What Makes Someone Cheer On And Support House Price Inflation?

RenovationMan

ILW wrote: »

People are addicted to the "high" they get from consumption. Debt is the "drug" that supplies the high in many cases.

This gets me to the point I was hoping to make. As you say, people are addicted to the high they get from drugs, no one says that they are addicted to spending the money on drugs or to the debt, theft, prostitution or other crime they use to get the money.

This is comparable to consumerism, they're addicted to the high they get from buying stuff, you cannot say that they are addicted to spending the money on stuff, or addicted to the debt they use to get their money - no more than you can say people are addicted to working if they actually buy stuff with cash they have earned.

People aren't addicted to debt, they are addicted to buying stuff. They use money to do that and some have to borrow that money.

Getting back to the point - how does being addicted to buying stuff translate to houses? Surely people on here don't think that others are buying houses like some women buys shoes in order to get a retail high?

shortchanged_2

RenovationMan wrote: »

This gets me to the point I was hoping to make. As you say, people are addicted to the high they get from drugs, no one says that they are addicted to spending the money on drugs or to the debt, theft, prostitution or other crime they use to get the money.

This is comparable to consumerism, they're addicted to the high they get from buying stuff, you cannot say that they are addicted to spending the money on stuff, or addicted to the debt they use to get their money - no more than you can say people are addicted to working if they actually buy stuff with cash they have earned.

People aren't addicted to debt, they are addicted to buying stuff. They use money to do that and some have to borrow that money.

Getting back to the point - how does being addicted to buying stuff translate to houses? Surely people on here don't think that others are buying houses like some women buys shoes in order to get a retail high?

OK lets keep it simple. You can replace the term debt-junkie with people who 'live beyond their means'.

kwmlondon

Hang on here, let's get this in some kind of perspective. Just because someone is happy to see house prices go up doesn't mean that they also jump on kittens as a hobby, nor do I think that Ghandi and Churchill obtained their admired places in history because they campaigned for Barrat Homes to sell for less.

At the end of the day I can sing my lungs out with joy if my mortgage interest rate were to drop by a bit, but that does not mean I have any effect on it. If I found myself paying less in tax but I knew that a childrens' hospice up the road was closing I'd feel mixed emitions. Any happiness I'd feel at my own good fortune would be dwarfed by the knowledge of a service lost up the road and if I thought one was directly linked to the other.

Would that make me a good person? Not as good as if I were to give some money to a hospice charity, or would I be a better person if I ran a marathon to raise even more money than I were to give?

I don't have an answer, but saying "you're a bad person because you are happy to see the value of your house rise" is a bit reductive. It's interesting to debate questions of who benefits and who loses out and what it means, but I'm not going to be friends with someone just because of their opinion on this one issue. I'm not the Telegraph...

shortchanged_2

kwmlondon wrote: »

Hang on here, let's get this in some kind of perspective. Just because someone is happy to see house prices go up doesn't mean that they also jump on kittens as a hobby, nor do I think that Ghandi and Churchill obtained their admired places in history because they campaigned for Barrat Homes to sell for less.

At the end of the day I can sing my lungs out with joy if my mortgage interest rate were to drop by a bit, but that does not mean I have any effect on it. If I found myself paying less in tax but I knew that a childrens' hospice up the road was closing I'd feel mixed emitions. Any happiness I'd feel at my own good fortune would be dwarfed by the knowledge of a service lost up the road and if I thought one was directly linked to the other.

Would that make me a good person? Not as good as if I were to give some money to a hospice charity, or would I be a better person if I ran a marathon to raise even more money than I were to give?

I don't have an answer, but saying "you're a bad person because you are happy to see the value of your house rise" is a bit reductive. It's interesting to debate questions of who benefits and who loses out and what it means, but I'm not going to be friends with someone just because of their opinion on this one issue. I'm not the Telegraph...

HPI isn't a bad thing if it's reasonable and sustainable. It's just that over the previous decade it got seriously out of hand and now we have a massive problem of an overpriced housing market that needs to be corrected. This is where the problem lies now. Some people are calling for the banks to start lending silly again in order to get the housing market moving again. This is not the answer though because all these people will end up with massive mortgages and probably will suffer as interest rates eventually go up.
I have described it as a pyramid scheme because the people at the bottom of the chain are expected to bail the people out who overpayed for houses in the previous decade up until now and this is just creating further problems in the future.

Jimmy_31

wotsthat wrote: »

I don't hope for that - just trying to demonstrate where (I think) we're headed.

I hope there's increased housebuilding, I hope the government works on reducing UK reliance on the south-east for wealth generation and I hope we can get long term benefit claimants to compete against economic migrants.

I actually think there's little chance of any of those things happening.

I also agree that there is little chance of any of that happening.

I wonder why nothing ever gets sorted eh;).

RenovationMan

shortchanged wrote: »

HPI isn't a bad thing if it's reasonable and sustainable. It's just that over the previous decade it got seriously out of hand and now we have a massive problem of an overpriced housing market that needs to be corrected. This is where the problem lies now. Some people are calling for the banks to start lending silly again in order to get the housing market moving again. This is not the answer though because all these people will end up with massive mortgages and probably will suffer as interest rates eventually go up.
I have described it as a pyramid scheme because the people at the bottom of the chain are expected to bail the people out who overpayed for houses in the previous decade up until now and this is just creating further problems in the future.

But that's all over with now and it stopped in 2007, which was almost 5 years ago. Indeed for some areas, the boom stopped even before then. That ship has sailed, so why are you guys still going on about it?

shortchanged_2

RenovationMan wrote: »

But that's all over with now and it stopped in 2007, which was almost 5 years ago. Indeed for some areas, the boom stopped even before then. That ship has sailed, so why are you guys still going on about it?

Because house prices still haven't corrected to their proper, sustainable levels and there are many on here calling for a return to loose lending in order to start HPI again

RenovationMan

shortchanged wrote: »

Because house prices still haven't corrected to their proper, sustainable levels and there are many on here calling for a return to loose lending in order to start HPI again

"Many?"

Will anyone listen to this any more than they listen for calls for houses to return to 'sustainable levels'? There are 18 people on here and some of them are sockies.

In the words of Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons when a Neutron bomb is about to hit him....

"Oh, I've wasted my life."

shortchanged_2

RenovationMan wrote: »

"Many?"

Will anyone listen to this any more than they listen for calls for houses to return to 'sustainable levels'? There are 18 people on here and some of them are sockies.

In the words of Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons when a Neutron bomb is about to hit him....

"Oh, I've wasted my life."

Yes fine RenoMan maybe the population of this forum is rather small but we all know there are many people in the UK who want/need HPI.

RenovationMan

shortchanged wrote: »

Yes fine RenoMan maybe the population of this forum is rather small but we all know there are many people in the UK who want/need HPI.

This is where you are going wrong - the audience is too small on this board. You should get out there, possibly on a street corner, and engage with them all. Try and change their minds with the power of your argument. If that fails, shout loudly at them and chase them down the street.

The main thing is to get the message out there to as many people as you possibly can. Make a difference, shortchanged, get out there and damn well make a difference! :mad: