Fifteen Signs That All Is Not Well

[Jccarlton]

In new jobs, there's quality and quantity. We need both:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... eally-fast
Over and over it's just getting worse. I would just like to see some real light at the end of the tunnel, some hope that things will work out. I want to know that there is a future that isn't dark:
http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/201 ... erica.html
We can't continue to have only 47% of the adult population working full time and expect to avoid the debt trap:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government ... l-time-job

[Carl White]

It's pretty clear what the trend has been. And then there are the additional challenges the world faces, such as the inevitable exhaustion of easily extracted, high quality oil. Hope for a practical alternative source of energy is why I started visiting this site, but it just never seems to arrive.

I've been trying to think of how to give my family's children and grandchildren a future. One thing that needs to go is the idea of the nuclear family in its own home. A multigenerational home gives an extended family a chance to save and build up capital in a way being spread out, always paying mortgages, does not. Multigenerational homes mean someone can lose work without an immediate crisis, because other family members are working. Multigenerational homes mean reduced costs caring for elderly members (no retirement home expenses) and reduced costs caring for children (grandparents instead of daycare).

Although unfortunately they also mean less ability to move to where the jobs are. Given the way so many jobs are temporary now, maybe individual family members could leave, work, then return with whatever they could save.

That's what I've come up with so far. Accumulate capital. Land, maybe shares in large infrastructure companies. The railroads aren't going away, for example. Hang together as an extended family.

[hanelyp]

The economy will recover when (if) the kleptocrats are drop kicked out of gooberment, along with their politics of envy and sticking it to the 'rich'.

[JoeP]

(snip)...
I've been trying to think of how to give my family's children and grandchildren a future. One thing that needs to go is the idea of the nuclear family in its own home. A multigenerational home gives an extended family a chance to save and build up capital in a way being spread out, always paying mortgages, does not. Multigenerational homes mean someone can lose work without an immediate crisis, because other family members are working. Multigenerational homes mean reduced costs caring for elderly members (no retirement home expenses) and reduced costs caring for children (grandparents instead of daycare).

Although unfortunately they also mean less ability to move to where the jobs are. Given the way so many jobs are temporary now, maybe individual family members could leave, work, then return with whatever they could save.

That's what I've come up with so far. Accumulate capital. Land, maybe shares in large infrastructure companies. The railroads aren't going away, for example. Hang together as an extended family.

Prior to the latter half of the 20th century, such home arrangements were pretty common. Often three generations sharing a roof.

We see this trend starting again, in a way. Adult children are once again living in the home ("the basement"). Unfortunately, they aren't the primary breadwinners...they are relying on their aging parents to provide income. I expect, once Obamacare and the general collapse of the economy do enough damage to Medicare, the prevalent use of assisted-living and nursing homes for the elderly will also revert back to home-care in large parts. In my own family, I already feel these pressures to change, trying to take care of grandparents and parents while raising kids.

A bit of a tangent -- I've speculated as to what will happen with all the suburb housing around Detroit and like places. All that abandoned real estate. Will it eventually see some kind of transformation or will it actually be cleared and the ground reclaimed for farmland once again?

[ladajo]

This model is very prevalent in the 'recent' immigrant population. It was the same years ago.

I wonder if it will follow the same trend; as families establish and intgrate into wider society they distribute from the home to their own.

[hanelyp]

A bit of a tangent -- I've speculated as to what will happen with all the suburb housing around Detroit and like places. All that abandoned real estate. Will it eventually see some kind of transformation or will it actually be cleared and the ground reclaimed for farmland once again?

Best case starts with such abandoned areas being disincorporated from the big city with its regulations. Then a resurgence may take place in the effective free(r) enterprise zone.

[ladajo]

A pure cost benefit decision. But the cost may well be driven to be unmanageable due to ground contamination by heavy residential use.

[williatw]

A bit of a tangent -- I've speculated as to what will happen with all the suburb housing around Detroit and like places. All that abandoned real estate. Will it eventually see some kind of transformation or will it actually be cleared and the ground reclaimed for farmland once again?

Best case starts with such abandoned areas being disincorporated from the big city with its regulations. Then a resurgence may take place in the effective free(r) enterprise zone.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang ... t-detroit/

China's Newest City: We Call It 'Detroit'

Detroit, broke with almost no prospects for recovery, is the fourth most popular U.S. destination for Chinese real estate investors. In fact, it was bad news—the city’s July 18 bankruptcy filing—that triggered renewed interest. “While the bankruptcy is viewed as a bad thing elsewhere, it raised the exposure level of Detroit’s real estate market in China,” says Evonne Xu, a Michigan attorney catering to Chinese purchasers. Middle Kingdom, meet Motown.

Chinese shoppers can’t resist a bargain. Where else can you buy a two-story home in the U.S. for $39? China Central Television, the state broadcaster, in March reported that two houses in Detroit cost the same as a pair of leather shoes.

[DeltaV]

Although unfortunately they also mean less ability to move to where the jobs are. Given the way so many jobs are temporary now, maybe individual family members could leave, work, then return with whatever they could save.

With recent revelations adding to doubts about online security, old predictions of telecommuting and telepresence becoming commonplace are even more remote. If tele_ was trustworthy and reliable, what an impact that would have.

Most companies are unwilling to put trade secrets out on the world wild web without better security (putting aside exceptions such as Lockheed and the F-35 data thefts).

They don't seem to have as much concern about customer data. Witness today's Target card-reader hacking revelation (whew, missed it by 6 days). Online genomes, anyone?

[hanelyp]

Where else can you buy a two-story home in the U.S. for $39?

With what kind of taxes and other liabilities? $39 for a house in any kind of shape sounds too good to be true.

[Diogenes]

Where else can you buy a two-story home in the U.S. for $39?

With what kind of taxes and other liabilities? $39 for a house in any kind of shape sounds too good to be true.

If someone GIVES you a house in Detroit, you need to run away. Fast!

If you become the property owner, you inherit liabilities. Your free gift may eventually return you a negative value.

[williatw]

Where else can you buy a two-story home in the U.S. for $39?

With what kind of taxes and other liabilities? $39 for a house in any kind of shape sounds too good to be true.

If someone GIVES you a house in Detroit, you need to run away. Fast!

If you become the property owner, you inherit liabilities. Your free gift may eventually return you a negative value.

The Chinese are masters at playing the long game wouldn't underestimate them. The chance to get a big toe hold in America on the cheap by buying land, property, maybe sitting on it for decades if thats what it takes. Understand they are doing the same thing other places like the Ukraine.

[JoeP]

Remember the news stories of the Chinese building infrastructure both in China and in Africa without any clear need or residents to live there? So maybe buying stuff in Detroit is part of the same ingenious plan (or stupid central-planning mistake).

The Chinese did buy a very large semiconductor plant near where I live (formerly an IBM fab that used to be state of the art in the early 1990s). It sits empty. The local politicians that facilitated the sale to them extracted promises of many jobs, but perhaps that was never part of the plan since they do nothing at all with the property except own it -- as far as I know.