Cord-cutting reaches an all-time high

[Endymio]

In *theory* Capitalism works

And in real life as well.

Even Adam Smith noted that cases like these required direct intervention

No he didn't. My copy of "Wealth of Nations" is only a few feet away; if you believe otherwise, please cite a page reference.

there's literally places (SF) where there are four times the amount of empty houses as there are people living on the streets.

And you feel this proves what? That, if you put a million-dollar house up for sale in metro SF, you should allow a few homeless people to live in it while waiting for it to sell?

The only reasonable way to bring prices down is to undercut the market directly

Odd then that New York and San Francisco, both of which institute rent controls and have the heaviest regulated housing market in the country, also have by far the highest rents. Not working out too well for them, is it?

Hence why European/Nordic style Socialism is getting so much attention these days.

You mean the '70s style socialism that Scandinavia tried and abandoned long ago?

Forbes: Sorry Bernie Bros, But Nordic Countries are not Socialist.

 

[toooooot]

Endymio
You wrote:
"
The only reasonable way to bring prices down is to undercut the market directly
Odd then that New York and San Francisco, both of which institute rent controls and have the heaviest regulated housing market in the country, also have by far the highest rents. Not working out too well for them, is it?
"
I feel like the more you speak of injustice, great gap between rich and poor, and the need of fixing social and racial problems, the more likely you are a cold hearted rich hypocrite who literally has a wall and guards to separate yourself from those you pretend to care for and trying to solve their problems.
California says a lot about these problems, but it doesnt look like they made a great progress fixing the most crucial problems they seem to care.

 

[bobc4012]

I could say the same about Capitalists. In *theory* Capitalism works, but in practice you always end up with a few dominant market players, a loss of competition, leading to a loss for consumers. Even Adam Smith noted that cases like these required direct intervention (something *lots* of people ignore when discussing Capitalism).
The fact is, the housing market is acting exactly like you would expect it to when you have part of the population rapidly gaining wealth. The problem isn't the number of houses; there's literally places (SF) where there are four times the amount of empty houses as there are people living on the streets. It's strictly a market problem, as it's the people making six figures driving housing prices, not the people living on the streets. Subsidies gets people off the streets, but supports the broken market prices. The only reasonable way to bring prices down is to undercut the market directly; the only real argument is how much to get involved.

Point is, Capitalism is working exactly as you'd expect. And a larger and larger portion of the population are starting to realize how badly that works out for them. Hence why European/Nordic style Socialism is getting so much attention these days. You may not like that as a solution, but is *is* a solution, and I've yet to hear any solutions from the other side aside from "nothing is wrong" or "keep doing what we've been doing; the problem will fix itself".

I guess you have been reading to much BS pitched by a dishonest MSM. The Nordic countries are in trouble. The youth are leaving, the birth rate is down so there will be less people to support an aging, "retired" population, the current wave of immigration has not only been a drag on the economy, but also increased crime rate. https://euobserver.com/nordic/147365 , https://euobserver.com/stakeholders/147366 , https://www.straitstimes.com/world/...c-countries-struggle-with-falling-birth-rates , https://www.thelocal.se/20090303/17964 , https://theconversation.com/finland...-small-countries-when-the-talent-leaves-79952 . Also, keep in mind, these are "small" countries compared to the US and have homogeneous populations, not the same type of melting pot we have in the US. Also, keep in mind the total population of the entire group of Nordic countries is less than that of Texas. Sweden is the most populous with 10 million, slightly larger than the US's 10th most populous, Michigan. The US has 9 states with larger populations and a more diverse group of people.

One last point, one of the comments mentioned "public housing" (Section 8) being built in new developments. If you have seen the results of that, you would not move into a development with 10% "public housing" that eventually turns into a slum - most people who can't afford to buy a house at the going rate generally can't afford to keep the property maintained and some have no reason to do such as they did not have to scrimp and save to do it.

 

[gamerk2]

The Nordic countries are in trouble.

Except they're really not; you should probably stop reading the typical right-wing sources trying to push their agenda.

Taking your housing comment specifically, that's why the public housing should be uniformly spread out throughout, rather then clumped together, which as you noted leads to slums (as reducing housing prices works "too" well).

And I note you're yet another person who criticizes solutions without giving one yourself. Or should we stand here together not ever doing anything because a potential solution might not work?