4 ms·
Why not both? Wages are too low and rents are too high. The common factor: the capital class screwing over the working class.
by antonvs 4mo ago
Why not both? Wages are too low and rents are too high.
The common factor: the capital class screwing over the working class.
- ajmurmann 4mo agoLook at real, median household income. It's been going up and up. The things that have gone up in relative cost are housing (because we heavily regulate building it) and premium services like healthcare and education because of Baumol.
- mrweasel 4mo agoProbably also doesn't help that to many people want/need to live in the same few areas. If you could take your office job (which in most cases would work perfectly fine) and move to a less popular area, 30% might be rather high.
- ghaff 4mo agoThat's the thing or at least one thing. These discussions aren't about most small towns and cities in the Midwest. They're about prime areas on the coasts for the most part. Heck where I live about an hour west of Boston/Cambridge is a lot cheaper than the metro itself for the most part.
- TimorousBestie 4mo agoHousing prices in the Midwest have also inflated greatly.
- NDlurker 4mo agoI'm paying 28% of my net income for rent and utilities on a one bedroom apartment. I could find a cheaper place too and it would be just as nice, just not in as desirable part of town. Not sure I'll ever be able to afford a house though.
- ajmurmann 4mo agoWell, it doesn't help but that's where the money is and as a society we should want people to move where they are most productive. Geoffrey West shows in Scale that social outcomes like GDP, patents, etc. but also crime grow with a factor of 1.15 while infrastructure needs like pipes, wires, heating cost, gas stations, etc only shake with a factor of 0.85. So it should be highly desirable to have larger, denser cities. Unfortunately, it seems that once the boomers had stepped into adult hood and bought there first homes, we decided that cities are complete now and existing neighborhoods shall not change anymore.
- sethjgore 4mo agoDoes median represent the normal anymore?
- JohnFen 4mo agoWhen it comes to income and wealth, I don't think so. There aren't enough people in the middle ground between rich and poor for that to be a meaningful stat for most things.
- bigfishrunning 4mo agoIf there are very few people in the middle ground, and more people are poor, then wouldn't the median be a poor person and therefore somewhat representative? I'm not sure I'm following your logic here...
- ajmurmann 4mo agoIf you look at income distribution over time you'll see that the middle indeed shrunk. However, they moved to high income.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- xedrac 4mo agoThe median alone doesn't paint the whole picture. We need to compare the spread as well. The median doesn't care if you make just under the median, or $1 a month.
- bigfishrunning 4mo agoCertainly better then the mean....
- lbriner 4mo agoIt depends on the distribution. The reason it is often used is when there are extremes in the distribution like a handful of people paying $1B per year on a property pulls the mean upwards. Also depends whether you can about the middle more than the 10-20% of the people most struggling who can earn much less than the mean or median
- api 4mo agoLink for the curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect Baumol plus zoning and NIMBY driven real estate hyperinflation basically explain the modern economic malaise among especially the young. I’ve also heard this called “in-deflation.” Inflation in everything you need, deflation in everything you make.
- ajmurmann 4mo agoThank you for linking what I was too lazy to link. To add, politics usually responds to Baumol by subsidizing demand and/or more regulation. Needles to say both make it worse. Article: https://www.niskanencenter.org/cost-disease-socialism-how-subsidizing-costs-while-restricting-supply-drives-americas-fiscal-imbalance/ https://www.niskanencenter.org/cost-disease-socialism-how-su...
- littlexsparkee 4mo agoso many projects got nerfed by NIMBYs during good economic times and now are infeasible. there's more political will for change now but i'm still skeptical things will change much given the cost of construction in major metros.
- ajmurmann 4mo agoDeporting or deterring much of the construction workforce certainly doesn't help either
- hombre_fatal 4mo agoPeople who are able to restrict housing development (e.g. existing home owners) have too much political power on a topic that shouldn’t be up for a vote.
- supertrope 4mo agoImagine if current hospitals could object to opening new hospitals. Or grocery stores could object to competitors getting permits.
- akramachamarei 4mo ago> Imagine if current hospitals could object to opening new hospitals LMAO They can! It sucks! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_of_need https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_of_need
- HDThoreaun 4mo agoThis literally is how it works. You need a certificate of need to open a hospital and existing hospitals lobby heavily against granting new ones
- dfxm12 4mo agoYes, of course, but consider the source. Who do you think this article, about literal rent seeking behavior is representing? Certainly not the working class...
- shlant 4mo ago> The common factor: the capital class screwing over the working class. This thought terminating cliche is getting real old. What are your solutions? and what evidence do you have that those solutions will solve the problems? Shaking your fists at "the elites" and regurgitating populist slop is not going to
- antonvs 4mo agoIt's the opposite of a thought-terminating cliche. It refers to an entire world and body of work, which include solutions. You could start by reading Marx, who laid a lot of the groundwork. > Shaking your fists at "the elites" and regurgitating populist slop is not going to I like the way you trailed off halfway through your knee-jerk reaction, underscoring just how much your response is an automated result of indoctrination.
- shlant 4mo ago> It's the opposite of a thought-terminating cliche > You could start by reading Marx, who laid a lot of the groundwork. Are you aware that you just responded with another? You did the "read theory" meme lol > I like the way you trailed off halfway through your knee-jerk reaction, underscoring just how much your response is an automated result of indoctrination so you don't have solutions or evidence is what I'm gathering? just another lefty populist spouting tired platitudes?
- supertrope 4mo agoKapital describes the problem well. His proposed solutions were awful.