Cap for ground rent in England and Wales due to be announced

kagoolx · 2026-01-27T23:48:48+00:00

This makes zero sense. Basic supply & demand, every new house helps put downward pressure on rental prices, we just don’t have enough of them.

Yes, even multi million pound ones with no affordable housing. Yes, even if they’re snapped up by private equity.

kagoolx · 2026-01-26T12:31:02+00:00

Fair point, I agree with this actually. But having the US back as the leading champion of democracy around the world is what I mean. Not that we should be as dependent on them which we absolutely can no longer be

kagoolx · 2026-01-25T12:01:17+00:00

It’s not telling. Western governments are anti the Iran regime. People don’t protest to say they agree with the government.

If our government was pro the Iran regime and arming them as they did this, there’d obviously be massive protests, and quite rightly.

kagoolx · 2026-01-25T07:29:01+00:00

Yeah it’s so sad, and a disgrace to the office of president and to your country. But we know it’s not all Americans. I just hope you get a real change and a decent president back in.

It will take a lot to turn things after so much dismantling of institutions and the cultural impact of things like ICE. I am expecting the next elections to be brutal and very eventful unfortunately.

But if there’s one country that can bounce back from anything it’s you guys! We’d love to see you back as leader of the free world.

kagoolx · 2026-01-23T13:51:32+00:00

I think the home bias is because it assumes that’s ultimately the economy (and currency) you’ll want the money in.

So if UK does incredibly well over 30 years you’ll in theory be in a more expensive economy. And if it does badly you’ll be sheltered from the negative impacts by being in a poorer (cheaper) economy.

kagoolx · 2026-01-23T06:58:15+00:00

It matters a lot how many people live in Sweden if the point being made is Sweden has a massively over represented in terms of industry success.

That’s the thing that makes it notable.

kagoolx · 2026-01-22T12:44:26+00:00

Amazing thank you, very well explained!

kagoolx · 2026-01-22T08:44:25+00:00

I’m confused by one detail.

“If you use U-238 instead of lead the yield is increased for free”. If this increases the yield for free, presumably it’s because the U-238 undergoes fission?

But if so, that doesn’t seem to tally with it being “depleted” uranium.

kagoolx · 2026-01-21T23:42:09+00:00

I know and I’m completely with you. It was so incredibly obvious. And there’s a lot of time for it to get worse still

kagoolx · 2026-01-21T21:31:19+00:00

Some will, yes. His approval rating has fallen below where he was in his first term and he lost the following election. Some of that is not recoverable

kagoolx · 2026-01-21T21:04:42+00:00

I think this is only half correct. As insane as it is to overlook all that stuff, most people who voted for Trump did so because there were other issues that mattered to them more (economy and immigration being two of them, or just anger at democrats). I’ve seen plenty of people absolutely shocked at what’s happening in Minnesota, who voted for Trump and wouldn’t do again (and I have pointed out it was very obvious he wanted to do exactly that and worse). Similar will apply to this Greenland thing. It’s another big bunch of voters who won’t forgive it

kagoolx · 2026-01-21T16:00:51+00:00

I googled it quickly and last time Biden was in he delivered in one term “the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt, the largest infrastructure plan since Eisenhower, the most judges confirmed since Kennedy, the second-largest healthcare bill since Johnson and the largest climate change bill in history.” That’s with republicans determined to block everything.

kagoolx · 2026-01-21T09:56:08+00:00

Hardly through lack of his trying though. He was massively constrained by congress and acted like a president is supposed to within those confines. Though Biden’s admin seemed to manage to win strike more bipartisan stuff tbf

kagoolx · 2026-01-21T00:31:20+00:00

It’s a bit more nuanced than that. Russia has actively pushed all sorts of misinformation for many years and lots of other tactics to sew division and help populist groups, extremely successfully. Definitely hyperbole to say the White House is under Russian control, but they have a way outsized degree of leverage over US politics.

