5 ms·

I think housing costs are a big part of this. Things are almost perfectly stacked in favour of current property owners: oppose any new housing development near

I think housing costs are a big part of this. Things are almost perfectly stacked in favour of current property owners: oppose any new housing development near you which keeps land prices and rents high, while those wanting to buy or rent can’t or don’t vote and can’t as easily encourage more building as current owners can discourage it. And it’s so simple (not easy, but simple) too: build more to reduce housing costs which is effectively a raise for most people. We’d need to stop treating housing as a primary investment vehicle though.

crankylinuxuser 8y ago
There is no one part here. It's what many of us (with little power) have been saying for quite some time. 1. Minimum wage and poverty level are not increasing in relation to the power of the dollar. (1) (2) 2. Welfare of all sorts have been cut since the '80s with Reagan's attack on a felony fraudster [Welfare Queen] (3) (4) 3. Zoning regulations actively kill and impede lower rents and booming cities. (5) (6) 4. Employer-linked medicine harms and kills people, via lack of medicine and through monetary lack of means. (7) (8) (9) 5. The citizens have been sold a bill of bad goods with the "Debt Sentence" of educational debt. (10) (11) The problems are numerous, and these cards have been stacked against us. Any one of these could topple, and take out multiple areas/people/economies. And just like the Great Depression, not even the banks getting together will be able to save us. Many of these are laws that would have to be changed at the local/state/federal level, which I do not see happening in 20 years. ---------------------------------- (1) https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-higher-the-federal-minimum-wage-should-be-2017-12 https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-higher-the-federal-... (2) https://talkpoverty.org/2016/09/13/poverty-rate-just-dropped-way-measure-poverty-wrong/ https://talkpoverty.org/2016/09/13/poverty-rate-just-dropped... (3) https://www.newsweek.com/trump-plans-slash-welfare-spending-will-hurt-millions-poor-people-us-771204 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-plans-slash-welfare-spending-... (4) https://timeline.com/reagan-trump-healthcare-cuts-8cf64aa242eb https://timeline.com/reagan-trump-healthcare-cuts-8cf64aa242... (5) https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/7/3/how-zoning-is-holding-your-neighborhood-back https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/7/3/how-zoning-is-h... (6) https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/05/25/modern-zoning-would-have-killed-off-americas-dense-cities/#1e2d86d99005 https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/05/25/modern-zo... (7) https://www.marketplace.org/2017/06/28/health-care/how-did-we-end-health-insurance-being-tied-our-jobs https://www.marketplace.org/2017/06/28/health-care/how-did-w... (8) https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/poor-healthcare-kills-8-million-people-a-year.html https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/poor-healthcar... (9) https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/05/01/this-is-the-no-1-reason-americans-file-for-bankrup.aspx https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/05/01/this-is-the-no-1-... (10) https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/08/27/how-u-s-education-has-become-a-debt-sentence-infographic/#37c10a1f4900 https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/08/27/how-u-... (11) https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/student-loan-debt-bankruptcy.html https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/student-loan-debt-ba...
- spoonie 8y ago
  Minneapolis seems like they might be getting a start on the zoning issues, they’ve removed all single-family zoning from the city!
vailprogrammer 8y ago
Not sure why you're being downvoted, maybe its some SF NIMBYers? Anyways, your second sentence brings me an interesting idea. What if someone built a website with links to easily email local representatives (kind of like the Craigslist webmail links, maybe also with a message body filled in), so that people could quickly and easily send in complaints about housing/zoning restrictions? This idea partially inspired by the Airnoise button: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18792029 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18792029
opencl 8y ago
How many places does this really affect? I see people in California complaining about it constantly. It is certainly not a problem where I live. Take a look at the NAR's housing affordability index[1]. Basically 100 means the median family income is exactly enough to quality for a mortgage on the median home price, higher is better. If you look at the HAI by metro area there are a very small number of places where the index is below 100, and almost all of them are in CA. The vast majority of cities seem to have reasonably affordable housing. [1] https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/housing-statistics/housing-affordability-index https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/housing-stat...
- lukas099 8y ago
  Is qualifying for a mortgage on a house really the same thing as affording it though?
  - opencl 8y ago
    Considering that the usual qualification for getting a mortgage is that payments can't exceed ~30% of your income, yes. They are at least not too far off from each other or tons of people would be defaulting.

