Global Life Expectancy

[macdoc]

Very interesting analysis here......

If one randomly chosen extra person were to die each second somewhere on Earth, what impact would it have on the world population?
—Guy Petzall

http://what-if.xkcd.com

I like the pilot one...takes a bunch along.

[Blind groper]

Give us a decade or two, and the revolution in robotics will provide no shortage of productive effort - enough to support any number of retirees.

[macdoc]

Yup - butthe underlying heart of the issue is loosening the deathly grip of the financially community on the cost of shelter and that requires some effective leadership including bringing the financial community to heel.

Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?
Financial crooks brought down the world's economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... z2HdiKv2h4
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Secrets and Lies of the Bailout
The federal rescue of Wall Street didn’t fix the economy – it created a permanent bailout state based on a Ponzi-like confidence scheme. And the worst may be yet to come

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... z2HdiSm7en
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Building societies and credit unions don't get into the crap that went on and the fuckers need to be slapped down and much of their mandate from society for fractional lending withdrawn and regulation enforced. This was 2005

NEVER before have real house prices risen so fast, for so long, in so many countries. Property markets have been frothing from America, Britain and Australia to France, Spain and China. Rising property prices helped to prop up the world economy after the stockmarket bubble burst in 2000. What if the housing boom now turns to bust?

According to estimates by The Economist, the total value of residential property in developed economies rose by more than $30 trillion over the past five years, to over $70 trillion, an increase equivalent to 100% of those countries' combined GDPs. Not only does this dwarf any previous house-price boom, it is larger than the global stockmarket bubble in the late 1990s (an increase over five years of 80% of GDP) or America's stockmarket bubble in the late 1920s (55% of GDP). In other words, it looks like the biggest bubble in history.

http://www.economist.com/node/4079458 http://www.economist.com/node/4079027
and we are suffering the fall out still.

The whole world economy is at risk. The IMF has warned that, just as the upswing in house prices has been a global phenomenon, so any downturn is likely to be synchronised, and thus the effects of it will be shared widely. The housing boom was fun while it lasted, but the biggest increase in wealth in history was largely an illusion.

and we are still being stupid about it.

A tax on financial transactions would help and use that to build a pool of public or cooperative cost effective shelter that is not subject to speculation.
We don't allow speculation on roads or water systems or other public institutions.
Until shelter comes under that umbrella it will be a difficult process to shift gears for a different life span and working span.

Spain could do it if they nationalized the under water banks and put the half million empty houses into the national wealth structure just the way parks and roads etc are. Then base that on affordable cash flow streams instead of the speculative values that put the whole planetary economic structure into a tailspin.

Shelter costs and speculation based around it underlay the crisis and the deflation that is going on now. Japan has been in it for two decades and there is simply no easy path but the future could be much better if the financial structure and the role of shelter was changed.

Hell after the war the number one priorities for many nations was provide affordable housing for it's populace and much of it was public stock.
Now those little affordable homes are flipped and flipped for hundreds of thousands of dollars and kids end up staying with their parents til they are in their 30s or 4 families occupy one 5 bedroom monster that was built when the post war homes were torn down and instead of re-developed into multiple unit housing - just one monster home for the home price game to be played.

For fuck sakes a 3 bedroom in Toronto went $143,000 ABOVE ASKING!!,

Shelter is key to many issues facing a society that is aging and moving towards a sustained or dropping population.
It reduces the inequities and even many social issues related to poverty cycles,mental health etc.
It sucks that rich country like Canada has a million people a day choosing between food and shelter.

Deal with that..... and the longer life span becomes less of a financial challenge but it will be no easy task and the fucktards entrenched in the financial community will fight it tooth and nail.

[Cormac]

Of course, which asset becomes the subject of any given bubble is merely a symptom not a cause.

And, there is no shortage of shelter in the West. Certainly not in the UK or Ireland.

[mistermack]

Of course, which asset becomes the subject of any given bubble is merely a symptom not a cause.

And, there is no shortage of shelter in the West. Certainly not in the UK or Ireland.

I'm not sure I can agree there. There is plenty of shelter, but at a ludicrous price.
But there is plenty of anything, if you can afford to pay a fortune.

There is a severe shortage of affordable shelter in the UK.
The only reason that what's there IS affordable, is housing benefit. It's not affordable to the people living in it.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

We get enough people we can go with a pandemic.

[Cormac]

Of course, which asset becomes the subject of any given bubble is merely a symptom not a cause.

And, there is no shortage of shelter in the West. Certainly not in the UK or Ireland.

I'm not sure I can agree there. There is plenty of shelter, but at a ludicrous price.
But there is plenty of anything, if you can afford to pay a fortune.

There is a severe shortage of affordable shelter in the UK.
The only reason that what's there IS affordable, is housing benefit. It's not affordable to the people living in it.

I don't see therefore that there is a lack of shelter.

The shelter exists. If people can afford it, they buy it. If they can't afford it, the state provides it.

What is the problem?

There are some people who fall through this net, usually as a consequence of blind and stupid bureaucracy, but the majority of people who need shelter, get it.

[Clinton Huxley]

I anticipate a considerable increase in shelter-deficient people under the Tories. Still, they are all scroungers and probably foreign and certainly poor, so can be allowed to die in the street, so long as house prices aren't affected.

[mistermack]

Of course, which asset becomes the subject of any given bubble is merely a symptom not a cause.

And, there is no shortage of shelter in the West. Certainly not in the UK or Ireland.

I'm not sure I can agree there. There is plenty of shelter, but at a ludicrous price.
But there is plenty of anything, if you can afford to pay a fortune.

There is a severe shortage of affordable shelter in the UK.
The only reason that what's there IS affordable, is housing benefit. It's not affordable to the people living in it.

I don't see therefore that there is a lack of shelter.

The shelter exists. If people can afford it, they buy it. If they can't afford it, the state provides it.

What is the problem?

There are some people who fall through this net, usually as a consequence of blind and stupid bureaucracy, but the majority of people who need shelter, get it.

Yeh, but at what cost? When the cost of things are sky high, it's usually because demand outstrips supply.
But as you point out, there is a plentiful supply of shelter. But that doesn't drive the market price down, as it should.

That's because of the amount of money OWED on the housing stock. Because of the historically inflated prices. People can't afford to sell at a price that the market will pay. They are trapped by negative equity. So houses are not selling, people aren't moving, couples are living with parents, rather than pay prices that would put THEM in negative equity, and lots of people are trapped in unemployment because they can't afford to take a job, and lose their housing benefit. And taxpayers are struggling with the burden of paying for inflated levels of housing benefit.
So there are plenty of problems.

It's a bit like there being a famine in Africa. There is always food to be had, if you've got the money.
That doesn't help those who can't afford it.

The problems stem from the price of shelter, not the lack of it.