The Housing Bubble

“Spare me.”

Obviously you missed my sarcasm.

I caught it. My harsh sarcasm coming thru.

But is it spying when private companies turn over the info?

I don’t think goog, yhoo,fb, etc will turn over the info without government “requesting” it?

work is being done by private contractors like Dell Federal Services, Booz Allen Hamilton,

Who pays them? Can contractors “experiment” and cross the boundary without government knowing it? I suppose it’s possible, but then again it speak a volume about the uselessness of the government than that of the contractors.

Eco - we’re on the same page. That was my reaction to the idea that we spend so much on contractors for military and intelligence purposes. Funny how the same people that often decry “big government” are strangely silent when it comes to big government military and big government intel. It’s like they’re saying “It’s actually ok when we do it.”

As long as they don’t know WHERE I drive, I don’t really care.

Among car enthusiasts the fear is that then they (and your insurance company) will know HOW FAST you drive. But luckily in the USA we respect privacy when it comes to data collection so that shouldn’t be an issue.

will know HOW FAST you drive.

They essentially know this already, with their on-board computers, no? But I don’t see how seeing your yearly mileage will reveal how fast you drive.

They essentially know this already, with their on-board computers, no?

The car knows how fast you are going and some of the latest cars may keep a rolling log and record that if the airbag goes off, but they don’t transmit the information outside the car yet, as far as I know. The assumption is that if they start charging by mileage that they will transmit that continuously to avoid odometer trickery, and once that begins they might as well transmit evidence of law breaking at the same time.

They say the annoying thing about self-driving cars is they will not break the speed limit.

Carl, what about the GPS systems? They know where you are, they display the speed limit of whatever road you’re on, and they calculate how long it will take to arrive at a destination, presumably using all the speed limits along the way. Does the GPS unit know which license plate it’s attached to?

The GPS I’m familiar with is only a receiver of satellite signals and uses them to calculate. I’m not familiar with ones that transmit any information.

Now Slithers, who blows hard about overreaching government, wants the government to track our mileage. Classic.

Remember: Big government is only bad if they do it. When we create a big government standing army larger then the next twelve largest countries combined, why that’s just hunky dory. Nope, no problem with big government there.

/keep your government hands off my medicare

Let’s say you consider yourself a statist progressive…How far do you want to go? What are we progressing towards? What does utopia look like? I really want to know.

The GPS I’m familiar with is only a receiver of satellite signals and uses them to calculate. I’m not familiar with ones that transmit any information.”

if its the GPS in your cell phone it can transmitt info , maybe you won’t even know its doing it ?

if its the GPS in your cell phone it can transmitt info , maybe you won’t even know its doing it ?

That’s true, the phone could send. In fact, that might be a good way around all the car issues if they just used that to figure out how many miles you were really driving each day. That way they could get those pesky walkers and bikers tearing up the roads, too.

That way they could get those pesky walkers and bikers tearing up the roads, too.”

it should go by weight of your vehicle as well as miles driven. Miles driven is gas used I don’t know why they feel they need to track miles ? its just BS

Electric car has to charged and I’m sure utilites add taxes.

In the desperate need of all Government both local and federal for more money I expect all kinds of reasons fees and taxes should go up on the average joe who can’t fight back.

first they make you feel guilty about some problem then they add a tax to make it right.

once that begins they might as well transmit evidence of law breaking at the same time.
At one time one of the toll roads in the NE US would fine truckers who presented a toll ticket indicating they had exceeded the road’s speed limits between the entrance ramp and the exit ramp. No fancy shmancy electronic gizmos either, just the stamped ticket & the fact that the trucker got there.

Let’s say you consider yourself a statist progressive…

Nobody actually considers himself to be a statist progressive. Statist is one of those silly words used by Rush Limbaugh fans who generally can’t define what it means when you ask them.

Who are these straw-man liberals you keep talking about? I live in Seattle, have visited multiple Unitarian churches, taken my kid on protest marches against big government wars, and attended Hempfest at least half a dozen times, and I’ve never met the people you continuously describe as liberals.

The people I know who call themselves liberals are NOTHING like the ones you describe. They hate big government probably more than you do, especially if you acknowledge the Military industrial piece of it.

