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rankandfile
ParticipantThe technology is there for cars to be powered on ethanol, not oil…just look at Brazil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil).
I am also a big believer in ultra narrow vehicles (UNVs) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commuter_Cars_Tango. This would not only help to reduce oil consumption but provide immediate relief to our traffic problems. You would also never have a problem finding parking space!
There are kits that allow you to modify a diesel engine into one that runs on vegetable oil. This is a little more grass-rootsy, but it is possible and fairly inexpensive.
I honestly think that we need to cure our addiction to oil from the bottom up, because the politicians are certainly not going to do anything about it. They will sponsor a study or research of some sort to calm their constituency, but nothing ever really gets done. Why else would Brazil be ahead of us?
July 18, 2006 at 9:05 PM in reply to: Why are foreign companies buying our roads and bridges? #28786ParticipantI work in managing infrastructure and without having a lock on the Aussie market, I do know that they have a reputation for being very proactive in managing and maintaining their infrastructure assets. America, and California in particular, are more or less the exact opposite. We tend to not want to spend any money on anything until it breaks (ex. San Diego sewer lines, Big Dig, etc.). I remember hearing a little while ago, I think around the time of the Davis Recall, that California used to spend something like 15-20% of its budget on capital improvement projects like roads, bridges, water & sewer systems, etc. Now it’s something like 3-5%. Perhaps the Aussie’s see our infrastructure assets like any other asset: buy low and sell high.
ParticipantWe need to call these people out for what they are: liars. You can call it spin, semantics, whatever. The bottom line is that he is propogating “non-truths” aka lies about the current housing situation and we need to call him out on it. These people have had enough free passes over the past decade. It’s time to make them come correct for a change.
ParticipantI’m not so sure if China is a victim here as well. I guess it would depend on their supply of oil. Then again they can always “fix” their currency to compensate. I think that they only help to increase oil prices because they have become a big time oil consumer.
You have the Iranian president saying that the Holocaust never happened and that Israel should be wiped off the map. And he wants nuclear weapons, I mean, power. It’s scary that Russia is a major energy supplier for much of Western Europe. And Russia and China are like peas and carrots when it comes to getting anything done via the UN.
ParticipantI don’t have any hard data, but from what I can gather rents are still reasonable, but they are on the rise. I would recommend renting and trying to lock in on a favorable lease for at least a year, maybe two. This is considering you are not ready to purchase in that time. Based on what I’ve been reading, it may be wise to establish a possible 2-3 year plan for renting and go into a savings mode to prepare for the time when buying conditions are more favorable.
ParticipantCan you supersize that #1 combo for me please?
ParticipantHonesty is the best policy. Just keep doing what you are doing. Those that cut corners or deceive others end up getting their true reward somewhere down the line. Besides, do you want to go through life knowing you were successful because you deceived people? All it takes is for one person to catch on to your ways and your reputation is tarnished. You see this in other industries such as contracting. Some deceptive contractors have the nasty reputation of intentionally low-balling bids to win a contract, only to hit up the customer with change orders later on. This might work a time or two, but customers eventually catch on.
ParticipantNice addition, UIA.
It’s almost as though that article were written yesterday, let alone 1981. What I find amazing is how some homes back in the 70s were going for the same prices they are today! This brings me to a question: how did people secure financing for those homes? Were ARMs and I/O loans available back in the 70s?
ParticipantThe point I was trying to express by citing the SANDAG and SCAG figures and the planned expansion of freeways was more to show that SoCal and SD County are not over-built, but rather have a lot more room to build. And people are leaving not because it’s overbuilt, but rather because it’s so expensive to live here.
Many younger (25-40), middle-class families are choosing to relocate to states like Nevada, Arizona, or others because they can actually own a home and raise a family there without overextending themselves like they would in California.
Again, the primary reasons people come here are for the job opportunities and the weather. Job growth may be ok here(I don’t know the latest stats), but wages have not kept pace with expenses. And the really nice weather is only within so many miles of the coast, where it is way too costly to own a decent home. So, many are basically left with the option of living in a hot desert; but they will be paying more for things like homes, gas, taxes, etc., than they would in other states like Nevada or Arizona. For example, a family earning $100k in San Diego would only have to earn about $75k/yr to maintain the same standard of living Arizona.
ParticipantI think that being under or over built is relative and depends on who you talk to. The environmentalist thinks that Montana could use some more open space, while a developer or economist could see packing 3-5 million more people into SD County. If we are so over-built, why are organizations like SCAG and SANDAG predicting massive increases in population at least until 2030? Why does CalTrans have plans to potentially widen I-5 to as many as 8 or even 10 lanes on each side?
I don’t have hard data at this point, but I believe that there is more than plenty of open space and “room” to develop and create more housing in SD County…tons of it in fact. A huge reason why people are leaving SD is because it is so freaking expensive to live here and wages are average at best! Huge rent and mortgage payments go without saying. $3.50 gas is another big factor because you MUST have a car in order to make it out here! Smog, hot weather (inland), traffic, etc…these also help explain the exodus.
The influx of (legal) population is due IMHO to opportunity and weather, in that order. But when wages are stagnant and transplants can only afford to live an apartment in the hotter inland towns, if that, why not go to a cheaper state?
ParticipantBugs, I agree with you on a certain level about the privacy factor, but I think that certain things being made public are justified. I am partial to making home pricing/purchasing information more public. I don’t like the dark clouds around home pricing activities that obfuscate the setting of prices. I think this is part of the reason for the rapid price markup we’ve seen in the past 5 years. If you complain about this, you must also complain about the publicly available information concerning home improvements, which to me are more invasive. You basically have to tell the city (and the public) every little thing that you want to do to your house, even if it doesn’t affect them.
ParticipantPS: is your moneymarket fund through a larger company or a smaller one? I ask because the larger ones tend to have more financial backing and incentive to weather a floundering fund.
Maybe we should have a thread devoted to strategies for investing in cash?
ParticipantWhat part of upstate NY are you from? I am heading out there in the second week of August to visit family in the Glens Falls/Saratoga area.
ParticipantYou should be very careful in how your words are expressed out of fear for how they will be received. I personally think that there are certain things that can be somewhat summarized based on race, such as certain test scores. However, there are a multitude of factors that play a part in why people score the way that they do, and many of them just happen to fall along racial lines. They aren’t necessarily genetic. Although I think that genetics plays a big role in a lot of things, I believe they are tempered by social and environmental factors that are so much more difficult to quantify.
Whenever you start to go down the path of saying such and such a race is genetically superior or inferior for whatever reason, you are simply asking for trouble.
I think that powayseller should be given the benefit of the doubt and forgiven…much in the same way that Reggie White was forgiven (by many). I don’t think her intent was one of malice or bigotry.
Transcript of Reggie White’s speech:
http://my.execpc.com/~dross/aw/regwhite.html -
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