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MA housing prices vs incomes, intermediate update
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 12:59 am GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I'm primarily talking about the huge middle class, not criminals or whatever point you were trying to make.


I'm also talking about the angry middle class. What I've noticed is that people: co-workers, ex-classmates, neighbors, etc love to talk in terms of big projects like organizing on blogs, however, the truth of the matter is that American middle classers don't want an arrest record for disturbing the peace, rioting, or assault/battery so they stay home, doing little, and watch entire industries move to Asia-Pacific.

And the point about trailer homes is that in-place of being seen as rabble rousers, many middle classers would rather live with a reduced standard of living, trailer homes a/o tented villages in the Appalachian trail, than to stick out like a sore thumb on an arrest dossier. This is stark contrast with let's say the UK or continental Europe where people would definitely take to the streets when third world conditions creep up upon the population; just look at last year's riots in the Paris suburbs.

So the way things will work out is the middle class will shrink, mobile home communities will grow, and people will accept a lifestyle of migrant work, going from city to city, state to state, with reduced living standards while living the high life via fantasies projected through the cable/satellite TV. The ones with means, who'll also likely be dual citizens with Canada/Australia or own a crash pad in the Caribbean, will be able to persist in a middle class way while living a bi-located lifestyle here and abroad. Some of them will be highly successful like the legendary Jim Thompson in Thailand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thompson_%28designer%29), however, most will simply be modest and incognito.
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john p



Joined: 10 Mar 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 1:00 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think that the folk over here already did the whole pitchfork stuff and left behind a system with checks and balances, term limits, a free press, and so on.

Before I throw up my arms, I give an organization the benefit of the doubt and explore the remedies at hand. My temperture level rises as each remedy gives the wrong answer. That's when I think a policy has run it's course or a group is polluted. For example, when Mass Housing tells you that the metrics to determine what is "affordable" don't align with reality i.e. a rich town gets a better performance factor than a blue collar town. This is when the "Snob" zoning legislation in 1969 get twisted and morphed over about 3.5 decades to now hurt those it was meant to help.

Further, I spoke with a little old lady from Middleboro (the town that voted for a Casino). She said that if the casino didn't chop down one tree or harm one stream she would want it. She said the town needed money and if the land wasn't going to be developed with a casino, it would have Chapt. 40B "low income housing". Chapt. 40B was put into place in 1969 to keep rich towns from using zoning as a method to keep out growth. Rich people that often control power have changed those rules so that what was once used to protect poor people is now being used to threaten them. Chapter 40B is absolutely misused and we do not babysit what is going on. Needless to say, this lady was easily politiced. She was a low hanging fruit. That is part of the reason why predators attack these little defenseless towns; they know it is easy to take advantage of them. In many of these small towns you have corrupt leaders; people that manipulate the community and don't put the community's future first. When people appel to the Governor, the State and Federal Legislature and they get the blow off, I can see them getting really betrayed. If you get one Molly Bish incident due to the casinos's presence, you bet, some angry fathers might take the law into their own hands. If your government fails you and you have exhausted all your remedies, that is when you take matters into your own hands. If you have a long list of remedies in front of you and you never said anything to warn anyone prior to a problem happening, I don't think you'll have people lining up to follow you when you want Revolution.

The reason why I think you might be right is that if you ever try to appeal to your government, you get the (that's not my scope, you get passed on, people never answer the phone, etc.) I think we actually offer too much and don't have the ability to monitor or enforce very much. It's like watching a baseball team that has jugglers playing the infield and watching all the ground balls go right by. When the government becomes ineffective, you get abuse; people feel comfortable committing crime because they know that their governenment can be bought off, won't pay attention or are incompetent. When government officials are incompetent and political, any companies that are contractor or consultants for the government populate their teams with a compliment of political incompetent staff so it marginializes the quality the people get from their tax dollars. I see the lack of discipline, professionalism, honor, decency, as a potential dangerous electrical field. It attracts the wrong crowd like casinos. If people treated their State like a loving parent that doesn't want their daughter to wear a racy outfit because it will attract the wrong element. Our current State is in a state where we are magnetizing really bad stuff. When that negative potential energy turns into kinetic results I hope our population is awake enough to defend ourselves and the casino types don't have too much control and have bought off more politicians.

