OT: Why there are no new jobs

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 18:24:39 -0400, M Philbrook
<jamie_ka1lpa@charter.net> wrote:

In article <86412a68-a4e0-4b8e-829c-11fa26bbf0bf@googlegroups.com>,
langwadt@fonz.dk says...

Den fredag den 2. oktober 2015 kl. 02.49.15 UTC+2 skrev DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno:
On Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:12:18 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

Not much more than it costs to make in China. Pick-and-place machines
cost about the same either place, and there can't be many minutes of
hand labor in the final assembly. Maybe a few dollars cost difference.

The boards are pick and place, but the integration of them into the
case is the hand assembly part. The boards, all the little connectors,
the screen, the battery, the screen protector, the manual, the bag all
the other items like the charger and cord.... all those elements are
hand operations, and they also get tested.

They would cost a lot more made here than over there.

someone did the analysis and there is roughly $7 worth of labor in an
iphone, even if a US worker need 5x that it wouldn't make a huge different
on a $600+ phone

The problem is that all the parts are in China

-Lasse

That and a lot of greed.

Jamie

I don't blame any company for using foreign labor to save money. I
blame US government policy for making US labor so expensive.

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 17:57:49 -0400, krw <krw@nowhere.com> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 13:20:00 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> wrote:

On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 06:00:09 -0700 (PDT), dagmargoodboat@yahoo.com
wrote:

On Thursday, September 24, 2015 at 3:52:44 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:
[...]

That's the offer Amerika gives its entrepreneurs. And the idiots in
Washington wonder why there are no new jobs...

Latest jobs report:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-10-02-08-33-31

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. hiring slowed sharply in September, and job gains for July and August were lower than previously thought, a sour note for a labor market that had been steadily improving.

The Labor Department says employers added just 142,000 jobs in September, depressed by job cuts by manufacturers and oil drillers. The unemployment rate remained 5.1 percent, but only because more Americans stopped looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

All told, the proportion of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one fell to a 38-year low.
__________

James Arthur

The unemployment rate is meaningless. What matters is the fraction of
the population that works. Even better, exclude government workers.

But the Slowmans of the world will tell you that it's good that there
is more leisure time and even better that there are so many government
workers to provide them all the services they're entitled to.
Remember, Slowman is really good at it.

At not working? At leisure time? At absorbing resources created by
people who do work?

Yup, he's expert at those things.

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Saturday, 3 October 2015 08:42:59 UTC+10, John Larkin wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 17:57:49 -0400, krw <krw@nowhere.com> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 13:20:00 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> wrote:

On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 06:00:09 -0700 (PDT), dagmargoodboat@yahoo.com
wrote:

On Thursday, September 24, 2015 at 3:52:44 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:
[...]

That's the offer Amerika gives its entrepreneurs. And the idiots in
Washington wonder why there are no new jobs...

Latest jobs report:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-10-02-08-33-31

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. hiring slowed sharply in September, and job gains for July and August were lower than previously thought, a sour note for a labor market that had been steadily improving.

The Labor Department says employers added just 142,000 jobs in September, depressed by job cuts by manufacturers and oil drillers. The unemployment rate remained 5.1 percent, but only because more Americans stopped looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

All told, the proportion of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one fell to a 38-year low.
__________

James Arthur

The unemployment rate is meaningless. What matters is the fraction of
the population that works. Even better, exclude government workers.

But the Slomans of the world will tell you that it's good that there
is more leisure time and even better that there are so many government
workers to provide them all the services they're entitled to.
Remember, Sloman is really good at it.

At not working? At leisure time? At absorbing resources created by
people who do work?

John Larkin is too dim to realise that krw invents these claims.

