Please explain how to keep up with a fricking 7.9% inflation rate...

[M.W.]

What are you talking about? Microsoft cant even produce its own games or other software itself, it has to hire french studios like Asobo and a large part of its compiler teams are in Europe. Virtually every precision measure instrument is made in Germany. More than half of all cars in the US are designed and engineered in Japan and Germany (hardly a single American car makes it to Europe or Japan). Virtually all super yachts in the world are made in Germany or Holland. Many step and precision motors are made in Germany. The largest and most successful hacking groups (which expose weaknesses in the design of the internet and weaknesses in networks) are based outside the US. Often times more than half of entire trading floor teams in the US are made up of non native English speakers, people who come from Europe or Asia. More than half of most coding teams at top tier tech firms like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple are non native English speakers, a third is not even located in the US. The world's most advanced quantum research facility is located in Switzerland. The battery was invented in Europe. So was solar energy. Your lackey Elon Musk just plugged a few things together. And even for that he had to hire tons of French and German and other ai engineers to get the software written. The LED technology was invented by a Japanese. I think Japan and Europe do mighty fine when it comes to innovation and technology and their economies are doing just fine as well. So does their European currency that was declared dead on arrival, then declared dead over a dozen times by leading US economists. Yet it still does perfectly fine and holds Europe together. The Japanese government bonds were declared dead by tons of American self proclaimed hedge fund titans. Yet it never got to its knees and does just fine. You know, perhaps you are blinded because the people around you brag too much, shout too loud, and show off too much that you can't quite comprehend and see that things across the Atlantic and pacific go quite well also. Except the Japanese and European society is so much more balanced and has less inequality. That makes for a few less billionaires but dozens and perhaps hundreds of millions of happier and better supported people.

So, what are you talking about? Have you been sleeping for the past few decades?

The combined population size of those countries you list is about the same as the USA.
But I don't see anything like the amount of technological innovation from those countries compared to the US. Even though eduction levels are just as good.

Socialism dampens the entrepreneurial spirit and dampens innovation.

Elon Musk didn't head for any of those places, he headed for the USA, it was not even that long ago, it was just 1992!

“My goal as a kid was to get to America basically. There is definitely no other country where I could have done this—immigrant or not”
-- Elon Musk

 

[SunTrader]

and the free beach...maybe; if you're not inland.

If you live in a place that is not lined with condo towers blocking beach access. Even then parking permits are not free and sometimes only available to residents of the town.

I'm lucky where I live beach access and parking is still free, although space is limited. Especially when the Canadians are in town. Man do the old wrinklies Quebecois from the north love the sun.

 

[M.W.]

Not in many other countries and societies. Japan does not turn housing into a commodity. Check their real estate price development over the past 20 years. Neither do most Central European countries. Price fluctuations exist and their supply and demand imbalances but not to the crazy extent of all those markets where housing has turned from a safe place for humans into a trading asset.

Your argument is showing the exact opposite in markets where you have zero government control and involvement to regulate things go totally out of bound. Look at the Hong Kong property market, Singapore. London, Melbourne, Sidney, Auckland, Vancouver, Toronto ...those are the world's most expensive real estate markets and speculators until recently were allowed to trade housing like carpets at an Arabian night market. There are a few notable exceptions such as Zurich but most of the extremely speculative and high priced markets are in domiciles that don't protect renters and encourage speculation and hoarding.

Housing has always been a commodity.

When local government authorities interfere in the housing market builders stop building and the condition of the housing stock deteriorates and rents and price of homes skyrocket.
NYC is the prime example. Rents are the highest in the nation. People in rent regulated apartments are literally stuck in their apartments. They cannot afford to move to unregulated apartments. For years the net housing stock declined when housing properties were abandoned or changed to other purpose was greater than new housing built. Builders did not build because of fear of rent regulation.

 

[M.W.]

That is definitely an important factor to consider.