Face reality - you’re living in a fictional bubble created by Rupert Murdoch. It’s time for you to go nitey nite and let the grownups talk.

True, but as the late Walt Kelly said, through his creation Pogo: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/wp-content/uploads/2005/04/Pogo.jpg

We bitch and moan about illegals, then we hire them to mow our lawns, weed our gardens and scrub our toilets.

If you support Social Security and the debt based consumer economy, you need more people period. Immigration is a very effective way to recruit future debtors.

Too many lazy slobs in this country, unwilling to even clean their own houses and care for their own yards. Disgusting.

we hire them to mow our lawns, weed our gardens and scrub our toilets.

“We”? Speak for yourself dude.

“We”? Speak for yourself dude.

+1. I prefer to scrub my own toilet…

Why doesn’t the GOP propose to make them legal but make citizenship much much tougher like in many countries?

I know the courts will probably disallow this but I think it’s worth a shot. Ileegals would gladly take it IMO.

“I don’t buy that. Illegal labor isn’t that cheap to begin with.”

Then you’re a blithering idiot. It saves large corporations billions, and passes the burden onto the American taxpayer.

I don’t buy that. Illegal labor isn’t that cheap to begin with.

Yes it is. Just look at the meatpacking plants. They used to union and paid a living wage. They used illegals to bust the unions and now they pay minimum wage.

Flood the market with bodies and wages go down. Plus illegals don’t get bennies either.

That’s the game. Flood the market with labor to lower wages. The savings goes towards massive bonuses and new yachts for the greedy pigs.

“meatpacking plants”

And construction.

Back before the great meltdown, most of the local roofing contractors were going out of business.

All of the illegals were undercutting their price by 50% or better. One gal I know paid $4K to “someone her son-in-law knew” to her house re-roofed, when all of the local guys with addresses and phone numbers were bidding it at 10K.

She was selling the place, so she didn’t care about the quality. All she cared about was being able to say the place had a “new roof”.

And the illegals are oftentimes not licensed, don’t pay taxes, etc. They even dump their scrap in the rural areas instead of paying dump fees. It’s despicable.

Throw the Job Creators in jail? Are you mad?!

Exactly.

Laws can be easily gamed. Physical barriers cannot.

If we could secure the border, then we could finally discuss an arrangement which would mutually beneficial to both societies. Without control of the border, discussing illegal immigration solutions is a purely theoretical exercise.

the anchor baby thing going away would help too.

Do these immigrants bring along a job in each pocket?

mathguy,

As I’ve mentioned here many times I lived 30 miles from Matamoros on the Texas side for 5 years. When I moved there, I was a full believer in open borders. By the time I left, I had completely turned around on the subject. This was an area in the buffer zone. Many Mexican nationals could live there without being noticed or deported. I read the papers, went to Mexico often, pretty much dived into the whole scene. I learned that 85% of the health care in that zone was provided by some form of US/state/local government. Welfare is not taken with any shame at all. This isn’t a racial thing; it’s cultural because of the crushing poverty south of the border, where many tens of millions live on a couple dollars a day or less. I eventually agreed with the position that open borders with Mexico are incompatible with a welfare state. If we allowed it, there would be 40-50 maybe 70 million immigrants into the US in months. The state of Mexico would gladly provide the buses to speed things along.

I also looked into living in Mexico. (This was pre-drug cartel violence for that part of Mexico). Nope. The government will only let you live there if you can prove a hefty fixed income; you can’t get a job to pay your way. And even then, you have to renew with them regularly, again proving you have this fixed income.

Mexico is exporting their poverty and unemployment into the US, and along with it social unrest. IMO, we should insist these people largely stay in Mexico and fix that seriously broken country themselves from within.

friggin cowards. Every one of them.

They are terrorists. Every last one of them. Same with the politicians. We are under a domestic terrorist attack.

He is Hesus?

Better. He’s ultimately standing up for your freedom.

“He is Hesus?”

You mean “hay-soos?”

That has nothing to do with the legal question of whether or not the military has the right to collect and record all of our private electronic communications.

There was a time when people used pens and paper. The King and Queen used to send armed thugs into their houses to confiscate the paper, and then they would read it. We made it illegal for a reason.

