my mom in that person and I was instantly depressed. When I got home I decided I'd drive back to the underpass the next day. When I did she was gone. There are a lot of services here if you're sober so I suspect they swooped in and found her.
Portland's housing problem is multifold. There's not enough single unit housing, but even single family homes are affected by an overly burdensome and expensive permitting process. It adds thousands of dollars to construction and creates a lot of delays so when a house is torn down the lot sits empty. The city also allowed a number of lots to be classified as historical; one near my house is now just a vacant lot that a historical home used to sit on but burned down. You now can't build on that lot. We need to get rid of historical homes in Portland, we need to geographically diversify the housing density, and we need a full scale review of our permitting process.