The Number Of Americans Living In Their Vehicles “Explodes”

Here in beautiful Silicon Valley, the parking lot near the San Jose jail is full of trailers and motorhomes. Who lives there? The cops who can't afford housing here. The city decided a good use for the lot would be to allow police who can't afford housing to live in the parking lot in vehicles. To be fair, some commute from places like Los Banos or Modesto, or Stockton, which can be up to three to four hours travel at peak traffic. (There have been a couple traffic deaths of folks in law enforcement from commute traffic accidents, going over passes and the like, the past couple years, which is a sad commentary.) Needless to say, we have a shortage of police here, because the police can't afford this town.

Heck, I'm a tech professional, and I can only afford it because I bought before the craziness started. And we aren't as well paid as you might think. My wages have gone down since the Great Recession, and during the Recession, if you could find work, it was at about a 50% pay cut. Now it's all contract, and you carry your own health insurace, and the hourly rates are about what they were in the 1990s. I know married professionals who live with their parents because they can either pay on their student loans or share an apartment with another couple. I have no idea how you live if you're the janitor at one of these tech firms. I've never had the courage to ask one.

a reply to: burntheships

More jobs than people so what is their excuse right?

ill believe it if you show me how that conclusion is draw specifically

a reply to: JBurns

I wonder how bad it is going to get before people start truly looking for answers? We can point out statics and examples of the ongoing implosion, but when will we start proposing solutions?

I have a bad feeling that we won't be able to collectively come together and start asking the hard questions. We will not be able to put our differences aside to correct this listing ship before it sinks underneath the waves. There will be a hard reset and the vampires that are currently sucking off of our productivity will effortlessly create a new system with the lessons they are learning now.

If we are to have any chance, we have to force changes now before this thing crashes.

Link to source of image below.



Here in Alaska we are actually in a recession after loosing 5,000 of our highest paying jobs in a low population state. In Anchorage it's worse and Alaska has the highest unemployment issues right now. Still the homeless are in no small part due to the cost of housing and of course alcoholism and drug addicts. They like to hide it, but we have lots of families who have jobs, work full time and still can't afford housing. You don't make $80,000+ here, you don't even think about buying a house in Anchorage and that's starting to be low even at that number. The jobs we lost were in the 80K to 100K+ range. My own customers, mostly business owners are having a very hard time unless they are in the tourism industry which is booming. Mom and Pop stores are failing daily, dying due to Amazon and the Internet ending their American Dream as big box stores take over on top of the other.

California looks not so bad to be honest.

Look at DC! and the dark frame means it's getting worse. NY is clearly in deep trouble as far as income disparity.

The fly over states of course don't have an issue with those low numbers. That's a cultural thing I think. People, not government takes care of those in need. Families support their own, neighbors help their neighbors. Housing is affordable and decent, even if it's cheaper. Far different from he area's having the most troubles.

We have an inner city problem and a nanny state problem. When you condition people to think that the government will take care of them, they lose motivation and desire. History has shown it over and over again. We have a class warfare problem when housing prices are taken to extreme level so local governments can collect more taxes to take care of social issues the high prices add too. It's like the least qualified to be in control have such complete control people are blind to how government has caused most of this.

a reply to: ClovenSky

If we are to have any chance, we have to force changes now before this thing crashes.

What do you suggest?

a reply to: toysforadults

Blaine just explained it see his post above this one.

I would add that housing is more expensive these days,
but that is not a product of this administration.

Look back to Clinton for the root cause.

The main problem here is we're not giving enough tax breaks to the wealthy. How are they supposed to shower us with that sweet trickle down if they're suffering up at the top 1%?

Sounds like everyone needs to do some soul searching and realize that nothing is going to get better until we give rich people more money.

Don't get why people keep pointing at the president for economic issues of any variety.

You don't like it, take a long look at who controls congress. That is where the problem has always been, get these 30 yr veterans of DC out of office and maybe we can force change.

Keep focusing on the oval office and bupkiss will change.

Double posting nooblet.

a reply to: burntheships

Or people flipping land for a profit, I have watched undeveloped land go from 500 an acre to 2k+ for land you have to drive down a fire break to reach.

a reply to: Irishhaf

There are also "hidden" factors in the price of housing,
Factor in Stae and county taxes, EPA regulations and
eNvironmental impact studies with exploded under
Clinton...this drives up the cost of home building.

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: ClovenSky

If we are to have any chance, we have to force changes now before this thing crashes.

What do you suggest?

I was kind of hoping others would offer suggestions because mine are very radical. I have been thinking of solutions for a while now and I keep on coming back to the same conclusion, we have to completely revamp our system.

We have to remove the ability of the vampires to suck off of our productivity. What happened with the lead up to 2006/2007 crash? Fraud, massive amounts of fraud that went unchecked. What was the fraud? People with the ability to siphon off of the productivity of others. People that take advantage of other people's ignorance, which is fairly easy in the financial world. The people in power knew exactly what was going on. The massive mortgage back securities fraud. The mark to fantasy instead of mark to market which is still ongoing today. All of that financial magic did nothing for the common man and it put housing out of reach for people that didn't want to become a debt slave.

Then after they brought the system to its knees, we bailed them out. We made them whole. We didn't loan the too big to fail establishments money, we simply GAVE them money. Money that was created out of thin air that permanently entered the economy. Money that will not be payed back to cancel that creation.

Say an entire economy has $100. Then another $100 is created out of thin air. What happens? That newly created money doesn't automatically create commodities or anything physical so now instead of $100 chasing a basket of good, there is $200 now chasing it. Basically the money you hold halves in value.

