5 ms·

Let's say you had unlimited funds - just as a thought experiment - would you have a solution then?

DoreenMichele 7y ago
Possibly not because so much of it is political, for lack of a better word. I would like to see housing policy changed in this country and I would like to see us solve the healthcare stuff. If I had unlimited funds, I would make a go of building SROs/microunits and Missing Middle Housing as a real estate developer. This country has torn down about a million SROs in recent decades and largely zoned out of existence the ability to build Missing Middle Housing, which used to be a common form of housing. New Urbanism was an attempt to build walkable neighborhoods. It wasn't wildly successful in bringing back historical patterns of neighborhood development and became mostly enclaves of nicer homes for upper class Americans. It faced a huge uphill battle in getting anything built at all and it was apparently common for developers and architects to take their New Urbanist neighborhood plan to the city, get it declined and then comb through the building codes and regulations and rename a bunch of stuff on their map while making little to no changes. Then take it to the city again. Rinse and repeat until they got approval of something vaguely similar to their initial vision. The new version of this is YIMBYism. What little I have seen of YIMBYism is political stuff and I am mostly not seeing them bring answers as to what kind of housing works well, what kind of financing works well, etc. They seem to just campaign for "more housing in my town" and that seems to be it, which has potential to go all kinds of bad places. If I had both money and power, I would wave my magic wand and bring back walkable neighborhoods full of Missing Middle Housing (and SROs) that even ordinary joes can afford and I would move this country to single payer healthcare. And then I would go on vacation for the rest of my life, having done enough to feel satisfied with my life.
- chadcmulligan 7y ago
  > If I had both money and power, I would wave my magic wand and bring back walkable neighborhoods full of Missing Middle Housing (and SROs) that even ordinary joes can afford and I would move this country to single payer healthcare. And then I would go on vacation for the rest of my life, having done enough to feel satisfied with my life. Sounds like you have a plan, here they're building a huge amount of apartments, and its keeping rents low. The other long term item I'd suggest is education, if a chunk of the population is uneducated then they're easily exploitable. The thing with education when you have a large population of working poor is that its a low priority for them. You can make education as free as you want, but when people are working 20 hours a day to live then it doesn't matter. imho its a systems problem, with the underlying issue being the lower stratum of society aren't getting enough money - even if they work, its ridiculous. Its not socialism to pay people enough to live when they work, if people only have to work one job, then they can focus on things like night school if they want, looking after they're kids so they can go to school. Again with my telescopic view from across the pond it does seem engineered to keep a class of uneducated god fearing slaves.
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    Education is a thorny issue in the US because we tend towards two tracks in a manner that makes poor people and people of color suspicious that it's propaganda and designed to intentionally keep some people oppressed. I doubt it's a system consciously designed to keep a class of uneducated God fearing slaves. I think "Never assume malice where stupidity while suffice to explain it" applies. A lot of crappy stuff genuinely is rooted in people being oblivious and unable to really see it. It's part of why stuff is so intractable: The people orchestrating it frequently feel innocent and wrongly accused.
    - chadcmulligan 7y ago
      > A lot of crappy stuff genuinely is rooted in people being oblivious and unable to really see it. It's part of why stuff is so intractable: Indeed it's an emergent behaviour from a lot of stupid and greedy decisions of the past. I have found its a rare ability for someone to be able to stand outside themselves and see how something ended up there. Like the stuff Bernie is talking about, how it seems to be being called socialism, but over here it's just life. There are those on the extreme right that fight against it, fortunately they haven't won here, yet, imho. > I doubt it's a system consciously designed to keep a class of uneducated God fearing slaves I don't think it was designed that way, but I'd say there are people taking advantage of the status quo and quite happy to keep it that way - cheap labour is good, and there are many who enjoy feeling righteous by pointing a finger at the behaviour of those less fortunate. I suppose the question is whose advantage is it to fix it? Probably not many, it's easier to just increase the police force and keep these people in jail and prepare for the inevitable uprisings. > The people orchestrating it frequently feel innocent and wrongly accused. Yes, so there's a way to fix it working with these people, but there are forces at work fighting it now or not interested in supporting change and they have a lot of money. Think I'll get off my Sunday morning pulpit now :-)
      - DoreenMichele 7y ago
        Think I'll get off my Sunday morning pulpit now :-) Go have a beer (or whatever your preferred poison is) to even things out. ;) (It's still Saturday here. Is this Time Travel? O_o)