It's like that battle between George Bailey and Old Man Potter. If Massachusetts can't win that fight, other weaker areas don't have a chance. People look to Massachusetts to be that city on a hill. Deval Patrick envoked this and then he was bought off by the casino owners.
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 2:42 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'd just like to point out that my life is turning out extremely well. I have a wonderful life, no doubt and actually have no idea if any kind of true anti-establishment groundswell is occurring.

...it just seems to stand to reason that it will.

I should step back and say just this. I have never seen "Middle America" so angry. I also feel that because the rich are getting richer, that means a lot more people are getting a lot poorer.

There will be a day of reckoning because, and again I am not saying what's right or wrong, but something will have to give. That much strain on that many more millions of people doesn't just "go away." It festers and gets worse, much like an infected wound.

Uh, that's all I'm trying to say.
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 4:47 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
There will be a day of reckoning because, and again I am not saying what's right or wrong, but something will have to give.


Well... here's a link to the history of Brazil's economy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Brazil#Stagnation.2C_inflation.2C_and_crisis.2C_1981-94)

Apparently, they'd gone through this, lost some 50% of its middle class strata, and those with education or links abroad emigrated to the US, Canada, or Europe in large numbers.

What's happened, however, is that the nation persisted and much of the upheaval involved rampant crime and gang violence. The difference was what remained of the middle class and unfortunately, it wasn't a whole lot. I believe we're on a similar course. What I don't believe in, however, is this whole wannabe revolutionary mentality of middle Americans. That's simply everyone's fantasy, like the whole nuking of Russia a/o Middle East, which I hear a lot of at clambakes and barbecues but with no one at the party willing to join the air force w/o a major draft.

Instead, what'll happen is that people will turn in their home keys (now advised by Jim Cramer), buy a used RV, and trek from state to state looking for part-time, seasonal work. Of course the RV's will have a portable dish a/o Wi-Fi so people will be able to watch the tube to offset the stresses of the day. What you won't see is a Che Guevara type of movement with a lot of people gathering to raid city halls and state facilities. That whole people power thing isn't a part of mainstream America.
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john p



Joined: 10 Mar 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:59 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think the things to watch for are:

First, if you notice that people lose a kinship towards eachother. If people say they are for or against something based upon how it affects them personally. If this happens large powers in our society can divide and conquer. They will target small segments of the population and keep important segments happy. Casinos case in point, people say hey, its far away from where I live, and I'll get a hundred dollars off my taxes so what do I care about the impact on the poor suckers that have to live near it. It sucks to be them.

Second, when large groups play the "squeeze them until they squeal" game. Banks add fees until you yell at them to stop. Insurance companies often try to take advantage and "play the numbers" by seeing how many people they can push over before they face someone who's going to push back. If people can profit by trying to take advangage, they will behave in a badly. If people don't stick together and use their collective market power to punish the bad behavior, it will continue and eat away at at us. The perfect example is the perscription drugs. Old people are paying sometimes thousands of dollars for these little pills. Folks from the United States pay more than other countries because we can pay more. The drug companies squeeze us. They buy off the politicians to keel through the turbulance they cause.

Third, the erosion of justice and accountability. If governments are busy handling stacks of phone book sized law books and beauracratic policies they can't enforce hardly any of them. When this happens the last thing they should do is invite more risks like the negative impacts of casinos. They can't catch the Big Dig contractors and they think they can handle the casino folks? Wait, because they couldn't keep a lid on the Big Dig contractors they need the casino folks. Even look at Alan Greenspan. He doesn't think he is accountable for hardly anything. He has no remorse for any bubbles he created. He says how was I supposed to know what was going on? How about the owner of that mine where the miners got trapped. He had a bad history and he was never put in his place. Imagine being one of those family members. They might be pretty pissed. What I find all the time is people make dumb short sited decisions knowing full well that they won't be around to deal with the fallout. They wait as long as they can until the collapse comes and then they exit stage right. I love to see Harvard coming out with reports about the housing crisis now. Where the hell were they when it mattered? A leader is someone who gets out in front of a problem not someone who nudges another at the feeding trough.

