Are we better off than we were a year ago ??

[jc456]

No. It’s no longer a tax credit. It is payable to people who don’t pay taxes at all. It’s a massive expansion of welfare. Now that welfare mother who lives in the subsidized housing with her five kids - they follow her around lined up like ducklings behind her - not only get a subsidized townhouse, and Medicaid for her large family, and food stamps, and free bus tokens, and breakfasts and lunches at schools, now she is getting an extra $1500 in cold cash. She has more disposable income than I do!

And it still doesn’t work! Ask the demofks poorest city the Bronx!! Just saying! Demofks can’t even help their own constituents

 

[boedicca]

You think the answer to problems is ignore it and ridicule people who think it’s a problem.

Housing is inelastic. Prices don’t go down because people have to have housing. Demand is ALWAYS high. Prices don’t go down because people can’t afford it unless you have mass homelessness.

But again, your casual disregard for people’s concern for the high prices of things clashes with current right wing narrative complaining about the price of ground beef.

Waaaaa! It’s too expensive! Buy some tofu.

Oh puh-leeze. Housing prices crashed during the 2008 Financial Crisis. Rents have dropped in SF as people flee the dung heep. Not exactly "inelastic", bub.

 

[daveman]

Americans are working. Unemployment is 4%.

I’m not so naive as to think the economy would function without an expansion of the low skill (or even moderate skill depending on what sector) labor that illegal immigration provides.

So you want MORE illegals.

I expect you're more concerned about potential Democrat voters than the economy.

 

[Lisa558]

Your solution depends on their being a modest place you can afford. If that doesn’t exist, then what?

What happens is that people just spend more and more of their income on housing.

Maybe the rent for an apartment an hour away from the city isn’t affordable because they also are buying lIquor, cigarettes, the latest smart phones, a late model car, etc., etc.

Remember, you are talking to someone whose parents grew up in small rentals, never bought any new clothes, and watched the pennies to make the rent payments. Their parents never asked for OTHER people to give them money so they could buy a home or rent a bigger place.

People are so spoiled these days.

 

[daveman]

To some extent yes. Housing is a result of zoning laws primarily but there’s other market forces. Builders don’t want to waste time on affordable housing, margins are too high for the top of the market. We’ve been defunding public universities for decades. Medical care is more expensive because medical care is better. More advanced. More capable. Childcare is expensive because for all sorts of reasons.

Government. You should just go ahead and admit it. Government has made all those things more expensive.

 

[B. Kidd]

>t's a stupid question ...but lets have some fun...

Does a eunuch miss his balls??

Are we having fun yet?

 

[colfax_m]

No. It’s no longer a tax credit. It is payable to people who don’t pay taxes at all. It’s a massive expansion of welfare. Now that welfare mother who lives in the subsidized housing with her five kids - they follow her around lined up like ducklings behind her - not only get a subsidized townhouse, and Medicaid for her large family, and food stamps, and free bus tokens, and breakfasts and lunches at schools, now she is getting an extra $1500 in cold cash. She has more disposable income than I do!

We can go back and forth on this, but the idea that this kind of very specific scansion is causing a labor shortage is ludicrous.

People pulling out of the labor force are doing so for all kinds of reasons. Older people are leaving labor force since COVID because they’re at risk. Two income families are becoming one income families because they don’t have childcare. Some people just don’t want to handle the stress and labor conditions these days so work part time.

 

[colfax_m]

Government. You should just go ahead and admit it. Government has made all those things more expensive.

I just don’t believe anything is so simple.

 

[daveman]

Welders are taught how to weld. When that welding job goes away, then they’re out of luck.

This isn’t a contest. There’s pros and cons on each side.

There are always welding jobs.

“There is a tremendous skills gap in the skilled trade field—whether you are talking about plumbers and pipefitters, welder, electricians, advanced manufacture technicians, and even mechatronics technicians,” said Ashdown. “We literally cannot graduate enough students every year. We are maxed to capacity with the number of people we can graduate, and our job placement rates are 97 percent.”

It is only because some students choose to pursue other career paths or continue their education at a four-year college that the skilled trade job placement rate at HVCC is not 100 percent. In fact, many students are offered jobs after finishing the first year of their two-year skilled trade program.

“Everyone who wants a job gets one,” said Ashdown. “Students have multiple companies giving them offers. We’ve had companies getting into bidding wars over starting salaries. We had several companies bidding over a student in advanced manufacturing, and the wage got bid from the low twenties per hour to above thirty with full benefits and a company vehicle. It’s a real life example of supply and demand playing out, and you see wages creeping up and kind of going through the roof.”

