astromeria
Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2005
- Messages
- 1,375
They are if they're stockholders.al_bundy said:people aren't forced to pay executive compensation.
Reminds me of today's Ben Stein article:
http://tinyurl.com/rz3qh
They are if they're stockholders.al_bundy said:people aren't forced to pay executive compensation.
honobob said:If you don't like the government..........................................
I don't know why people expect that home prices will double in 10 years. I owned a home for 20 years. It DID NOT DOUBLE. In fact it only went up 50% over that time. I bought a few years before the great Texas real estate bust.al_bundy said:someone has to be able to afford it in order for it to have value. too many people cannot afford starter homes today. Median price is around $230,000. This means 10 years from now a starter home will be close to $500,000 and the median family income will go from around $60,000 to $150,000 or so.
dmpi said:Consider that the median household income is only around $48,000 and the average mortage rate is 6.5%. Even after the 10% drop to $217,000 the median house price still seem a bit pricy. I think houses have more downside to go until we get to a point that people can really afford them.
al_bundy said:the usual excuse is we need to hire qualified people. i remember i did a paper about pension benefits in school a few years back and this was the excuse they used in san diego back in 1996
bosco said:I find it sad how people constantly argue for budget cuts for government workers, then complain at how inefficient the bureaucracy is. Due to government cuts, I'm managing $12 million in public airport construction (you know...pork like an airport fire-fighting station) with no clerk, secretary, office help of any kind, and almost no inspection. But that's ok, because profit-motive oriented contractors are honest, right? Does this seem efficient to you?
jazz4cash said:I guess we dreamers believe that if government budgets are cut, efficiency should improve, never considering that it is more likely that efficiency remains status quo and services get cut instead. We expect cuts will affect the money thats wasted, not the fire department.
bosco said:I find it sad how people constantly argue for budget cuts for government workers, then complain at how inefficient the bureaucracy is.
macdaddy said:Rents strong in both, prices holding in DC, but clearly starting to slip in San Diego.
Zipper said:I thought you were in Canada Bosco?
We do pay higher taxes here. You get what you pay for. Maybe you should be in Ontario.
Texas Proud said:I keep saying that the federal govmt need to balance the budget without using the extra SS money.... spend it on whatever you like, but just spend what you make.... will not happen in my lifetime...
IMHO, having a balanced budget would be nice, but the real problem is the national debt.Zathras said:As for the annual US federal budget, it already has. Back in the 90s we HAD a balanced budget.
However, even if we have a balanced budget again, I don't believe that we will have it balanced for more than 3 years in a row.
jazz4cash said:Statistics don't show it, but I seriously doubt prices are holding in DC. Builders reported very high cancellation rates here recently and most have standing inventory for the 1st time in 5 years or so. They are making concessions that are not reflected in the contract price. Existing home sales prices appear down a "bit", but that never factors in how long they sit prior to getting a contract.