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Another sign of global wealth disparity - London's "Zombie Flats"
In a world where many can't afford decent housing, one group seems to have more than they need.
"In Manhattan, the New Yorker magazine had a look at Census Bureau numbers, which revealed that in Midtown — from 49th to 70th streets, between Fifth and Park avenues — nearly 1 in 3 residences are unoccupied at least 10 months a year."
@hank, Lewis, davidmoran: Suggest you E-Mail the Linkster how much living space each of you have, and where you live, so I can direct these poor "Tenants Under Siege" to you living quarters. I know you will be more than happy to take them in. Regards, Ted
Anything that sits idle could be considered "zombie-ish". Cash in bank, an antique car in a garage, a painting on a wall. Ownership entails risk whatever the investment, especially real estate. Maintaining the value of a RE investments also comes at additional costs and risks. RE property values change both up and down.
The fact that I can't afford an item (whether it's a flat or a pair of flats) doesn't put me "under siege", it means I can't afford the item. I move on. A tenant has a short term agreement with a landlord that gets renegotiated or not. They stay or they move on.
Also, doesn't the city collect property taxes from these "zombie properties" that in turn requires less services since they are less occupied. This potentially affords the city the opportunity to help these "tenants under siege"?
@Ted And I suggest every time you post patriotic WW2 or veterans videos/homages, you write a letter to your favorite Congress-person and President asking that your taxes go up to help pay for the veteran benefits they want to cut:
When a landlord embarks on a campaign to “unlock value” in his building, it becomes a consuming psychological torment for renters. “Landlord harassment is practically all anyone I know talks about. ... When it comes, it’s like a bomb’s gone off in your living room."
One of the largest homes on our block in SF was completely remodeled about five years ago, (including an ostentatious "fountain sculpture" in front) and then put up for sale. Asian buyers paid (a very large amount) in cash. The house has sat empty ever since. A plastic bag covers the "fountain". FWIW.
@davidrmoran- It should come as no surprise that all right-wing members of Congress are required to swear a mighty oath to disavow and repudiate any concept involving reality, math, or science.
@davidrmoran- Really now. Need I draw pictures? This left-wing propaganda depicts reality, and undoubtedly used math to draw it's obviously biased and spurious conclusions.
I'm not suggesting that Ted donate half the rooms in his 50-room mansion to the homeless. Nor that he cut back from three large luxury yachts to only one. I am suggesting that there's a tremendous (and apparently growing) gap between the haves and the have-nots of the world - both at home and globally.
Is this good? What factors have contributed to it? How much wider will that gap become? What, if anything can/should be done about it? I haven't the foggiest notion. It's a hell of a lot easier to identify a problem and ask those kinds of questions than it is to come up with answers.
Added: The sad component of all this is that it doesn't just manifest itself in material possessions. If it did, it might be easier to ignore. But truth be told the super rich have tremendous advantages in nearly every facet of existence, including: educational opportunities, voice in government, health care and legal protections.
@hank But only if a problem is publicly identified and measured can it be solved. In dictatorships there are no problems because the dictator says they don't exist. Take tyrant Ramzan Kadyrov of Chechneya who says there's no persecution of gay men in his country because "there are no homosexuals in Chechnya.” huffingtonpost.com/entry/chechen-gays-arrested-killed-reports-say_us_58e12a65e4b0b3918c843db6 You can see some analogues in the U.S.--or even on this board--regarding attempts to silence people pointing out various problems, among them climate change.
“…confirming the finding that global inequality has declined: the Gini coefficient of global inequality has declined from 68.7 to 64.9.”
“A second striking and very positive global development shown in this chart is the rise of the global median income. In 2003 half of the world population lived on less than 1,090 international-$ per year and the other half lived on more than 1,090 international-$. This level of global median income has has almost doubled over the last decade and was 2,010 international-$ in 2013. Finally the authors also dare to make a projection of what global inequality will look like in 2035. Assuming the growth rates shown in the insert in the top-right corner the authors project global inequality to decline further and to reach a Gini of 61.3. At the same time the incomes of the world’s poorer half will continue to increase strongly so that global median income will again double and reach 4,000 international-$ in 2035.”
@Flack Hank probably should've added "in the developed world." The developed world's loss to globalization has been the developing/emerging world's gain. That is what is causing so much nationalist/nativist unrest in the U.S. and Europe. Meanwhile people in the poorest countries have benefited from the export of factory jobs overseas.
Now San Francisco is a fairly small city, and if you've lived here all of your life you darned well know the types of homes in a given area, and the relative costs of those homes compared to other areas. I have to tell you that the info shown with respect to which areas are pricier than others is in many instances complete nonsense. Total BS. Whoever designed that map was smoking something exceptionally strong.
Scientific American (hardly a Communist publication) "Economic Inequality: It's Far Worse than you Imagine"
"The average American believes that the richest fifth own 59% of the wealth and that the bottom 40% own 9%. The reality is strikingly different. The top 20% of US households own more than 84% of the wealth, and the bottom 40% combine for a paltry 0.3%. The Walton family, for example, has more wealth than 42% of American families combined."
