re: #447 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Looking at the June real estate report for San Diego county, and there is no evidence that we are post-pandemic.

Now when the July report comes out perhaps there will be big changes, but I am not holding my breath.

The median and average sales prices keep climbing, and climbing sharply.

Then I went to look at the official CPI statistics and there is clear evidence that inflation is back.

However, I doubt that the adjustments made to so many people (retirement, wages, etc.) will go up enough to cover inflation.

We are now in a position that is very dangerous. I am worried the Democratic party is not appreciating how much the electorate will turn on the party in power once inflation becomes unbearable.

And pretending the Fed can fix things is dangerous too, because the Fed can only patch over the holes, not address the fundamental problems.

Here are the fundamental problems:
1) Real estate is finite;
2) population goes up;
3) energy is strictly speaking abundant (thanks to the sun) but our economy is built on depleting fossil fuels.

The important things of living life is having a roof over one’s head, fresh water and a sewer system, and way for people to work so an economy can function to supply all that is needed.

We are so far behind where we need to be in building sustainable urban areas.

And sustainable regions.

And we are pretending that “retirement” is a forever right. Well, “retirement” is a 20th century concept and it may not make it to the 22nd century.

Simply mandating higher minimum wages will not fix the problem.

As long as our society is designed around the idea that being much wealthier than your neighbor is the highest form of achievement in life, the society will undermine its ability to provide the kind of life that has what we all take for granted as a modern lifestyle.

The American modern lifestyle was built on available land and cheap energy.

Without those, all that is left is the rich outbidding the poors for whatever is available.

Biden’s wish for a large infrastructure bill is worthwhile, but those kinds of things don’t address the current lopsided cash-flow towards those who have amassed great wealth the past 5 decades or so.

We are now in an urban land rush that only the rich can afford.

But over half of our population now wants to live in urban areas.

And moving to the country is basically not an option for most people, because jobs are where people are at, and people are now in urban areas.

The inflation spike is transitory, and a large part of it is due to a spike in used car prices. The price of gasoline which spiked as people started driving again has already stabilized, and oil is dropping sharply today. What we don’t want to do is strangle the economy while a lot of people are still unemployed.