futility

haven't posted lately, simply due to the futility or the feeling of same of blogging about things the that annoy me. for the simple reason that i'm liberal (or libertarian in american, some dispute though here) and i live in not-even-remotely-liberal ireland so almost everything that politicians or lobby groups propose, manages to offend my belief system. they generally also offend logic and reason but that a seperate issue. anyway this leads to a sort of paralyis, which stupid idea to bitch about first? with the result that nothing is bitched about. on the blog anyway needless to say i do a good bit of eye rolling and disgusted head shaking every day.

for example, just taking what's in the news today

from the IT rabbitt wants state to jointly fund house purchases.

so the government wants to take other peoples money and give it to other people so they can spend more on a house, apparently labour has no idea what a price is or how it is determined, what inflation is, or how the well intentioned zoning laws have the unintended, though inevitable consequence, of driving up the price of land, and therefore houses by artifically limiting supply. in fairness to labour all parties idaes are stupid in this regard though this 'idea' takes the buiscuit.

Opening Labour's annual conference in Dublin, Mr Rabbitte said the housing crisis has created "impossibly long" housing waiting lists, forced unsustainable commutes upon workers and damaged family ties. "We have to come to grips with this issue. What is required is a mechanism that allows people to get a foot on the housing ladder," the Labour leader told delegates. Unlike existing affordable housing schemes, which are limited to those earning below €40,000, homebuyers would not have to meet income limits, nor would they face restrictions about selling the house at any time.

what a load of crap. first off housing crisis? this is apparently where people can't buy a house where they want at the price they they demand. this is not a housing crisis or market failure, it's exactly what happens when government bodies try to ''plan'' development as i pointed out above

The lack of qualifying income limits would not be abused, he said: "People will not want to own less of a share of a house than they can afford. People want to own their own homes." However, qualifying homebuyers would pay a still unfixed monthly fee in return for the State's assistance with their mortgages: "It will be low enough to be affordable, high enough to discourage abuse," he said.

In an example given in a Labour briefing document, seen by The Irish Times last night, a couple able to qualify for a €250,000 mortgage would be able to bid for a €400,000 property once they have been given clearance by their local authority.

"The housing authority will guarantee the balance of the loan necessary to buy at that price - the authority can do this by taking a proportionate stake in the property, with the house-hunter undertaking a minimum quarter stake in the home," the document declared.

"The couple will then repay their approved mortgage in the normal way." The housing authority will also finance the balance, through a new Housing Assistance Fund.

problems with this
1) if someone can only qualify for a 250000 euro mortgage, it means a bank somewhere has looked at their income and doesn't think that they can afford more. i'd like to point out that irish banks aren't stingy with credit and they have a far more knowledge than the government in this area. so how does labour think that these people are going to pay back the other 150000???

2)it presupposes that houses have a fixed value, it obviously hasn't occured to labour that doing this would cause massive inflation in house prices. repeat after me when more money chases scare goods prices go up.

3)the lack of qualifying limits will not be abused???? what planet does this guy live on? i have to admire his faith in his fellow man.

i'm assuming that this is supposed to make people want to vote for them. so will i vote for a party that has absolutely no knowledge of even the most basic economic ideas? emmmm...... no