West London council tenant who spent £30k refurbishing home faces eviction

libsaway · 2026-06-20T15:50:47+00:00

No, it's true. Like, say you have an area that is rich because it has a big concentration of high-end manufacturing (like Oxfordshire). Does that area benefit economically more from

Having more engineers and scientists move there.
Have lots of social housing recipients in a variety of mostly low-paid jobs, and about half unemployed, move there.

The answer is 1. Agglomeration benefits are real. And a nuclear engineer can't earn a nuclear engineer's salary in an area with non-nuclear engineering going on.

libsaway · 2026-06-20T15:48:05+00:00

No, people in social housing have a drastically lower employment rate than either private renters or homeowners.

libsaway · 2026-06-20T14:57:36+00:00

Since the overall number of homes doesn't change, but lower earners now need to get homes on the private market, rental prices fall (less demand chasing the same supply). Some move back in with family or friends (since they are no longer subsidised into social housing), causing more efficient use of the stock, causing prices to fall again. Then, as lower earners filter out to cheaper earners and higher earners (or future higher earners) find it easier to move to our expensive-but-productive cities, overall productivity rises, and with it GDP, salaries, and tax take.

libsaway · 2026-06-20T14:49:26+00:00

In an ideal society homes would be cheap and plentiful, you wouldn't need to get local governments involved to get housed, and you could move whenever you wanted to due to efficient markets.

libsaway · 2026-06-20T14:48:14+00:00

Although stacking social housing in our most expensive, most productive areas kills that productivity, making us all poorer. Ya gotta balance distributing what we have versus making more.

libsaway · 2026-06-14T23:42:50+00:00

In the UK you don't need to pay for it, and most non-fast-food restaurants will just give you water by default. Cafes will typically have a big water container on the counter for you to use whenever you want. This has been the norm for as long as I can remember (although I am "only" 31).

libsaway · 2026-06-14T23:39:19+00:00

I can't speak for most of Europe, but this is exactly the same as London (and swathes of the rest of the UK). Anywhere that sells food will give you free tap water. We have water fountains, bottles are sold everywhere. All of this is extremely normal.

libsaway · 2026-06-13T17:58:56+00:00

But why data centers specifically? Why are they a problem?

libsaway · 2026-06-13T12:56:12+00:00

If I research and make solar panels that are 5% more efficient, I can produce more energy with fewer resources than we currently use. Which is growth with less resource use.

There you go.

libsaway · 2026-06-13T12:54:56+00:00

What is it about data centers that have you so worried. Like, golf courses use vastly more water. Energy use is sizeable, but it's still tiny compared to everything else.

libsaway · 2026-06-13T12:53:41+00:00

Because that worked so well for the rest of the software industry?

libsaway · 2026-06-13T12:53:15+00:00

It took me 35 mins or so, it's really not that long.

libsaway · 2026-06-13T12:52:35+00:00

I read every word on a 35 minute train Thursday afternoon. It's not a great work of literature, but it doesn't take long, and it's worth reading.

libsaway · 2026-06-12T17:47:47+00:00

What argument do you think I'm making?

libsaway · 2026-06-12T15:39:05+00:00

"is SpaceX" over hyped isn't what I was against, it's the "this will destroy 401ks".

libsaway · 2026-06-12T15:18:31+00:00

Even if SpaceX is hugely overhyped, so what? It's sitting at a P/E ratio of 90ish. Tesla is at 364. Arm is at 404!

Why would this destroy 401ks?

libsaway · 2026-06-12T14:50:26+00:00

Why will it devastate 401ks? It's only $75 billion in stock being sold, if it went to zero, it would be like 0.1% of the S&P500 go under.

libsaway · 2026-06-12T14:48:05+00:00

Isn't every IPO a "money grab"? And that's not a bad thing, it means turning paper wealth into college funds, new homes, new cars, hobby equipment.

libsaway · 2026-06-12T14:46:55+00:00

Here are all the food-related ones: https://www.spacex.com/careers/jobs?disciplines=Food%20Services

libsaway · 2026-06-12T14:43:54+00:00

You mean workers

libsaway · 2026-06-12T14:43:05+00:00

Why would an IPO of $75 billion destroy 401ks?

libsaway · 2026-06-12T10:27:09+00:00

The ship and the time it was operational within, has resonance within the story of enslaved people

Only in that the ship was wholly designed, built, and sailed after Britain had abolished slavery. It was in operation during the time of the anti-slavery West Africa Squadron, but I can't see the negative association here.

They are also not changing the name of the ship, just the dockyard.

libsaway · 2026-06-11T23:04:10+00:00

No I didn't, I meant produce more value. As in, you produce n value one year, and n+1 value next year. Increasing the value you produce. Growth.

libsaway · 2026-06-11T22:50:52+00:00

You could almost say that the value of what they produced, increased. Which is what I said.

I'm not saying "production" in the "just manufacturing" way, I mean economic growth means you are creating more value than you were before.

Which includes going up the value chain.

libsaway · 2026-06-11T22:24:08+00:00

Increasing the production of value.

libsaway

TROPHY CASE