All Clowns Must Be Destroyed Message Board

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Pastimes : All Clowns Must Be Destroyed

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To: BGR who wrote (37588)	6/3/2000 8:41:00 AM
From: flatsville	Read Replies (3) of 42523

>>>Bottom line, acquiring any appreciating asset (after adjustment for inflation) is not consumption, and hence pretty much outside the domain of CPI, as the acquirer may have to pay an initial high price but will be rewarded from the appreciation in future.<<< Only because it has been now declared so now. You may be unaware that real property often declines in value...blocks of it...miles of it...vast tracts of property laid to waste. Ask any long time inner-city resident of any number of large cities and you'll see what I mean. I've seen housing "consumed" by bad urban planning, demorgraphic change, arson, crime etc... Sorry my friend. You can rationalize the classification switch of "housing" from a consumable to a asset class through the use of tortured argument all day long if you like. But you can't justify it. As you noted yourself..."as one can always lease the same house - which is a consumption, and which is not growing at a similar fast pace." Even you seem to recognize that the intent of instituting rental equivalents was to mask inflation and minimize adjustments to govt. payments. That has largely achieved that goal at great human expense. >>>As far as COLA adjustments go, most recipients either already own their homes or have access to subsidized housing, so there is absolutely no sense is making their payments sensitive to home prices.<<< Obviously you have little experience with low to moderate income recipients. As a former housing commissioner in a large Midwestern city there are legions of people that don't own their own home (because they couldn't afford it) and do not qualify for subsidized housing (because they make too much money)...assuming they could find shelter as the number of subsidized units has dwindled dramatically over the past decade...Waiting lists run from months to years in length. (Some of the subsidized elderly units are so badly managed and maintained I wouldn't kennel my dog there.) These people are known as the "working poor." They later become the "retired poor." Their meager fixed incomes are subject to the vagaries of inflation. If they do own their own homes they often have owned them for many years. Deferred maintainance becomes a problem. Often it is a choice between fixing the plumbing or refilling a perscription for heart medication. I've sat in people's kitchens at the requests of aldermen and public safety officials urging them to sign low/no interest loan applications so they could stay in their homes a few more years comfortably without leaking roofs, dangerous wiring, building inspector citations, and possible condemnation. Many of these G.I. generation elderly were afraid they couldn't make the small payments amortized over five years on their eroding incomes. Very sad indeed. You live and think in a very middle class world BGR. There are other realities out there. Unfortunately many of the people who live in those othere realities suffer because of this kind of thinking.

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