look at what drives developers. land cost is 20% of housing cost ... so they
collude with government to increase density. win:win for those 2 player.
another example is urban growth boundaries. Deprive some the value of their
land so others end up benefiting. Are the winners and losers calculated?
unknown ... probably so in some cases. Boulder county is an example. APFC had
a property up there ... land on one side of the road (in Boulder county) was
valued at X. the opposite side of the road, same land, in effect, in another
county,and not subject to Boulder rules, was valued at X2.
And governments are not above ripping off each other. After the S&Ls
collapsed, FSLC (their FDIC) also collapsed and became RTC (acronym may be
wrong, old brain) ... APFC bought from RTC ... property tax bill arrived and
was $60,000, so I phoned the Boulder assessor to inform him the land was dry
wheat farm and in Colorado property tax is on actual use, not anticipated use
(subdivided as a business park in this case). The assessor, "We knew that."
and the bill immediately dropped to a couple hundred bucks from my one phone
call. Is the fault of prior ownership the incompetence of RTC to pick up the
phone or is it the dishonety of the Boulder assessor? Another example ... in
Golden. APFC bought 52 condos from FSLC. I met with the property manager on
Saturday, going in thinking it would be a notice of termination. Me,"10%
occupancy is not going to work." Ron, the manager pulls a paper out of his
pocket, "this is my plan to fix that but FSLIC will not allow me to proceed."
Me "you do your job, I'll take care of FSLC." We had already gotten a
concession from FSLC to fill the vacancies during the escrow period. We had
100% occupancy at closing. At closing, FSLC asked, "how'd you do that?" "We
let (required) the manager do his job." Actually it was 42 but that is
another story. After we had the 42, we bought up all the others we could get
at give-away prices. The give-away prices were the product (ripple effect) of
FSLC mismanagement. The FSLC team we met with was 3 kids, obviously with MBAs
hired on resume, who knew nothing. Smart enough, but not so much. one last
point on government managers ... My attitude is the problem is
politics/politicians more than the managers. After I sold my consulting firm
(1989), a lot of folks assumed i needed employment, so I got a ton of offers.
One was VMS. A friend of mine, Kent, former Minn. city manager, was the main
man. VMS was hired by VA DOT to operate and maintain parts of the VA highway
system. Kent hired mostly managers out of VADOT. As I went around the
Richmond office meeting them, at least 2 of them commented about being as good
a manager as they used to be at VADOT. Although I did not know them, My bias
was to agree with their self-perception. I can go on but I do have other
stuff to deal with today. Thanks.DP
In a message dated 3/4/2022 12:45:43 PM Mountain Standard Time,
sfgrob@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
" Governments have worked so hard to drive up the cost of housing". Please
explain this, I just don't understand the basis of your claim.
Steve
On 03/04/2022 14:40, dpolhill (dpolhill) wrote:Hi Bob,
Good point. So a good government would create policies to improve competition,
not injure competition. I get nervous when I hear "affordable housing." after
governments have worked so hard to drive up the cost of housing. sounds like a
rationalization to get into the housing business ... which would amount to more
redistribution o wealth ... from you (the unworthy) o those deemed worthy.
Thanks.DP
In a message dated 3/4/2022 12:29:41 PM Mountain Standard Time,
dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Hi All,This only works when there is adequate competition. If businesses such
as the pharmaceutical industry work as monopolies, then the system fails. When
companies buy up their competition and there are too few choices in the
marketplace, the system fails. I suspect that there are far fewer suppliers of
goods than the number of brands might suggest. I am not sure that the free
market either works or exists as we would like to define it.Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: dpolhill <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: sfgrob@xxxxxxxxxxx; fhs-65@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Fri, Mar 4, 2022 11:37 am
Subject: [fhs-65] Re: Market pricing is generally a good thing.
correct. and when everyone refuses to pay for a $40 movie, the price will
adjust. Not as simple when dealing with government-greed ... and everything
government does is as a monopoly, so consumers are denied choice. I would fix
this by moving everything government does out and into the competitive sector.
DP
In a message dated 3/4/2022 11:22:07 AM Mountain Standard Time,
sfgrob@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Indeed it is. But it is unfortunate that so many corporations abuse this so
often now. There just is so little integrity left in business theses days.
The motto "Greed is good" is alive and well.SteveOn 03/04/2022 13:02, dpolhill
(dpolhill) wrote:Market pricing is generally a good thing. A good mechanism
for flattening demand. I'm still in shock over the Colorado-idiots who waited
in line for 12 hours for an in & out burger ... a very high price to pay for
the privilege of saying, "i was there on the day they opened." still ... their
choice, so OK. just not for me ... world's foremost cheapskate.
DP
In a message dated 3/3/2022 8:35:40 PM Mountain Standard Time,
dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Holy sh*t! Haven't been to a movie theater in years ... I had NO idea!Donna
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone -------- Original message
--------From: Steve <sfgrob@xxxxxxxxxxx>Date: 3/3/22 5:57 PM (GMT-05:00)To:
FHS-65 <FHS-65@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>Subject: [fhs-65] ≈$40 I just watched a bit on the
evening news about the new Batman movie
coming to the AMC theaters. The story was about how AMC is charging
more for Batman than other movies, playing at the same theaters at the
same time. If we were both going to this movie, and would both go
together if we went, it would cost us nearly $40.
Does anyone else find this a ridiculously high price for attending a
movie? The theaters are complaining that people are not coming back to
the theaters - well, DUH!
Steve
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To post, send email to FHS-65@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and please be sure to sign all your
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