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In 1947 when the first wave of houses in Levittown were built on Long Island they sold for $6,990 each. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator that is $84,600 in today's money. Show me where you can buy a new house for $84k in a major metro today. In some ways life was harder in the past, in some ways it was better.
There are three things that prevent young people today from pursuing the middle class lifestyle their parents had. The costs of housing, college education and health insurance have all been increasing faster than inflation ever since the end of WWII and have now become so expensive, relative to what they were in the past, that young people are being priced out of the middle class lifestyle. If we can fix that we fix America.
The cause of this, and the fix is quite simple. As the population has grown, new housing and college capacities have simply not kept up. For example, the state I live in sees 3-5 new residents for every ONE bedroom permitted. Yet, when you go to get a permit, one can expect 2-3 years of red tape, wetland and critical area studies, can't cut down this tree or that tree, can't displace some certain species of gophers, etc etc. Then worse yet, you have those who already have their homes and enjoy their bloated evaluations, fighting any new developments/homes.
The problem is not that we have it so hard. The problem is that we have it so easy that many of us find it necessary to make it hard on all those around us. If we had it hard, we'd have better things to do.
Definitely is an issue. I read about a Target in Los Angeles, Hollywood I believe that sat half-finished for decades because a neighborhood console fought it. Looking at the area, there was nothing there, it was rundown. So much so that the brand new target(now open) looks out of place.
LA's issue is that there was so much pushback against building any new apartments higher than a certain height. That's why it has the traffic problems that it has. You can't be the largest suburbia in the US and expect to be an efficient city.
los angeles doesnt need highrise garbage. we have enough people and traffic. its urban sprawl and we like it that way.
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