If the price of real estate goes down when costs go up, why does the price of real estate EVER go up? Have you ever seen a time when the costs of real estate went down? The only instance I can think of was when the state started picking up some of the public expenses formerly handled by property taxes. But overall, the costs simply climb. So the price should always be going down, but instead there is this runaway inflation in real estate.
Which suggests that the costs are only one among many factors, and not necessarily the important one. Right now I think the shakiness of all other forms of investment is pushing investment money into what seems safe. Except the minute everybody gets an idea like that at the same time, it is no longer valid. As the Japanese learned to their great sorrow. People who buy real property as an INVESTMENT are gonna be in for a big drop if they chase this runaway market. The only really sensible thing to do is own your shelter and then find sane investments for the rest of your money. And the assessor should keep his eye on the ball, the intrinsic worth of the property, not what some doofus pays who think he's gonna make a mint because he sees the insane levels of inflation. Land only is productive up to a certain level, and beyond that it is financial bubble. Like a big red sign saying "stay away". But there's a sucker born every minute (or so our resident venture capitalists pray every night). As to the change in RESIDENTIAL housing prices, my house has doubled in market value in less than ten years. Inflation has not. **************** Here's the part I'm not getting in the reaction of people to this story. What does it MATTER what color he is. What does it MATTER who he's related to? Is there a particular color that should expect this kind of a beating from anyone in the police department? Do you have to have RELATIONS in government to expect respectful treatment prior to the due process we are all guaranteed? What could a uniformed officer POSSIBLY tell his superiors to justify this kind of behavior. Over the years I've heard all manner of excuse for official behavior that we would not for a second accept from an ordinary citizen. I can't help but think of citizens who commit horrendous crimes. When someone brings up a childhood of abuse, there are loud outcries of "when do we hold people accountable and stop making excuses?" But do the people who cry so loud about criminal acts have anywhere NEAR the same concern when police misbehave? Why is it so impossible to employ police who can control their emotions and behavior? They, after all, are supposed to be TRAINED? Is our training program that deficient that they are ticking timebombs on the street? I'd really like to know what the general mood in the precinct is. I've suspected for a year that there's a lot of bottled anger that leaks out on the street sometimes. It also occurs to me that maybe the union hierarchy feeds that to manipulate the rank and file. It would take some good investigative reporting to spotlight the reality behind our day-to-day law enforcement. Ultimately, it takes pretty strong citizen support to pursue issues of police misbehavior. The politicians don't WANT to do anything about it, but when they sense it getting out of hand, then they act. But so long as a city has a large component of voters who are willing to shrug it off, the police themselves won't act. Jim Mork Cooper Neighborhood Longfellow Community Minneapolis, alive, interesting, and progressive __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). http://calendar.yahoo.com TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