Just out of curiousity - does anyone know what kind of take the Murdoch network(FoxNews) has on this?

I can’t begin to express how sickened I am that the “big issue” according to every major news place I’ve looked at today is basically that someone talked about this, not the outrage that is a government willfully violating the fourth amendment on an unbelievably huge scale.

They(major media) must be completely bought and paid for at this point, considering how they’ve been under the screws lately over receiving leaks.

There are no words….

“There are no words….”
So technology keeps advancing while we are outraged a 200+ year old law can’t stop it. Let’s deal with the ethical challenges of where technology is going now. We need a new constitution written with a 21st. century vocabulary.
Corporations are not people.
Artificial Intelligence entities could have rights.
The State can not terminate humans but could suspend them.
Suicide is a right.

Thank you, Blue.

My point was that bananas wanted to paint the guy as an idiot for “trusting” the President. If bananas insists that the guy is an idiot for one political belief that he once held, why are his other political beliefs any different?

He worked for Booz Allen Hamilton. And yes, it is the caliber. Junior level employees there make more than even the most senior fed employees.

Private sector, baby! Learn to love it. They are the ones reading our emails.

Speaking of caliber, do you realize that this man is a high school dropout? He was discharged from the army because he broke both legs during training. In other words, he was not the creme-de-la-creme. Do you think they hire guys like that for a reason? Looks like they made a mistake when asseessing this one.

Speaking of caliber, do you realize that this man is a high school dropout?

Careful how you paint with that brush.

I have worked with more then one wicked-smart high school dropout, at large tech firms whose names you would know. And they have been some of the best people I’ve worked with.

Not everyone fits well into the regimented school system. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t both smart and capable.

+1, joe. You’re HBB’s own whistleblower and it’s greatly appreciated by some of us.

Read here to learn about the “pay cap” for private contractors. Or just run a google search.

http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/12/14/ndaa-executive-compensation-benchmark.aspx

I have to read bid proposals wh en preparing bid protests. I see what the proposed salary grades are for private contractors. And on big contracts, private contractors *routinely* bill FTEs at $500k+ for the type of work performed by mid-level fed gov’t employees. Like, it’s so routine it’s not even a big deal, everyone is doing it. Federal gov’t employees definitely do not come out ahead in the long run. There is just as much security, once you have a security clearance, to work for a private contractor. Only an idiot would choose to be a fed. Even if your employer loses the bidding the next time around, the new contractor virtually always offers all the incumbents’ employees to stay on.

also: http://www.infowars.com/leakers-employer-became-wealthy-by-maintaining-government-secrets/

I have seen a lot of job postings for government contractors. Most of them basically require you to be a veteran. At the same time, the military is hostile toward women. You know that wage gap between men and women? How much you wanna bet 50% of it comes from government contracts?

The Option 2 scenario is available only for old-school Feds.

And BTW, we are currently hiring. A few of the senior Fed staff here are retiring soon, and because of the hiring freeze, they will be replaced with contractors.

Bill in Los Angeles = WIN

You’re not comparing apples to apples.

Apples to apples comparison is someone like Polly making $150k vs. partners at my firm making 500k+.

Apples to apples would be a military officer making under 100k vs. this private contractor kid making 200k.

Private contractors cost much, much more than equivalent job grade federal employees.

Federal employee managers make 150-200k.

Private contractor managers make 400k+ easily. Recent legislation has attempted to cap them at $750k/yr. We’ll see if that holds up.

There are thousands of private contractor managers who are currently paid *over* $750k/yr, which is the reason the cap has been sought.

Note, private contractor mangers will still be able to make more than $750k, but the federal gov’t will only contribute $750k.

“Option2: $150K a year, 8 weeks paid vacation, every holiday off, retires are 50 with a $100K pension as a govt employee”

Exactly what group of government employees have this deal? 8 weeks of paid vacation? Some teachers are allowed to have their 10 month salaries paid out over 12 months, but that isn’t the same as 8 weeks of paid vacation. Feds don’t get 8 weeks. 100K pension is 67% of $150K. Nobody who started working for the federal government since 1986 (I think, might be earlier in the 80s) has been able to earn more than a 40% pension and that requires 40 years (or more) of service. So to retire on 40% after 40 years would mean starting as a fed when you are 10 years old. Even under the old system, getting 66% would mean 33 years of service so to retire at 50 would mean working for the government since you were 17.