Possibly not because so much of it is political, for lack of a better word. I would like to see housing policy changed in this country and I would like to see us solve the healthcare stuff. If I had unlimited funds, I would make a go of building SROs/microunits and Missing Middle Housing as a real estate developer. This country has torn down about a million SROs in recent decades and largely zoned out of existence the ability to build Missing Middle Housing, which used to be a common form of housing. New Urbanism was an attempt to build walkable neighborhoods. It wasn't wildly successful in bringing back historical patterns of neighborhood development and became mostly enclaves of nicer homes for upper class Americans. It faced a huge uphill battle in getting anything built at all and it was apparently common for developers and architects to take their New Urbanist neighborhood plan to the city, get it declined and then comb through the building codes and regulations and rename a bunch of stuff on their map while making little to no changes. Then take it to the city again. Rinse and repeat until they got approval of something vaguely similar to their initial vision. The new version of this is YIMBYism. What little I have seen of YIMBYism is political stuff and I am mostly not seeing them bring answers as to what kind of housing works well, what kind of financing works well, etc. They seem to just campaign for "more housing in my town" and that seems to be it, which has potential to go all kinds of bad places. If I had both money and power, I would wave my magic wand and bring back walkable neighborhoods full of Missing Middle Housing (and SROs) that even ordinary joes can afford and I would move this country to single payer healthcare. And then I would go on vacation for the rest of my life, having done enough to feel satisfied with my life.

chadcmulligan 7y ago
> If I had both money and power, I would wave my magic wand and bring back walkable neighborhoods full of Missing Middle Housing (and SROs) that even ordinary joes can afford and I would move this country to single payer healthcare. And then I would go on vacation for the rest of my life, having done enough to feel satisfied with my life. Sounds like you have a plan, here they're building a huge amount of apartments, and its keeping rents low. The other long term item I'd suggest is education, if a chunk of the population is uneducated then they're easily exploitable. The thing with education when you have a large population of working poor is that its a low priority for them. You can make education as free as you want, but when people are working 20 hours a day to live then it doesn't matter. imho its a systems problem, with the underlying issue being the lower stratum of society aren't getting enough money - even if they work, its ridiculous. Its not socialism to pay people enough to live when they work, if people only have to work one job, then they can focus on things like night school if they want, looking after they're kids so they can go to school. Again with my telescopic view from across the pond it does seem engineered to keep a class of uneducated god fearing slaves.
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  Education is a thorny issue in the US because we tend towards two tracks in a manner that makes poor people and people of color suspicious that it's propaganda and designed to intentionally keep some people oppressed. I doubt it's a system consciously designed to keep a class of uneducated God fearing slaves. I think "Never assume malice where stupidity while suffice to explain it" applies. A lot of crappy stuff genuinely is rooted in people being oblivious and unable to really see it. It's part of why stuff is so intractable: The people orchestrating it frequently feel innocent and wrongly accused.
  - chadcmulligan 7y ago
    > A lot of crappy stuff genuinely is rooted in people being oblivious and unable to really see it. It's part of why stuff is so intractable: Indeed it's an emergent behaviour from a lot of stupid and greedy decisions of the past. I have found its a rare ability for someone to be able to stand outside themselves and see how something ended up there. Like the stuff Bernie is talking about, how it seems to be being called socialism, but over here it's just life. There are those on the extreme right that fight against it, fortunately they haven't won here, yet, imho. > I doubt it's a system consciously designed to keep a class of uneducated God fearing slaves I don't think it was designed that way, but I'd say there are people taking advantage of the status quo and quite happy to keep it that way - cheap labour is good, and there are many who enjoy feeling righteous by pointing a finger at the behaviour of those less fortunate. I suppose the question is whose advantage is it to fix it? Probably not many, it's easier to just increase the police force and keep these people in jail and prepare for the inevitable uprisings. > The people orchestrating it frequently feel innocent and wrongly accused. Yes, so there's a way to fix it working with these people, but there are forces at work fighting it now or not interested in supporting change and they have a lot of money. Think I'll get off my Sunday morning pulpit now :-)
    - DoreenMichele 7y ago
      Think I'll get off my Sunday morning pulpit now :-) Go have a beer (or whatever your preferred poison is) to even things out. ;) (It's still Saturday here. Is this Time Travel? O_o)