Quote of the Day
We are just at the VERY beginning of the scaling back process. With the country losing jobs like crazy right now, people who want to scale back might not even be able to because they are just trying to cling to what they have right now. Think about all those MILLIONS of people who moved…
We are just at the VERY beginning of the scaling back process. With the country losing jobs like crazy right now, people who want to scale back might not even be able to because they are just trying to cling to what they have right now. Think about all those MILLIONS of people who moved to the Sun Belt over the last decade and bought those energy sucking houses in the deserts of Phoenix, Las Vegas, etc. Many of them are trapped. Their houses are worth half, their electricity costs are through the roof and they now find themselves in cities which were born of the notion that bigger is better. We don’t hear about the shift as much yet, because those people aren’t yet packing up in any serious numbers (my few friends aside) because they are just trying to figure out what comes next. I guarantee you though, that a lot of people feel trapped right now in a lifestyle which they now realize is not sustainable for the long run. It won’t be until the economy turns around that many of these same people will be able to do anything about it though. This is not a blip, I don’t think. This is an earth shattering tectonic plate shift that will reshape the way people view their lives all over the world. I think so anyway. I also think that it’s necessary, and will ultimately be a great thing for the human race.
— by 11217 in Brooklyn Rental Market More Stable Than Manhattan
11217 – perfectly said!
Sam- travel upstate much? drive through some of the country roads up there and you see what is “real poverty” how about the back woods of Alabama? um that’s poverty.
One might argue that the poverty in the South Bronx is nothing compared to the poverty people experience in the places I mention above.
If anyone seriously thinks this is a tectonic shift, they’ve either been hitting the Obama Bong a little too hard or hanging around with Millennials. The vast majority of Americans don’t live in the Sunbelt (and don’t live in New York), so extrapolating from either isn’t going to work. Should I extrapolate from the parts of Louisiana and Texas that, until last month, were going gangbusters precisely because of the money the oil industry was raking in? As far as this being a global phenomenon, “sustainability,” as it’s usually used in the States, is a luxury, the sort of thing people can worry about when they aren’t worried about housing, staying alive, finding food and running away from bombs, missiles, pirates and guys with machetes. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be striving toward these things, but let’s just say I wouldn’t be placing large bets on it.
Yes, lots of people are hurting … but the human memory tends to be very short. If people learned anything from bubbles and cycles … well then bubbles wouldn’t be cyclical now would they?
Indeed, if gas prices stay low for longer than six months and if this winter–as predicted by the Farmer’s almanac–proves to be record-breaking brittle, you can bet that most Americans are going to put environmental issues on the back burner once again.
One more thing, electricity costs are actually pretty low in Las vegas. they have something there called the Hoover Dam. That sucker generates a lot of hydro-electric power, which is completely clean energy. We have to burn coal and oil for most of our own power here in da apple.
My prior posting was too terse. This is a very well-written and thoughtful QOTD. I do think it is a little apocalyptic, (I may have mis-spelled that) for my tastes. I have travelled pretty extensively throughout the country and I have found that it is a very large and for the most part prosperous land. The greatest concentrations of poverty actually are right here in places like Brooklyn and the Bronx. Folks in Phoenix and Las Vegas are A-OK believe me. They are not pining away for the northeast corridor.
It is not a tectonic shift it is a severe recession. Big woop. The best thing now is to hold on to your job, pay off your credit cards, and if you find a sweet, cheap, little brownstone, grab it!
the 2012 paradigm shift. new world order of green consciousness?
I like what the Waltz with Bashir filmmaker said: “I hope that when they grow up and see this film, everything they see will appear to them like something from another world, just another animated movie.” I can only hope the same for my little one.
“I’m very well aware that not everyone loves Park Slope, dh.
Sometimes I’m just exuberant in my love of it, and that seems to turn some people off.”
I know – just playing around!!!
lol thanks slopefarm. thinking of that just now made me chuckle too
*rob*
I remember that Hannah Montana remark.
i’ve seriously decided to just turn a blind-eye to the whole economic crisis. woop-de-doo. ill just add it to laundry list of other ridiculous catastrophic things ive gone thru in nyc so far,(9-11, blackout of 03, now the great depression 2.0)! bring it universe!
*rob*