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In Japan, house prices commonly depreciate. Maybe that's why their homelessness per capita is almost 57 times lower than the States'.

by jdc 6y ago

wutbrodo 6y ago
Only if you don't understand anything about economics... > Homelessness grew noticeably more widespread in Japanese society since the collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble across the 1990s, and the resulting "Lost Decade" of economic stagnation. This has resulted in higher unemployment, a contributing factor towards potential homelessness.[1] National economies are complicated, and the connection between high (or continually-appreciating) housing prices and homelessness doesn't always run the direction that a naive model assumes it does. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Japan
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Wait, the latest stats read that there are fewer homeless people in Japan than all of San Francisco (and definitely all of LA). That can't be right. It has to be a definition difference or they're doing something remarkably right.
  - jdc 6y ago
    It's because GP cherry-picked a paragraph from the History section of that article and ignored the actual present per-capita homelessness rates.
    - wutbrodo 6y ago
      No, you just misunderstood my comment. I'm not disputing that Japan has a far lower homeless rate than we do, there's likely things we can learn from them (and things we can't easily transplant), and I've always been pretty radical when it comes to land economics (the notion of owning land as an asset is absurd to me, vs having a stable claim over it but no entitlement to its increase in value). I was narrowly disputing your comment's claim that depreciating housing prices is a significant driver of low homelessness rates, using an example of a big drop in housing prices causing a spike in homelessness. The example isn't perfect, since steady-state low prices have different effects from a large shock, but my point was that the connection obviously isn't this straightforward.
      - jdc 6y ago
        Oh I see. Thanks for the elaboration. I definitely agree that large shocks are best avoided, but I do think that ceteris paribus, bringing housing prices down relative to wages would decrease homelessness. On the other hand, there's a lot of Americans on their nth mortgage, though so any policy aimed at driving housing prices down would have to factor that in.

In Japan, house prices commonly depreciate. Maybe that's why their homelessness per capita is almost 57 times lower than the States'.

by jdc 6y ago

In Japan, house prices commonly depreciate. Maybe that's why their homelessness per capita is almost 57 times lower than the States'.

wutbrodo 6y ago

Only if you don't understand anything about economics... > Homelessness grew noticeably more widespread in Japanese society since the collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble across the 1990s, and the resulting "Lost Decade" of economic stagnation. This has resulted in higher unemployment, a contributing factor towards potential homelessness.[1] National economies are complicated, and the connection between high (or continually-appreciating) housing prices and homelessness doesn't always run the direction that a naive model assumes it does. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Japan

renewiltord 6y ago
Wait, the latest stats read that there are fewer homeless people in Japan than all of San Francisco (and definitely all of LA). That can't be right. It has to be a definition difference or they're doing something remarkably right.
- jdc 6y ago
  It's because GP cherry-picked a paragraph from the History section of that article and ignored the actual present per-capita homelessness rates.
  - wutbrodo 6y ago
    No, you just misunderstood my comment. I'm not disputing that Japan has a far lower homeless rate than we do, there's likely things we can learn from them (and things we can't easily transplant), and I've always been pretty radical when it comes to land economics (the notion of owning land as an asset is absurd to me, vs having a stable claim over it but no entitlement to its increase in value). I was narrowly disputing your comment's claim that depreciating housing prices is a significant driver of low homelessness rates, using an example of a big drop in housing prices causing a spike in homelessness. The example isn't perfect, since steady-state low prices have different effects from a large shock, but my point was that the connection obviously isn't this straightforward.
    - jdc 6y ago
      Oh I see. Thanks for the elaboration. I definitely agree that large shocks are best avoided, but I do think that ceteris paribus, bringing housing prices down relative to wages would decrease homelessness. On the other hand, there's a lot of Americans on their nth mortgage, though so any policy aimed at driving housing prices down would have to factor that in.