Fourth, the devaluation of our values. When someone gave their lives to give us a right to vote and we don't because we're busy that is being disrespectful to the people that fought to give us that right. When we are in a State of Emergency or a State of War, sometimes they suspend rules and regulations, bidding laws, rules of privacy etc. When this War on Terror goes on for a decade or more, are we supposed to put our Country's values on hold? Even in housing, when someone tells you that your $400k is only worth a basement condo, people have to push back. The more sucker there are who devalue themselves the more it hurts everyone. Our current State has an economic "emergency" where we have to let go of our values and common sense regarding casinos to tap those revenue streams.

Last, selling out your future to save today. Whether it is selling out your legal protections, a government floating bonds to pay for operating expenses and making future generations pay the tab, or bringing in casinos and having to deal with the gambling addicts or the children of the addicts that can't afford college etc. A real big challenge is Social Security, servicing large Pension plans etc.

So back to housing, if it is just young new buyers who are being squeezed, who cares, who will extend themselves to care or help? Will the government pretent that it wasn't their role to protect those that got caught in an unfair adjustment? People that can't pay their mortgages aren't really the type that contribute to politicians. They'd rather get the NAR's money or the finance industry's money than to stick up for a little guy.
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:42 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

Anonymous wrote:
Quote:
There will be a day of reckoning because, and again I am not saying what's right or wrong, but something will have to give.


Well... here's a link to the history of Brazil's economy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Brazil#Stagnation.2C_inflation.2C_and_crisis.2C_1981-94)

Apparently, they'd gone through this, lost some 50% of its middle class strata, and those with education or links abroad emigrated to the US, Canada, or Europe in large numbers.

What's happened, however, is that the nation persisted and much of the upheaval involved rampant crime and gang violence. The difference was what remained of the middle class and unfortunately, it wasn't a whole lot. I believe we're on a similar course. What I don't believe in, however, is this whole wannabe revolutionary mentality of middle Americans. That's simply everyone's fantasy, like the whole nuking of Russia a/o Middle East, which I hear a lot of at clambakes and barbecues but with no one at the party willing to join the air force w/o a major draft.

Instead, what'll happen is that people will turn in their home keys (now advised by Jim Cramer), buy a used RV, and trek from state to state looking for part-time, seasonal work. Of course the RV's will have a portable dish a/o Wi-Fi so people will be able to watch the tube to offset the stresses of the day. What you won't see is a Che Guevara type of movement with a lot of people gathering to raid city halls and state facilities. That whole people power thing isn't a part of mainstream America.


I guess I need to be clear. I'm not talking about people forming militias, despite the pitchfork scenario. What I really see is a disconnected anger coming from an enormous amount of disenfranchised people that, more than likely will gradually wear down the American economic balance. It will first be because of personal economic strain removing positive influence making many more people poor, which of course leads to violent crimes, more and more uneducated americans, drug abuse exploding, leading to gradual proliferation of deadly, drug-resistant diseases into society, which of course weakens the whole, causing an endless, expanding downward spiral of our nation.

By the time the ultra rich start realizing that they will be negatively affected by this, it will be too late.

...it's about then that they hear the first real knocks at their doors, but only, admittedly after many years.

I guess I can naively and innocently ask this question:

Who or what is behind this madness to give CEO's these golden parachutes worth 30-40 million dollars when you get fired? It's that kind of thinking and action thats killin' people. Extravagantly rewarding failure and mediocrity has become the norm.
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 1:47 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Who or what is behind this madness to give CEO's these golden parachutes worth 30-40 million dollars when you get fired? It's that kind of thinking and action thats killin' people. Extravagantly rewarding failure and mediocrity has become the norm."

The stockholders - who are ultimately - the Average American Citizen. The Average guy sends lots of money to these well paid CEOs through Pension and 401K plans. The Average guy/woman has seen the value of their home and Stock portfolio surg in the last four years. The Average guy in making more money than he has ever made in his life (he isn't sharp enough to know about or notice inflation).

