Benjamin Hobbs

A lot of this country’s problems boil down to straight white men who see themselves as some sort of default “normal” but any variation on that as “an identity” that is “political”

After fifty years of reading the Bible I can summarize the politics of the Torah, the Prophets, and Jesus in one sentence:

Make sure everyone has what they need and protect the little people from the big people.

It's a personal pet peeve of mine that people still refer to Elon Musk as an engineer.

He's not.

“I was hungry” and you cut SNAP.

“I was thirsty” and you cut funding to ensure clean water.

“I was sick” and you cut medicaid.

“I was a stranger” and you deported me.

“I was in prison” and you just left me there to rot.

“Whatever you do to the least of these, you do unto me.”-Jesus

And money had nothing to do with the zoning rules, right?

I guess reduce and eliminate are synonyms now?

Ah, you are on the Abundance train.

Yes, with very little regulation I can also build things which are cheap and poor quality. That's not really the argument you think it is.

What's interesting is that no one pushing this solution seems to want to address the money.

Who is suggesting zero vacancy?

Are you just talking with yourself at this point? Am I free to leave?

You've assumed plenty of things about what I've said.

I wasn't speaking about vacation homes, but if we're going to talk about that, yeah, I think they should be taxed pretty high. Having a second home when plenty are struggling with having one is pretty gross.

So when there's been an increase in housing in several cities, why hasn't the cost gone down?

Apartments, townhomes and single family homes have been built en masse all over the US. More housing didn't drive down the housing price.

Desperation is the right climate for change.

I think you've missed the criticism I was making.

I'm saying the issue isn't housing shortage but unused housing which already exists.

Why are you assuming mortgages and investors?

And yet they exist and are able to hold onto livable properties because they don't find it profitable to rent or sell it.

I'm not convinced that the (high) price of housing is caused by a lack of housing. There are plenty of properties which are intentionally kept vacant and unused by the owners because they are treated as an investment.

I want to penalize holding properties like that.

I'm saying that this seems to be going after a symptom rather than the problem.

I'm not talking about people making profit from housing, I'm talking about wealth disparity driving the housing dilemma.

I would want to levy a tax on unoccupied housing.

This seems to be good on the surface, but how is this not an Abundance push?

This doesn't seem to help the biggest problem with housing issues which is moneied interests.

@drandrealove.bsky.social I watched you on Dr Mike's channel and you deserve a reward for your patience.

Thank you for participating in that interview. I appreciated your calm and very informative responses to the outright silliness being presented as legitimate scientific information.

Happy International Incels Who Call Themselves Alphas Complaining That There's No International Men's Day Even Though International Men's Day is November 19th But They Don't Know That Because All They Actually Want Is For There To Be No International Women's Day Day.