The Economy

149 devastating blows to various downtowns, malls and suburbs ... unless they are where more Bloomingdale's locations will spring up.

 

There's a Macy's at the old, rundown mall here and another at a luxury mall 5 minutes away as the heiress flies.

The old one will be the last to close before Herald Square.

 

Really not attempting to spin anything. In broad terms, it's much better than it was two years ago and one year ago. And the U.S. has been ahead of the curve in the rebound. It's awesome that other places are seeing improvement as well.

The only spin is the typical SNYP spin... I didn't even realize they made it their fucking print cover (not that print matters much anymore). So they had to gin it up into Angertainment, as usual. A story about a fast food test program than might start in 2025 and without any relevant numbers. And the motive is clear, if their readers to start to feel better about things, there needs to be something to make them upset. It's now the default setting.

Apparently they were light yesterday on ways to incorporate Hunter Biden and AOC to shovel into the anger machine.

Linking the Shitty NYP is no different than linking NewMax, Brietbart, OAN, etc. Any kernel of truth is under layers and layers of bullshit.

Edit to correct Newsmax typo.

 

Affordable-housing problems are several-fold.

It has long been my belief that more, more-modest houses -- say between 900 and 1,500 square fee, so, 2+1's, 2 + 2's, and 3 + 2 at the largest -- need to be built and available, for many people of modest means, or else, those willing to live modestly. Could be young career people, young, small families and/or singles and older adults/couples. Heck, tiny homes and studios might even work for some of those, as long as they're nice and appealing. But all that is being built these days are relatively large places, because they are what brings in more money for builders.

The other key factor is, of course, people's expectations. There are people, even many who make good livings, who live in expensive areas, and that's where they want to be, no matter what. If they can't quite afford to buy a house there, they don't want to consider anywhere else, not even anywhere relatively close by. And, the young, perhaps pretty well-off young career people also want the house of their dreams right off the bat for their first home, not something smaller, older, or not quite in their desired area that could appreciate so that they could sell after a few years, and make a profit with which they could then move on to a bigger, better home.

But people don't want to do that. So, of course, they say/think there's nothing they can afford. There might be, but they're not willing to consider it.

 

I wish they would! I occasionally catch myself complaining/asking why nobody can make/sell normal-sized boxes of cereal anymore! Everything is either family-sized, giant-sized or in bags that are even bigger than those sizes.

 

Over half of Mercedes-Benz employees in Alabama sign union cards, in a run-up to a possible organizing vote.

 

The McMansion trend in homebuilding has been a problem on several levels. Even in my little city, there is more inventory at 2,500 sf and up than smaller and more affordable. Of course, printing money non-stop is a problem too.

We bought in 2000 and got 1,750 for less than $100k in a historic neighborhood (soon to be on the National Registry of Historic Places). Our neighborhood is averaging $124 per sf when they sell - which means our house is valued at $217,000 now.

We couldn’t afford this place on two newspaper salaries now. We could 24 years ago.

 

The number we pay for stuff now is bigger than it was in yesteryear. We get that.
I can think back with misty eyes to days of yore in 1987 when I paid .75 a gallon for gas .... as long as I forget the fact that I made $2.88 and hour.
Everything is relative.

 

But in yesteryear, you could afford the basics pretty easily. Archie Bunker was a dock foreman and he and Edith had a pretty nice little house on a single salary. Can a dock foreman in 2024 afford a similar one without the Mrs. working?

My grandpa was a carpenter, grandma didn’t work. They had a nice cottage on 3 acres, two trucks and her Galaxie 500. I don’t know if a carpenter could pull that off today.

 

Just be patient. Those ultra-rich tax cuts are really, really close to trickling down. Then we’ll be richer than astronauts.

 

I would guess that the definition of "basics" has undergone the most change over the years.

Our family of five lived in an 800-square foot house until 1974, when my dad paid $10,000 to have it expanded to a whopping 1,300 square feet.

Our family's vacations in the 1960s through the mid-1970s consisted of car trips from East Tennessee to North Carolina or Kentucky to see relatives. There was one four-hour car trip to Atlanta to see Six Flags and watch the Braves play a couple of times. We ate out 2-3 times a year. I was 21 when I attended my first concert. My dad actually sold two weeks of his vacation most years (why not? we weren't going anywhere) and also moonlighted as a World Book encyclopedia salesman to help make ends meet.

This was a man with a chemistry degree working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

What percentage of families today consider an annual out-of-state vacation, multiple trips to Disneysomething and regular trips to restaurants/ball games/concerts part of their basics?

 

My post wasn't directed at you or anyone. It just happen to follow one you made.