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So now everyone except business people will be lower middle class

rayiner 3y ago
Everyone will be middle class again. The present societal consternation is coming from the gap between the middle class and the upper middle class. The middle class Virginia town where I grew up isn’t unaffordable for regular people because of Jeff Bezos. It’s because the town is now full of Google employees and lawyers. And soaring education costs are the result of an arm’s race trying to get into the upper middle class, since that’s what it takes to maybe be able to buy a house where you grew up. Knowledge workers are the ones creating that gap, and places without them are a lot better for ordinary people. Consider somewhere like Iowa, which is very flat economically because there’s no knowledge work. The median income is a bit lower than say New Jersey. But in practice life is better. You can buy a house for 3-4x the median income, because there’s no Amazon engineers pushing you out of the way.
- pixl97 3y ago
  This is just a terrible take... Those property prices are not going down any significant amount. The capital system in the US has realized it can buy up as much property as possible and use it to extract as much wealth as possible via literal rent seeking. Places that are not close to anywhere have had rent prices explode. Oh, and if there is a massive 2008 like housing crash, the banks themselves will hold on to the properties keeping prices high. Meanwhile the Bezeo's themselves that have the AI will be buying up as many real assets as possible.
  - rayiner 3y ago
    > Those property prices are not going down any significant amount. The capital system in the US has realized it can buy up as much property as possible and use it to extract as much wealth as possible via literal rent seeking. Places that are not close to anywhere have had rent prices explode. It's an unflattering take for many egos, but it's what's actually happening. It's not the "capital system" that's bidding up the price of housing. Only a fraction of housing is owned by investors, and only a fraction of those investors are large investors like "banks." The figure for "investor-owned" properties includes individuals who own rental properties--many of whom are the "minor rich" created by the knowledge industry. (Not Bezos, but his project managers and engineering managers.) You could ban large corporations from buying investment properties, but it wouldn't address the basic problem resulting from the fact that you have 20% of the population engaged in knowledge work whose incomes are vastly outstripping those of the middle 60%. That's why normal people have been pushed out of places like the Bay Area.

Everyone will be middle class again. The present societal consternation is coming from the gap between the middle class and the upper middle class. The middle class Virginia town where I grew up isn’t unaffordable for regular people because of Jeff Bezos. It’s because the town is now full of Google employees and lawyers. And soaring education costs are the result of an arm’s race trying to get into the upper middle class, since that’s what it takes to maybe be able to buy a house where you grew up. Knowledge workers are the ones creating that gap, and places without them are a lot better for ordinary people. Consider somewhere like Iowa, which is very flat economically because there’s no knowledge work. The median income is a bit lower than say New Jersey. But in practice life is better. You can buy a house for 3-4x the median income, because there’s no Amazon engineers pushing you out of the way.

pixl97 3y ago
This is just a terrible take... Those property prices are not going down any significant amount. The capital system in the US has realized it can buy up as much property as possible and use it to extract as much wealth as possible via literal rent seeking. Places that are not close to anywhere have had rent prices explode. Oh, and if there is a massive 2008 like housing crash, the banks themselves will hold on to the properties keeping prices high. Meanwhile the Bezeo's themselves that have the AI will be buying up as many real assets as possible.
- rayiner 3y ago
  > Those property prices are not going down any significant amount. The capital system in the US has realized it can buy up as much property as possible and use it to extract as much wealth as possible via literal rent seeking. Places that are not close to anywhere have had rent prices explode. It's an unflattering take for many egos, but it's what's actually happening. It's not the "capital system" that's bidding up the price of housing. Only a fraction of housing is owned by investors, and only a fraction of those investors are large investors like "banks." The figure for "investor-owned" properties includes individuals who own rental properties--many of whom are the "minor rich" created by the knowledge industry. (Not Bezos, but his project managers and engineering managers.) You could ban large corporations from buying investment properties, but it wouldn't address the basic problem resulting from the fact that you have 20% of the population engaged in knowledge work whose incomes are vastly outstripping those of the middle 60%. That's why normal people have been pushed out of places like the Bay Area.