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This is fundamentally the problem. Far too much money is being extracted from the system by landlords and banks (via mortgages) for no productive labour rather
by rcarr 3y ago
This is fundamentally the problem. Far too much money is being extracted from the system by landlords and banks (via mortgages) for no productive labour rather than being spent on actual productive things like internet forums, the actual cost to produce food without subsidies etc.
When people have more money to spend because they’re not paying half their take home pay on rent or a mortgage, they’re generally more amenable to paying for things.
The other half of the solution, is that most tech companies have got to stop trying to become ridiculous never ending growth machines like Facebook, and just become boring utility companies. No one needs Facebook to do all the shit it does - it just needs to be a digital yellow pages. No one needs reddit to be flashy - it just needs to function as a forum. Keep the price low (e.g an hour of minimum wage in whatever country you’re accessing from for a month for a no ad version) and you will get people signing up.
- hayst4ck 3y agoThe money is being extracted through limiting housing supply and lack of infrastructure investments that support high density (efficient) housing. Increasing housing supply means decreasing homeowner capital and harming the major investment vehicle of a generation. That's politically untenable. Sadly, the pain will be felt by us and our children until we are able to exercise political power, which will require harming our parents retirements. Maybe the answer is renters unions, how many people can the police evict at once? Young people don't understand their rent is high because they don't vote or exercise political power.
- hooverd 3y agoUnfortunately it's much easier home owner bloc to close ranks and oppose something than it is for young people to maybe, just maybe, get in a good candidate who would change something. Going to those crucial 2 pm on a Wednesday meetings is a lot harder when you're not retired.
- elwebmaster 3y agoThis comment is spot on. 100% of the reason for high housing costs is western governments’ limits on supply. People need a place to live, that’s the reality. If supply is artificially suppressed, prices will keep rising as long as old housing ages (and what can stop aging?) and population continues to grow.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoThe reason isn't 'western governments', more the fundamental dynamics of stable neighbourhoods. Go to any country in the world with an upper-middle class neighbourhood and ask them if it's alright to plop an extra condo or apartment building in the middle. The only way you'll smoothly get permission is by providing huge, costly, benefits to the local households. Otherwise it would involve a long drawn-out court battle, or some scheme with the local political potentates, pretty much everywhere where there are such neighbourhoods.
- hayst4ck 3y agoI think the idea of "stable neighborhoods" is complex and misses the point. If supply goes up, existing homeowner value goes down, the amount landlords can ask goes down. I don't see any reason it is more complicated than that, the entrenched interest is obvious. Doubling the housing in a neighborhood could halve peoples entire net worth.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoEven if the proposal was a fancy luxury condo, with per unit prices averaging more expensive then the existing homes, it would still be heavily resisted because of the inconveniences associated with construction, higher pressure on local services, etc... So even if the average home prices slightly increased it would still be the same dynamic.