Cont: The Biden Presidency (3)

[Delvo]

The rise in housing prices, which took a break for the last couple of years (without really reversing), has resumed course, giving us an all-time high of both prices and interest rates at the same time.

Biden doesn't appear to have a plan to deal with it, but I don't know of any other politician who ever really has either. The nature of the problem doesn't easily lend itself to a Federal solution. The problem is a shortage of the supply of places to put people. Construction companies would be happy to build more, including of the kinds that could contain the most people the most efficiently, but construction projects need to be approved by the city/county governments, and current residents keep showing up at the meetings to get those governments to block any such construction plans. And it would be hard for the Federal government to make city & county governments quit responding to those concerns. Part of that is also related to locked-in zoning restrictions which need to change, but it would also be hard for the Federal government to make city & county governments reboot their zoning.

Or we could look at the demand side of that coin, where the problem is that the population keeps growing. But, with our internal reproduction rate as low as it is, the population growth is driven by immigration, and the left won't touch that on (foolish, naïve) ideological grounds, and the right doesn't ever touch it when they get a chance either, maybe because they prefer to keep it around to dangle in front of voters indefinitely.

But it is a thing that keeps making life harder & harder in this country year after year, so it would be good for somebody in Federal government to start acknowledging its existence and talking about ideas for what to do about it (like Federal funding incentives for cities/counties that adopt better design/planning practices). Whoever did so would improve his/her re-election odds substantially, even if the first attempts at doing something about it don't end up working.

 

[acbytesla]

The rise in housing prices, which took a break for the last couple of years (without really reversing), has resumed course, giving us an all-time high of both prices and interest rates at the same time.

Biden doesn't appear to have a plan to deal with it, but I don't know of any other politician who ever really has either. The nature of the problem doesn't easily lend itself to a Federal solution. The problem is a shortage of the supply of places to put people. Construction companies would be happy to build more, including of the kinds that could contain the most people the most efficiently, but construction projects need to be approved by the city/county governments, and current residents keep showing up at the meetings to get those governments to block any such construction plans. And it would be hard for the Federal government to make city & county governments quit responding to those concerns. Part of that is also related to locked-in zoning restrictions which need to change, but it would also be hard for the Federal government to make city & county governments reboot their zoning.

Or we could look at the demand side of that coin, where the problem is that the population keeps growing. But, with our internal reproduction rate as low as it is, the population growth is driven by immigration, and the left won't touch that on (foolish, naïve) ideological grounds, and the right doesn't ever touch it when they get a chance either, maybe because they prefer to keep it around to dangle in front of voters indefinitely.

But it is a thing that keeps making life harder & harder in this country year after year, so it would be good for somebody in Federal government to start acknowledging its existence and talking about ideas for what to do about it (like Federal funding incentives for cities/counties that adopt better design/planning practices). Whoever did so would improve his/her re-election odds substantially, even if the first attempts at doing something about it don't end up working.

Nonsense. Most of this is a land use problem and our car culture.

I can think of a few solutions. Most important, change zoning laws so that they increase housing density. The Federal government could find ways to do this. They could provide financial incentives to communities that do this. Suburbs are going broke. You can thank suburban sprawl and selfishness. People don't need to live in 3000 square foot McMansions on half acre lots. The average suburb is awful. The US should look closer at how it works in Europe. The Dutch seem to do it better than anyone.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

The rise in housing prices, which took a break for the last couple of years (without really reversing), has resumed course, giving us an all-time high of both prices and interest rates at the same time.

Biden doesn't appear to have a plan to deal with it, but I don't know of any other politician who ever really has either. The nature of the problem doesn't easily lend itself to a Federal solution. The problem is a shortage of the supply of places to put people. Construction companies would be happy to build more, including of the kinds that could contain the most people the most efficiently, but construction projects need to be approved by the city/county governments, and current residents keep showing up at the meetings to get those governments to block any such construction plans. And it would be hard for the Federal government to make city & county governments quit responding to those concerns. Part of that is also related to locked-in zoning restrictions which need to change, but it would also be hard for the Federal government to make city & county governments reboot their zoning.

