RE DK CURRENT POST AND HOUSING

"...The second piece is a front page story about the housing crisis in our urban areas and the response to it of the Trump Administration, and specifically of Ben Carson, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.  Since 2001, the story reports, rents have increased 30% on average around the country while wages remain flat. During that period the number of high-end apartments rose by 36% while low-income units shrank by 10%.  There are only about 20 counties in the whole country where the minimum wage would allow a worker to afford a one-bedroom apartment.  Dr. Carson, who thinks federal assistance to the poor encourages dependency, wants to raise rents in subsidized housing and leave this problem largely to local authorities...." DK

This is an interesting passage and story. It suggests that the problem is lack of economic support for poor Americans, which is certainly one of many problems.

One point to make is to ask why poor people need federal support, or local support, in the first place in a rich country? 

Think about that. It is a failure of government. You can say that is the job of the market, but that has been the bullshit story that has long been obviously both false and ridiculous.

It's like saying it is the job of the media to educate enlighten and make prosperous its readership.

The article also of course notes the growth of higher end housing, whereas lower end housing is shrinking and becoming more expensive.

Jobs of all kinds here, of course, have been withering away, but in ways that are not well measured or reported here for obvious reasons, especially by the NYT.

These features of the situation point to what I have discussed here often, the convergence of global average or median income, and the tendency of folks here to relentlessly lose economic ground, as time goes on, to folks elsewhere who are gaining some ground, but less rapidly, per capita.

DK observes that the article says wages here remain flat while rents have increased. 

Wages technically never actually remain flat, and the long term trend here will be for them to continue to decline in purchasing power forever.

This huge and looming income convergence dimension of the story is of course the very last thing the NYT wants to talk about, falsely painting this housing issue as strictly a domestic policy and domestic economy issue, with its liberal aggressive globalist bias: globalization will lift all boats, especially ours, and it is only really big fat cats who are holding us 99.9% back.