Do you have fun making up this stuff, or do you really not know that it isn’t true?

Slithers, like cabana boy, are both paid trolls and don’t give damn if we know it or not.

Do you have fun making up this stuff, or do you really not know that it isn’t true?
The answer is YES.

Option2: $150K a year, 8 weeks paid vacation, every holiday off, retires are 50 with a $100K pension as a govt employee”

Option 3 : 90K a year, 2 weeks vacation, 5 holidays off, no retirment no pension as a bounus get to compete with H1B visa workers private industry high tech worker

Option 4: $20k per year, 1 week vacation, no benefits.

Option 5: $14k per year unemployment benefits.

Option 6: Unemployed, no benefits, suicidal.

while these other options are compelling I still like option 2 the best

Option 6 should be 40k in food stamps and welfare benefits (including EITC). Tough call, but suicide should be next in line

Commie talk!

http://www.theonion.com/articles/american-people-hire-highpowered-lobbyist-to-push,18204/

WASHINGTON—Citing a desire to gain influence in Washington, the American people confirmed Friday that they have hired high-powered D.C. lobbyist Jack Weldon of the firm Patton Boggs to help advance their agenda in Congress.

Damn eco, that’s a great idea - why didn’t I think of that? If only there was some way we could fire the people in congress every few years or so….

we could fire the people in congress every few years or so….
We could, but we don’t and we won’t.

Exactly. We can and we don’t.

And when you add the rest of your costs in?

It’s twice the amount you could have rented for.

Donkey.

“My mortgage is renting money from the bank.
My property taxes is renting land from the government.
Those two rents together cost $1000 less per month than renting the same property from a landlord.”

And you get to deduct both of these rents from your taxes, while a renter cannot. Depending on your marginal tax rate that $1000 can be as low as $700 when taking the deduction into account.

Slithers,

Why do you champion price fixing of housing and market distortions?

Smithers, do you mean “as high as $1300?”

Pimp/Analyst, you’d be hard pressed to find $1000 of “extra costs” per month, even with big-ticket maintenance.

You’re going to find out just how easy it is. Just keep deferring Junkie.

“Smithers, do you mean “as high as $1300?”

Not sure what you mean.

I mean you pay $1000. You deduct $1000. So your after tax cost is $700 (assuming your combined federal/state marginal tax rate is 30%).

As for other costs, $1000 a month? LOL Pimpy. You are deranged.

Refute it then. You won’t because you can’t. You can’t because it’s the truth.

Now Slithers,

Why do you champion price fixing of housing and market distortions?

“Why do you champion price fixing of housing and market distortions?”

I’ll tell you as soon as you let me know the secret to building houses at $50/sq ft including land.

Tell us Slithers.

Why do you champion price fixing of housing and market distortions?

Dude, I told you…you tell me the secrets to building $50/sq ft homes including land and I’ll answer every question you have. But you have to go first…..

That’s already been done many times.

Answer the question Slithers;

Why do you champion price fixing of housing and market distortions?

Smithers,

I’m not sure if it is the arithmetic or reading comprehension that is the problem, but your response to Oxide was simply appalling. Try again.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
LOLZ. Readers…. look at this ruse.

The math of the indentured must by its nature be full of holes. Otherwise it would be unbearable.

Smithers, I didn’t say that I “pay” $1000 for interest I and property taxes T. I don’t pay $1000. I actually pay I+T, which I don’t want to reveal. But that I + T is $1000 LESS THAN rent on a comparable property. So if I deducted that I + T from my taxes, then I would get cash back in my refund, and effectively save more than the $1000.

Buying overpriced things you don’t need and can’t afford on credit never is quite the same as “saving”.

Oxide:

OK I misunderstood.

Point is you save a **ALOT** of taxes by owning vs. renting.

By the way, you should never have a refund. It’s an interest free loan to the govt. Always owe money at the end of the year, that way you get a 0% loan from them. And starting next year, Obamacare will penalize your refund if you don’t comply. No refund = no penalty. They can’t make you pay the tax (that Obama swore wasn’t a tax) any other way.

