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Airbnb bookings for the solar eclipse reach astronomical levels
- Olesya000 3y ago[dead]
- apwell23 3y agoThere is so much excess money floating in the economy at the moment. Its insane. People emboldened by market and housing gains have to been spending ridiculous amounts of money like there is no tomorrow. Layoffs have been limited to tech.
- alephnerd 3y ago> Layoffs have been limited to tech And in all honesty, good. Tech Bros (myself included) needed to be cut to size. There was a lot of hubris by my peers in the 2010s.
- apwell23 3y ago. Tech Bros are infact rarely let go first because of their chummy relationship with managmemnt. I know a lot of my colleagues on Visas and families here were laidoff and ppl on visas live with this constant layoff anxiety.
- art-not 3y agoI love the lack of sympathy for tech workers across North America or perhaps even globally, when tech hub salaries still don’t allow tech workers to even have a middle class lifestyle. Very few people I know get paid enough to buy a starter home within 2 or 3 hours of where they work. I get paid more than my non tech peers yet still functionally have less spending power than a 25 year old from 30 years ago, despite being a fair bit older than 25
- apwell23 3y agoUS middle class cleaved into two groups post pandemic: homeowners at 2% interest rates and everyone else. Its the new middleclass have and have nots. You have it pretty good right now if you are a homeowner.
- infamouscow 3y agoThis is short sighted. People have been saying similar about the cars purchased in 2021 because they sell for well above asking. As 36-month leases start coming due the prices of those cars is normalizing back to where it should be. All of the boomers that refuse to downsize and plan to die in their homes are going to do the same with the housing market, but in a more spectacular fashion that causes the market to crash.
- dehrmann 3y agoOn the boomer front, it's hard to say because it'll play out over 20 years, and there's a genuine supply shortage. There's also a chance a lot of their kids take the house over and sell something less desirable.
- dehrmann 3y agoIn theory, those homes should start going down in value once people start selling because you can buy less home for a $2,000 per month mortgage payment. The market's weird right now because a lot of people with low interest rates can't afford to sell and buy something comparable.
- refulgentis 3y agoI agree: but given that, it's hard to imagine what would bend the market towards selling.
- selimthegrim 3y agoDepending on the region of the country, a lot of people with low interest rates might be handcuffed by skyrocketing insurance from finding buyers
- spencerflem 3y agoA word in support of this I've also seen a pretty stunning lack of empathy from tech workers who unquestionably have it better than almost any other working class (non-owner/shareholder) groups. I'm not saying that its great that tech workers are being laid off, but I get the schadenfreude other would have after a decade of being told that the solution to their problems is to "skill up" and learn to code. The real problem is of course the system that prioritizes wealth flowing from workers to owners and we should all be aligned in this.
- jprete 3y agoThe GP paints with a very broad brush. Probably the vast majority of tech workers know there's a problem but don't know how to solve it.
- spencerflem 3y agoOh I agree, but for a lot of people techies are part of the problem itself. Gentrification is real, and the companies themselves are not seen as helpful either. And when techies do donate, they're often to pie in the sky stuff like AI alignment , or the giant long now clock , that comes off as out of touch at best. I know for a fact that there's plenty of kind empathetic tech workers but I'm sure there are kind lawyers too and they don't have a lovely broad strokes reputation either
- alephnerd 3y ago^^^ this.
- robotburrito 3y agoMost of the "tech bros" and "SaaS sisters" I know came from working class means. They might make six figures, but still can't afford a home.
- Solvency 3y ago> People emboldened by market and housing gains have to been spending ridiculous amounts of money like there is no tomorrow what are you basing this claim on? the fact that airbnb bookings are up for a rare celestial event? here is where all of my ridiculous amounts of money is going towards: $6/gal gas in california, ever-increasing property taxes, ever-increasing insurance premiums, $399 "surgery" charges at an ENT simply because they looked up my nose for half a second, insanely expensive annual car registration charges, etc.
- dfxm12 3y agoSeriously. For all we know, these are relatively local people who had to settle for this cheap "vacation" instead of a more expensive/longer trip further away... Relatively few people own stocks & home ownership has tapered off & isn't back to its pre pandemic highs... Maybe these things show the people that were doing well are still doing well, but we knew that already.
- nickpp 3y ago> Relatively few people own stocks 61% of Americans, says Gallup [1]. Not sure if this includes those indirectly owning stocks, through pension funds. [1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-owns-stock.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-own...
