And you all told me the blue maga border bill that Republicans rejected was 4d chess.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    The GOP has cried wolf so loudly and for so long that now no one believes them.

    The US-Mexico border is 1,951 miles long. You can’t capture the issue with a video or photograph.

    And no, it is not made up. See for yourself. Border encounters spiked hard, but dropped just as hard for January. No idea what’s going on there.

    In any case, look at the yearly numbers for a better picture. For 2024 we’ll easily top 1-million extra migrants over 2021’s numbers. Yeah, we got a problem.

    How are we to employ and house 3+ million souls? And that’s just for 2024. This will require a new major city worth of infrastructure, every year. Don’t we removed about rent pricing around here? Hold onto your butts.

    And go tell Denver it’s all made up. Dare ya.

    https://www.denverpost.com/2024/02/21/denver-budget-cuts-migrant-crisis-recreation-center-hours/

    https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/02/21/overwhelmed-by-new-arrivals-denver-residents-organize-to-welcome-migrant-populations-decently_6546726_4.html

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/us/denver-colorado-migrants.html

    • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Since many migrants often work construction etc. Perhaps they could be employed to build it. Just a rational stab in the dark here.

      And yes we removed about rent etc. The key thing to understand, is that rent doesn’t really have a reason to cost as much as it does. The actual cost of upkeep etc for the buildings and property etc is a fraction of the rent. We’ve as a society demonized public housing, and largely refused to let any new be built. Or take care of the few that have properly. Because “reasons”.

    • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I’ve always been staunchly against illegal immigration for that reason.We’re already in a cost of living crisis. The country is full. I wish the Democrats would realize that by continuing to allow illegal immigration, it lowers the cost of labor, and in turn and crushes the working class’ collective bargaining power. I’m not gonna go vote for an insurrectionist traitor that will cut Bezos’ tax bill to fix it though, but straight up, idk why people even want to come here anymore. 20 years ago, I get it, but now everything is expensive and you’re not going to make it Washing dishes and picking fruit.

      • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The country is far from full. We have cities in a few states that dwarf the population of entire other states.

        The cost of living crisis is manufactured. And we as a society could choose to end it tomorrow.

        • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Agreed, but adding to demand without relieving supply does us no favors. If we banned Air BNB and corporate landlords of single family homes, this problem would be gone tomorrow, but that’s not going to happen.

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            We could even leave those things untouched. And simply build desirable, affordable public housing like Austria. In areas where it’s feasible have Finland style district heating.

            That would cause the collapse of said corporate land barons and ridiculous Air BNB BS. We won’t do it however. Because there’s no short term profits in it for said land barons. And it would reduce how much they’re able to overcharge impacting their profits long and short term.

          • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            a vacancy tax would fix seattle overnight, I stayed at a hotel there recently and most the nearby buildings were over 50% just empty rooms. Theres no reason to justify these kinds of rents except price fixing.

            • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              100%. A friend of mine lives in a “luxury apartment” and at night, most of the lights are off, I never see other people in the hallway, and I can almost guarantee it is 30-50 % occupied. They don’t care though, they would rather have it be 30% occupied at the higher price than 100% occupied at what the true market rate is.

          • queermunist she/herOP
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            9 months ago

            Reducing demand does no favors either because the cost of living is artificial. Demand is irrelevant.

            • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              I mean, it’s definitely still relevant. If everyone just said fuck it n moved into Hooverviles tomorrow, cost of housing would go down with no one to occupy/ pay for the housing. They are restricting supply. The only way to combat it beyond asking for legislators to actually do their fucking job is to decrease demand.

              • queermunist she/herOP
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                9 months ago

                They’re restricting supply by buying up empty housing and hoarding it (and manipulating zoning laws and buying off city councils and getting the “right” ordinances passed etc). There isn’t actually a shortage of housing, just a shortage of “available” housing. You can’t fix that by shutting down the border. They’ll just hoard even more to compensate.