Robert Shiller has a great description of how Society has raised the CXO class to the level of Celebrities.

Problems facing socitey are never simple and where they lead - No ONE HAS A CLUE.
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:19 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:

I also feel that because the rich are getting richer, that means a lot more people are getting a lot poorer.

That can be the case, but it doesn't need to be. Economics is not a zero sum game and you can have situations where everybody involved gets richer. For example, the invention of the telephone made Alexander Graham Bell wealthy, but it also made society as a whole much better off. I picked an old example because it should be clear from a historical perspective that everybody was made better off, even though the payoff was particularly good for Bell. I think that similar things could be said about some who made their wealth more recently, such as Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Of course, that doesn't mean that someone can't get rich by making a lot of others poorer. Your golden parachute example is a good one. Nardelli's recent $210M parachute from Home Depot was particularly disturbing.

I'm just saying, be careful not to drive away the future Bells, Pages, and Brins when you go after the Nardellis.

Quote:

I love to see Harvard coming out with reports about the housing crisis now. Where the hell were they when it mattered?


Oh they were there, all right... helping to heap fuel on the fire. Check out their report from 2005. Quotes from the report like this were parroted by the media to assure everybody that there was no bubble: "house prices should keep rising as long as job and income growth continue to offset the recent jump in short-term interest rates."

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john p



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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:11 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

That's kind of what I was thinking (What BK said). He spared you 12 paragraphs of my rambling.

People need to elevate the level of play. Arlington has great hockey because Medford, Watertown, Matignon, Reading and other surrounding towns are awesome too. The kids are used to a faster, more skilled level of play from the get go, so they are really good.

Take Boston sports fans, they are among the smartest out there. They cheer for a batter that makes a pitcher eat 15 pitches fouling off. If the average Massachusetts citizen knew as much about public policy as they did the Patriots, we wouldn't have to deal with so much nonsense. What they fail to realize is that they are a spectator for the Patriots and a player in public policy (we're all responsible).

A guy at a golf shop said that the average man spends more time selecting their set of golf clubs than picking their home. Given the fact that even people who invest a lot of money in to golf are still duffers, it tells you what type of duffers are out there in the housing market.

I grew up in a rich town and saw some really "powerful" folks in the finance industry, politics, etc. They weren't that smart, they're regular folks who had connections. Many rich folks are just good at spinning. Mitt Romney takes credit for anything good that has come out of Massachusetts during his term, but if there were any failures he says stuff like you know Massachusetts is a Democratic State, and I really tried but had no control to affect that. So he can cherry pick sucesses from failures. Look at Alan Greenspan, he was supposedly the top dog economically, and he just grins and smiles when he's asked about his role in creating the housing bubble. When he was getting all the credit for the boom years, did he say what he's saying now "Gee, I can't take the credit for this, I don't control or affect much?" In reality, he didn't put himself up on a pedistal (he didn't protest it) but Congress did, economists did. Because they did, he never got hard questions, questions like "Is this your scope or not?" or "Did this happen because of what you did?". When I was a young professional I used to hear confused stuff and think it must have been over my head. Now, when I hear confused stuff, I suspect that things are messed up and confused. That's when I ask more questions. If people are confused or unsure they talk in FED speak. They are either just a spectator like everyone else or they are qualifying what basis they would make their educated guess. I think it is more professional to have someone say "Gee, I don't know, but this is the information I would want to have to base my decision".
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:35 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

I grew up in and now live in another wealthy town. Maybe I'm too close to the fire.
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john p



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:37 am GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sometimes getting pushed and getting pissed off can transform regular folk into leaders.

Take a look at my boy Ben Franklin; read his testimony to Parliment regarding the Stamp Act. This little nerdy dude had some stones. A littel pissed off Printer and he said "I've got your stamp tax right here"; no pissed off printer, no United States of America.

http://www.historywiz.com/primarysources/franklintestimony.htm
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john p



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:30 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

The next big thing this current set of generations lacks is a high batting average of cleaning up problems. People have this "pick your battles" mentality. Think about a career politician, think about how much crap he or she lets slide. They cherrypick whatever issues they think will keep them in office. I'd much rather see a tazmanian devil who purged and cleaned as much as he could and then handed the baton to the next person who was committed to hitting it hard. When people don't choose to enforce lots of what is needed society gets the message (we can get away with a lot here). When it gets to the point where if you're not "playing the game" you're losing, quality people don't make it i.e. people who don't lie on their resumes are honest and up front about a bid proposal versus someone who low-balls.

