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I think this has far less to do with poor worker sentiment for the prevailing wage than the massive and unabated increase in the cost of living, particularly ho

I think this has far less to do with poor worker sentiment for the prevailing wage than the massive and unabated increase in the cost of living, particularly housing. Very few young people have housing security. You simply cannot live on your own anymore (and yes, I'm counting having roommates) without paying huge amounts of money in rent. There is no financial cushion to be had; at least one roommate must personally make 3x rent, or know someone who does and is willing to cosign. You must pay for an automobile and repairs, gas, insurance on top of that, Uber when your car is in for repairs, because public transit is laughably poor if it exists at all, and the cost of groceries and eating out are so high that we're starting to reduce total food consumption. These aren't inevitable problems; they are self-inflicted political own-goals. Cities inflict insane restrictions on land, causing rents (commercial and residential) to skyrocket, and underfunding public transit, forcing everyone to spend huge amounts of money on automobiles + insurance + now high interest rate loans. The vast majority of this problem would be solved if only we had an abundance of cheap and amenity-rich housing, as well as functional public transit. Our society is culturally much poorer, and we have far fewer artists and creatives, because the amount of work, effort, and money required to not go hungry or go out on the streets increases every year. By making housing more abundant and cheap, we can reduce the cost of living directly, since people would no longer have to pay 80% of their income in rent, and meals+groceries would be cheaper since commercial rents would go down. Half a million Americans are homeless, largely due to the cost and scarcity of housing. And who is served by this status quo? There is a large voting constituency of homeowners who want to see the value of their property and the price of their rents continue to increase. Not to mention the very large constituency + lobbying arm (Oil&Gas, Auto industry) supporting the one-person:one-car model of transportation. Politicians do not want to rock this boat, not only because it would be very unpopular and cost them campaign contributions, but because the vast majority of them are well-to-do and benefit from rising housing prices. As the saying goes, it's difficult to get someone to understand something when their salary (or net worth, in this case) depends upon them not understanding it. In California, we see this coming to a head where the state is finally stepping in (at least on housing) due to being much further along than the rest of the country in facing extreme living costs. They are slowly battling the powerful layers of vetocracy and bureaucratic cruft that has accumulated over the past 60+ years, but it is paying off. Granted, most housing being built remains automobile-dependent or exposed to noise and sound pollution due to proximity to highways, but it is progress in a state where 50 year old shit shacks sell for $1,500,000. https://twitter.com/dieworkwear/status/1725234349111721992 https://twitter.com/dieworkwear/status/1725234349111721992 We see from Tokyo that the current state of the west is neither permanent, nor inevitable. By simply legalizing housing and mixed-use (retail) development, we can have much better and cheaper urban areas. They also have a huge high speed rail network, which makes a huge amount of land available to commuters. Highways clog and get congested during rush hour, which reduces speeds drastically. Trains run the same speed all day, every day.

shiroiuma 3y ago
>We see from Tokyo that the current state of the west is neither permanent, nor inevitable. By simply legalizing housing and mixed-use (retail) development, we can have much better and cheaper urban areas. They also have a huge high speed rail network, which makes a huge amount of land available to commuters. Highways clog and get congested during rush hour, which reduces speeds drastically. Trains run the same speed all day, every day. Slight nitpick from Tokyo: the commuter trains here aren't "high speed rail", they're just trains and subways, and are pretty slow since they usually stop at every stop. There is high-speed rail (called shinkansen), but it goes between cities, it's not something for commuting unless you're really rich; it's not cheap at all. However, what you see here in Tokyo isn't really workable in America anytime soon. It's not just housing and mixed-use development: you need to get rid of cars too, or else you just won't have the density you need for all those trains/subways to work and be economical. To get density, you need to build everything very close together, and to do that you need to get rid of parking lots, as well as most automobile traffic. There's simply very little parking here, and what parking there is is usually expensive (and probably not all that convenient). So taxis are very common since they're usually faster than trains, and don't need to park and so can take you directly to your destination, but they're expensive too. Trains are cheap, but usually require some walking since lots of places aren't that close to train stations. A 15-minute walk to the station is pretty typical for many people's commute. Many people end up riding bikes to their nearest train station to save time; many stations have large bicycle parking garages for this (expect to pay 100Y/day for this). The trains really do work like clockwork here, but it's really hard to imagine that ever being the reality in America, or most other places to be honest. It's not normal in Europe, even though there are lots of trains there.
- underlipton 3y ago
  I've only been to Japan briefly, but I do remember there being express commuter trains in the Tokyo/Yokohama area. One little-known fact about the US is that we used to have a widespread streetcar/commuter rail network. Many of these right-of-ways still exist in the form of current roads and bike paths. Some would have to be reestablished, but it's not like the ISHS doesn't habitually eminent domain people's property to build even more and wider roads. I've also thought for a while now that many communities would benefit from (at least) a corner store. Most housing and apartment developments have space that could be used for this purpose (a vacant ground-floor apartment or two, a section of the parking lot, a house). In general, Americans need to start getting used to in-fill development and purpose-shift renovation, because we can't afford new and sprawl anymore.

shiroiuma 3y ago

>We see from Tokyo that the current state of the west is neither permanent, nor inevitable. By simply legalizing housing and mixed-use (retail) development, we can have much better and cheaper urban areas. They also have a huge high speed rail network, which makes a huge amount of land available to commuters. Highways clog and get congested during rush hour, which reduces speeds drastically. Trains run the same speed all day, every day. Slight nitpick from Tokyo: the commuter trains here aren't "high speed rail", they're just trains and subways, and are pretty slow since they usually stop at every stop. There is high-speed rail (called shinkansen), but it goes between cities, it's not something for commuting unless you're really rich; it's not cheap at all. However, what you see here in Tokyo isn't really workable in America anytime soon. It's not just housing and mixed-use development: you need to get rid of cars too, or else you just won't have the density you need for all those trains/subways to work and be economical. To get density, you need to build everything very close together, and to do that you need to get rid of parking lots, as well as most automobile traffic. There's simply very little parking here, and what parking there is is usually expensive (and probably not all that convenient). So taxis are very common since they're usually faster than trains, and don't need to park and so can take you directly to your destination, but they're expensive too. Trains are cheap, but usually require some walking since lots of places aren't that close to train stations. A 15-minute walk to the station is pretty typical for many people's commute. Many people end up riding bikes to their nearest train station to save time; many stations have large bicycle parking garages for this (expect to pay 100Y/day for this). The trains really do work like clockwork here, but it's really hard to imagine that ever being the reality in America, or most other places to be honest. It's not normal in Europe, even though there are lots of trains there.

underlipton 3y ago
I've only been to Japan briefly, but I do remember there being express commuter trains in the Tokyo/Yokohama area. One little-known fact about the US is that we used to have a widespread streetcar/commuter rail network. Many of these right-of-ways still exist in the form of current roads and bike paths. Some would have to be reestablished, but it's not like the ISHS doesn't habitually eminent domain people's property to build even more and wider roads. I've also thought for a while now that many communities would benefit from (at least) a corner store. Most housing and apartment developments have space that could be used for this purpose (a vacant ground-floor apartment or two, a section of the parking lot, a house). In general, Americans need to start getting used to in-fill development and purpose-shift renovation, because we can't afford new and sprawl anymore.