5 ms·

This boils down to the baby boomer generation doing a terrible job at saving for themselves outside housing, and demanding millennials buy them out of their inv

This boils down to the baby boomer generation doing a terrible job at saving for themselves outside housing, and demanding millennials buy them out of their investment. When they don't, they scream "stupid millennial, why don't you just have more money" ... so they can ultimately get that too. They are largely not very desperate, yet still so afraid that even in their later years they horde wealth. In the Bay Area, I feel like rent or buy, I'm just working hard so the older generation can continue living well off our backs. The vast majority of them have made no intelligent investments or savings other than property. And they are now incentivized to make life as miserable as possible for the next generation, so they can live out their remaining years as well as they are accustomed too. My landlord whined about how she makes so little, whilst attempting to hold onto 2.8mm USD in property. I find it hard to swallow... but also inevitable.

koolba 9y ago
The capped real estate taxes (in CA) is a perfect example of this.
closeparen 9y ago
The cohesiveness of existing communities is always going to be at odds with the ability of new communities to form and take hold. It's almost heartwarming that Boomers built lives they love so much, they're willing to go to such lengths to prevent any change. I expect the Boomers would have faced the same thing from their parents and grandparents. What saved them was, rather than pushing inwards to city land already occupied by the powerful, they pushed outwards to sprawl, or into racial minority neighborhoods which didn't, at the time, have a legal mechanism to meaningfully resist. When society saw how destructive this was, it made it much harder to repeat. This is, often, the history of downzoning and the origin of those processes that notify and invite busybodies to stop development. There are moral justifications behind these controls (particularly as they apply to disadvantaged neighborhoods), and to get anything done, we'll have to engage with them. We're completely screwed now because the door is closed to "urban renewal," and sprawl is at its natural limits (under the levels of investment in public transit currently contemplated), and the impetus to live in cities with these problems is more economic necessity than personal taste.
- Camillo 9y ago
  > they pushed outwards [...] into racial minority neighborhoods which didn't, at the time, have a legal mechanism to meaningfully resist. AFAIK in the boomer years the prevalent phenomenon was the opposite: minorities moving into formerly majority neighborhoods, and the majority moving out. This was known as "white flight".
  - closeparen 9y ago
    You're right, I'm talking about the (mostly stalled) attempt by Gen X to walk back white flight in the 1970s, which is where much of the current thinking and policy around gentrification comes from.
    - coffeevradar 9y ago
      According to Wikipedia, for Generation X "demographers and researchers typically use starting birth years ranging from the early-to-mid 1960s and ending birth years ranging from the late 1970s to early 1980s." So any members of Generation X were still children in the 70s or not yet born. I think you mean a different cohort or a different time.
- taurath 9y ago
  What would flip that back around is remote work. The only reason jobs are in cities is the collaboration effects that it confers on service and thinking jobs. If we can get the technology to completely match or exceed those effects people will have a lot fewer trade offs to spreading out. At the same time, the main reason I would live in a city is access to people that only live in cities (you can have a lot more minorities in dense spaces). I imagine the future could be microcommunities of like minded people, or theme communities (much like we have on the internet now). One can argue that's what the suburban moves in the 20th century was all about. Diversity helps people access like minded people and exposes them to other viewpoints to an extent, but if you can still get the viewpoints why not live in a community of like minded people? Where are the gay suburbs?
  - 9y ago
saosebastiao 9y ago
I've been seeing this for a while and predicting it for a good decade or so, but I think the next political divide will be young vs old, instead of right vs left. Boomers have done a million things to fuck over everyone that comes after them, and it's gonna take a while for it to happen but the younger generations are gonna start pushing back. Anecdotally it already happens. I attended a Bernie Sanders rally here in Seattle and it was interesting to see the hordes of millenials cheering and chanting the whole time but go completely silent when he starts talking about the importance of social security. Millenials don't care about social security and it would probably be a net benefit for the majority of them if it went away, because the system as it is structured is just a massive wealth transfer to boomers which will be completely neutered by the time they are eligible for benefits.

koolba 9y ago

The capped real estate taxes (in CA) is a perfect example of this.

closeparen 9y ago

The cohesiveness of existing communities is always going to be at odds with the ability of new communities to form and take hold. It's almost heartwarming that Boomers built lives they love so much, they're willing to go to such lengths to prevent any change. I expect the Boomers would have faced the same thing from their parents and grandparents. What saved them was, rather than pushing inwards to city land already occupied by the powerful, they pushed outwards to sprawl, or into racial minority neighborhoods which didn't, at the time, have a legal mechanism to meaningfully resist. When society saw how destructive this was, it made it much harder to repeat. This is, often, the history of downzoning and the origin of those processes that notify and invite busybodies to stop development. There are moral justifications behind these controls (particularly as they apply to disadvantaged neighborhoods), and to get anything done, we'll have to engage with them. We're completely screwed now because the door is closed to "urban renewal," and sprawl is at its natural limits (under the levels of investment in public transit currently contemplated), and the impetus to live in cities with these problems is more economic necessity than personal taste.

Camillo 9y ago
> they pushed outwards [...] into racial minority neighborhoods which didn't, at the time, have a legal mechanism to meaningfully resist. AFAIK in the boomer years the prevalent phenomenon was the opposite: minorities moving into formerly majority neighborhoods, and the majority moving out. This was known as "white flight".
- closeparen 9y ago
  You're right, I'm talking about the (mostly stalled) attempt by Gen X to walk back white flight in the 1970s, which is where much of the current thinking and policy around gentrification comes from.
  - coffeevradar 9y ago
    According to Wikipedia, for Generation X "demographers and researchers typically use starting birth years ranging from the early-to-mid 1960s and ending birth years ranging from the late 1970s to early 1980s." So any members of Generation X were still children in the 70s or not yet born. I think you mean a different cohort or a different time.
taurath 9y ago
What would flip that back around is remote work. The only reason jobs are in cities is the collaboration effects that it confers on service and thinking jobs. If we can get the technology to completely match or exceed those effects people will have a lot fewer trade offs to spreading out. At the same time, the main reason I would live in a city is access to people that only live in cities (you can have a lot more minorities in dense spaces). I imagine the future could be microcommunities of like minded people, or theme communities (much like we have on the internet now). One can argue that's what the suburban moves in the 20th century was all about. Diversity helps people access like minded people and exposes them to other viewpoints to an extent, but if you can still get the viewpoints why not live in a community of like minded people? Where are the gay suburbs?
- 9y ago

saosebastiao 9y ago

I've been seeing this for a while and predicting it for a good decade or so, but I think the next political divide will be young vs old, instead of right vs left. Boomers have done a million things to fuck over everyone that comes after them, and it's gonna take a while for it to happen but the younger generations are gonna start pushing back. Anecdotally it already happens. I attended a Bernie Sanders rally here in Seattle and it was interesting to see the hordes of millenials cheering and chanting the whole time but go completely silent when he starts talking about the importance of social security. Millenials don't care about social security and it would probably be a net benefit for the majority of them if it went away, because the system as it is structured is just a massive wealth transfer to boomers which will be completely neutered by the time they are eligible for benefits.