Oh, here's a battle Deval Patrick decided not to fight: The former tribal chairman Glenn Marshall who according to the Globe "led the tribe during the past several years while it pressed for federal recognition and began planning a casino proposed for Middleborough." resigned after acknowleging a 1981 rape conviction and repeatedly lying about his military record. So this is another rapist that has spun Deval Patrick into his web (Ben LeGuerre being the other). This whole storm of casinos has been put into play by a rapist. It is a shame that the great people of Massachusetts will sit idle because this isn't a battle they want to fight. The interesting thing about rape and casinos is that a rapist like to lure you in and then capture you and then watch you in distress. I think it takes a demented mind to want to work in that reality. Being in an industry where we build things it is hard to swallow someone who is sadistic and wants to be a parasite and not build anything. Deval Patrick appealed to our creativity and ingenuity during the election and then before any fair and open debate on the issue we find that he's giving preference to the rapist's master plan. I guess I'm mentioning this on a housing blog because wasn't it irrationality and exhuberance which inflated the housing bubble. People sat on the sidelines and let the first time home buyers suffer. Can't we take what we learned or do we have to continue to never learn the morals of stories? It is tough to see a State that I admire and am proud of sit idle while a little town is getting raped. Boston used to be a "tribal" town where people understood that their strength was in their numbers. Big money companies used to be able to swoop in and control other areas of the country, that never really happened to Massachusetts, the people always had their guard up and won the day. The current crop might not have had to fight for really anything so they don't protest that much when someone pulls what others have given them from their hands.

Another reason why this might torpedo house values across the State and not just the targeted towns is this. How can the State justify one town not allowing a McDonalds in their town when the State shoved a casino up another town's... How is there any credibility for a rich town like Weston to say we strongly prefer "shingle style homes" while a little town absorbs a casino at the behest of a Governor. Here's the point, a casino has tons and tons of money. A little town is not equipped to take them on. A State can. Because it is not a fair fight (they aren't in the same weight class) the State can't just sit there and watch the little guy get pummelled and then use that to justify them piling on.
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:04 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

john_p -- Dude you're too much! Man, I wanna party with you!!!
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:17 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

john p wrote:
The next big thing this current set of generations lacks is a high batting average of cleaning up problems. People have this "pick your battles" mentality. Think about a career politician, think about how much crap he or she lets slide. They cherrypick whatever issues they think will keep them in office. I'd much rather see a tazmanian devil who purged and cleaned as much as he could and then handed the baton to the next person who was committed to hitting it hard. When people don't choose to enforce lots of what is needed society gets the message (we can get away with a lot here). When it gets to the point where if you're not "playing the game" you're losing, quality people don't make it i.e. people who don't lie on their resumes are honest and up front about a bid proposal versus someone who low-balls.

Oh, here's a battle Deval Patrick decided not to fight: The former tribal chairman Glenn Marshall who according to the Globe "led the tribe during the past several years while it pressed for federal recognition and began planning a casino proposed for Middleborough." resigned after acknowleging a 1981 rape conviction and repeatedly lying about his military record. So this is another rapist that has spun Deval Patrick into his web (Ben LeGuerre being the other). This whole storm of casinos has been put into play by a rapist. It is a shame that the great people of Massachusetts will sit idle because this isn't a battle they want to fight. The interesting thing about rape and casinos is that a rapist like to lure you in and then capture you and then watch you in distress. I think it takes a demented mind to want to work in that reality. Being in an industry where we build things it is hard to swallow someone who is sadistic and wants to be a parasite and not build anything. Deval Patrick appealed to our creativity and ingenuity during the election and then before any fair and open debate on the issue we find that he's giving preference to the rapist's master plan. I guess I'm mentioning this on a housing blog because wasn't it irrationality and exhuberance which inflated the housing bubble. People sat on the sidelines and let the first time home buyers suffer. Can't we take what we learned or do we have to continue to never learn the morals of stories? It is tough to see a State that I admire and am proud of sit idle while a little town is getting raped. Boston used to be a "tribal" town where people understood that their strength was in their numbers. Big money companies used to be able to swoop in and control other areas of the country, that never really happened to Massachusetts, the people always had their guard up and won the day. The current crop might not have had to fight for really anything so they don't protest that much when someone pulls what others have given them from their hands.