My argument has always been that almost all the unemployed want to get work, and if they've given up trying to find, it's because there isn't any work they can find. Even I keep on applying for jobs advertised on the local web-sites

http://www.seek.com.au/jobs-in-engineering/electrical-electronic-engineering/in-sydney/#dateRange=999&workType=0&industry=1209&occupation=6028&graduateSearch=false&salaryFrom=0&salaryTo=999999&salaryType=annual&advertiserID=&advertiserGroup=&keywords=&page=1&displaySuburb=&seoSuburb=&where=&whereId=&whereIsDirty=false&isAreaUnspecified=false&location=1000&area=&nation=&sortMode=ListedDate&searchFrom=&searchType=browse

I doubt if I'll get the job advertised last Tuesday, but I just applied for it.

> Yup, he's expert at those things.

In John Larkin's expert opinion. But don't ask John Larkin how to design a special-purpose small signal transformer - he'll have a fit of the vapours and insist on buying in an of-the-shelf unit that's "close enough".

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Saturday, 3 October 2015 10:36:05 UTC+10, John Larkin wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 19:29:16 -0400, DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno
DLU1@DecadentLinuxUser.org> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:39:47 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

I don't blame any company for using foreign labor to save money. I
blame US government policy for making US labor so expensive.

With what? Minimum wage declarations? They have always been far
behind actual need and *never* even kept up with normal middle class
living standards.

Payroll tax. Unemployment insurance. Workman's comp insurance.
Corporate income tax, almost the highest in the world.

The highest nominal rate, but you only pay it if your lobbyists haven't written you your tax loop-hole yet. The US collects a lower proportion of corporate profits than most advanced industrial countries.

City gross
receipts tax. Property tax. Permits. Inspections. City equipment tax.
Graffiti penalties. Estate tax.

Lawyers and bookkeepers and accountants to manage all that.

So what. It may be too complex for you to understand, but there are cleverer people around.

When I left high school, a single job at the box factory could get a
person a 2 br apt.

Now, it takes a minimum of two incomes of kids fresh out of high
school to afford the same. So things are at least twice as bad now as
they were then. Then there are utilities and food... everything has
greedily over-inflated through the roof.

Immigrant labor has squashed the low end of the income scale. Those
boxes are made by illegals here, or legals in Mexico.

That's one explanation. The other one is that the rich in the US have been getting steadily richer since 1980, at the expense of the poorer 90% of the population. If you can off-shore your cheap labour work, why spend more on teh local chep labour.

Food isn't expensive; we have lots of cheap farm labor to grow it for
us. Housing is expensive, because too many people are competing for
it.

Eating too much food makes you obese. Living in too large a house doesn't have any such immediate bad effect. The demand for housing is less restricted than the demand for food.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[P E Schoen]

"John Larkin" wrote in message
news:0r1u0b1vp8nuvu30tqrrkgbilomsk5u6qo@4ax.com...

I don't blame any company for using foreign labor to save money. I blame
US government policy for making US labor so expensive.

US labor is expensive because of the high cost of living and the need for
people to pay for their own health insurance and retirement. Of course, the
cost of living is also inflated because of overvalued housing and individual
expectations of material measures of prosperity.

Our society is also burdened with "hidden" costs of crime, which drives up
insurance rates, and the "war on drugs", which requires huge expenditures on
law enforcement and incarceration, with no effective rehabilitation, which
makes the prisons essentially schools that teach criminals to become better
at lawless activities, and more violent.

Paul

 

[DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUn]

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:37:48 -0700, John Larkin
<jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

Had we been using our own oil since the sixties, the price would be
enormous right now.

Probably not. We'd drill more and use less.

You obviously have no grasp on how many RVs have been bought and put
into use since then. Not to mention high displacement trucks, and other
sports consumption modes.

You do know what the acronym "BOAT" means, right?

 

[DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUn]

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:39:47 -0700, John Larkin
<jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

I don't blame any company for using foreign labor to save money. I
blame US government policy for making US labor so expensive.

With what? Minimum wage declarations? They have always been far
behind actual need and *never* even kept up with normal middle class
living standards.

When I left high school, a single job at the box factory could get a
person a 2 br apt.

Now, it takes a minimum of two incomes of kids fresh out of high
school to afford the same. So things are at least twice as bad now as
they were then. Then there are utilities and food... everything has
greedily overinflated through the roof.

