patrick.net

The story about the Boston condo seller strikes a raw nerve with me and I'm going to express my anger in rather blunt terms. Feel free to delete the whole damn thing if I'm overly offensive.

The sellers say "The ordeal has also been emotionally draining. The Reagans have had to explain to their devastated 5-year-old son, Sean, that they would not be moving to the Merrimac townhouse, where he was looking forward to finally having a room of his own."

Give me a fucking break. Her five year old is DEVASTATED because he doesn't get his own room.

She doesn't know what devastated really means. Try holding your son in his hospital bed after learning he has a life threatening disease and both of you cry because you feel helpless and you are both wondering if he's going to live. If that doesn't help her put "devastation" into perspective, how about witnessing two men, in Brazil, fight over a shipping crate because it will provide shelter for their family. Devastation is the "loser" being stabbed to death. The guy died trying to put SOME kind of roof over his kids' heads.

Sometimes I read these stories and my anger boils to the point I want to slap the shit out of whining, pathetic, ungrateful, greedy assholes. "I'm entitled" is the standard our society has set and it makes me sick to my stomach. If we don't realize disappointed does not mean devastated we are doomed.

Doug H,

I feel the same way. Over the past year, one of my cousins went through treatment for Hogkin's disease and a close friend had multiple operations for a very dangerous brain tumor. These are smart talented hardworking people in their 20s who were dealt horrible cards of life and still had the strength to get treatment and survive.

Devastation because an FB couldn't unload their overpriced sh!tbox for twice what they paid for it? Give me a break!

ajh Says:

> I’ve got to say it’s somewhat amusing watching
> passionate defenders of Proposition 13
> hyperventilating about rent control.

I am not going to complain about prop. 13 since it saves me a lot of money (especially as it was amended by prop. 58 that will allow me to save hundreds of thousands in taxes every year after my parents die) but it is still unfair and wrong (my Parents pay a about $3K a year in property taxes while the young couple next door pay over $50K a year in property taxes). I think that all Americans should pay the same tax rate and be treated equal in all things (including having the same state college admission requirements).

I don’t “complain” (hyperventilate) about rent control since I am not stupid enough to buy any property that is covered by rent control. I just point out the many problems and abuses when a bunch of “activists” and liberal do gooders try and control the free market (the most common abuse of rent control is when an aging hippie with no real job pays the “owner” $500 a month and rents a couple rooms in his flat for $1,000 a month each…

Devastation because an FB couldn’t unload their overpriced sh!tbox for twice what they paid for it? Give me a break!

I do not care if some kids are "devastated". Many children are starving and dying in Africa and there is nothing we can do.

My X-House is still being rented out for 4k per month(the costs are well over 8k/month) to a rapper and his “friends”. I’ve had neighbors call and complain to me that 10 people seem to be living there!

Now you cannot buy it back. :)

Imagine what they are doing to the energy of the house.

I am not going to complain about prop. 13 since it saves me a lot of money

I understand. I will do the same if I were you.

Prop 13 is a form of rent control and is destroying the free market.

LILLL,

Those rappers know how to live don't they!

(Actually they're clients of Joe Schmoe's) sent there to make your former neighbors life a living HELL! People this is what what I'm talking about! Maybe I can loan him my sub-woofer that is SO LOUD baby birds down the block are being born w/birth defects!

This "the dream" I'll soon be living in Las Vegas where the parties don't stop til "eight in the morning"! (Not too sure how Mrs. DinOR feels about having "hootchie girls" over) but I'm pretty sure just about everything else would be cool?

The people selling their condo - should drop the price, rent for a while and pick up their next property when that has dropped in price - but people can't see that.......

Robert,

Fixing prop 13 at a specific rate as a property right is pretty meaningless unless we go back to the gold standard and the government no longer has the license to print money willynilly.

The problem for me with Prop 13 is the degree of the inequity.

I usually avoid that argument because trying to resolve inequity will bring funny* consequences.

Oakland allows for around 3% per year raises in rent prices if I recall correctly, which is roughly in-line with inflation. I think that is fair and doesn’t create gross inequities.

You contradicted yourself. With rent control, you create "inequality" among renters. :)

The worst program is that new rental supply would be disincentivized. This would drive up future rental prices, making housing unaffordable.

* Nothing funny

LiLLL,

That's a hoot. I'm glad you're not in your former neighbors' shoes.

Property tax should be assessed at the rental equivalent rate. This is consistent with the consumption-based paradigm.

What about taxing by sq footage?

"sat vacant all summer, in spite of being a "vacation property"

austingal, two words:

Hootchie girls.

That's all specuvestors need to get these "vacation properties" filled!

$1,300 a month and no "chicks" frolicking in the pool? No wonder the damn thing sat empty all summer!

What about taxing by sq footage?

So a uber-luxury 2000 sqft 2/2.5 condo in the city with marble baths and wolf range should be charged the same rate as a rundown 2000 sqft 4/1 crap in the Central Valley?

Peter P,

I'll agree with that! Tying property tax to the market prices is just asking for trouble these days. (I'm biased here, I have a parent who would be significantly affected by this.)

DinOR,

I think you just found a new occupation for unemployed realtors.

At least the hot ones under 35. I wonder what the overweight, over-perfumed, over 40 realtors plan to do next...

I’ll agree with that! Tying property tax to the market prices is just asking for trouble these days. (I’m biased here, I have a parent who would be significantly affected by this.)

Yes. Rental prices are more suitable because they are not affected by bubbles.

