Ferrous

I wonder if there'd be a different prefix for a Martian geologists. I suppose they could be called areologists?

If you fault squatters in the midst of a homelessness crisis where upwards of 20 houses are left vacant for every unhoused person, you are either a landlord, or you have been oriented by the landowning class to ignore the massive economic and societal advantage that landlords have. To say that the issue comes down to squatters, and not to the hedge funds that are buying up streets-worth of housing at a time, is an affront to working-class people everywhere who are struggling more and more to obtain a home.

I say fuck yeah to squatters. Based. That is the "risk" that comes with being a landlord, and sometimes they strike out, so they can get fucked.

The rich and powerful of the nation are coordinating to usher in fascism at lightning speed, and you're worried about the 500 pinkos who won't vote Biden because of his complicity in genocide? You've taken the same side as MAGA in blaming all the country's problems on leftists. It is misdirection. You've been effortlessly oriented to be so wickedly invested in American electoralism, that you now have zero reservations about voting for candidates who both want genocide.

In 30 years, will you still be militantly democrat when the choice is between a dem who wants 5 genocides and a republican who wants 10?

Fascism Is Possible Not in Spite of Liberal Capitalism, but Because of It

Edit: Also, Musk could continue doing these monthly payments for the next 460 years without making another cent ever again. This notion of "wasting his money" is silly. Each month takes a mere 0.02% hit on his account.

This only logical conclusion to this naive utilitarianism is reaching a point 30 years from now when liberals will be frothing at the mouths in support of the dem candidate who wants 5 genocides as opposed to the republican who wants 10.

There is a legend about a certain species of caterpillar that can only cross the threshold of metamorphosis by seeing its future butterfly. Proletarian subjectivity does not evolve by incremental steps but requires non-linear leaps, especially moral self-recognition through solidarity with the struggle of a distant people, even when this contradicts short-term self-interest, as in the famous cases of Lancashire cotton workers’ enthusiasm for Lincoln and later for Gandhi. Socialism, in other words, requires non-utilitarian actors, whose ultimate motivations and values arise from structures of feeling that others would deem spiritual. Marx rightly scourged romantic humanism in the abstract, but his personal pantheon—Prometheus and Spartacus, Homer, Cervantes, and Shakespeare—affirmed a heroic vision of human possibility that no longer seems to have any purchase in our fallen world.

Mike Davis

I don't see how an investigation into which of the ruling class' two political parties will do more genocide on Palestinians has anything to do with me calling out your dystopian and perverted view of democracy. No one is claiming that Biden will be worse for Palestinians.

Leftist started grumbling about Biden's inadequacy right after he barely won the general. They started yelling after he sold out railway workers. They started sounding alarm bells once his polling started to trail Trump's during the latter's multiple concurrent criminal cases. They started screeching once the genocide started on Oct 7.

For you to sit here now and throw your hands up saying "well its too late! we don't have an alternative!" does nothing other than show how ignorant you have been these past few years. Your head has been in the sand, and this backslide into fascism we're seeing now is the only logical conclusion. The leftists were right about Biden all along, and that is becoming increasingly clear as time goes on.

I agree with all your points. And just to be clear, my position is definitely not "look, idiots, we could solve the home affordability issue if people knew that the midwest existed" but instead just "for some specific people, these small 30s midwest towns could be promising and worth looking into."

Disclaimer: this comment is not arguing that housing is easily obtainable.

If you let them subdivide into smaller lots, or build multiple units on the lot, they could charge less per dwelling unit.

This is exactly why I encourage people to look at older neighborhoods. In certain spots of the midwest, you can find beautiful 30s homes that were built extremely well: brick, less engineered wood, and the triumph of the home over the filter of time - for less than $70k. The surviving 30s houses were built well enough to survive nearly 100 years. On top of that, those old neighborhood designers knew better than today for exactly the reason you mention. They were trying to build affordable housing, and that manifested itself in smaller houses, more neighborly communities, more proximity to your neighbors, and walkable proximity to surviving corner stores/bars. Oftentimes, modern bus routes run on top of the old school tram lines that serviced these neighborhoods.

If you find one of these gems in a town with a big employer, you could feasibly pay down a perfectly adequate and enjoyable home in less than 5 years - assuming you have an in with the company.

Central IL is a good example what for Galesburg, Peoria, Bloomington, and even Morton.

If you manage to secure a salary at Rivian while fixing up a 30s Bloomington house, I feel you'd be in pretty good shape. I understand that securing a good salary is a huge effort though.