Answer the question Slithers;

Why do you champion price fixing of housing and market distortions?

I have health insurance, so Obamacare won’t penalize my refund. Based on house prices around here, I didn’t overpay. I can afford it at 3x income.

And, yes, it is the same as saving. I have to live somewhere, and unfortuneately I don’t have a passel of rugrats to mooch off of.

You overpaid for certain. You’re just too stupid to realize it but you will eventually.

“I can afford it at 3x income”

I thought you had to borrow it for like 30 years. We use “afford” in a different sense.

Let’s agree that we cannot exchange offspring insults, you’re unarmed. Besides, you concept of mooching is apparently as inside out as your concept of saving.

“Smithers,

I’m not sure if it is the arithmetic or reading comprehension that is the problem, but your response to Oxide was simply appalling. Try again.”

+1k

Blue Skye, yes, I had to borrow for 30 years. But compared to renting, I still come out ahead. Even if I had to sell tomorrow I would at least break even compared to renting. I can afford to buy as much as could afford to rent. And I have to do one or the other, because of [offspring situation]. ( <—- hope that’s good. I didn’t like the offpsring wars either. )

How do you “come out ahead” when per month rental rates for the same square footage are a fraction of your total carrying costs?

Your failure to acknowledge this demonstrates you’re not able or willing to be honest about what you paid and the mess you’ve got yourself in.

HA - good point. And don’t forget, the entire premise hinges upon the value of the property never going down. Once that happens (and it will eventually if we don’t magically create new high paying jobs), he has to factor that loss into the total cost.

Remember - he’s paying principle too, unless of course it’s an interest only crapola mortgage in which case we don’t even need to bother with this discussion….

“Always owe money at the end of the year, that way you get a 0% loan from them.”

Now giving out free (though incorrect) tax advice?

How can we ever thank you enough for all of your contributions?

Not true. Price per square foot, rental rates are a small fraction of buying.

Why get ripped off by buying?

Renters tend to be more practical in how area they really need. Debt thinkers tend to go for all they can pull.

That just makes it easier for them to spy on you, goon.

Spy on what? My posts here? That I bought ammo online from some sketchy website linked off gunbot dot net?

Many of my .mil colleagues use their government computers to browse Drudge and all of his World Net Daily and Infowars links, and none of them have been asked about it.

Google is spying on me and I know it, but my life really isn’t all that interesting…

He also lied to you about the income being untaxed.

Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

If you meet certain requirements, you may qualify for the foreign earned income and foreign housing exclusions and the foreign housing deduction.

If you are a U.S. citizen or a resident alien of the United States and you live abroad, you are taxed on your worldwide income. However, you may qualify to exclude from income up to an amount of your foreign earnings that is now adjusted for inflation ($91,400 for 2009, $91,500 for 2010, $92,900 for 2011, $95,100 for 2012). In addition, you can exclude or deduct certain foreign housing amounts.

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Foreign-Earned-Income-Exclusion

You could try a dial-up. For many years I maintained an account with a host ISP simply for the courtesy bypass of my address through their server. Alas, my new gov’t-subsidized (to them, not me) DSL didn’t bother to tell us rural rubes that they were about to be bought out by Google, so now I’m stuck with them.

Wildblue sucks, btw.

Excellent idea, I should start using alumni accounts. I just need to unsubscribe from the 2 dozen+ email list groups I’m on. Right now I’ve just been forwarding those addresses to gmail with everything else.

FRII? Always liked them…

“we voted for Gary Johnson ”

A vote for a 3rd party kook = a NOT a vote for Obama’s opponent. Which means your vote was effectively a vote for Obama. You had a chance to remove Obama from office. You didn’t take that chance. You are as guilty as anyone who voted for him.

Slithers,

Why do you champion price fixing of housing and market distortions??

“vote for a 3rd party kook = a NOT…”

Victim logic has a lot in common with Debt Donkey logic.

Both parties suck even when they’re _not_ in power. Did you see how the GOP treated Ron Paul in 2012? Borderline fascism. This was a guy with alot [sic] of delegates. They wouldn’t let him speak at their convention and basically changed the rules of the convention to marginalize his delegates.

Neither party deserves anyone’s support, the GOP least of all.

http://www.lockheedmartinjobs.com/index.aspx

That pretty much it, joe.

