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Those easy times of the 50s were created from the pains of the 30s and 40s. 25% were unemployed in the early 30s. If you wanted to go back you would have to k

by ipaddr 1y ago

Those easy times of the 50s were created from the pains of the 30s and 40s. 25% were unemployed in the early 30s. If you wanted to go back you would have to kick women and minories out of the workforce so a man could earn double and have a percentage of young able bodied men killed or broken a generation before (through a war) before to get that demand where a highschool dropout who becomes a mailman can buy a house for a few thousand dollars. Existing built home prices are going to go up in value if your society growing expanding. If you want declining home prices you need to reduce people/demand. The problem today is everyone wants to live in the biggest cities mostly because of jobs and everyone wants to setup a business because greater selection of employees. If the work from home movement succeeds this can break one of the pillars of why people need to be in big cities and cheaper houses can be built elsewhere.

insane_dreamer 1y ago
> Those easy times of the 50s were created from the pains of the 30s and 40s. Actually it was mostly created by the huge post-WW2 boom due to the fact that the US was quite literally the only country left standing, the only country not devastated by war, and the holder of much of the world's wealth in the form of gold reserves (collecting much of the gold that Europe had in store--you thought we did it for free?)
- hollerith 1y ago
  It's not clear how gold owned by the US's central bank (the Federal Reserve) translates into prosperity for the average US citizen.
  - insane_dreamer 1y ago
    Not these days, but back then it did because the US dollar was backed by gold, so more gold meant the Fed could increase the money supply without devaluing the currency (==inflation).
api 1y ago
Existing built home prices will go up if construction doesn’t keep up with demand, which has been the case for some time. Why is housing exempt from normal supply and demand? We do not have to ruin the world or kick women out of the work force. What we need is the same kind of price deflation that happened for appliances and manufactured goods to happen with housing. Of course the finite land supply probably makes price reductions that extreme unachievable but we could certainly make prices a lot more reasonable by density and taking the brakes off building. It would also create a bunch of construction jobs.
- ndsipa_pomu 1y ago
  > Why is housing exempt from normal supply and demand? Most people feel the need to live in a house, so the demand is not going to diminish when the supply is low. Also, the land that housing requires is a fixed size resource, so is often seen as a good investment which means that over-supply of housing usually results in it being purchased by the wealthy and then used to generate rent income from the less wealthy.

by ipaddr 1y ago

insane_dreamer 1y ago

> Those easy times of the 50s were created from the pains of the 30s and 40s. Actually it was mostly created by the huge post-WW2 boom due to the fact that the US was quite literally the only country left standing, the only country not devastated by war, and the holder of much of the world's wealth in the form of gold reserves (collecting much of the gold that Europe had in store--you thought we did it for free?)

hollerith 1y ago
It's not clear how gold owned by the US's central bank (the Federal Reserve) translates into prosperity for the average US citizen.
- insane_dreamer 1y ago
  Not these days, but back then it did because the US dollar was backed by gold, so more gold meant the Fed could increase the money supply without devaluing the currency (==inflation).

api 1y ago

Existing built home prices will go up if construction doesn’t keep up with demand, which has been the case for some time. Why is housing exempt from normal supply and demand? We do not have to ruin the world or kick women out of the work force. What we need is the same kind of price deflation that happened for appliances and manufactured goods to happen with housing. Of course the finite land supply probably makes price reductions that extreme unachievable but we could certainly make prices a lot more reasonable by density and taking the brakes off building. It would also create a bunch of construction jobs.

ndsipa_pomu 1y ago
> Why is housing exempt from normal supply and demand? Most people feel the need to live in a house, so the demand is not going to diminish when the supply is low. Also, the land that housing requires is a fixed size resource, so is often seen as a good investment which means that over-supply of housing usually results in it being purchased by the wealthy and then used to generate rent income from the less wealthy.