there certainly are pros and cons for everything. I actually don't mind the high gas prices since it does get reinvested in the upkeep and building of freeways and roads and such. Actually, I would love to see more of it going to public transportation.
And there are other costs we don't have here - like major heating costs in the winter. And fresh produce is to be had all the time...
Glad that you enjoy your new home!
I see what you're saying. I would have loved a public transport option to the freeways, and this is coming from someone who loves driving. Traffic can be unbearable at times there and such a waste of time and energy, just sitting in a car burning gas, waiting to inch forward. One of my least favorite things to do. I wouldn't mind spending some money to avoid it.
What about those who do mind though? I'm one of them actually, and this kind of thing drives a lot of people like me out of the state (although this particular one plays a negligent part in my decision). Or how about those who are so tight financially that this one sends them over the brink into a debt spiral? There are plenty of those in my old neighborhood. Quite a few of them were even living in their cars on the street, and they're still being forced to pay these taxes even if they only want to move their cars to avoid parking tickets, let alone travel somewhere.
As with any time the initiation of force is used like is being done with these fuel taxes or policies that drive up housing costs, there are unintended consequences to such government policies, and it's always the poor who suffer most from them. It's not exclusive to the poor either. Everybody who just simply wants to travel to and from work or school or wherever must pay extra for it, with no guarantee that the money will be used in any beneficial way. Everyone must also pay exorbitant housing costs due to various policies as well, and that's the really big one in California. It's why we're seeing all of these people who would otherwise be middle class living in their cars and are basically homeless.
Anyway, it's something to think about. Thanks for the comment.
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Well, I have a bit of a different take on the high housing costs. I don't think that they are coming from government policies but rather from greed. Pure and simple greed. Not just of the builders, but also of those who can buy more than one house.
A lot has to do with the builders. I.e., there are incentives out right now to build low and medium income housing in San Diego but builders will not make much money on them, so they build luxury housing instead.
And there are plenty who will come to SoCal because they are tired of snow and ice and are willing to pay those prices.
It is a bit of a two-way street. Builders asking for a high price (or a homeowner who wants to sell). Instead of everyone saying "No thank you, we come back when it is affordable," someone will say yes and a new, higher-value is established.
While I am not a huge friend of over regulations and all of that, I do believe that most people are not going to do the right thing. Especially not corporation out for profit. If they would, we wouldn't have polluted rivers, soil, air, oceans. People getting sick from chemicals they are exposed to at work and on and on and on.
I don't love paying taxes. Well, at least not supporting the way most of our taxes are spent. But I find less fault how they are spent in CA then on the federal level. At least we did clean up the air here. If you would have come to LA 30 years ago, you couldn't have been breathing the air. It was crazy bad. Like a black cloud over the whole city. And lots of kids with all kinds of respiratory diseases.
It was laws and regulations that changed that.
Anyhow, I wished we would live in a world where we don't need those kind of rules (as in government)and I agree with you that many of them are stupid.
Wished I had more time - but have things to do...
The luxury housing is the only thing that can be profitably built in San Diego. It costs too much to build middle and low income housing, otherwise the builders would be all over it. Without profitability, the houses can't be built, and really nothing in our economy could function without it for that matter.
The federal reserve did a study on this issue over a decade ago nationwide. They found that in most places, the cost to buy a home was a slight premium over the labor and materials required to build a new one. In places that this was not true, they found that restrictive zoning and other government interferences caused the prices to rise considerably since those restrictions artificially restricted supply from meeting demand. When this happens prices simply have to climb in response to the resulting shortage.
A couple obvious examples in San Diego are open space easements and height/density restrictions where people would actually like to build (since that's where people want to live, near the water). It's a popular stance that greed is what causes prices to soar, but it's almost always a false assumption, and this isn't an exception. If the housing could be offered cheaper, the greedy developers would undercut their competitors to gain the market share and the prices would fall accordingly. If it was greed driving prices higher, the same problem would happen everywhere else, and it just doesn't. It's only in certain places. Now a slight premium should be expected in a desirable place with nice weather and beaches, but not to the degree that we're seeing in SD, and this rule certainly doesn't apply an hour inland in East County where the weather is probably some of the most extreme anywhere (extreme desert heat isn't exactly better than frigid cold IMO), but prices are many multiples of similar properties in other states.
As far as regulation goes, I'm not exactly opposed to it, I just think government is particularly bad at doing it, since their only means of operation is through laws and their enforcement, which is by definition an act of violence, or at least the threat of it if you don't comply. I also have observed that the more money you give them, the worse they seem to perform. Did you know that California still has the worst air quality in the nation? This is while being the most heavily regulated state for air quality with the highest expenditures in this area. Most of the rest of the states use the less restrictive federal rules and still end up better off somehow. You hope you're paying extra for clean air, but you're really just paying for someone who is accountable to no one, and who will almost certainly flush the money down a toilet in an effort to look like they're "doing something" so that they can win reelection. All the while, regulatory capture through lobbyists will ensure that only the big corporations can afford to compete in the face of the new regulations, which create barriers to entry for small businesses that can be insurmountable. I mean, I could go on all night talking about the many ways in which California's maze of regulations make your life more difficult while providing none of the proclaimed benefits, but I too need to get some sleep...
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Thank you for your response. I will think about all of it. I am in agreement with lots of it and some, I need to research more.
And El Cajon is crazy hot - but nothing like Phoenix 😂
Some good stuff in this article confirming what I've said about zoning laws in the state. Unlike the author, I don't think prop 13 had anything to do with it though. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-california-housing-crisis/
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