So the first step is stopping them from creating money out of thin air. No more debt. People like to think our national debt isn't creating money out of thin air but when the mathematical certainty is reached on that money never being repaid, that money is permanently in circulation. We need to let (*#*(&*# reckless institutions fail again, even if that is at the city or state level. We need to finally purge bad investments out of our economy and return to reality.

Then once we stop our fiat being rendered worthless with each passing year, we need to stop the vampires from being able to suck off of our productivity. How do they do that currently? Through finance. Through fractional reserve lending. Through the creation of #((* stupid investment vehicles that does nothing to help the populace but enriches the connected and wealthy.

Those that derive an income stream off of finance will scream holy hell to the heavens but it is the only way. We need to bring loan sourcing back to the community level with no usury. It will be a public good for those loans to be made and ensure repayment. The loans would be made out of capitol on stock or in savings. No money should ever be created out of thin air, especially fiat that relies on people's faith to give it value.

No more shareholders or publicly traded stocks. No more stock market. Investors that choose to lend their money to a corporation will be fully liable for failure with no investment vehicles to cushion a possible loss. The entire structure is a gambling show that could easily be replaced by something that was a lot more secure in preventing fraud.

All of the rules and regulations around investment now mean squat. They are there simply to ensure the small fish can't use the same schemes and loop holes the big fish use to extract wealth.

Like I said, probably no one will agree with my assessment, but I see no other way.

originally posted by: Cravens
a reply to: luthier

Gotcha.

I agree, monetary policy affects us all. I haven’t a clue if the prez’s rhetoric will impact monetary policy...but he sure can put the squeeze on fiscal policy with signing into law tax cuts and using his ability to levy tariffs.

If it’s (widespread prosperity) an illusion and the economy isn’t as strong as indicated, I’ll be the first to say, I was fooled by the illusion.

It appears you are fooled. Or the free market economists are completely wrong.

Tax cut without spending freezes are in fact an illusion.

a reply to: JBurns

We don't even need a reduction. Just a freeze.

Rand Paul is treated as a nutcase for holding up the budget to try and freeze spending not cut. Freezing so it would balance in a decade.

So a cut seems beyond fantasy.

The deficits are not projected to get any better and we aren't even in a recovery so it seems authoritarians all have similar effect on the economy.

originally posted by: Irishhaf
Don't get why people keep pointing at the president for economic issues of any variety.

You don't like it, take a long look at who controls congress. That is where the problem has always been, get these 30 yr veterans of DC out of office and maybe we can force change.

Keep focusing on the oval office and bupkiss will change.

Any variety? The tariffs are completely his idea, so is the stimulus needed to support them.

a reply to: Blaine91555

Anchorage is also the largest recipient of the native villages' problems, though. Three strikes, you're booted from the village almost always seems to result in "welcome to the streets of Anchorage, what crimes can you commit today?"

For anyone curious, Blaine and I are on polar opposite sides of the spectrum where this issue is concerned. We have had a number of respectful conversations about it and about the issues sucking the life out of Anchorage... the one thing we agree on is that there is no single cause nor any simple solution to it. Culture, politics, economy, luck, substance abuse, crime... all just parts of the puzzle that creates this ugly ass picture.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

I won't argue with that entirely, other than to say the problem of people from the villages is the visible side and much of the problem is hidden. Those people we see on the streets daily are only the tip of the iceberg. On top of that we have those who are forced to live in those $500+ a month sleeping rooms in a house shared with alcoholics, addicts and people they most likely would rather not share a bathroom with.

Our elderly, our infirm, our people who genuinely need and deserve help are suffering greatly due to the artificially inflated housing prices. The poor pay the property taxes, the landlords do not. Nothing hurts people more or creates more homelessness that property taxes.

I think I've mentioned before the man I lease the house I'm in from is losing money due to the cost of property taxes and insurance here. He owns five houses and he's losing money on all of them. He raises rent, they sit empty. He tried to sell them at $100,000 below appraisal and no joy. The only interested people were the new crop of amateur house flippers.

Yeah, its certainly a complex issue for sure

a reply to: Blaine91555

I've always believed that votes on property taxation should be 100% restricted to only voters who own property within the area voting. It is ridiculous to allow renters and non-stakeholders to have any say in taxing landowners.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

I actually believe property taxes to be insidious. On the surface its made to look like property taxes only hurt those who can afford it, when the reality is the renters who can least afford it, pay it.

Then on top of that, you can work your whole life, buy property and then if anything happens they step in and force a sale or take your property away. People who worked, bought a home and then retired made homeless even though they paid for a house and that happens more often than we realize.

I actually gave a man who worked for me, now deceased, the money to pay his property taxes one year. Third generation in the house, he stood in his yard during the big one and watched his trees slapping the ground and the house survived. His parents died in his house and the municipality was ready to take it away over a couple of thousand dollars. They own it now as he died of cancer and his developmentally disabled brother he cared for could not pay. He's living with others couch surfing, but the good folks of Anchorage got their ounce of blood when they sold it out from under him. People who helped build this city.

This place I'm in was worth less than $200,000 when I first moved in, now it's appraised at $385,000. Most of that is just the value of the large lot it sits on. I'm in a blue collar working neighborhood, where everyone is struggling. I see the neighbors across the streets adult children had to move back in about a year ago. They have jobs, which brings up the other issue of those people who are forced to live with family or friends even though they work full time. The only reason they are not homeless, is they have family to fall back on.

a reply to: Blaine91555

Having to pay an arbitrarily arrived upon, no choice by you fee ever month or year for something you allegedly own is an illusion of ownership at best. Taxation is theft, period. It is people with zero legitimate claim you your property stealing it under threat of imprisonment or greater loss... that includes income tax. I can see the argument for sales tax and import/export tariffs, however. Those are sensible and fair, as well as not being as open to political pandering and redistribution policies which effectively buy votes.