The projects are full of guns. Too bad it's bad people who have them.
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by The Emerald Legion » Wed Sep 29, 2021 7:53 pm
by Maricarland » Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:25 pm
by The Emerald Legion » Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:28 pm
Maricarland wrote:It may be a good idea for the U.S. to copy what Germany just did.
We Seized 240K Properties From Corporate Landlords Through Grassroots Organizing
by Kowani » Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:31 pm
The Emerald Legion wrote:Maricarland wrote:It may be a good idea for the U.S. to copy what Germany just did.
We Seized 240K Properties From Corporate Landlords Through Grassroots Organizing
Why? Corporate home ownership is a tiny fraction of the market. Homes are generally a bad investment because they just go down in value unless you actively spend money on upkeep.
by Maricarland » Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:43 pm
The Emerald Legion wrote:Maricarland wrote:It may be a good idea for the U.S. to copy what Germany just did.
We Seized 240K Properties From Corporate Landlords Through Grassroots Organizing
Why? Corporate home ownership is a tiny fraction of the market. Homes are generally a bad investment because they just go down in value unless you actively spend money on upkeep.
by Haganham » Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:47 pm
Kowani wrote:The Emerald Legion wrote:
Why? Corporate home ownership is a tiny fraction of the market. Homes are generally a bad investment because they just go down in value unless you actively spend money on upkeep.
very true that corporate homeownership is nowhere near the cause of the problem
what is not true is that homes are a bad investment
the median home value has skyrocketed over time for a reason
by Forsher » Wed Sep 29, 2021 10:25 pm
Haganham wrote:Kowani wrote:very true that corporate homeownership is nowhere near the cause of the problem
what is not true is that homes are a bad investment
the median home value has skyrocketed over time for a reason
The reason: the government has put the country into recession on multiple occasions in order to prevent real estate markets from correcting themselves.
A house is about as good an investment as a car. That is to say, terrible. The best way to address the housing crisis is simply to allow home prices to fall.
by Resilient Acceleration » Thu Sep 30, 2021 8:23 am
2033.12.21
TLDR News | Exclusive: GLOBAL DRONE CRISIS! "Hyper-advanced" Chinese military AI design leaked online by unknown groups, Pres. Yang issues warning of "major outbreak of 3D-printed drone swarm terrorist attacks to US civilians and assets" | Secretary Pasca to expand surveillance on all financial activities through pattern recognition AI to curb the supply chain of QAnon and other domestic terror grassroots
by Haganham » Thu Sep 30, 2021 2:37 pm
Resilient Acceleration wrote:I mean Georgist ideas has the most appeal here in terms of policies that actually have a realistic chance of passing: tax empty houses. Preferebly tax them to such an extreme extent that it forces landlords to compete for tenants, even if it meant a race to the bottom.
by Genivaria » Thu Sep 30, 2021 2:45 pm
Haganham wrote:Resilient Acceleration wrote:I mean Georgist ideas has the most appeal here in terms of policies that actually have a realistic chance of passing: tax empty houses. Preferebly tax them to such an extreme extent that it forces landlords to compete for tenants, even if it meant a race to the bottom.
they'll just raise rent
by Maricarland » Thu Sep 30, 2021 2:52 pm
by Herador » Thu Sep 30, 2021 9:23 pm
The Emerald Legion wrote:Embrace our cyberpunk reality and build coffin motels/apartments.
by Picairn » Fri Oct 01, 2021 2:41 am
Resilient Acceleration wrote:I mean Georgist ideas has the most appeal here in terms of policies that actually have a realistic chance of passing: tax empty houses. Preferebly tax them to such an extreme extent that it forces landlords to compete for tenants, even if it meant a race to the bottom.
Haganham wrote:they'll just raise rent
by Ifreann » Fri Oct 01, 2021 6:08 am
Haganham wrote:Resilient Acceleration wrote:I mean Georgist ideas has the most appeal here in terms of policies that actually have a realistic chance of passing: tax empty houses. Preferebly tax them to such an extreme extent that it forces landlords to compete for tenants, even if it meant a race to the bottom.
they'll just raise rent
by Grave_n_idle » Fri Oct 01, 2021 6:14 am
Maricarland wrote:I originally left this question as a post on reddit, but I am curious as to the thoughts of the people here at NationStates.