Another reason why this might torpedo house values across the State and not just the targeted towns is this. How can the State justify one town not allowing a McDonalds in their town when the State shoved a casino up another town's... How is there any credibility for a rich town like Weston to say we strongly prefer "shingle style homes" while a little town absorbs a casino at the behest of a Governor. Here's the point, a casino has tons and tons of money. A little town is not equipped to take them on. A State can. Because it is not a fair fight (they aren't in the same weight class) the State can't just sit there and watch the little guy get pummelled and then use that to justify them piling on.


To make matters worse, it seems that the town of Middleboro, as a whole, has been duped into believing this casino would be a good thing. What an ugly mess that once-quaint little town is going to wake up to.

Jeez, the ink hasn't even dried and they've already started throwing corrupt people in jail.

The people of Cape Cod are really going to feel the pain. Can you imagine the terrible traffic heading toward the cape when you approach Middleboro in the summer. As it is Cape Cod has just about lost all reasons for people to go there. Most beaches are now private, or cost an arm and a leg to park at. That's OK, you may even be luck enough to get stuck in traffic and not be able to spend that $25 for beach parking. Well, there is always ugly downtown Hyannis for shopping.

Anyway, the point is, goodbye Cape Cod!
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 2:49 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did go to http://www.casinofacts.org/ and it referenced me to a great article:

http://www.massinc.org/index.php?id=110&pub_id=2150

It seems that the way these votes are being framed is like this:

The Fed's are going to allow it anyway, so if we're on board we can get a piece of the gravy train. If we protest and they fight a fight and we don't win, they aren't obliged to give us anything, we get nothing.

They said that when they asked the folks in Middleborough whether they wanted a casino or not squarely, they said overwhelmingly no. It was framed in a way where they were getting it, it was coming and what was the best way they could benefit from the foregone conclusion. It sounds like the authorization to go to War doesn't it? Prior to the vote to go to War, it was like, "Oh, this is meant to send a strong message to Saddam". As soon as the vote was cast, it was entirely about a preemptive strike, all the conditions were never measured. What we need to do is to get very clear subject and copy to vote on. People were misled.

I wonder if the Open Meeting Law rules and regulations were upheld for all the scheming that was done.

How about the article about Swelleley:

http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2007/09/26/little_appetite_for_mcmansions/

I actually know the builder referenced and his family; totally top shelf folks, salt of the earth types. Interesting how a rich town can have an issue about how "rich" your house can be while a poor town has to get a casino. I'd rather have the problem of having McMansions than McCasinos.

This goes back to some of this blog's discussions of the changing landscape of housing due to the redistribution of wealth in the past 10 years or so.

I really like Ted Kennedy but it's interesting that he doesn't want a wind farm because the developer is running "rough shot" and he seems kind of quiet when this stuff is going on to a struggling town. Further, one of his ex-employees is out there on the front lines fighting for this.

I like this old lady's testimony about how this "tribal leader" when he was a kid used to make fun of the indians and bully them, then when there is money involved he decides to be an indian; and Deval is his friend.

http://medianation.blogspot.com/2007/08/whats-next-for-casino.html

Here's the thing for me regarding housing. This is a perfect test of our constitution (what we are made of). If we have the top education, if we have a world class employment base, AND we haven't forgotten the lessons of where we came from (that tribal stick together look out for everyone mindset) Massachusetts will be a force to be reckoned with and I will feel better knowing who's on my left and right going into the future here. I feel that if we can't beat this, I give more stock to those that say our future here is going down.
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