Why does everyone want L.A. to be affordable? (houses, wages)

[Western Urbanite]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Many people are competing with people overseas too so there's that . Also robots will be coming for a lot of jobs soon

Plus COL relative to wages is just generally higher. While quality of life has certainly improved over the past 50 years, people could buy a house in LA in the 60s for $30,000-$40,000 (roughly a quarter-million today.) Nowadays, it's hard to find anything decent for double that.

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Many people are competing with people overseas too so there's that . Also robots will be coming for a lot of jobs soon

true. I think our society had a golden age from about the 1950s through the 1990s.

our future , if all goes well, will be dependent on robots to do everything. most humans won't have a job but instead live off some sort of basic government assistance.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

true. I think our society had a golden age from about the 1950s through the 1990s.

our future , if all goes well, will be dependent on robots to do everything. most humans won't have a job but instead live off some sort of basic government assistance.

Many people are talking about self driving cars.
But there is also talk about self driving public transit buses and self driving cargo trucks .

Think about how many people work as commercial drivers alone it's a very big industry .

There are about 3.5 million truck drivers in the US

[singlegirlinaz]

Originally Posted by MItoBH

If LA were "affordable", aka, just damn cheaper, even more people would want to live here and it would be unbearable. I'd rather just have a job that pays me a great salary to permit me to have my pick of a nice 2 bedroom apartment in a beautiful, fun, safe neighborhood. I reckon, that would set me back at least $3500/month. So forget affordable city, that's never going to happen. Most of us with the education and skill sets in demand just want a salary high enough to be able to afford the market rate rents.

When you say more people moving in would make it unbearable, what about now? Isn't LA already unbearable with the traffic congestion and crowded conditions?

I used to live there when I was younger and it's much more congested now if you drive. The nice thing is if you live right in the city you don't have drive so much but if you live in an outlying area where it's cheaper, there isn't a lot of transit options.

I see it this way, people who live in LA pay a premium for the higher pay, good weather, beaches, culture, and so much to offer. But an average person who works and has to commute every day in all that traffic might not think the premium prices are worth it so they often look at cheaper cities to live out of state like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Salt Lake, or Denver. This causes LA to lose average people and then only the super wealthy can afford the high cost of things.

[69Charger]

they often look at cheaper cities to live out of state like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Salt Lake, or Denver. This causes LA to lose average people and then only the super wealthy can afford the high cost of things.

True, but most Aerospace and entertainment related jobs don't exist in those cities. Those are 2 main economic drivers in L.A.

[victorhernandez]

Originally Posted by Western Urbanite

Plus COL relative to wages is just generally higher. While quality of life has certainly improved over the past 50 years, people could buy a house in LA in the 60s for $30,000-$40,000 (roughly a quarter-million today.) Nowadays, it's hard to find anything decent for double that.

How were wages in the 60s though? I bet much lower as well

[FirebirdCamaro1220]

Originally Posted by victorhernandez

How were wages in the 60s though? I bet much lower as well

The median worker in the US in 1965 earned $4,700/yr in '65 dollars

[Western Urbanite]

Originally Posted by FirebirdCamaro1220

The median worker in the US in 1965 earned $4,700/yr in '65 dollars

That's about $36,000 per year today, which is only $12,000 per year less than the median LA wage today. Therefore, home prices have increased relative to wages (because we just aren't building enough.)

[Western Urbanite]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

true. I think our society had a golden age from about the 1950s through the 1990s.

I disagree--I wouldn't want to live in a previous time period, and love modern day LA, but America certainly had fewer competitors back then (which isn't a good thing from a global perspective.)

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

our future , if all goes well, will be dependent on robots to do everything. most humans won't have a job but instead live off some sort of basic government assistance.

Perhaps UBI, universal stock ownership, or a shorter work week could be part of the solution, but every labor-saving machine in history has simple freed up labor to work in other sectors--not reduced time spent working.

[Western Urbanite]

Originally Posted by singlegirlinaz

When you say more people moving in would make it unbearable, what about now? Isn't LA already unbearable with the traffic congestion and crowded conditions?

I don't think it is unbearable, and indeed the only way to ease home prices is to build more. The only way to make this work without harming QOL, however, is to build TOD and mixed use, which is fortunately what is happening.