Moncton NB

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • It sure would be nice if folks on the left stopped using the term “neoliberal” as shorthand for “something I don’t like”. Words have meanings. A neoliberal housing policy would be a bunch of 5-over-1 in mixed zoning. The housing crisis is caused by many factors:

    • sky-high construction costs
    • restrictive zoning
    • lack of co-op condos due to insufficient startup finding
    • protectionist policies designed to shield homeowners from any drop in property value
    • too-low interest rates for the past few dacades
    • lack of other good investment options
    • increased prominence of REITs and real estate holdings in pension funds etc




  • For background, I work in the construction industry. You’re right that most of the cost increase isn’t because of the bill of materials, but that has never been the biggest cost in homebuilding (or at least not for the last 100 years). It used to be perfectly doable to build a multi-unit for $150k per door, and now it’s difficult to keep it under $300k (note that this is in a midsize city, those costs are obviously much higher in a larger one due to far higher cost of land). By far the bulk of that increase is labour and subcontractor costs. I leave it to you to do the math on the rent required to turn a profit on a $300k apartment.









  • I’m not defending landlords here — just pointing out that housing is expensive right now regardless of who owns it. Construction costs are through the roof (no pun intended) even before factoring in a profit margin for the builder and/or the landlord. If I had to rebuild my house today it would cost at least 3x what I paid for it 15 years ago, and my income hasn’t tripled since then.





  • I don’t know enough about New Brunswick politics to be certain if the cruel and needless anti-trans policies Higgs imported from the Benighted States of America are the reason he’s finished as premier of that beautiful Maritime province and even as MLA for the riding of Quispamsis.

    In large part, yes. It even triggered a near-coup in his party last year. The Sask Party also barely eked out a win this week, which is hardly an endorsement of this brand of nonsense.

    Then again, it’s Alberta we’re talking about. They’ve always had the most right-wing dirtbags ruining it for the rest of the country.