crankylinuxuser 8y ago

There is no one part here. It's what many of us (with little power) have been saying for quite some time. 1. Minimum wage and poverty level are not increasing in relation to the power of the dollar. (1) (2) 2. Welfare of all sorts have been cut since the '80s with Reagan's attack on a felony fraudster [Welfare Queen] (3) (4) 3. Zoning regulations actively kill and impede lower rents and booming cities. (5) (6) 4. Employer-linked medicine harms and kills people, via lack of medicine and through monetary lack of means. (7) (8) (9) 5. The citizens have been sold a bill of bad goods with the "Debt Sentence" of educational debt. (10) (11) The problems are numerous, and these cards have been stacked against us. Any one of these could topple, and take out multiple areas/people/economies. And just like the Great Depression, not even the banks getting together will be able to save us. Many of these are laws that would have to be changed at the local/state/federal level, which I do not see happening in 20 years. ---------------------------------- (1) https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-higher-the-federal-minimum-wage-should-be-2017-12 https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-higher-the-federal-... (2) https://talkpoverty.org/2016/09/13/poverty-rate-just-dropped-way-measure-poverty-wrong/ https://talkpoverty.org/2016/09/13/poverty-rate-just-dropped... (3) https://www.newsweek.com/trump-plans-slash-welfare-spending-will-hurt-millions-poor-people-us-771204 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-plans-slash-welfare-spending-... (4) https://timeline.com/reagan-trump-healthcare-cuts-8cf64aa242eb https://timeline.com/reagan-trump-healthcare-cuts-8cf64aa242... (5) https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/7/3/how-zoning-is-holding-your-neighborhood-back https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/7/3/how-zoning-is-h... (6) https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/05/25/modern-zoning-would-have-killed-off-americas-dense-cities/#1e2d86d99005 https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/05/25/modern-zo... (7) https://www.marketplace.org/2017/06/28/health-care/how-did-we-end-health-insurance-being-tied-our-jobs https://www.marketplace.org/2017/06/28/health-care/how-did-w... (8) https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/poor-healthcare-kills-8-million-people-a-year.html https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/poor-healthcar... (9) https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/05/01/this-is-the-no-1-reason-americans-file-for-bankrup.aspx https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/05/01/this-is-the-no-1-... (10) https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/08/27/how-u-s-education-has-become-a-debt-sentence-infographic/#37c10a1f4900 https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/08/27/how-u-... (11) https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/student-loan-debt-bankruptcy.html https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/student-loan-debt-ba...

spoonie 8y ago
Minneapolis seems like they might be getting a start on the zoning issues, they’ve removed all single-family zoning from the city!

vailprogrammer 8y ago

Not sure why you're being downvoted, maybe its some SF NIMBYers? Anyways, your second sentence brings me an interesting idea. What if someone built a website with links to easily email local representatives (kind of like the Craigslist webmail links, maybe also with a message body filled in), so that people could quickly and easily send in complaints about housing/zoning restrictions? This idea partially inspired by the Airnoise button: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18792029 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18792029

opencl 8y ago

How many places does this really affect? I see people in California complaining about it constantly. It is certainly not a problem where I live. Take a look at the NAR's housing affordability index[1]. Basically 100 means the median family income is exactly enough to quality for a mortgage on the median home price, higher is better. If you look at the HAI by metro area there are a very small number of places where the index is below 100, and almost all of them are in CA. The vast majority of cities seem to have reasonably affordable housing. [1] https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/housing-statistics/housing-affordability-index https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/housing-stat...

lukas099 8y ago
Is qualifying for a mortgage on a house really the same thing as affording it though?
- opencl 8y ago
  Considering that the usual qualification for getting a mortgage is that payments can't exceed ~30% of your income, yes. They are at least not too far off from each other or tons of people would be defaulting.