Slate.com has an article discussing how Trump’s policies are impacting the housing industry:
Competition for labor in the housing market has been intense for some time, in part because the flow of immigrants from Latin America has decreased and in part because many people who worked in housing during the boom found other work during the bust. But with the government now openly hostile to the presence of these workers, and starting to deport some of them, it is becoming that much harder. . . .
As the Dallas Morning News notes, between 2012 and 2016, wages for Texas construction workers rose 21.2 percent, compared with 12 percent for all construction jobs in the U.S., and 2.2 percent for all jobs in the state. In Collin County, home to Plano and McKinney, construction workers make $98,000. And that was before the new administration began its immigration crackdown. The Dallas-Plano-Irving metropolitan area is short about 18,000 construction workers—about 20 percent of the total. Which means that many homebuilders literally can’t find people to do the job, and the rest must attempt to pass on higher costs to their customers.
. . . And on Monday, as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross dolefully announced the tariffs of 20 percent on Canadian soft lumber, homebuilders were hit with another price increase. . . . The National Association of Home Builders said that Canadian wood prices could rise 6.4 percent as a result, thus boosting the price of the typical new home by $1,236.
There have been barrels of ink spilled discussing the plight of America’s non-college educated men. As is so often the case, things are far more complicated than they seem.
Speaking of housing, when I was younger the left would sometimes argue that there was something unethical about living in McMansions—too big a carbon footprint. The new left says that the real villains are those who choose to live in small houses:
According to an article in the “intersectional” blog The Establishment, people who don’t have to live in tiny houses living in tiny houses is a “troubling” example of “poverty appropriation.”
In an article titled “The Troubling Trendiness of Poverty Appropriation,” July Westhale explains that she grew up in poverty in a small immigrant town in California, where she lived in a small house because she had to — and that she’s finding herself getting a little offended by people who are living in small houses because they want to.
“This background, this essential part of who I am, makes it particularly difficult to stomach the latest trend in ‘simple’ living – people moving into tiny homes and trailers,” Westhale writes.
Here’s another no-no:
And it’s not just the Tiny House Movement. No, Westhale also has a problem with certain bars and restaurants “appropriat[ing] . . . low income communities” through trailer-park themes and “trashy” menu items such as tater tots.
I relied heavily on a diet of tater tots while in college and grad school. But then I suppose I was poor back then, so it was OK.
PS. They’re actually not that bad, if dipped in ketchup.
PPS. Recall when Trumpistas told us that we had to support Trump because Hillary was a left-wing supporter of big government? Now you see Trumpistas rooting for Le Pen, who makes Hillary seem like Milton Friedman by comparison. National socialism is back in style.