| 4500+ Great Links | A Housing Crisis in America and the World |
| The predicamentCould the time be ripe for innovation using prefabricated materials such as shipping containers?I think it is easy to argue in the affirmative.
High PricesWe are all users of housing. We must all pay for it either through rent, a mortgage, or cash. But in the USA, home prices have been rising well above the rate of inflation for over 20 years. In the 1990's house prices were costing 3 to 4 times the replacement cost, according to one expert. The result is that in the US even many two wage-earner households can hardly afford a conventional home.Low/No WagesPrices are unreal, but the economy is worse. Wages have been stagnating for a long time. But now, jobs have become much harder to find and retain. Since 2001, 3 million jobs have been lost. Around 1.7 million of those jobs have left the US economy entirely. More are expected to leave: for instance much is being said in the media about how non-specialist jobs involving computers, from high-paying programming to mundane customer service, are slated to go overseas in the next few years.Dell Computer for instance just moved its entire technical support operation to India (see this, that, even this). Reports that the economy is growing are being dismissed by economists: it is explained that there are fewer workers working, but that they are working much harder than ever to keep their jobs. They term this a "jobless recovery". Deflation and recession are predicted. FYICompanies that have fired US and other Western workers in order to shift jobs to India, China, Russia are very numerous. We are really seeing the guttinh of the middle and lower classes and of America. Those companies are too numerous to list here, but include the following. You should boycott these companies for their greed and shortsightedness. Society gives them the right to exist, yet they screw society any chance they get.
Result AAlthough builders, architects, and real estate agents are profiting from the real estate boom, it seems clear that falling wages and overpriced homes mean the party will soon be over and indeed the news reports echo this conclusion.Result BIt is also no surprise that consumers are actively looking for cheaper options. But will they become aware of the possibilities of prefab materials such as shipping containers?Further reading/research
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