Okay sq footage tied to IRS tax returns - yes, there's holes in that one too I'm sure

HitB:

It's an October Surprise; Rove's getting desperate, and selling nukes to the DPRK would have been too risky.

/puts tinfoil hat back on shelf.

Okay sq footage tied to IRS tax returns - yes, there’s holes in that one too I’m sure

Huh?

How about the total weight of granite, marble, stones, and stainless steel on the property? :)

I suppose we could centralize the tax collection system and then make distributions from state and federal coffers, but that's probably not the most efficient way of going about things. That would be a double whammy for current CA homeowners - they no longer get prop 13 rates and their "good school premium" goes down if all the school districts get equal funding.

astrid,

I just thought LILLL and austingal's observations were so damn funny! Up here in "Drizzleville" much of Bend's "vacation property" rental pool sits empty pretty much year round! The local paper and C/L are just littered w/beach and central OR properties that rent so infrequently they can hardly be of any meaningful impact for the owners.

Every other person my wife works w/(just called to check in, hootchie girls not cool) has a "rental" and they're practically begging you to consider theirs! Pets? O.K! Parties? O.K! Hootchie girls? (As long as your wife's cool w/it, we're cool w/it!)

Anyone here comfortable with changing the Sales tax such that you are expected to pay 8.25% of what the highest price anyone has or will have paid for equivalent items?

I am quite comfortable with this "mark-to-market" scheme. It reminds me of 1256 contracts. ;)

LILLL,

Well I'm bringing my sub-woofer ANYWAY! My buddy runs a "pit-bull farm" out in Moreno Valley and he said he'll bring by a "playmate" so he won't be lonely. The LL did say that pit bulls in the jacuzzi was cool right?

Doug H,
Thanks for the rant. Well put - we as stupid Americans really lose perspective sometimes. Both examples will be people who chase the market down as prices continue to crap out.

DinOR,

I know! Those unattractive overweight realtors can be maid service for these empty vacation properties and McFlippin properties.

The only problem is reference - let's say I was a vacation home owner choosing between a fresh from the border Latina and a former realtor, who would I trust more? Who do I expect to have a good work ethic and have the beds made just so? Who won't steal the $100 I left on the kitchen table?

In the aviation industry we used to refer to helicopters as “crash debris in search of its future accident site.”

LOL Are they really that dangerous? Are turbine copters safer? How about those with counter-rotating blades?

LiLLL,

Thanks for the pick-me-up story. What's funny is how the neighbors are mad at YOU for selling - misdirected anger. They should be pissed at the guy who bought it from you and turned around and rented it. Isn't he the guy you mentioned before as needing to move back to the midwest?

I know I cannot possibly fly a helicopter ever. I heard it is more like riding a unicycle. Did computer-assisted artificial stability help at all?

Robert Cote'

Nobody liked a "hot seat" turn-around more than me. Helicopters work reasonably well (until you shut them down). Then they ooze hydraulic fluid, short out the DC Bus and become "hangar queens" in short order.

I propose an anti-gravity-based lift system with no moving parts. This should improve reliability. :)

Peter P,

Most modern rotary wing aircrap (I mean aircraft) have "inner loop/outer loop" inputs to AFCS (Automatic Flight Control Surfaces). The outer loop is for minor corrections to X,Y and Z axis. The inner loop is for MAJOR corrections (as in evasive man. etc.). One of the most difficult things to do w/ a chopper is to maintain a steady hover. Applying the inner/outer concept eliminated a lot of "snakes in the cockpit".

M. Cote,

Yeah, but planes don't have the maneveurability of helicopters and until they do, we're stuck with helicopters.

I do have one question - why are news helicopters manned? Couldn't they just get a remote control chopper/blimp into the sky and control everything remotely?

If airplanes are sushi then helicopters are McDonald’s McFugu with all that implies.

LOL particle-board blowfish?

Or a hot air balloon, that's slightly less flammable and considerably cheaper.

RC: Prop 13 applies equally to everyone regardless of age or denomination.

For example, say that you're a 25 year old who bought a house in 1970, you have the same tax advantages as a 65 year old.

Oh wait.

Any time I'm watching a movie or TV show it always amazes me when our hero exits a still whirling chopper walking tall and defiant! Helicopters (particularly rotor blades) are much more sensitive to crosswinds than fixed wing A/C. I was an "LSE" (Landing Signalman "Enlisted") in the Navy and I've seen crosswinds dip rotor blades down to about 4' off the deck. On a guy about 5' 10" that would decapitate you at the arm pits.

Anytime I entered or left the "rotor arc" I kept as low to the ground as possible! Tunnel strikes are also common (although more for rotor blades being "out of sync") than crosswinds but that can ruin your whole day too.

*Not in the NATOPS (Naval Aviation Training and Operational Proceedures) Manual but if you are near or within the rotor arc and the damn thing goes into "ground resonance" (meaning Robert's garage sale is coming apart) run TO not FROM the aircraft! Centrifugal force has a nasty tendency to throw things out, not in! Just in case you ever find yourself in that position.

The one thing airships had going for them was size; as I recall, the Hindenburg even had a grand piano in one of its salons for a time. (Or is this a case of simply not putting as many people on board? Anyone know the available square footage on the H versus a 747?)

What I'm waiting for is good software control and miniaturized control surfaces. A couple years ago I was sitting in a survey class on MEMS devices, and the lecturer mentioned a drone using only MEMS devices to alter the airflow (as in, no conventional moving control surfaces) and pulling insane turns. (6-12' turning radius at 60-80mph was the example given.)

The Solution:

www.moller.com/skycar/