4 ms·
Hopefully the local interests who also know how to play the political game well enough but recognize the "indications that businesses and residents are fleeing
by floatrock 10y ago
Hopefully the local interests who also know how to play the political game well enough but recognize the "indications that businesses and residents are fleeing the state in part because of high housing costs and the state's Legislative Analyst Office blaming excessive restrictions on development for the affordability crisis".
Profiting from pulling out the rug to newcomers only works if there are enough newcomers still willing to pay the exorbitant rents for the artificially suppressed supply. If enough people start saying "eh, the bay area is nice and all but not worth it", the NIMBYism starts to get less profitable. Sort of a pendulum-swinging-the-other-way dynamic-equilibrium type of thing.
- superuser2 10y agoThat is exactly what the electorate wants.
- abakker 10y agoI've heard before that "everybody who moves to California wants to be the last person who moves to California." I think that applies here. Once you've got your spot, its best if it stays the way it is.
- seanmcdirmid 10y ago"Got mine, screw you" isn't limited to Californian real estate though. It is unfortunately very broadly applied.
- Grishnakh 10y agoIt's not just "broadly applied", it's the American motto!
- seanmcdirmid 10y agoLet's not kid ourselves: it isn't just the American motto...it is motto of most people in the world.
- Grishnakh 10y agoI don't know about that. Ignoring the rest of the world for a moment and concentrating on industrialized nations, we seem to be the worst at providing socialized services.
- seanmcdirmid 10y agoI've been out of the states for 10 years now and have noticed the motto being applied in states as altruistic as Switzerland, and it definitely rules in here China, much more than in the US.
- Grishnakh 10y agoChina is a third-world country not comparable to western Europe. It's industrializing rapidly, but no one would ever be so naïve to think it has social services even approaching those in western nations.
- seanmcdirmid 10y agoChina is comparable, but further down the development chain. Social safety nets and good governance tempers selfishness a bit, but can't eliminate it (e.g. Switzerland). America has less of a net and equality than much of Europe, which is why selfishness seems to be more apparent there than in Europe.
- Grishnakh 10y agoNo, China isn't even remotely comparable. Just a few decades ago, it was a mostly agrarian economy. They've had massive industrialization in a very short time, but they don't the much longer-term culture of industrialization and social programs and worker protections etc. that western nations have. And how exactly is Switzerland "selfish"? They may not be part of the EU, but they appear to have just as many social safety nets as any other western European nation. This seems like a rather silly charge to me.