4 ms·

Blue collar shortage in a non-US area. Here, you're not getting the big bucks until you have quite a few years underneath your belt. Additionally, you'll have t

Blue collar shortage in a non-US area. Here, you're not getting the big bucks until you have quite a few years underneath your belt. Additionally, you'll have to be self-employed. That's what people are complaining about. The hurdles are higher and more frequent than before. It's still there, but having your first home at 35 is vastly different from having it at 25. My friend group is filled with people privileged enough to work lucrative white collar jobs, and it's still a massive challenge despite earning more than 90% of all households. Now imagine what happens when blue collars get saturated again. They can't beat white collar work during or after 25-35 without going off the beaten path, while white collar is struggling. Cherry on top: households are getting less while doing more work per household.

echelon 4y ago
What's the fix for this? America won't be regaining its 1940's unilateral industrial superpower status again. Do we just say that the Silent and Boomer generations were a fluke? Do politicians that promise to redistribute wealth get elected? Does automation really save us? Or lead to greater inequality?
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  > Do we just say that the Silent and Boomer generations were a fluke? Yes we do, because yes, they were a fluke. The question is, can we re-create conditions approximately that good (without bombing the rest of the planet back to the stone age)? I must admit that I don't see a way to do so.
randomdata 4y ago
> Now imagine what happens when blue collars get saturated again. The downward pressure on their compensation will see the cost to build new homes come down and thus the market will trend towards affordable again? After all, like all things, the cost of a used home is a function of the cost of a new home.
- perfecthjrjth 4y ago
  Well, in HCOL areas, the land costs more than the labor charges.
  - randomdata 4y ago
    In total, but you're building denser so the per-resident cost ends in a similar ballpark.

echelon 4y ago

What's the fix for this? America won't be regaining its 1940's unilateral industrial superpower status again. Do we just say that the Silent and Boomer generations were a fluke? Do politicians that promise to redistribute wealth get elected? Does automation really save us? Or lead to greater inequality?

AnimalMuppet 4y ago
> Do we just say that the Silent and Boomer generations were a fluke? Yes we do, because yes, they were a fluke. The question is, can we re-create conditions approximately that good (without bombing the rest of the planet back to the stone age)? I must admit that I don't see a way to do so.

randomdata 4y ago

> Now imagine what happens when blue collars get saturated again. The downward pressure on their compensation will see the cost to build new homes come down and thus the market will trend towards affordable again? After all, like all things, the cost of a used home is a function of the cost of a new home.

perfecthjrjth 4y ago
Well, in HCOL areas, the land costs more than the labor charges.
- randomdata 4y ago
  In total, but you're building denser so the per-resident cost ends in a similar ballpark.