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Post a Comment On: Steve Sailer: iSteve

"The Universal Conspiracy"

34 Comments -

1 – 34 of 34
Anonymous Anonymous said...

copy + paste

:dusts hands off:

a fine day's copyvio work!

6/25/10, 1:33 PM

Blogger Dutch Boy said...

"leftist community organizers, boiler room financial operators, the Bush Administration, the Fed, Wall Street, realtors, mortgage brokers, Congress, faith-based organizations"
A list of the usual suspects if there ever was one!

6/25/10, 1:54 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeez, I was blaming Alan Greenspan, and it turns out that if we had had national dental insurance plan, this whole thing wouldna happened. dave.s.

6/25/10, 2:06 PM

Blogger Geoff Matthews said...

Wow.

6/25/10, 2:43 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Steve-O:

The left-right conspiracy you mention is just business as usual. The whole left/right, Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative paradigm is primarily a show for the 99% of the population not in on the scam.

The real dividing line is elite vs. masses.

6/25/10, 4:06 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very interesting story. Instead of housing, it got me thinking about potentially unexpected positive consequences of the health care bill. A lot of people do work they hate or don't believe in for the insurance. Without employers and society having this sword of Damocles over peoples' necks to encourage obedience, we might see more risk taking and truth telling, even about HBD or racial differences.

6/25/10, 4:28 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just like Steve takes apart a lot of experts on racial issues because "political correctness makes you stupid," Dean Baker's Beat the Press blog uses arithmetic and common sense to debunk prominent macroeconomists who are blinded to reality by ideology and simultaneous equations.

Calling the housing bubble early was one example.

He's also rare among economists in admitting immigrants aren't needed because of some unskilled labor shortage, and that because of immigration, blue collar jobs like construction no longer have good pay. He also thinks the quality of life in Japan would improve if they let the population decline rather than ramp up immigration, because retirees could be supported by productivity growth.

Finally, Dean's arithmetic calls out the hysteria over the "soaring" budget deficits, fomented by people like Peter Peterson who want to gut social security and social insurance generally. Our debt is very manageable, and long term problems are almost entirely due to our broken health care system. If you do the math, it's just as devastating to the convention wisdom as Steve's number crunching on test scores, so will be ignored by the innumerate elite for similar reasons.

6/25/10, 5:09 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This guy (Simon) is obviously a fake. A conservative Republican who opposes home-ownership for all, disguised as a do-good liberal.

LOL.

6/25/10, 6:54 PM

Anonymous Kylie said...

Anonymous said..."The left-right conspiracy you mention is just business as usual. The whole left/right, Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative paradigm is primarily a show for the 99% of the population not in on the scam.

The real dividing line is elite vs. masses."

Exactly. Today's conservatism is nothing more than liberalism lite.

6/25/10, 7:03 PM

Blogger John Seiler said...

And don't forget state-level plans. Such as that signed into law by Gov. Schwarzenegger around 2005, which promoted low-income home "owner"ship in a state where, even before the nutty housing boom, only about 30% of people could afford a mortgage.

In his 7 years of misgovernance, there is no bad policy Arnold failed to impose.

6/25/10, 8:30 PM

Anonymous Arthur Levitt said...

When some historian writes in forty years about the decline and fall of the American empire (or about the crisis that ended the republic), he will reprint that part of Baribeau's article. It really covers several bases, and not just about housing.

I also agree with comments # 5 through # 7. Its too bad this article hasn't gotten more attention.

6/25/10, 8:37 PM

Anonymous ben tillman said...

... But since I was a new employee, I wouldn’t qualify for dental insurance for another three months. I started giving the financial education classes.

Why would a recent college graduate care about dental insurance? Nothing is going to go wrong with your teeth between the ages of 20 and 50. And why is someone from the D.C. suburbs writing "programme"?

Etwas klingt falsch.

6/25/10, 9:03 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

From the Article:

".... In the case of the LA programme, for every $1 someone saved, up to $1,000, the person would receive a $4 match."



Man I hope Im reading that wrong. The taxpayer's palms are going to evolve to the point that they permanent adjoin his ankles and he has to eat with his nose on the ground like an ardvark if our government doesn't stop doing this to him.

