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by thelastgallon 3 days ago
Housing in US is one of the easiest ways to launder money: https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/corruption-and-money-...

Housing as an investment is bad policy. If your house appreciates, it doesn't mean that you can sell it and buy another which is cheaper. All livable (and unlivable) houses have appreciated and it will cost at least that much to buy another. It is far more likely your new house will cost a lot more, because you are moving from a less desirable house to a more desirable house and there are always people with more money than you. Making it worse are the global money laundering bidders, who don't care about how much, just as long as they can quickly launder money.
2 comments
ffsm8 3 days ago
Ever increasing home prices is essentially sociatal wealth redistribution from the young to the old, as every following generation needs to pay a larger amount to the previous owners.

No wealth is being generated (no product is being created), that's why it is - fundamentally - a redistribution

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littlexsparkee 3 days ago
Not just in housing - in policy and the social safety net (SS). There's a new book out on the subject:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374607647/gerontocracyina...

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devolving-dev 3 days ago
You'll make more money when you downsize or move to a cheaper city or country for retirement if your house goes up in price. If you own a house in San Francisco you can sell, move to a vlcol city, buy a new house, invest the remainder, and retire. You probably will want a smaller house once the kids move out too.
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RestlessMind 2 days ago
> move to a cheaper city or country for retirement if your house goes up in price

What kind of life experience would lead to such a conclusion? It's almost like you have no idea what a community is - with one's friends, neighbors, familiar shops, clubs, church etc. Money is not everything in life. Any policy which forces people in their late 60's to uproot and go somewhere else to rebuild their lives is bound to face a very angry backlash. A mindset like yours is why we got prop 13 here in California.

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