You missed a major factor, which is mass immigration. The Anglo housing-spiral countries - US, Can, Aus, UK to a slightly lesser degree - have rapidly growing populations thanks to their Great Replacement migration policies. This drives up housing demand and thus prices; Florida, for example, has to build a city the size of Orlando every single year just to keep up.

 

[ElCubano]

If you live in a place that is not lined with condo towers blocking beach access. Even then parking permits are not free and sometimes only available to residents of the town.

I'm lucky where I live beach access and parking is still free, although space is limited. Especially when the Canadians are in town. Man do the old wrinklies Quebecois from the north love the sun.

I can ride my bike to the beach, all day everyday.

 

[ElCubano]

You missed a major factor, which is mass immigration. The Anglo housing-spiral countries - US, Can, Aus, UK to a slightly lesser degree - have rapidly growing populations thanks to their Great Replacement migration policies. This drives up housing demand and thus prices; Florida, for example, has to build a city the size of Orlando every single year just to keep up.

I am a witness to the housing growth in south Florida. You would think they overbuilt and housing/rental prices would subside some but yet they keep building and building and prices keep climbing.

 

[zdreg]

Not in many other countries and societies. Japan does not turn housing into a commodity. Check their real estate price development over the past 20 years. Neither do most Central European countries. Price fluctuations exist and their supply and demand imbalances but not to the crazy extent of all those markets where housing has turned from a safe place for humans into a trading asset.

Your argument is showing the exact opposite in markets where you have zero government control and involvement to regulate things go totally out of bound. Look at the Hong Kong property market, Singapore. London, Melbourne, Sidney, Auckland, Vancouver, Toronto ...those are the world's most expensive real estate markets and speculators until recently were allowed to trade housing like carpets at an Arabian night market. There are a few notable exceptions such as Zurich but most of the extremely speculative and high priced markets are in domiciles that don't protect renters and encourage speculation and hoarding.

Ask yourself who benefits from controls?

In New York City newcomers have to pay very high rents because there is not enough supply . Renters charge high rents to roommates because it is difficult remove them legally. Baby boomers, who you don't like , live in large two /three bedroom long after their children have left the nest. They can't downsize because smaller apts cost more than their existing rentals. What are you going to do. Kick them out?There are more distortions. Supply shortages or low vacancy rates exist at all levels except the highest . Therefore prices don't go down. It all the result of city regulation which disincentivizes building. Regulations favoring labor unions makes it 20% more expensive to build in NYC which is passed on to the renters. There is no inherent right granted to anybody to live in NYC/Toronto.

Controls never work, All it does is raise prices because supply is not meeting demand and the supply will not increase enough if builders feel they will be subject to future controls Remember the promises of politicians are worthless.

e.g. Miami has always been a boom or bust towithout regulation. That is the way markets work.

 

[SunTrader]

I can ride my bike to the beach, all day everyday.

Me as well. But sometimes I like to do things on the way to or from the beach, that a bicycle is not "conducive" to do so.

 

[piezoe]

Capitalist countries have rule of law in which private property is protected and contracts enforced. You cannot have capitalism without the rule of law. Obviously in mixed economies not every road leads to Venezuela. It is a matter of degree.

Almost all economies, including China and Russia, are mixed to some substantial degree.

Do you have a penchant for over simplification of rather complex problems? The United States is by far the most capitalist of all large nations; yet you complain of socialism in the U.S.? We all complain of over regulation and too much government interference, not recognizing that over regulation and government interference invariably arose in response to an underlying problem. You raise valid points, but seldom, so far as I can see, offer any suggestion of what would be a better approach to solve the underlying problem in preference to what has become a distortion-causing overreach of government you abhor. You could of course fall back on unbridled capitalism of a simpler time. We have ample history to instruct us as to where that is likely to lead, so I would expect little enthusiasm for that approach. ..

 

[ElCubano]

Me as well. But sometimes I like to do things on the way to or from the beach, that a bicycle is not "conducive" to do so.