6/25/10, 9:56 PM

Anonymous Melykin said...

Ben Tillman wrote:
"Why would a recent college graduate care about dental insurance? Nothing is going to go wrong with your teeth between the ages of 20 and 50. "
=====================

Wisdom teeth.

6/25/10, 10:12 PM

Anonymous ERM said...

Why would a recent college graduate care about dental insurance? Nothing is going to go wrong with your teeth between the ages of 20 and 50.

I had a root canal at 27. Bad luck. Also don't forget wisdom teeth.

And why is someone from the D.C. suburbs writing "programme"?

FT style guide, doubtless.

6/25/10, 11:17 PM

Anonymous Big Bill said...

Thanks for the info, Steve. A couple years ago I was trying to identify the connection between ACORN and the mortgage industry and came across this webpage.

It described the ACORN loan program which lent money to poor folks with no hope of ever paying it back (the link above spells out the terms).

The part that caught my eye was the one-day (!) homeowner training program that ACORN gave and the recipients were required to take in order, I am guessing, so the banks could mark the "ACORN-educated homeowner" check box on the loan form, issue the sh!tty loan and have it insured by the taxpayer.

Somehow ACORN was getting paid by the feds to put on the courses. That's how they got their 30 pieces of silver. I knew that, I just didn't know how.

Now Simone gives us the inside view -- what actually went on in those one-day training classes.

It was as I suspected: run 'em through the course, read a few preprinted sales spiels on how good owning a home is, then ACORN washes their hands of them and turns them over to Bank of America for crucifixion.

The one piece still missing is what the taxpayers paid to the community activists for each of the po' folks they screwed into a sh!tty mortgage?

What did those one-day-long homeowner training sessions cost the taxpayer? Was it thirty pieces of silver? More? Less?

Is there anyone out there who knows?

6/26/10, 7:49 AM

Anonymous polistra said...

Very important point: the use of rental to estimate real value of housing.

This bubble was enabled if not caused by the formula, repeated endlessly by economists and politicians, that "The only way to measure value is the price that was actually paid." This sounds empirical, and I'll admit to being fooled by it. But it's not really empirical. There is such a thing as real value of shelter, and rentals give you an empirical measure of the real value of shelter.

Sale price and stock price do not measure the value of the house or the company; instead they measure [Steak + Sizzle], or most of the time just Sizzle.

6/26/10, 8:49 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very interesting story. Instead of housing, it got me thinking about potentially unexpected positive consequences of the health care bill. A lot of people do work they hate or don't believe in for the insurance. Without employers and society having this sword of Damocles over peoples' necks to encourage obedience, we might see more risk taking and truth telling, even about HBD or racial differences.
----

Of course if the gubbmint supplies your health care, you'd better not say mean things, right?

6/26/10, 12:51 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is such a thing as real value of shelter, and rentals give you an empirical measure of the real value of shelter.

So the real value of the monthly payments on the mortgage should be what?

80% of the monthly rent on a similar rental property?

[Which would allow the landlord to gross 25% above his own mortgage?]

75% of the monthly rent for a similar rental property?

[Which would allow the landlord to gross 33% above his own mortgage?]

I have no idea what landlord gross profits are, or ought to be...

6/26/10, 1:46 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

BTW, there is also the question of how the tax code distorts the value of a property in favor of owners, and against renters.

Owners get to write off the interest on their home mortgages; I don't know that landlords get to write off the interest on their [commercial] mortgages [and then pass on those savings to their renters].

So that makes owning much more valuable than renting.

6/26/10, 1:49 PM

Anonymous Curvaceous Carbon-based Life Form said...

"Owners get to write off the interest on their home mortgages; I don't know that landlords get to write off the interest on their [commercial] mortgages [and then pass on those savings to their renters].

So that makes owning much more valuable than renting."

Only if the interest on the mortgage is more than the standard exemption you get anyway, such that itemizing is worth doing. Takes a fairly giant-sized loan to do that.