- haunter 3y agoWish this "so much excess money" was evenly distributed
- ericmcer 3y agoControlling inflation will hopefully be the main discussion around the next election, I am tired of watching the political theater around small side-issues and then paying $8 for milk and $6 for peanut butter. Why is our labor becoming worth less in real goods? Why is life expectancy decreasing? Can politicians address issues that affect every single person every day? I make good money in tech but it still feels like more than 4k/mo (in California) is what you need just to cover rent and basics (car, internet, phone, groceries, etc.). I have no idea how people working minimum wage jobs are surviving.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y agoSo you want deflation?
- nradov 3y agoSome deflation, at least in basic commodities and energy, would probably be a long-term net positive for the US economy.
- throwitaway222 3y agoOf course. Everyone does.
- NovemberWhiskey 3y agoThe Japanese, who actually had it, didn't seem to think it was so great.
- throwitaway222 3y agonot true: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/15/japan-economy-inflation-deflation/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/15/japan-economy-inflation...
- NovemberWhiskey 3y ago
- SoftTalker 3y agoOr, in inflationary times, people are spending their money today because it will be worth less tomorrow.
- switch007 3y agoYup. Larger properties round here are going for £50-150k above last sale price (last sales being 4-6 years). It's madness.
- voisin 3y agoIn areas of Canada (Toronto and Vancouver vicinities), housing prices were increasing at $80k per MONTH. To only have your house increase by 50-150k over 4-6 years would be better than even the podunk unincorporated villages hours from any economic centre.
- switch007 3y agoAppreciate the context. But the figures I quoted are huge sums for the average working person round here (we're closer to a "podunk village" than e.g. Toronto + Vancouver metro areas), as I'm sure $80k/month is to Canadians. They represent real problems for most people who live here. They can't be dismissed because a large metro area in Canada has seen even higher inflated prices
- acchow 3y agoPeople refinanced their mortgages at 2.5% in 2022. Suddenly their monthly payments fell significantly and they have more money to spend every month
- deodar 3y agohttps://archive.is/8HBdU https://archive.is/8HBdU
- DataDaemon 3y agoThis means the economy is doing fantastic if they still $ for useless stuff.
- xyzelement 3y agoAs of this moment 100% of comments have to do with “I guess other people have a lot of money”. Very weird thing to be concerned about. Personally I didn’t care about the eclipse until recently. Then I realized then when the next one happens in North America, my son will be in his 20s and I will be in my 60s. I got the idea that it will be cool to (G-d willing) see that one together and remember how we saw this one together 20 years earlier. It happened to be that we had family we can stay with in the path of totality but even if it cost me an extra few hundred to do this, I would find it a good use of funds.
- spencerflem 3y agototally agreed- this is a super cool and rare thing. enjoy the eclipse today, and I hope the clouds are kind to you!
- jylam 3y ago> As of this moment 100% of comments have to do with “I guess other people have a lot of money”. Very weird thing to be concerned about. I like a total eclipse as much as the other guy but come on, money IS a struggle for many people, don't act like you don't know.
- xyzelement 3y agoOther people always spend time and money in a way that is different how I spend my time and money. Who cares?
- larvaetron 3y ago> As of this moment 100% of comments have to do with “I guess other people have a lot of money”. Very weird thing to be concerned about. This has to be the most out of touch statement I've seen on HN in a long time.
- xyzelement 3y agoI try. But seriously, it's a very weird reaction. For example, a lot of content on here is about people nerding out on something deep - how would you feel if everyone started responding "I guess people have a lot of free time..." Yes it's implied that people will spend time and money differently than how you would. So what?
- refulgentis 3y agoI don't understand the efforts I'm seeing people in Boston go to. We'll see it 94% obscured, meanwhile people are taking days off work and spending $$ to get to 99.9%. Then again I've never been a vacation person.
- martinky24 3y agoThe experience at 95% coverage is closer to 50% coverage than it is to 100% coverage. 100% coverage is a completely different experience.
- paxys 3y agoHere's an explanation for it – https://xkcd.com/2914/ https://xkcd.com/2914/. If you are not in the path of totality you aren't really seeing "the eclipse". The difference between 20% or 50% or even 90% covered is very minor.
- refulgentis 3y agoTy (and also to your peer commenter)
- Cyphase 3y ago(hover text) "A partial eclipse is like a cool sunset. A total eclipse is like someone broke the sky."
- Cyphase 3y agoAre you sure people did that to get to 99.9%? I hope anyone who was willing to get to 99.9% from Boston would go the extra mile (or ~10 miles, in fact). FWIW, I flew into Boston from California and drove north to the center line of the path of totality.
- dehrmann 3y agoOnly halfway related because it's travel, but I wonder what the eclipse will do for operations at DFW.
- mvkel 3y agoReally disappointing takes in here. Considering it's a literal once-in-a-lifetime experience for many people, and the scientific nature of said experience, I assumed people would be a little more open-minded. Some things in life are worth paying for. Seeing an eclipse in totality is one of (many) of them