patrick.net

I would be gone from SF and many other places tomorrow, and would never pay these prices. Never! The only reason the gougers get away with it is that people are gullible and foolish enough to stay and pay. Get out while you can and live a better life. It just isn't that great there.

Robert Sproul says

Now that is a recipe for a fucked up life.

In the mid 70s I rented a spacious studio in the Mission for 165 bucks a month. Adjusted for inflation that is $716. Instead the rent is well over $2000 from what I understand.

I wouldn't want to live in a city where people have to hustle that hard to keep a roof over their head.

I wouldn't either. But those who continue to do so should either quit complaining or just leave.

Strategist says

But those who continue to do so should either quit complaining or just leave.

And after they are gone I guess you can cut your own hair, check your own groceries, teach your own kids.
Or I guess the robots are coming to service the privileged remnant.

Robert Sproul says

Strategist says

But those who continue to do so should either quit complaining or just leave.

And after they are gone I guess you can cut your own hair, check your own groceries, teach your own kids.

Or I guess the robots are coming to service the privileged remnant.

OK, give us a solution.

Strategist says

OK, give us a solution.

Meh. Just wait for the Cyborgs.
You are gonna love it.

Robert Sproul says

Strategist says

OK, give us a solution.

Meh. Just wait for the Cyborgs.

You are gonna love it.

So you have no solution. Here is my solution:
Free markets. If there are few barbers in town they will be able to charge $50.00 for a hair cut without shampoo. The end result....Those who don't want to pay will cut their own hair, those who want to pay, will pay. And the barbers will be able to afford rent. Is that bad? That is how the free market works. Why interfere with it.

Robert Sproul says

In the mid 70s I rented a spacious studio in the Mission for 165 bucks a month. Adjusted for inflation that is $716. Instead the rent is well over $2000 from what I understand.

I wouldn't want to live in a city where people have to hustle that hard to keep a roof over their head.

This is another ill of the CRA and Countrywides spirit of extending credit to those who should rent. Those should rent who cant/wont save for a downpayment. Then while the US outsourced jobs ala NAFTA, , since manufacturing was going down the dems created this malinvestment bubble hoping that people would agree that real estate that goes up because everyone gets a loan - and that after a double, sometime trebling of housing prices that this is the ideal time to jump into the market. Dems believing dems, and its sad for our future children unless we rein this malinvestment in.

Strategist says

OK, give us a solution.

Fill The Bay!

Have Yellen run off $4T on the inkjets and let us build a new and improved SF with the mmt capital.

Kuroda at the BOJ is buying ~$100B/month of JGBs. We've got 3X the people, we should be printing $300B/month.

$3.6T/yr at $200,000 per job would give us, oh, ~20 million jobs!

That's what Sanders' campaign slogan should be, "Let's Win The War on Suck!"

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/10/7521819/sanders-mmt-kelton

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=1aer

we should have 2-3 million more construction workers swinging hammers RIGHT NOW.

The reason we don't is that we're all literally too 'conservative'.

Strategist says

That is how the free market works. Why interfere with it.

aha haah haha haha ahahahah.

Real Estate is where free market fundamentalism runs into the buzzsaw of very unpleasant physical realities.

If growth/development is capped, the market will allocate on value. Fewer service providers across the board, since a haircutter can only cut one head of hair at a time while a techie's daily labor is pushed out to millions if not billions of consumers.

The only workable solution is massive capital investment to eliminate the current physical limitations of time and place that real estate reality imposes on every local economy.

See, if Star Trek transporters were available, people could pop up to the orbital barbershop or whatever and then pop back.

With 21st century technology we'll have to settle for much better transportation links to the East Bay and Peninsula, more infill development in SF County if politically possible -- and maybe a couple more islands in the bay aren't that bad an idea, either.

The Free Market is limited by contigencies and a severe lack of coordination. It can't solve everything, or anything really.

That's why government exists -- Collective Action.