Also, as a homeowner, maintenance and repairs come out of your pocket, which CAN be sizable. And if an unexpected catastrophe happens that you have to use a credit card, even more so.
Plus, if you need to move to another city for work, you have to find a new occupant (renter or buyer) or take the hit.
Homeownership is NOT for everyone.

6/26/10, 2:50 PM

Anonymous Escapist said...

Hi Steve,

There is a lot of lamenting on the right blogosphere (including on the housing crash, bailout etc), but a shortage of creative, positive and legal solutions for out-maneuvering the left, particularly solutions which don’t necessarily rely on linear power, nor good decision-making on the part of either the majority of the populace, nor the politicians.

This comment is meant in a tongue-in-cheek/friendly tone: I notice you’ve got the usual curmudgeonly lamenters and predictable HBD-MRA-PUA Gameboys on your blogroll – why not add someone with new ideas and an as-yet unseen perspective in this corner of the blogosphere?

My blog is:
http://escapistart.wordpress.com/

I’m a lurker-reader of your blog, a youngish single successful (Evil Career Witch?) conservative-libertarian woman (of an atypical ethnicity for this region of the blogosphere) and a first-time blogger.

The blog is designed to be “entertaining conservative-libertarian” (with upcoming humor spin-off), focuses on sharing new ideas/specific legal and positive solutions (in areas including economics, immigration, entitlements, and how to get to the point of being able to implement them), with dare I say, a bit of seichel (see my future post on a strategy for Social Security/Medicare). Of current posts, you might particularly like “Ms Pelosi, Tear Down These Chains”. I’ve got over a hundred good posts in reserve (plus I write new ones periodically), which I am publishing over time, to give people a chance to discover the blog, read, etc. These will include commentary (from a new angle) on the Gameosphere crowd, MRA-PUA etc as well.

If you find the blog interesting (after reading current posts, or future ones), a link from your blog would be appreciated (I will link back). Also, if you’d like to comment etc, you are of course most welcome.

Thanks,
Escapist

6/26/10, 4:17 PM

Anonymous Melykin said...

Escapist wrote:
"...These will include commentary (from a new angle) on the Gameosphere crowd, MRA-PUA etc..."
=========================
OK, I think I know what "game" and PUA are (I looked them up once before) but what is MRA? Google is not helping, unless it is one of these things:

MRA may refer to:
Magnetic resonance angiography
Mail retrieval agent
Mandibular repositioning appliance or mandibular advancement splint for sleep apnea
Market Reduction Approach
Marketing Research Association
Marin Rowing Association
Massachusetts Rifle Association
Men's rights activist
Metal Roofing Alliance
Microcredit regulatory Authority
Minimum reception altitude
Moral Re-Armament
Multiple regression analysis
Multiresolution analysis
Mutant registration acts (comics)
Mutual recognition agreement or mutual recognition arrangement
Mountain Rescue Association

6/26/10, 10:52 PM

Anonymous Escapist said...

@Melykin:

MRA = men’s rights, which to the uninformed sounds potentially reasonable until you take a look at the Spearhead comments section (my advice: don’t).

The point is that Gameboy (MRA-PUA) philosophy appears to be a great path towards immediate acceptance and high-fives on the right, while those outside the right’s typical demographic are often viewed as inherently suspect.

On an unrelated note, I can’t imagine why younger/single women in particular (or indeed, any group outside the typical demographic) tend to be driven away from the right, even though in a number of areas (e.g. right to self defense, sensible immigration/borders, opposition to Islam, economics etc), the right has a much better deal. It is simply inexplicable, but surely MRA-PUA theory has the answer. MRA PUA Gameboys = advertising bots for Feministing.

And now the obligatory friendly arm-twisting: Steve, you’re still linking to Welmer’s defunct blog? What have he, or Roissy, said recently that is truly new/different, non-predictable, or for that matter, represents an actual pragmatic, positive strategy in areas such as economics, immigration, etc? I’ve got a number of posts along the latter lines (coming soon: “Room at the Top”)

Just sayin’.