--

Nobody's in a bidding war for liberal arts graduates.

 

[colfax_m]

Housing prices crashed during the 2008 Financial Crisis.

And they came back and are almost as bad as ever.

 

[daveman]

I just don’t believe anything is so simple.

But it is.

 

[colfax_m]

There are always welding jobs.

“There is a tremendous skills gap in the skilled trade field—whether you are talking about plumbers and pipefitters, welder, electricians, advanced manufacture technicians, and even mechatronics technicians,” said Ashdown. “We literally cannot graduate enough students every year. We are maxed to capacity with the number of people we can graduate, and our job placement rates are 97 percent.”

It is only because some students choose to pursue other career paths or continue their education at a four-year college that the skilled trade job placement rate at HVCC is not 100 percent. In fact, many students are offered jobs after finishing the first year of their two-year skilled trade program.

“Everyone who wants a job gets one,” said Ashdown. “Students have multiple companies giving them offers. We’ve had companies getting into bidding wars over starting salaries. We had several companies bidding over a student in advanced manufacturing, and the wage got bid from the low twenties per hour to above thirty with full benefits and a company vehicle. It’s a real life example of supply and demand playing out, and you see wages creeping up and kind of going through the roof.”

--

Nobody's in a bidding war for liberal arts graduates.

Earnings and unemployment rates improve as level of education improves. That’s just a fact.

Lots of blue collar workers have been left behind by the economy. Their anger formed much of Trump’s base.

 

[colfax_m]

But it is.

Maybe to you.

 

[Indeependent]

There are always welding jobs.

“There is a tremendous skills gap in the skilled trade field—whether you are talking about plumbers and pipefitters, welder, electricians, advanced manufacture technicians, and even mechatronics technicians,” said Ashdown. “We literally cannot graduate enough students every year. We are maxed to capacity with the number of people we can graduate, and our job placement rates are 97 percent.”

It is only because some students choose to pursue other career paths or continue their education at a four-year college that the skilled trade job placement rate at HVCC is not 100 percent. In fact, many students are offered jobs after finishing the first year of their two-year skilled trade program.

“Everyone who wants a job gets one,” said Ashdown. “Students have multiple companies giving them offers. We’ve had companies getting into bidding wars over starting salaries. We had several companies bidding over a student in advanced manufacturing, and the wage got bid from the low twenties per hour to above thirty with full benefits and a company vehicle. It’s a real life example of supply and demand playing out, and you see wages creeping up and kind of going through the roof.”

--

Nobody's in a bidding war for liberal arts graduates.

What happens to these careers after the mortgage bubble bursts?

 

[Kondor3]

Are we better off than we were ago?

With respect to...

* Illegal Aliens - definitely not
* Foreign Policy - mostly not, despite some restoration of confidence in us amongst friends - but mostly, not
* Defense - probably not, but we seem to be more in Maintenance Mode than anything else
* Energy Independence - not
* Cost of Living - definitely not
* Bipartisanship - enough to move the needle a bit in favor of positive results, but not much, really
* Pandemic - definitely YES - the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are amongst the Neanderthals who refuse to vax or observe safety protocols
* Emergency Relief - definitely not - the Pubs did a better job of assembling and sustaining relief for rents and mortgages, energy, etc.
* Law and Order - mixed results - some positive, some negative - basically, a Wash...
* Restoration of confidence in Constitutional Government - a mild YES

-----------

A mixed bag, to be sure... and, I'm quite certain, I've left off a handful of salient points or key categories... but that's a good first pass

 

[boedicca]

And they came back and are almost as bad as ever.

Well, printing tons of money and keeping interest rates close to zero causes inflation. Money always seeks assets.

 

[jc456]

To some extent yes. Housing is a result of zoning laws primarily but there’s other market forces. Builders don’t want to waste time on affordable housing, margins are too high for the top of the market. We’ve been defunding public universities for decades. Medical care is more expensive because medical care is better. More advanced. More capable. Childcare is expensive because for all sorts of reasons.

Look at the doctor is now a zoning commissioner

 

[jc456]

* Pandemic - definitely YES - the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are amongst the Neanderthals who refuse to vax or observe safety protocols

Why are vaccinated dying!! More than unvaccinated ? Not by Wuhan?

 

[daveman]

Earnings and unemployment rates improve as level of education improves. That’s just a fact.

Lots of blue collar workers have been left behind by the economy. Their anger formed much of Trump’s base.

Saying something is a fact is not proof.

 

[daveman]

What happens to these careers after the mortgage bubble bursts?

Well, gosh, I don't know! Nobody ever builds anything but houses!