Take the pharma crap going on right now for a perfect example.

 

On Friday, October 2, 2015 at 11:21:56 PM UTC-4, P E Schoen wrote:

"Bill Sloman" wrote in message
news:18879ccc-597f-44be-9572-906d93c8e21a@googlegroups.com...

On Saturday, 3 October 2015 07:58:05 UTC+10, krw wrote:

But the Slomans of the world will tell you that it's good that there is
more leisure time and even better that there are so many government
workers to provide them all the services they're entitled to. Remember,
Sloman is really good at it.

Krw busy inventing things that he thinks I'd tell you. He's even more out
of touch with reality than Jim Thompson, and even more convinced that
whatever rubbish he believes is the last word on any subject.

I don't happen to think that having people unemployed is any kind of good
thing. There's loads of statistical evidence that the unemployed almost
always want work, and try to find it. I'm certainly still responding to
job ads, though it's almost certainly a total waste of time.

And what krw and James Arthur don't ever seem to notice is the military is
one of the larger pools of government workers, and almost all they ever
produce is destruction. They may be incidentally productive from time to
time - as in the US Army Engineers - but it's not why they are there.

As I keep saying, because of increased worker productivity and reduced
demand, there will be, inevitably, more people unemployed, marginally
employed, on unemployment or welfare, involved in criminal activity, or in
prison. I don't see how any other outcome is possible, although the
timetable and severity is uncertain. The severity can be minimized if people
can accept a lifestyle less based on individual material possessions and
monetary wealth, which can be accomplished by means of intentional
communities and sharing of resources.

Government jobs can help fill in the gaps left by diminishing private
employment. The jobs may not be as lucrative as many of those that have been
lost, but they are generally secure and have good benefits, including the
likelihood of being able to complete a career and retire as was once the
norm for good companies in the 50s and 60s. There could also be the
equivalent of CCC and WPA to provide jobs, housing, training, and
discipline, which is also a benefit of military service.

Of course, this requires some redistribution of wealth and more equitable
taxation. But it will greatly stimulate the economy, even if it involves
more government spending.

It's called "Kenyan Economics"

The difficulty is that redistribution simply doesn't work. Taking money from
the people who worked hard for it discourages them from working. Giving to
people what they didn't earn discourages them from working too.

Bill's a prime example.

When everyone works less, everyone has less. Poverty.

Cheers,
James Arthur

 

[DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUn]

On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 18:58:35 -0400, "P E Schoen" <paul@pstech-inc.com>
Gave us:

with no effective rehabilitation, which
makes the prisons essentially schools that teach criminals to become better
at lawless activities, and more violent.

We need a new "Devil's Island" so we can put them away for life.

"Point a gun, and never get to set foot on free soil again." That is
how it should be. Same for knives and regular old physical assault.

Tell a kid that is what he has in store, and you can bet that it WILL
be a deterrent.

 

On Friday, October 2, 2015 at 8:36:05 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 19:29:16 -0400, DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno
DLU1@DecadentLinuxUser.org> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:39:47 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

I don't blame any company for using foreign labor to save money. I
blame US government policy for making US labor so expensive.

With what? Minimum wage declarations? They have always been far
behind actual need and *never* even kept up with normal middle class
living standards.

Payroll tax. Unemployment insurance. Workman's comp insurance.
Corporate income tax, almost the highest in the world. City gross
receipts tax. Property tax. Permits. Inspections. City equipment tax.
Graffiti penalties. Estate tax.

Lawyers and bookkeepers and accountants to manage all that.


When I left high school, a single job at the box factory could get a
person a 2 br apt.

Now, it takes a minimum of two incomes of kids fresh out of high
school to afford the same. So things are at least twice as bad now as
they were then. Then there are utilities and food... everything has
greedily overinflated through the roof.

Immigrant labor has squashed the low end of the income scale. Those
boxes are made by illegals here, or legals in Mexico.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/jobs-up-only-for-immigrants-14000-down-262000-for-native-borns/article/2573290
"Over the past three months, the job numbers for native-born have dropped
by nearly 1 million, exactly the number of jobs President Obama promised
to add when he ran for re-election in 2012.