Here is my opinion:As for me, I think one the main drivers of this problem is people treat housing as an investment asset instead of as homes. I think that there are a number of policies that the federal government can enact to help resolve the housing crisis, such as:
Market RegulationMortgage Reform
- Place a high tax on vacant properties. This way people who have extra housing while others don't have housing, will be motivated to either sell their extra housing or rent it out, just to avoid the tax, and they will have to sell or rent it at an affordable rate or else they won't get any buyers or tenants and the housing will still be vacant and the owner subject to the tax.
- Enact a national rent control program to control the rate of rent inflation. Because it is national, landlords can't just avoid the regulation by leaving areas with rent control, because everywhere will have the rent control. This however must apply to all rental housing (existing and new), so to avoid landlords jacking up rents on new tenants. Landlords may decided to just stop renting, but then they would be subject to the vacant property tax and they won't make any money; even if they would lose money by renting out at the rent controlled rates for some reason, the vacant property tax should make it so that they would lose more money by not renting out at the rent controlled rates.
- Placing limitations on home owner associations (HOAs) and providing more options for communities to abolish their HOAs, thereby requiring the locality to cover the services that the HOA provided, so that homeowners subject to HOAs don't have essentially double taxation from both the locality's taxes and fees and the HOA's fees, for no additional increase in real services. This will at least make some housing more affordable.
Alternatives to the Private Market
- Providing an option for households whose income decreased sometime after taking out their mortgage or whom have an sudden and unexpected cost, like medical debt (though I would prefer if we just switched to single-payer Medicare for All), to have partial mortgage loan forgiveness/cancellation, which the lender must absorb as a loss, and won't affect the borrowers credit in any way.
- Providing an alternative way to get a mortgage besides private banks, by offering affordable mortgages through public banking, and by providing subsidies and other benefits to credit unions and community banks to offer affordable mortgages.
- Enacting regulations that make it easier to refinance, always in favor of the borrower and never in favor of the lender.
Addressing Supply
- To ensure that everyone can get housing no matter what, we should offer a universal guarantee to high quality and rent-free public housing to all residents who want it. This will also serve to force private landlords to increase the quality of their rental properties if they want to attract any tenants, as tenants would have the affordable and appealing option to just go to the public housing option (any time you have a public competitor that offers a universal guarantee, such as a federal job guarantee or a public option for health insurance or anything, you force the private sector to at a minimum match the public competitor's offer). Even if we don't want to go that far, we can at least set up a public housing system similar to Singapore's.
- We can also support other forms of social housing, besides a government's public option, such as housing cooperatives, by providing subsidies and other advantages to social housing.
- We should establish and subsidize community land trusts, for people seeking to become homeowners without becoming housing speculators as well.
- Giving more power to tenants to establish the tenant equivalents of unions, so that they may collectively negotiate prices, conditions, rules, evictions, etc... and so that they may go on a rent strike if needed.
- NOTE: The U.S. has more than enough vacant homes per homeless person (person, not household), so there is not a problem with real supply, and the policies listed above would lead to more vacant housing reentering the rental market or housing market. However, there are some local areas in the U.S. where demand does outstrip supply, and a lot of the vacant housing in the U.S. is in a state of disrepair or in reduced livability for one reason or another. These reasons necessitate addressing housing supply.
- We should establish and subsidize, non-profit community development corporations (CDCs), to build more high quality and affordable housing to be sold to the people (not to corporate landlords, housing speculators, or investors), and to repair and retrofit existing housing. This service can also be provided by a public jobs program, such as a green new deal, or even a federal job guarantee. This will also help provide enough supply for a public or social housing program if such programs fail to purchase enough housing supply from the private market.
- I know that there is an argument for easing, reducing, or eliminating zoning regulations to make it easier for construction corporations to build more housing, however I think that this is unnecessary and may have some serious negatives as well. That said, I am willing to compromise on this pro-market policy, especially regarding making things easier for community development corporations and construction cooperatives. I am also supportive of mixed-use planning/zoning, and if easing zoning regulations leads to more mixed-use planning/zoning, I would be a little more supportive of easing zoning regulations as well.
by The Emerald Legion » Fri Oct 01, 2021 7:39 am
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