Great line sums it up: "George Carlin joked that, “the reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it."
Thanks @Flack for the link. What I see mainly is that Asia has taken a big chunk of the pie away from N. America over the past several decades. Of course. Asian economies have outpaced us. I don't know whether the same inequality between classes exists in Asia as in the U.S. My guess is that the gap is probably far less in Asia - but that it is growing there - and in most developed economies. I could be be wrong. It's certainly growing in the U.S. *Of course this is premised on the assumption China is providing reliable (trustworthy) data on income/population.
Comments
Regards,
Ted
The fact that I can't afford an item (whether it's a flat or a pair of flats) doesn't put me "under siege", it means I can't afford the item. I move on. A tenant has a short term agreement with a landlord that gets renegotiated or not. They stay or they move on.
Also, doesn't the city collect property taxes from these "zombie properties" that in turn requires less services since they are less occupied. This potentially affords the city the opportunity to help these "tenants under siege"?
npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/06/28/534671420/veterans-helped-by-obamacare-worry-about-republican-repeal-efforts
reuters.com/article/us-usa-veterans-congress/u-s-senate-republicans-block-veterans-health-bill-on-budget-worry-idUSBREA1Q26O20140227
https://militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2017/05/25/house-republicans-offer-veterans-fix-for-health-care-bill/
military.com/daily-news/2017/05/24/elderly-vets-face-benefits-cut-trump-budget.html
That you @Ted?
https://youtu.be/MLhf5pj3sOo
Regards,
Ted
The Working Class Can’t Afford the American Dream:
https://howmuch.net/articles/where-the-working-class-can-afford-to-live
(other than that reality and math do have a well-known liberal bias ...)
but in what way is this
https://howmuch.net/articles/where-the-working-class-can-afford-to-live
leftwing?? I mean, wow.
@davidrmoran- Really now. Need I draw pictures? This left-wing propaganda depicts reality, and undoubtedly used math to draw it's obviously biased and spurious conclusions.
Is this good? What factors have contributed to it? How much wider will that gap become? What, if anything can/should be done about it? I haven't the foggiest notion. It's a hell of a lot easier to identify a problem and ask those kinds of questions than it is to come up with answers.
Added: The sad component of all this is that it doesn't just manifest itself in material possessions. If it did, it might be easier to ignore. But truth be told the super rich have tremendous advantages in nearly every facet of existence, including: educational opportunities, voice in government, health care and legal protections.
You can see some analogues in the U.S.--or even on this board--regarding attempts to silence people pointing out various problems, among them climate change.
“I am suggesting that there's a tremendous (and apparently growing)
gap between the haves and the have-nots of the world - both at home
and globally.”
Oh, really? This might interest you --
Global Economic Inequality
by Max Roser
https://ourworldindata.org/global-economic-inequality
“…confirming the finding that global inequality has declined: the Gini coefficient of global inequality has declined from 68.7 to 64.9.”
“A second striking and very positive global development shown in this chart is the rise of the global median income. In 2003 half of the world population lived on less than 1,090 international-$ per year and the other half lived on more than 1,090 international-$. This level of global median income has has almost doubled over the last decade and was 2,010 international-$ in 2013.
Finally the authors also dare to make a projection of what global inequality will look like in 2035. Assuming the growth rates shown in the insert in the top-right corner the authors project global inequality to decline further and to reach a Gini of 61.3. At the same time the incomes of the world’s poorer half will continue to increase strongly so that global median income will again double and reach 4,000 international-$ in 2035.”
Now San Francisco is a fairly small city, and if you've lived here all of your life you darned well know the types of homes in a given area, and the relative costs of those homes compared to other areas. I have to tell you that the info shown with respect to which areas are pricier than others is in many instances complete nonsense. Total BS. Whoever designed that map was smoking something exceptionally strong.
"The average American believes that the richest fifth own 59% of the wealth and that the bottom 40% own 9%. The reality is strikingly different. The top 20% of US households own more than 84% of the wealth, and the bottom 40% combine for a paltry 0.3%. The Walton family, for example, has more wealth than 42% of American families combined."
Great line sums it up: "George Carlin joked that, “the reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it."
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/economic-inequality-it-s-far-worse-than-you-think/
Thanks @Flack for the link. What I see mainly is that Asia has taken a big chunk of the pie away from N. America over the past several decades. Of course. Asian economies have outpaced us. I don't know whether the same inequality between classes exists in Asia as in the U.S. My guess is that the gap is probably far less in Asia - but that it is growing there - and in most developed economies. I could be be wrong. It's certainly growing in the U.S.
*Of course this is premised on the assumption China is providing reliable (trustworthy) data on income/population.
The eastern Mass. data I looked at all seemed pretty reasonable, and the chief factor is what sort of housing the person or family is seeking.
@hank, you are gonna hear from an old man, I think.