Imagine if the cost of food had increased like the cost of housing.

[chem1st]

We all need to eat.

 

Unfortunately we all need a roof over our heads too, and generation serf/homeless/slave have been royally screwed.

 

The current generation of young adults and the next generations have had their living standards destroyed, very few have access to affordable home-ownership, and very few have access to affordable rental housing. Even council housing is now very expensive.

 

Suppose food had increased in price, and the homeowning generations that preceded the coming generations faced such a mammoth increase in living costs, as the current one has in it's housing costs (against falling real terms wages [and benefits]!)

 

Many homeowning boomers do not understand why their children and grandchildren are near destitute and cannot get on in life. They sometimes confuse themselves and put it down to electronic gadgets that cost but one weeks wages. The real reason is the cost of housing (alongside poor wages - it's no wonder care home staff mistreat their subects, they themselves are poorly paid and can ill afford a reliable form of transport to get to work on time or care for themselves!)

 

http://www.cityam.com/article/imagine-if-price-food-had-gone-fast-homes

 

IMAGINE, dear reader, that grocery prices had increased at the same rate as house prices since 1971, a frightening thought for a Friday morning. A pint of milk would cost £2.61 (compared with 49p today); a chicken would cost £51.18; a bunch of six bananas would cost £8.47; a box of six eggs would cost £5.01; a loaf of sliced white bread would cost £4.36; and a leg of lamb would cost £53.18. These figures, compiled by Shelter, are shocking; Britain would face catastrophe were these today’s prices.

 

The point, of course, is to illustrate the extent of house price increases, and the over-valuation of property, which is now around 20 per cent nationally and far more than that in London and the commuter belt.

 

But there is a difference between consumer goods and food and homes. The latter are assets, and these naturally tend to rise over time, not fall. A good rule of thumb is to assume that house prices, when starting from a fairly valued base, would usually go up on average by the same amount as nominal GDP every year, in the absence of distortions. Rising food prices are entirely bad, yet rising asset prices boost owners’ wealth.

 

Such caveats aside, there has been far too little housebuilding for years, and prices are hugely over-valued. We need to build, build and build more – and for that we need a real, radical liberalisation of the planning rules.

 

AGAINST MALTHUS

PEOPLE, not commodities, land or even capital, are the ultimate resource of an economy, as the US academic Julian Simon famously put it. Without talented, motivated, skilled and educated individuals, nothing is possible; capital itself is a product of labour.

 

Human ingenuity is able to overcome everything. Malthusians who dream of a shrinking population and who reflexively believe that every country is over-populated are wrong.

 

This is always a lesson that nations suffering from shrinking populations relearn at great cost: all the productivity growth in the world is rarely enough to compensate for the psychological and actual effect of a declining population, perhaps because there are hidden economies of scale in denser populations. The problems that go with increasing numbers of residents – the need for greater infrastructure and more homes – can always be fixed; but a shrinking population with a declining workforce and fewer consumers is a nightmare, and usually leads to relentless, debilitating, economic and cultural decline.

 

The current generations are priced out of housing and are in turn priced out of breeding, the future of the UK is very worrying, we need people but we cannot create our own, were it not for immigration our population would be shrinking (and the amount of retired relative to working age would be even higher!)

 

Thank God for immigration, just remember, it won't last. And housing costs will have to fall, as food prices will rise (when the immigrants leave our food factories for better pastures).

[Happ Hazzard]

Why should we thank God for immigration? Housing would be cheaper without the increased demand due to immigration. The population shrinking would be a good thing, wouldn't it?

[phantom309]

It is not how much you have it what you do with what you have, our eldest grandson as done the same as we did in the 60s he went without things to save their deposit and they have had their own house just over 2 years now so it is possible to buy a house these days it is just not as easy as it was in the 20 years previously.

[MrSmith]

Why should we thank God for immigration? Housing would be cheaper without the increased demand due to immigration. The population shrinking would be a good thing, wouldn't it?

 

He doesn't get that immigration is part of the problem when it comes to house prices, he doesn't understand that as we increase the population we can import more food from poor countries but we can't import houses and because our land mass isn’t increasing house prices will inevitably go up..

[chem1st]

He doesn't get that immigration is part of the problem when it comes to house prices, he doesn't understand that as we increase the population we can import more food from poor countries but we can't import houses and because our land mass isn’t increasing house prices will inevitably go up..

 

The lack of housing is the problem. We can build 25 million more houses and have our population exceed 100 million, no problem.

 

We could increase our food production too, by using land more efficiently (in terms of land efficiency, not labour efficiency)

[MrSmith]

The lack of housing is the problem. We can build 25 million more houses and have our population exceed 100 million, no problem.

 

We could increase our food production too, by using land more efficiently (in terms of land efficiency, not labour efficiency)

 

Yep if we are all willing to live like this.

[psynuk]

the land mass is huge though, its the fact that its divided so disproportionally which is a reason why the cost of houses is so expensive, why should prince phillip have cornwall handed to him?

[chem1st]

Yep if we are all willing to live like this.

 

There is a shed load of land near me, and some of it used to rear chickens, and they have lots of space. Lots of the land is idle. We could build housing, with gardens. We could create more allotments. More factories, more leisure facilities, more shopping centres.

 

We only live like caged animals because we lack access to land.

 

Whilst idle reniters live lie this;

 

http://thetruthiswhere.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/queens-sandringham-estate-receives-7m-farming-subsidies-from-eu/

[eastbank]

The lack of housing is the problem. We can build 25 million more houses and have our population exceed 100 million, no problem.

 

We could increase our food production too, by using land more efficiently (in terms of land efficiency, not labour efficiency)

 

some kids are renting off mum and dad...so keeping it in the family...housing was once very cheap...and some took the gamble to put their cash into property...now they are minted...

some missed the boat...but that's life..

as for lack of housing...they are building a new estate on the old orgreave coking plant...looks nice..

[monkey104]

Lack of housing is not the problem, it's the lack of family cohesion.

In many countries, including some in Europe there are as many as 3 generations living in the same house.

Parents bring up children, the children then have their own children and the grandparents look after them while their children go to work and support them.

Properties are remortgaged to extend.

Over here if a young girl wants to move out of the family home she gets pregnant, showered with benefits and a place to live.

 

---------- Post added 15-06-2013 at 14:54 ----------

 

There is a shed load of land near me, and some of it used to rear chickens, and they have lots of space. Lots of the land is idle. We could build housing, with gardens. We could create more allotments. More factories, more leisure facilities, more shopping centres.

 

We only live like caged animals because we lack access to land.

 

Whilst idle reniters live lie this;

 

http://thetruthiswhere.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/queens-sandringham-estate-receives-7m-farming-subsidies-from-eu/

 

Move to France.

There is loads of land there.