During that period, jobs for immigrants grew 218,000."

Food isn't expensive; we have lots of cheap farm labor to grow it for
us. Housing is expensive, because too many people are competing for
it.

Yep. Dr. Thomas Sowell marks that down to building restrictions.
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2015/09/29/the-affordable-housing-fraud-n2058059

"Housing prices in San Francisco, and in many other communities for miles
around, were once no higher than in the rest of the United States. But,
beginning in the 1970s, housing prices in these communities skyrocketed
to three or four times the national average.

Why? Because local government laws and policies severely restricted, or
banned outright, the building of anything on vast areas of land. This is
called preserving 'open space,' and 'open space' has become almost a cult
obsession among self-righteous environmental activists, many of whom are
sufficiently affluent that they don't have to worry about housing prices."

San Francisco would get a premium no matter what, but the current premium
may be much higher than need be.

Cheers,
James

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 19:25:27 -0400, DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno
<DLU1@DecadentLinuxUser.org> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:37:48 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

Had we been using our own oil since the sixties, the price would be
enormous right now.

Probably not. We'd drill more and use less.

You obviously have no grasp on how many RVs have been bought and put
into use since then. Not to mention high displacement trucks, and other
sports consumption modes.

Hey, I drive I80 past Sacramento. There are miles of dealerships
dedicated to creative ways to waste mega-gallons of gasoline. And
things to tow them with.

People wouldn't buy monster RVs and power boats and things if gas cost
$20 a gallon. Things equalize.

Around here, we mostly have Prius's and Smart Cars and Teslas. It
looks so silly for a grown male to drive a Smart Car. Do they actually
have engines?

You do know what the acronym "BOAT" means, right?

It's what Jim drives, an overgrown Toyota. But I call that a "rice
barge."

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 19:29:16 -0400, DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno
<DLU1@DecadentLinuxUser.org> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:39:47 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

I don't blame any company for using foreign labor to save money. I
blame US government policy for making US labor so expensive.

With what? Minimum wage declarations? They have always been far
behind actual need and *never* even kept up with normal middle class
living standards.

Payroll tax. Unemployment insurance. Workman's comp insurance.
Corporate income tax, almost the highest in the world. City gross
receipts tax. Property tax. Permits. Inspections. City equipment tax.
Graffiti penalties. Estate tax.

Lawyers and bookkeepers and accountants to manage all that.

When I left high school, a single job at the box factory could get a
person a 2 br apt.

Now, it takes a minimum of two incomes of kids fresh out of high
school to afford the same. So things are at least twice as bad now as
they were then. Then there are utilities and food... everything has
greedily overinflated through the roof.

Immigrant labor has squashed the low end of the income scale. Those
boxes are made by illegals here, or legals in Mexico.

Food isn't expensive; we have lots of cheap farm labor to grow it for
us. Housing is expensive, because too many people are competing for
it.

 

[DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUn]

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 17:35:54 -0700, John Larkin
<jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

Immigrant labor has squashed the low end of the income scale. Those
boxes are made by illegals here, or legals in Mexico.

I was referring to back in the seventies. That plant no longer
operates now and may or may not have shopped it out over the border..

There are still plenty of makers in the US though. And they are not
populated by illegal employees.

 

[DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUn]

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 17:24:37 -0700, John Larkin
<jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

You do know what the acronym "BOAT" means, right?

It's what Jim drives, an overgrown Toyota. But I call that a "rice
barge."

"Break Out Another Thousand" That being the average cost per weekend
for a V-8 powered jet boat. whether in gas or repairs or both.

 

[krw]

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:42:50 -0700, John Larkin
<jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 17:57:49 -0400, krw <krw@nowhere.com> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 13:20:00 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> wrote:

On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 06:00:09 -0700 (PDT), dagmargoodboat@yahoo.com
wrote:

On Thursday, September 24, 2015 at 3:52:44 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:
[...]