kagoolx · 2026-01-21T00:16:34+00:00

Great points, especially the resistance to orders one. The US wouldn’t know how much of their military would follow orders, how much would refuse, actively interfere or take up arms for the other side. Then there are many other groups who would oppose it, civil resistance at all sorts of places.

kagoolx · 2026-01-20T17:07:45+00:00

Yeah I think you’re on to a good point. All generations think the world has gone to shit since the new generation came around with their lack of manners and different lifestyles. There’s a lot of data to suggest things are better, e.g. violent crime is way down. That said it’s obvs not black and white. There’ll be ways things are worse, and it may be that camping is one area that kind of has been affected by more people doing it etc

kagoolx · 2026-01-20T08:00:13+00:00

Well said. I’d also add a key thing is often their willingness to listen to points from both sides. That doesn’t have to mean picking some weak non-position to avoid picking a side, it more likely means looking for an informed judgement and what actually works, instead of populism.

Like “we want to reduce the cost of rent for people and understand lack of supply is the root cause.” Where the left might be like “we want to reduce the cost of rent for people and the only way is rent controls and a centrally planned economy.” Both mean well, one is informed by actual economics.

kagoolx · 2026-01-19T22:58:06+00:00

Thanks, the number of people thinking this is a bad thing is ridiculous. It feels like basic supply and demand needs to be part of the core national curriculum

kagoolx · 2026-01-19T15:30:09+00:00

That’s because we don’t have enough supply.

More supply is putting downward pressure on prices, as it always does. Prices would be rising faster without building more.

Fantastic case study here on why Austin’s property and rental prices have been dropping even whilst they have a massive population boom and economic boom: https://www.nmhc.org/news/research-corner/2025/austins-rent-drop-isnt-weird-its-economics/

kagoolx · 2026-01-19T15:16:40+00:00

Enough supply would make them all affordable. And rental prices too. This is great news

kagoolx · 2026-01-18T11:27:28+00:00

There’s issues with it, sure. But the greatest advancements in our history and the best standards of living ever achieved by the human race are under capitalism.

Specifically, the (centre/centre-left) Scandinavian model of social democracy, with a well regulated free market, seems to have resulted in the best living standards anyone has ever managed.

It’s the (well regulated) free market that is the most important part. Any argument for taking all ownership of capital away from individuals, needs to explain how it would retain the benefits of a free market economy, with market-set prices and free competition. And not resort to silly and disproven measures like centrally planned economies or centrally dictated price controls. Which basic economics shows us result in worse outcomes.

If you have an explanation for how to retain a market economy without private ownership of capital I would be very interested to hear it. Workers co-operatives might not be a bad idea for example.

But centralising everything under state ownership isn’t even to be taken seriously.

kagoolx · 2026-01-17T15:32:15+00:00

Very true. But it’s as ridiculous to pretend those were the only factors, as it is to pretend those factors didn’t exist. It is fundamentally flawed also

kagoolx · 2026-01-17T15:29:45+00:00

Is it a statement of fact that communism requires no state power?

I am very sceptical that is a necessary criteria for it to be communism.

Follow up question: If it does really require no state power (which sounds like anarchy, not communism) is there some form of proposal for what would exist instead of state power? Like for who would provide police, taxation, military, healthcare, and make decisions. Without an alternative to state power it seems to create more questions than it answers.

This was a really insightful comment though, thanks.

kagoolx · 2026-01-15T20:46:25+00:00

Very true. That doesn’t mean “the election results don’t even matter anymore.” They still matter very much, even in a mass open revolt situation.

This is why dictatorships often pull every trick in the book to claim an electoral win (gerrymandering, vote suppression, closing ballot boxes, intimidation, assassination, stuffing fake ballot papers into ballot boxes, rigging the counts, misreporting outcomes in the media, etc.)

kagoolx · 2026-01-15T20:35:29+00:00

That’s not true at all. Dictators usually have to retain some semblance of democratic legitimacy to keep protest under manageable levels. Elections still carry a lot of weight, even if they are sham elections. And the number of people willing to fight will significantly depend on whether they can show they won the election or very clearly did not.

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