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To: risen_feenix; AmusedBystander; metmom; Brooklyn Attitude; Thank You Rush; caddie
guys, you are looking at this with an American background, ignoring that the circumstances in the UK are different --> though the proposed solution is stupid, they have a legitimate reason to be aggrieved

gEtting angry about this without seeing the difference between the UK and the USA is like the Democrats asking why the USA can't be like Norway (hint Norway is a country of 5 million in a far smaller space and far more demographically coherent)

In the case of the UK tehre is very little space in the south-east where the bulk of the economy is. London housing is constrained by the "Green belt" - a wide belt around central london that you can't build in. So housing is scarce. This it UTTERLY unlike the US.

Also factor in that in recent years the overall number of new homes built has dropped below the 200,000 a year level that is widely believed to be necessary to keep up with population growth.

Price to income ratio in London is 10:1 -- in New York Manhattan it is 8:1. Plus also London doesn't have the tall housing blocks as in New york

Finally, the UK implemented socialist policies so the boomer generation got jobs and guaranteed pensions for life - fixed benefits pensions that are the same reason US police forces are bankrupt.

Many elderly brits rent out their houses and live in Spain. The rents go up and up in London and the housing isn't increasing.

hong Kong is worse, but it has the tight communal blocks (basically vertical slums) - London doesn't have this

add in to this the blight that zero-hours contracts give, another socialist policy that the expense of hiring people is so high (as you can't fire them), that people under 40 don't get permanent jobs, so are constantly itinerant.

Baby boomers in the UK when they were below 30 spent up to 15% of their income on renting -- millenials below 30 need to spend 25% of their income on renting

or moreThe better scheme would be to destroy the defined pensions, reduce them, then also make it mandatory for properties to be used, not held out to rent to rcih Russian oligarchs. And free up the job market

But these are all solutions for a very south-England problem. It is not directly relevant to any US situation

28 posted on 05/09/2018 12:10:35 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: Cronos

I bet the fertility rate for native Caucasians is low enough so not to be the problem.


29 posted on 05/09/2018 12:21:13 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Cronos

“British Millennials and their peers in other developed countries have fallen behind older generations when it comes to wealth, income and home ownership, a trend that politicians have been slow to address in the wake of the global financial crisis.”

The title of the article and the article itself is about income and wealth. That is what the other posts are about. Your response is mainly about housing, a related but different issue. The Resolution foundation solution to the problems created by Socialism is (surprise) more socialism. Rent controls? Really? Where as that ever worked? If there a severe lack of housing build some in the “green belt”, or go vertical, or clear out the welfare wogs sucking the system dry and taking up space. Its a matter of choices.


31 posted on 05/09/2018 4:58:01 AM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (The first step in ending the war on white people is to recognize it exists.)
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