That's the offer Amerika gives its entrepreneurs. And the idiots in
Washington wonder why there are no new jobs...

Latest jobs report:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-10-02-08-33-31

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. hiring slowed sharply in September, and job gains for July and August were lower than previously thought, a sour note for a labor market that had been steadily improving.

The Labor Department says employers added just 142,000 jobs in September, depressed by job cuts by manufacturers and oil drillers. The unemployment rate remained 5.1 percent, but only because more Americans stopped looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

All told, the proportion of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one fell to a 38-year low.
__________

James Arthur

The unemployment rate is meaningless. What matters is the fraction of
the population that works. Even better, exclude government workers.

But the Slowmans of the world will tell you that it's good that there
is more leisure time and even better that there are so many government
workers to provide them all the services they're entitled to.
Remember, Slowman is really good at it.

At not working? At leisure time? At absorbing resources created by
people who do work?

Yup! ...and entitled, too.

Yup, he's expert at those things.

 

[krw]

On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 18:22:29 -0400, M Philbrook
<jamie_ka1lpa@charter.net> wrote:

In article <vnkr0blcr79idom65ttgbibjo5cac93u83@4ax.com>, DLU1
@DecadentLinuxUser.org says...

On Thu, 1 Oct 2015 17:20:11 -0700 (PDT), dagmargoodboat@yahoo.com Gave
us:


We were discussing the Fair Tax proposal, not current taxation.

Cheers,
James Arthur

Connecticut has no sales tax and they do fine.

Since when?

Last time I looked, we have both Sales and Income tax?
Are we talking about the same place?

New Hampshire, perhaps?

 

[krw]

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 17:24:37 -0700, John Larkin
<jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 19:25:27 -0400, DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno
DLU1@DecadentLinuxUser.org> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:37:48 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

Had we been using our own oil since the sixties, the price would be
enormous right now.

Probably not. We'd drill more and use less.

You obviously have no grasp on how many RVs have been bought and put
into use since then. Not to mention high displacement trucks, and other
sports consumption modes.

Hey, I drive I80 past Sacramento. There are miles of dealerships
dedicated to creative ways to waste mega-gallons of gasoline. And
things to tow them with.

People wouldn't buy monster RVs and power boats and things if gas cost
$20 a gallon. Things equalize.

Around here, we mostly have Prius's and Smart Cars and Teslas. It
looks so silly for a grown male to drive a Smart Car.

Unless you're wearing a fez, of course.

Do they actually have engines?


You do know what the acronym "BOAT" means, right?
It's what Jim drives, an overgrown Toyota. But I call that a "rice
barge."

I thought he drove an overgrown Nissan. Still a rice barge, though.

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 21:19:13 -0400, DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno
<DLU1@DecadentLinuxUser.org> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 17:24:37 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

You do know what the acronym "BOAT" means, right?

It's what Jim drives, an overgrown Toyota. But I call that a "rice
barge."

"Break Out Another Thousand" That being the average cost per weekend
for a V-8 powered jet boat. whether in gas or repairs or both.

Just like "Why own a sailboat when you can throw the money directly
into the water?"

 

[P E Schoen]

"Bill Sloman" wrote in message
news:18879ccc-597f-44be-9572-906d93c8e21a@googlegroups.com...

On Saturday, 3 October 2015 07:58:05 UTC+10, krw wrote:

But the Slomans of the world will tell you that it's good that there is
more leisure time and even better that there are so many government
workers to provide them all the services they're entitled to. Remember,
Sloman is really good at it.

Krw busy inventing things that he thinks I'd tell you. He's even more out
of touch with reality than Jim Thompson, and even more convinced that
whatever rubbish he believes is the last word on any subject.

I don't happen to think that having people unemployed is any kind of good
thing. There's loads of statistical evidence that the unemployed almost
always want work, and try to find it. I'm certainly still responding to
job ads, though it's almost certainly a total waste of time.

And what krw and James Arthur don't ever seem to notice is the military is
one of the larger pools of government workers, and almost all they ever
produce is destruction. They may be incidentally productive from time to
time - as in the US Army Engineers - but it's not why they are there.