But politics has been about the lesser of two evils.

The Dems suck, but they suck a lot less than the GOP.

joe & eco
I came to that conclusion as well.
Stay home, why vote.
We do have the Declaration
Of Independence, but have yet to take
it seriously. Our founding fathers were brilliant optimists.

THE ONLY THING STUPID ARE THE BRAIN DEAD MORONS THAT
VOTED FOR BAMMY.

Boooooooosh should be blamed to eternity.

EVERYWHERE

Oxide, your example using me confuses me. I paid cash for a trailer and pay a pittance for lot fees each month specifically because the houses here are outrageously expensive relative to incomes. So I found a way to avoid giving all my spare income to the banks each month, but it required me to compromise on my “needs”, particularly in the image and extra space/garage area. There was no other way to accomplish that while living and working in this location.

Bottom line, the only way to avoid giving your money to the banks around here is to live like a poor person. Everything else has been gamed.

“It’s the worst possible time in Las Vegas to buy”

Then don’t buy. Why would you?

Then don’t buy. Why would you?

I’m not. Even if I was foolish enough to get involved with the mess the LV market is now, there is no selection because of the low inventory/multiple bids over asking.

Guess I roll the dice on another landlord (so far with three rentals - two crazy, one sane.)

Our oven’s electric, or else I’d be sticking my head in it.

$55 per inspection? WTF? At least you are only paying it indirectly.

If I were you, I’d make sure no one was home when these inspectors come. Do they just drop in or do they make appointments? Even if it’s an appointment, I’d have “something came up at work” as an excuse and go take a walk in the park that evening. I see no way they can charge you a convenience fee. I also don’t think they can enter without you there because it’s not an emergency (check your state laws on that one).

a co-worker owns SFH rentals in henderson NV, says he can’t rasie the rent because too many rentals are availible now.

Same with phoenix I read. Too many landlords

$55 per inspection?

They very determinedly make appointments. You can protest, delay, tell them your mother is deathly ill (which she was) - makes no difference. The one concession I got from them was not to take a picture of her bedroom and of her in it.

Our lease states that inspections are three times a year. PM boy told me they’re quarterly. I responded no, they’re three times a year, per the lease. He said they’ve changed it (ha!) and I’d have to argue about it with the office.

I emailed the owner. The owner forwarded the email to the PM. The PM emailed me and commanded me not to contact the owner again. Comedy ensued (too long to bore you all with.)

I just would act like the PM doesn’t exist. He can’t enter the premises without you being there or your permission. I would not return calls, blow him off for a while. Eventually you can let him in, but there’s no emergency, I see no reason to structure things in his favor.

This LL is also an epic buffoon for paying someone who has such spectacularly bad customer service skills.

I just would act like the PM doesn’t exist. He can’t enter the premises without you being there or your permission.

The place is old and naturally, things break down, so I have to call them (rare.) They never fix it right the first time. Usually, they don’t hear boo from us because if it’s small, I fix it myself rather than deal with them.

When I do call for a repair, it creeps me out that they always ask if they can enter without us being there.

This LL is also an epic buffoon for paying someone who has such spectacularly bad customer service skills.

He seems to be decent (accidental LL). Very wary of us, though, and comes off a bit superior.

After I let the PM know that I would not be told who I can talk to and that I was no longer feeling comfortable in the rental (month to month), the LL called me immediately to smooth things over. He was a little panicky. Got a semi-conciliatory note from the jerk at the PM, too.

I’m looking, even though I hate the thought of moving again. I hear the rents are really coming down.

Weird….I took photos when we signed papers on our rental because they promised work would be done before we moved in and the realtor was adamant I not take any photos w/him in it.

Creeped me out.

Btw, that work promised in writing on the contract was never done.

And you just know that they’re going to try and screw you out of your deposit even if you leave the place spotless.

Tell the PM to eff off.

Unless it says so in the contract, you did not give rights to a third party to enter your home for anything other than repairs.

Check your local renters laws.

I sincerely hope you told him to kiss your ass when he said not to contact the landlord. Loudly. I would have cussed the SOB upside one wall and down the other and threaten legal actions as well, and then proceeded with at least a formal legal complaint.