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Comment by nightski | Hacker News Reader

While I agree we could live more simply, I feel you'd need a lot more to justify your assertions. The fact is we have access to a lot more luxuries than we did in the past. Are they necessary? No by definition. Are they even worth it? Very debatable. But to act like our lives have not changed at all except for house prices going up is dishonest.

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100%. Also worth noting from Sowell how house prices did go up, but by comparison the prices per square foot relative to how our parents and grandparents started out are not too bad tbh. (They were all humble and started out in much more meager real estate than many people have now, for example 600 or 1000 or 1200 square foot living conditions vs 2500+ average now per home).

No point in per square feet if people own home not square feet. If price is up, people can't own home and they are not. This is what matters.

The point is people can afford houses if they are willing to compromise on size, in the way previous generations did. A lot are choosing to rent instead. That’s a choice.

This whole conversation has nothing to with what I said. I’m mostly talking about massive taxes and light fiscal policies that are basically transferring wealth to people with access to capital

Your comment said most of the gains in productivity have been captured by housing or government bureaucracies. This is not true. The quality of everything has gone up substantially from the coffee we drink, to the fresh produce around the calendar, to the conveniences at home. We live in a luxury society where a fresh avocado in the middle of winter is less than $1. Where we can order just about anything we need at the click of a button from around the globe. This is where our productivity has gone.

I hate it when people jingle a few trinkets and say look how good everything is. Who cares about avocado? Can you take a few months off to relax? Can you take 2 years off to change careers? Can a woman stay home to take care of her kids for a few years? Can you buy a house without paying for 30 years for it? My friends in the US pay USD3900 for daycare for 1 child.

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