
San Francisco renters paying $1,100 a month to live in converted living rooms - SirLJ
http://www.businessinsider.com/homeshare-rents-luxury-apartments-at-affordable-prices-2018-1
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mikhailfranco
SF startups appear to be a fascinating way for landlords to extract money from
VCs. I wonder if the landlords give away plausible ideas to young hackers to
pitch to the VCs? Perhaps landlords run all the incubators?

The employees of startups are working very hard to channel money from one very
rich person, to another very rich person, in the vain hope of having an
imperceptible chance of becoming a very rich person themselves.

~~~
quantumofmalice
Georgism, a tremendously popular school of economic thought in the US at one
point that has been memory holed by the powers that be, advocated taxing rents
at very high rates:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism)

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gargarplex
There is a huge market (i.e., base of buyers) for affordable housing for
people who just want safe, private, convenient shelter. Maybe there's a
surplus of luxury housing in SF, but I think a luxury building is an amenity
that needlessly adds to the cost.

Incidentally, I was thinking about opening a hacker founder community
somewhere affordable, like Detroit. But Detroit is cold.

~~~
chris11
Then again, there are some amenities I'd like if I'm paying SF rent. For
instance, I was recently in SF and looked in into a one-bedroom non-luxury
apartment that I could easily have afforded back home. It was 3k a month and
didn't even have an in unit washer and dryer.

~~~
gargarplex
I can't do laundry ever again. I have fully bought into wash and fold. It's a
total no brainer. For $25 I just got an entire hamper worth of mixed laundry
washed and folded for me. The time and economics make it totally worth it.

I would definitely want to offer wash and fold service.

Privacy is important. I don't know that an "upholstered partition"
([http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5a501548c32ae61e008...](http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5a501548c32ae61e008b4d65-1874/screen%20shot%202018-01-05%20at%2041233%20pm.png)),
which honestly reminds me of the doors of American bathroom stalls, offers
enough of a sense of privacy, especially because of sound.

~~~
lorenzq
If you have a salaried job how do you justify spending that money when you
can’t earn more money outside of your salary?

~~~
gargarplex
I don't have a salaried job currently. I have a software consulting business,
link in profile.

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jumpkick
The rest of the article title is significant: "...is so dire that renters are
paying $1,100 a month to live in converted living rooms."

"Converted living rooms" is critical. My initial reaction to the HN headline
was "what a great deal!" as I pay $1200 for a three bedroom, two bath house in
central Florida. SF suddenly looked a lot more appealing!

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digi_owl
Sound like something out of Hong Kong...

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crdoconnor
When/if the revolution comes, I really hope it comes with a 100% land value
tax.

~~~
Clubber
When/if the revolution comes, think constant IED's and slaughter like in Iraq.
Guilt or innocence has nothing to do with the target either.

Revolutions rarely result in something "better," at least for the majority of
the citizenry. I can't think of one other than the US 1776 and the French in
1799 that turned out better for the citizens, and these were both a special
case during a special time that probably will never be repeated. The result of
revolutions also last generations.

No, revolutions are when the citizens are convinced that "burning it down"
will result in a better outcome. Most of the time, it just creates a power
vacuum tyrants have an uncanny ability to fill that vacuum because they are
ruthless and unscrupulous.

Think Iran circa 1979, Cuba circa 1959, Egypt fairly recently, Russia circa
1917 etc.

~~~
gargarplex
We are better positioned than ever to create an organized revolution. Look at
YCombinator is doing, they are prototyping Basic Income. Keeps the masses
loyal, it's totally disruptive and 100x better than our current welfare
systems. Add housing, healthcare, and it's only a matter of time before they
aggressively invest in weapons programs (I would be surprised if there are no
current cyber warfare/espionage investments).

The revolution is happening, we're here on the ground floor, and we have a
voice in this forum.

~~~
jotm
Who's paying for that UBI again? Still have no clear answer in years...

~~~
gargarplex
Why can't it be financed from the returns on the YC portfolio?

