patrick.net

JMHO

This whole thing goes deeper than economics, past trends, world geo- financial markets and currency. See post WW II we created a model for the world to follow. We created a lifestyle utopia of abundance and consumption. The entitled notion that we deserved far more than we earned in reality. A different psychology took hold over the last twenty years especially in the western coastal U.S.

The boomer generation grew up with this grandiose notion that living large was the only way to live. They passed that down to their children who couldn't see past their own need to "have it now". Many of these people got into the investor class sometimes leaving their morals unchecked. It was about getting their piece of the wealth at the cost of others. Greed replaced decency and fair profit. Corporate america was sick of the middle class advancing and paid the electorate to pass Nafta and Cafta. They soon found a new source of cheap slave labor overseas and the middle class slide begun about ten years ago.

For the last eight of those we've had a government who big business could buy. Now we've lost our position of power to the Chinese who we are beholding to. Through our own fault we stopped being a great producer nation. We let other nations overrun us because we need their "investment in our debt. Until recently the checks and balances on wall street didn't exist. The banking and lending models have been bastardized billions of dollars soon to default. Don't think for one damn minute that this administration doesn't know how we are on the edge as a nation.

Basically we the Great American People did it to ourselves. Short sighted and self centered never looking past today... And like a virus this attitude spread to the rest of the world.

Syvie, I agree with your observation about the rise of the consuming psychology. And greed and other evils are prevalent and a problem. However, this is not new at all. It has always been this way.

We are not as beholding to China as they are to us. Yes, we enjoy buying lots of their stuff – but we buy it real cheap and then paying them with debt. That debt is denominated in dollars - declining in value. So the Chinese send us real stuff, and we return a promise to pay in a fiat currency that we control.

We could choose to stop buying their products and better balance our budgets. However, China cannot afford to stop selling to us on these very cheap terms. If we stop buying they will have a social and economic disaster on their hands.

Surfer-X said:
1650? If so I totally Grok. San Hosebag and a Dutch town circa 1650 are pretty much equal. Rampant crime, fascist police, no center, a lack of community, ethnic violence, no freedom of movement after nightfall, I could go on and on but what would be the point of that?

Lol. No, the area around Rivermark is not even remotely as interesting as that. It is a fw communities of small townhouses on small lots, more or less surrounded by office-parks.

The comparison to townhouses near Eindhoven was only on the basis of scale - culturally they're fine olive oil and dirty dishwater. :-)

SP

RandyH, wasn't addressing you and perhaps "it's just that simple" was poorly chosen. What I was trying to say was that FOR ME, it's "just that simple" that I don't factor in nebulous guesses about inflation or long-term economy into my buying decisions. Can I afford this now, that is something I can grasp. Other people may have more complex standards. What those would be I do not know.

On the flip side of this, the original post...

If anyone remembers at this point

Was someone positing that, somehow, inflation in some murky way, would make it a good idea to buy RE just now after all.

Do I need to re-read this thread a 3rd time? Perhaps it's buried in there somewhere. I just don't see how prediction of inflation would make me want to run out and buy RE now.

I picked up Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth at the video store just the other day. If and when the California real estate crash ever arrives here in any truly significant fashion, gaining California land at mid elevations would seem prudent. According to Al, if things continue to go unchecked the meltdown of the Greenland, Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets will bring us new coastlines.

Buying in at a severe California real estate crash at mid elevations, then waiting things out again for rising sea levels can make your well located land become the new beachfront. With much of what we have known of as California underwater, your now prime beachfront property is likely to see the soaring California real estate boom of the 2040's. Hang on. Take care of your health. Live a long life, then enjoy your profits. Booms, busts and turning tides tend to be cyclic. Ride them rightly and profit accordingly.