6/27/10, 9:16 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Steve,
Homeownership promoters like to compare federal assistance for low-income homeowners to the GI Bill, but recipients of the latter were, well, military vets! Not unskilled, uneducated female household heads, immigrants etc. That's obvious, but is there any data on GI bill recipients and things like subsequent BK's,foreclosures etc? How many WWII vets even took GI bill assistance in the first place for buying homes or going to school? Did their subsequent performance in paying off home loans and salary justify it?

David
Irvine, CA

6/27/10, 10:27 AM

Blogger David said...

Ayn Rand (Alissa Rosenbaum) was a nut, but she had a few interesting ideas nevertheless.

One was "the fallacy of the frozen abstraction."

A frozen abstraction is the product of reification-in-reverse: it's regarding some concrete thing as an "intrinsic good" in error. The result is called "frozen" because no one, but no one, is willing to examine it or question it.

"Homeownership" is one of those unexamined notions, frozen in people's heads as Good (capital letter "G").

"Diversity" is another so-called Good, never to be examined or doubted. It's frozen solid.

These frozen Goods lead to crazy prescriptions. Everyone who can fog a mirror MUST eventually own the deed to a house! Diversity MUST be society's top priority! Population MUST increase!

Religious fanaticism never went away. It merely changed its objects to concrete (or more exactly, material) ones. We went from - for example - Charity is a Good, to Full Employment is a Good.

A College Education is a Good. Never mind that most college educations are a waste. Everyone in our society MUST have a degree - let's make it happen!

6/27/10, 1:06 PM

Anonymous carol said...

Anon, when I bought my first house, my father asked if I could get 1% of the price if I were to rent it out. That was the old rule of thumb small-time property investors used.

The answer was yes, because I had bought at the end of a long down market (1990) and the payment, interest and insurance was less than the rent I was paying for a house much farther from town.

Some say a house is worth 100x monthly rent, others say 120x if it's a good house in a desirable neighborhood.

Most people don't know this stuff and fell for the econ 101 saw that something is "worth" whatever price it fetches on the market.

6/27/10, 4:11 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Escapist, increasing non-NAM population is crucial to survival of said population.

So, be fruitful and multiply.

6/27/10, 4:19 PM

Blogger kudzu bob said...

Roissy's blog = lightning.

Escapist's blog = lightning bug.

6/27/10, 6:53 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"MRA = men’s rights, which to the uninformed sounds potentially reasonable until you take a look at the Spearhead comments section"

Every point of view in the world looks bad, if you judge by the most extreme anonymous comments on some blog.

6/27/10, 7:03 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"... But since I was a new employee, I wouldn’t qualify for dental insurance for another three months. I started giving the financial education classes.

Why would a recent college graduate care about dental insurance? Nothing is going to go wrong with your teeth between the ages of 20 and 50.

That's not true, just ask me.3 months, probably not, but 5 years, yes

6/27/10, 8:21 PM

Anonymous Escapist said...

You peeps are totally right – what was I thinking?

Thank you for your kind words Kudzu Bob. Anonymous, I shall make sure to replicate myself forthwith, as Nordically as possible.

And to that end, I’ve decided that being a swarthy woggish slightly-Asiatic female is just not the way to go. I have decided to become something far more alpha in an upcoming post.

Go to my next post (not Ms. Pelosi, but after that - to be posted shortly) and you’ll find an evil Easter egg.

Hugs,
Escapist

6/28/10, 10:07 PM

Blogger David said...

>being a swarthy woggish slightly-Asiatic female [...] Hugs<

Expect the date requests to roll in ... in 5, 4, 3...

6/29/10, 11:13 AM

Anonymous SexyPterodactyl said...

That would be great. I'm always looking for fly wingmen to assist in my MRA PUA activities. My transformation is complete...

Escapist -> Sexy Pterodactyl
(for part of the time)

Also: Has it occurred to anyone else in the blogosphere that the fact that elites can dominate the playing field actually presents certain opportunities for those with strategy, organization, funding etc? Particularly in situations where you are unlikely to get rapid enough buy-in from the majority of the populace (e.g. on fiscal conservatism).

My upcoming Escapist post "Room at the Top" addresses a way for fiscal conservatives to benefit from this phenomenon.

6/29/10, 11:56 PM

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