Or we could look at the demand side of that coin, where the problem is that the population keeps growing. But, with our internal reproduction rate as low as it is, the population growth is driven by immigration, and the left won't touch that on (foolish, naïve) ideological grounds, and the right doesn't ever touch it when they get a chance either, maybe because they prefer to keep it around to dangle in front of voters indefinitely.

But it is a thing that keeps making life harder & harder in this country year after year, so it would be good for somebody in Federal government to start acknowledging its existence and talking about ideas for what to do about it (like Federal funding incentives for cities/counties that adopt better design/planning practices). Whoever did so would improve his/her re-election odds substantially, even if the first attempts at doing something about it don't end up working.

If you look over at my "Minnesota Miracle" thread, Minneapolis has actually distinguished itself by bucking the trend of our of control housing cost spikes. This is an actual example where a handful of basic, technocratic policy fixes can really do a whole lot of impact, in this case they gutted zoning restrictions that gave preferential treatment to low density single family homes and released a torrent of new construction, correcting the supply shortage. Minneapolis is currently beating the feds inflation rate target of 2%, in large part because housing costs are stable.

I guess Biden could lead on this issue more, but ultimately this is more a local control issue. Your enemy isn't the much hated big Democratic machine this time, but more likely your local retiree that attends every zoning board meeting and screams about how knocking down a vacant warehouse to build high rise apartments will ruin the character of the neighborhood or how anything over 3 stories tall is an affront to God or how endless, expensive environmental impact studies must be done before any transit can be built. The NIMBY notion that neighborhoods must remain perpetually frozen in time and cities must consist of sprawling, car-centric low density housing is an absolute cancer to urban economies.

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=366148

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Your negative "Boomers" fixation is showing again. This guy lived in Provo, one of the most conservative places in Utah, was a gun nut, and a self-declared "MAGA Trumper" and you title your comment "Boomers gone wild?" What does his being a "boomer" have to do with anything other than to promote your own "Boomers Be Bad" obsession?

I make no apologies for pointing out that the fascist tip of the spear seems disproportionately made up of Boomers, retirees and otherwise well-off people who have no material reason to be so unhappy. It's interesting to see that these most fervent, insane MAGA supporters are often far from in economic distress, despite what some media coverage seems to assume about Trump supporters.

 

[kookbreaker]

Now I know why the FBI came a calling at this guys home. He had a long history of death threats on line.
The POTUS probably gets dozens of death threats a day; no way for the FBI and Secret Service to check them all out. They look for certain red flags to indicate there is more then just hot air or some 16 year old trying to be as shocking as possible involved; and this guy was waving the red flags.

The right-wing victim-o-sphere has put on their hair shirts and is now claiming the guy was “frail” and a “teddy bear” and that this was a targeted assassination.
They manage to ignore his threats, especially the ones against the FBI

These are the same folks who claim Breonna Taylor deserved it. Wonder how they feel about the killing of Michael Reinoehl.

I guess they are sorry their cat torturing hero didn’t take any FBI agents with him.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Now I know why the FBI came a calling at this guys home. He had a long history of death threats on line.
The POTUS probably gets dozens of death threats a day; no way for the FBI and Secret Service to check them all out. They look for certain red flags to indicate there is more then just hot air or some 16 year old trying to be as shocking as possible involved; and this guy was waving the red flags.

You're right that hot rhetoric and even explicit threats are quite common online, but this guy's posts had a level of specificity about his intended targets, their whereabouts, and his methods of attack that almost certainly have a much higher rate of getting law enforcement attention.

 

[lobosrul5]

The right-wing victim-o-sphere has put on their hair shirts and is now claiming the guy was “frail” and a “teddy bear” and that this was a targeted assassination.
They manage to ignore his threats, especially the ones against the FBI

These are the same folks who claim Breonna Taylor deserved it. Wonder how they feel about the killing of Michael Reinoehl.

I guess they are sorry their cat torturing hero didn’t take any FBI agents with him.

Takes very little strength to pull a trigger.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

I guess they are sorry their cat torturing hero didn’t take any FBI agents with him.

