patrick.net

Instead of U.S. currency, though, the transactions are recorded in hours and minutes.

Hours and minutes or what? Swedish massage?

... necessity of sharing the same space with so many Alpha-types who put all else second to coming here from all over the USA and all over the world to “make it”.

Why do you suppose that so many local kids from working class, when they come of age, move out of the area? And why so many long-time locals, when they reach retirement age, also do so?

I for one wish that "silicon valley" never happened. My family moved to northern California in the 1860's, and lived in Santa Clara Co. since around 1900. These "alpha types" as you call them really are the root of the problem. People come to SV from all over not to settle there but instead just to "make their bag of gold" after which they leave. Certainly a bunch of H1-B visas doesn't help matters much. The outcome is that there is no sense of community nor the political will to fund needed infrastructure (e.g. transit). Those "alpha types" couldn't care less about SV as a place to put down roots.

And yes I retired out of the area to Boise after selling off my little stucco box in May 2006.

DennisN and Sybrib,

I'm not exactly in disagreement with you, but I think there is another aspects of the situation which is overlooked: The rampant "pyramid-scheming" around the valley by those who have been here longer, exploiting those who arrived more recently.

When times are good, the schemers are cheerleaders because they can sit around and watch their property values and rents go up. When times go bad, as they now have, even some of the same people (and I do not mean any of you two) are whining about immigrants taking their jobs, blah, blah, blah.

There is also a real division among the old-timers between property owners and the plain blue-collar folks. The latter have children that move away, the former have children that become real-estate agents and tax the newcomers. If they are really blue-blood, they dabble in *commercial* real-estate and play lots of golf.

That is more or less the picture, and I think it has been ongoing for a LONG time, maybe since 1940-1945. Right now it looks like the pyramid has stopped growing.

aspects=aspect

justme, I agree with you!

That is more or less the picture, and I think it has been ongoing for a LONG time, maybe since 1940-1945.

It was the New Deal's fault.

Hardly. More like the generic tendency of pyramid-scheming in the US, coupled with WW2, Cold War buildup, and so on.

New thread:

What now?

justme, I agree with what you said. Prop.13 is a fine example of this.

No kidding, Prop. 13 preserves the wealth of the haves (and hangers-on of convenience) at the expense of everyone else.

I say abolish Prop 13. It is a form of rent control (land rent/tax) and any form of rent control is evil.

I agree, I hate the fact that I will need to work for the rest of my enjoyable part of life if I ever wanted to own a home in the area that I grew up in. SF Bay Area.

I won't be able to take vacation days off work, I won't be able to take time off for family, I won't be able to do anything but go to work, they just want us to keep on working so they can keep on taxing, but what incentive is there to work, except to make us pay loads of money for a home.

Q: Does anyone know if banks --being as they are the effective owners of vast amounts of real estate-- are delaying settlements and recordations on theory that finalizing sales will accelerate the deflation of their assets?