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Sending the post-work population to a nice quiet farm upstate doesn't sound so bad to me... It's hard for me to have much sympathy for the dream of keeping you

Sending the post-work population to a nice quiet farm upstate doesn't sound so bad to me... It's hard for me to have much sympathy for the dream of keeping your home forever when the great majority of people I know have basically no hope of ever owning a home in the area.

zepto 7y ago
Why don’t you go upstate then? (Serious question - how do you justify sending retirees away from their homes, rather than simply working somewhere else?)
- threwawasy1228 7y ago
  I've gotten offers from places like this, the pay deduction is staggering. If I got an offer that paid even the median of what I can make on the coasts, in a place like upstate New York I would get out of the coasts in a heartbeat and buy a house.
- sdenton4 7y ago
  I'm reminded of all the boomers who said that one should simply work a summer job to pay for college, and then simply get a job when the degree is done... My impression, as a person under 60, is that the older land-owning generation largely had things much, much easier, and have been blissfully unaware of the changes society has undergone. Or else perfectly aware, but unwilling to recognize their debts to society and circumstance and pay it forward. Those low property taxes translate directly into booming tuition, as the state funding for higher education has been systematically gutted. The higher tuitions, in turn, imply massive student debt. Simply get a summer job, rite? As for me? I work where it makes most sense for me to work. Not-working can happen anywhere. So for retirees, my advice is this: Sell the house, take the millions of dollars in windfall, and go to Bali or Florida or something already. I'm sorry if you have to make new friends; please consider this outcome the next time you settle for a societal structure without robust community. But in getting out, you'll reduce the demand pressure slightly, improve the depressed tax base, and have enough money for a long, long vacation.
  - kortilla 7y ago
    Higher education costs has zero to do with property taxes. One pitchfork at a time.
    - dragonwriter 7y ago
      > Higher education costs has zero to do with property taxes In California they are linked, in that property tax rollback and the procedural impediments to raising other taxes at either state or local levels were part of the same initiative constitutional amendment.
- mikeash 7y ago
  How do you justify people occupying extremely valuable land that they aren’t using to anything close to its potential, while also not paying anything close to their share of the taxes that keep the local government afloat?
  - zepto 7y ago
    How do you justify anyone owning anything and not using it to it’s ‘potential’? More importantly who do you think should decide what the ‘potential’ is for what you own?
    - mikeash 7y ago
      The market value is a pretty reasonable way to determine the potential.
      - zepto 7y ago
        That seems like a great argument for abolishing property taxes.
  - Decade 7y ago
    My big problem is not merely keeping their own land under-developed, but that there is a huge overlap between these squatters and NIMBYism to prevent me from using the land to its potential, even if I manage to buy property from one of their neighbors.
    - zepto 7y ago
      Ok, so it is about using taxes to push people you don’t like out? What makes a particular property owner into a ‘squatter’?
      - mikeash 7y ago
        They pretty clearly said that it’s about being prevented from using their own property the way they want.
afarrell 7y ago
> to a nice quiet farm upstate doesn't sound so bad to me. Just so you're aware, the phrase "sent to a quiet farm upstate" is a euphemism for "killed", usually applied to animals like family pets.

zepto 7y ago

Why don’t you go upstate then? (Serious question - how do you justify sending retirees away from their homes, rather than simply working somewhere else?)

threwawasy1228 7y ago
I've gotten offers from places like this, the pay deduction is staggering. If I got an offer that paid even the median of what I can make on the coasts, in a place like upstate New York I would get out of the coasts in a heartbeat and buy a house.
sdenton4 7y ago
I'm reminded of all the boomers who said that one should simply work a summer job to pay for college, and then simply get a job when the degree is done... My impression, as a person under 60, is that the older land-owning generation largely had things much, much easier, and have been blissfully unaware of the changes society has undergone. Or else perfectly aware, but unwilling to recognize their debts to society and circumstance and pay it forward. Those low property taxes translate directly into booming tuition, as the state funding for higher education has been systematically gutted. The higher tuitions, in turn, imply massive student debt. Simply get a summer job, rite? As for me? I work where it makes most sense for me to work. Not-working can happen anywhere. So for retirees, my advice is this: Sell the house, take the millions of dollars in windfall, and go to Bali or Florida or something already. I'm sorry if you have to make new friends; please consider this outcome the next time you settle for a societal structure without robust community. But in getting out, you'll reduce the demand pressure slightly, improve the depressed tax base, and have enough money for a long, long vacation.
- kortilla 7y ago
  Higher education costs has zero to do with property taxes. One pitchfork at a time.
  - dragonwriter 7y ago
    > Higher education costs has zero to do with property taxes In California they are linked, in that property tax rollback and the procedural impediments to raising other taxes at either state or local levels were part of the same initiative constitutional amendment.
mikeash 7y ago
How do you justify people occupying extremely valuable land that they aren’t using to anything close to its potential, while also not paying anything close to their share of the taxes that keep the local government afloat?
- zepto 7y ago
  How do you justify anyone owning anything and not using it to it’s ‘potential’? More importantly who do you think should decide what the ‘potential’ is for what you own?
  - mikeash 7y ago
    The market value is a pretty reasonable way to determine the potential.
    - zepto 7y ago
      That seems like a great argument for abolishing property taxes.
- Decade 7y ago
  My big problem is not merely keeping their own land under-developed, but that there is a huge overlap between these squatters and NIMBYism to prevent me from using the land to its potential, even if I manage to buy property from one of their neighbors.
  - zepto 7y ago
    Ok, so it is about using taxes to push people you don’t like out? What makes a particular property owner into a ‘squatter’?
    - mikeash 7y ago
      They pretty clearly said that it’s about being prevented from using their own property the way they want.

afarrell 7y ago

> to a nice quiet farm upstate doesn't sound so bad to me. Just so you're aware, the phrase "sent to a quiet farm upstate" is a euphemism for "killed", usually applied to animals like family pets.