That's the really grating part of it, he was posting all this insane crap and seemed to actually have some serious hardware and presumably some actual experience (I don't many posers that bother with handloading) and he got 360 no-scoped by the first law enforcement agent he ran into. All that smack talk and he totally botched his big moment, no dead cops or big Ruby Ridge style showdown.

He Boomer-posted too close to the sun. He's ****-posting with Jesus now, RIP

 

[JayUtah]

Pres. Biden's arrival coincided with evening rush hour, and he stayed in a downtown hotel (the Monaco) as opposed to the Grand America that's a few blocks away and more set up for VIP guests. Traffic was snarled for a good couple of hours longer than usual. There were plenty of complaints, insults, and maybe a few veiled threats posted around social media as a result. I had a few choice words this morning (heard only by my dog) about the completely unnecessary Utah ANG fighter jets circling over the neighborhood at 6:00 a.m. As I write this, Biden is speaking at the V.A. hospital just a short walk from my house, which means I won't be going home for lunch. [Grumbling intensifies]

That's not the level of curmudgeonry we're talking about here. I'm sure this Craig Robertson guy was well-loved by his Mormon congregation, and I'm sure the stories of his kind-hearted woodworking projects to benefit his elderly friends and neighbors are true. Because of that, I'm sure the neighbors being interviewed were all willing to overlook his "weirdness" and his outspoken politics. However, the threats he posted were graphic, detailed, and actually pretty chilling. Robertson can have been both those people, but if you read the actual threats, you can see how the FBI would have deemed them credible, and why the media's both-sidesing of this is fairly irrelevant to that analysis.

 

[Stacyhs]

Originally Posted by Stacyhs View Post
Your negative "Boomers" fixation is showing again. This guy lived in Provo, one of the most conservative places in Utah, was a gun nut, and a self-declared "MAGA Trumper" and you title your comment "Boomers gone wild?" What does his being a "boomer" have to do with anything other than to promote your own "Boomers Be Bad" obsession?

I make no apologies for pointing out that the fascist tip of the spear seems disproportionately made up of Boomers, retirees and otherwise well-off people who have no material reason to be so unhappy. It's interesting to see that these most fervent, insane MAGA supporters are often far from in economic distress, despite what some media coverage seems to assume about Trump supporters.

NONE of that has a thing to do with this nutcase in Utah so your excuse is just that...an excuse to air your grievance against your chosen group. And you're also wrong; the majority of Boomers are NOT even Republicans. According to Statista 2022, only 35% of Boomers are Republicans, 32% are Democrats, and 33% are Independents.


"He Boomer-posted too close to the sun."

Give it a rest, will ya?

 

[Beelzebuddy]

NONE of that has a thing to do with this nutcase in Utah so your excuse is just that...an excuse to air your grievance against your chosen group. And you're also wrong; the majority of Boomers are NOT even Republicans. According to Statista 2022, only 35% of Boomers are Republicans, 32% are Democrats, and 33% are Independents.


"He Boomer-posted too close to the sun."

Give it a rest, will ya?

Unless the Independent Party is putting forth their own candidate for President, that puts it at 52% Republican. (assuming the D:R ratio holds)

 

[TurkeysGhost]

NONE of that has a thing to do with this nutcase in Utah so your excuse is just that...an excuse to air your grievance against your chosen group. And you're also wrong; the majority of Boomers are NOT even Republicans. According to Statista 2022, only 35% of Boomers are Republicans, 32% are Democrats, and 33% are Independents.


"He Boomer-posted too close to the sun."

Give it a rest, will ya?

Yeah, but MAGA nutcases are a small minority of the country, so looking at general breakdowns like this aren't that useful.

This isn't a novel observation. Take this analysis of Jan6 participants, who disproportionately skewed old:

Typically, right-wing extremists are young — normally under the age of 34. On Jan. 6, rioters were mostly in their 40s and 50s.

“This is uncomfortable for a variety of reasons. It means a lot of our usual counter-violent extremist solutions just don't apply,” Pape says. “Usually, we think we'll get them a job. Well, we've already got over half business owners, CEOs and folks from white-collar occupations — that's not going to work.”