As I keep saying, because of increased worker productivity and reduced
demand, there will be, inevitably, more people unemployed, marginally
employed, on unemployment or welfare, involved in criminal activity, or in
prison. I don't see how any other outcome is possible, although the
timetable and severity is uncertain. The severity can be minimized if people
can accept a lifestyle less based on individual material possessions and
monetary wealth, which can be accomplished by means of intentional
communities and sharing of resources.

Government jobs can help fill in the gaps left by diminishing private
employment. The jobs may not be as lucrative as many of those that have been
lost, but they are generally secure and have good benefits, including the
likelihood of being able to complete a career and retire as was once the
norm for good companies in the 50s and 60s. There could also be the
equivalent of CCC and WPA to provide jobs, housing, training, and
discipline, which is also a benefit of military service.

Of course, this requires some redistribution of wealth and more equitable
taxation. But it will greatly stimulate the economy, even if it involves
more government spending.

It's called "Kenyan Economics"

Paul

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 20:52:47 -0700 (PDT), dagmargoodboat@yahoo.com
wrote:

On Friday, October 2, 2015 at 8:36:05 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:
On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 19:29:16 -0400, DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno
DLU1@DecadentLinuxUser.org> wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:39:47 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> Gave us:

I don't blame any company for using foreign labor to save money. I
blame US government policy for making US labor so expensive.

With what? Minimum wage declarations? They have always been far
behind actual need and *never* even kept up with normal middle class
living standards.

Payroll tax. Unemployment insurance. Workman's comp insurance.
Corporate income tax, almost the highest in the world. City gross
receipts tax. Property tax. Permits. Inspections. City equipment tax.
Graffiti penalties. Estate tax.

Lawyers and bookkeepers and accountants to manage all that.


When I left high school, a single job at the box factory could get a
person a 2 br apt.

Now, it takes a minimum of two incomes of kids fresh out of high
school to afford the same. So things are at least twice as bad now as
they were then. Then there are utilities and food... everything has
greedily overinflated through the roof.

Immigrant labor has squashed the low end of the income scale. Those
boxes are made by illegals here, or legals in Mexico.


http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/jobs-up-only-for-immigrants-14000-down-262000-for-native-borns/article/2573290
"Over the past three months, the job numbers for native-born have dropped
by nearly 1 million, exactly the number of jobs President Obama promised
to add when he ran for re-election in 2012.

During that period, jobs for immigrants grew 218,000."

Food isn't expensive; we have lots of cheap farm labor to grow it for
us. Housing is expensive, because too many people are competing for
it.

Yep. Dr. Thomas Sowell marks that down to building restrictions.
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2015/09/29/the-affordable-housing-fraud-n2058059

"Housing prices in San Francisco, and in many other communities for miles
around, were once no higher than in the rest of the United States. But,
beginning in the 1970s, housing prices in these communities skyrocketed
to three or four times the national average.

San Francisco is jammed with over-paid coders, and they are bussed to
Mountain View every day. SF has become the bedroom community for the
towns on the Peninsula that allow huge Google and Apple campuses but
don't allow more housing to be built.

Why? Because local government laws and policies severely restricted, or
banned outright, the building of anything on vast areas of land.

Somebody has vast areas of land, but we don't. We have 49 square miles
and nowhere to grow.

Well, we could allow 50,000 houseboats or something.

This is

called preserving 'open space,' and 'open space' has become almost a cult
obsession among self-righteous environmental activists, many of whom are
sufficiently affluent that they don't have to worry about housing prices."

We do kind of like having beaches and parks and mountains and a canyon
with coyotes. Nobody wants to pave them over.

San Francisco would get a premium no matter what, but the current premium
may be much higher than need be.

The people density here is already huge. There are maybe a billion
people who would live here if they could. There is no way to build
enough housing to make a difference; the only thing that limits the
population is the cost of housing. Sowell is wrong. It's not a supply
problem, it's a demand problem.