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> A 50% drop in housing costs will serve them better than a 15% raise. The number of Americans who would benefit from a substantial deflation rises every day.

> A 50% drop in housing costs will serve them better than a 15% raise. The number of Americans who would benefit from a substantial deflation rises every day. Except servicing existing debt would become nearly impossible as wages went down, but that pesky car payment stayed at $500/mo.

newaccount2021 5y ago
young people haven't taken on debt yet, they will be better served by a world where things are cheaper older Americans with high debt loads are DOA no matter what
- indymike 5y ago
  Student loans?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
imtringued 5y ago
In reality, the market isn't really naturally free in the "freedom" sense. There is coercion everywhere. It's just that ownership of land allows for the most powerful form of coercion. Advertising companies, sales people, car dealers or realtors are all trying to convince you to spend more so they get their commission or more revenue but ultimately you can always refuse. You can always decide to live well within your means. The truth is that pretty much everything on the market that is free of coercion is getting cheaper. Housing doesn't work like that because location is a natural monopoly. It's a basic human need that cannot be produced and jobs unnecessarily cluster in cities forcing people to move there bidding up prices endlessly. The rule of thumb has become "If you can afford the house, you can afford everything that fits inside it." Wanna build a machine shop with $100k worth of tools? Cheap compared to the $600k to $2 million house. That's the thing. Strangely enough, literally everything is getting cheap except real estate. The story that inflation has been ruining the working class for the last 10 years just doesn't add up. There is no reason why housing shouldn't obey the same trend other than artificial scarcity of either housing near jobs or jobs near vacant housing.

newaccount2021 5y ago

young people haven't taken on debt yet, they will be better served by a world where things are cheaper older Americans with high debt loads are DOA no matter what

indymike 5y ago
Student loans?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

imtringued 5y ago

In reality, the market isn't really naturally free in the "freedom" sense. There is coercion everywhere. It's just that ownership of land allows for the most powerful form of coercion. Advertising companies, sales people, car dealers or realtors are all trying to convince you to spend more so they get their commission or more revenue but ultimately you can always refuse. You can always decide to live well within your means. The truth is that pretty much everything on the market that is free of coercion is getting cheaper. Housing doesn't work like that because location is a natural monopoly. It's a basic human need that cannot be produced and jobs unnecessarily cluster in cities forcing people to move there bidding up prices endlessly. The rule of thumb has become "If you can afford the house, you can afford everything that fits inside it." Wanna build a machine shop with $100k worth of tools? Cheap compared to the $600k to $2 million house. That's the thing. Strangely enough, literally everything is getting cheap except real estate. The story that inflation has been ruining the working class for the last 10 years just doesn't add up. There is no reason why housing shouldn't obey the same trend other than artificial scarcity of either housing near jobs or jobs near vacant housing.