Not 20 something skin heads as you might expect, but over the hill petit bourgeoisie, white collar professionals, or retirees. Well established, stable people who decided to become right wing psychos for reasons unclear. Like it or not, but MAGA seems to have taken hold of Boomers especially, and it's not surprising our would be assassins is a pee-paw in his 70's posting on Facebook. You can bury your head in the sand if you want to, but your whining about this anodyne observation grows a bit tiresome.

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/01/03/jan-6-rioters-white-older

 

[Trebuchet]

NONE of that has a thing to do with this nutcase in Utah so your excuse is just that...an excuse to air your grievance against your chosen group. And you're also wrong; the majority of Boomers are NOT even Republicans. According to Statista 2022, only 35% of Boomers are Republicans, 32% are Democrats, and 33% are Independents.


"He Boomer-posted too close to the sun."

Give it a rest, will ya?

As a liberal boomer, I approve this post!
A majority of the MAGoids I see appear to be white, middle aged, lower middle class, and suburban or rural.

ETA: It was, of course, us Boomers who protesting against Vietnam and for civil rights back in the 1960's!

 

[lobosrul5]

As a liberal boomer, I approve this post!
A majority of the MAGoids I see appear to be white, middle aged, lower middle class, and suburban or rural.

I looked up voting stats from previous elections, and while Boomers do slightly break Republican, being white, and being male is quite a bit more of an indicator.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/30/behind-bidens-2020-victory/

Silent Generation breaks HARD towards the GoP. But they won't be as much of a voting block in 2024 as they were in 2016 or 2020. They're dying pretty quickly these days.

ETA: bizzaro stat... more white women voted for Trump in 2020 than in 2016?!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!?

 

[dudalb]

I wonder what the Boomers did to some people to earn that degree of hatred?

 

[lobosrul5]

I wonder what the Boomers did to some people to earn that degree of hatred?

Mainly only applicable to Americans:

They're the high water mark generation. They got lots of benefits from the post WW2 economic boom and then essentially pulled the rug up from behind them.

And they cannot see that their way of life is essentially killing the planet. Remember I'm basing my opinions on the boomers I know. Almost entirely family/friends of family. They all drive big trucks, invest in Exon, and instead of downsizing their homes... they are upsizing.

And then they seemingly have an attitude the world is just and perfect. They ended rascism in the 60's and how dare anyone else say otherwise.

That's the way I see it as a "xennial". I also put a lot of blame on the people younger than me because they dont get out and vote.

Really sorry if I've offended you Stacyhs, I know you aren't like that, and I don't put any blame of the worlds problems on you. But thats how I see the boomer generation generalized.

 

[dudalb]

I am really temtped to start a rant against the Gen Xers just to show you can do that crap with ANY generation.
I get some satisfaction from, in a few years the 'Xennials" will be getting the same exact hell from their kids......just seems to be the way the world has always worked.

 

[Delvo]

I looked up voting stats from previous elections, and while Boomers do slightly break Republican, being white, and being male is quite a bit more of an indicator.

To the extent that there has been any anti-"Boomer" backlash at all (as opposed to just certain people whining about one that's mostly not even really there), that conflation of the generations is probably behind it. "Boomer" seems to have shifted in a lot of people's casual lexicon to mean not just the technical sociological term "Baby Boomer" but simply oldtimers in general.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I am really temtped to start a rant against the Gen Xers just to show you can do that crap with ANY generation.
I get some satisfaction from, in a few years the 'Xennials" will be getting the same exact hell from their kids......just seems to be the way the world has always worked.

I know, right? Why anyone is still repeating this trope like it's new or different this time is beyond me. And that's even more true in a group of skeptics that should know better.

I think this is about as far off-topic as this sidetrack should go. My apologies. If I knew where to move my post to I would.

 

[lobosrul5]

I am really temtped to start a rant against the Gen Xers just to show you can do that crap with ANY generation.
I get some satisfaction from, in a few years the 'Xennials" will be getting the same exact hell from their kids......just seems to be the way the world has always worked.

Oh dont worry, the kids on reddit already bitch about us.