Mostly lite links today.
- These sorts of articles always exaggerate, but the tech and economics are still interesting. How to 3D print a house in a day.
- Despite rising delinquencies, Americans may actually be getting a handle on their debts.
- How walking through doorways makes us forget.
- Shel sends a short, volcanic video with the comment that he doesn’t personally share this particular burning desire.
- While I don’t really envision Bilbo Baggins living here, this Alaska house is interesting — and for sale. (H/T ML)
- Only in Texas. A pecan pie vending machine.
- First, they saved his life. Then they returned to finish laying his sod.
The caption was “Mount Ruffmore.”
And from MJR …
I wonder if someone helped that homeowner get his gun back from the pawn shop.
Regarding the house printing and its relation to NASA. So this is our first real life Vulcan, well, I supposed it’d be all right as long as it doesn’t run Amok. ; )
Make it a Chest pie vending machine and I’s there!
Before my husband had his massive heart attack, he was working on the sod with my amazing brother-in-law. That is what triggered and set it off. We had just received our last 4 palettes and were going to finish it. It’s been my husband’s biggest stress as our HOA date to fine us a huge amount was getting closer.
So, are the HOA members happy?
Housing crises aren’t caused by how long it takes to build a residence. They are typically caused by how long it takes to get government permission to build a residence.
Back later. Now I have to go to the H-E-B and get a pecan pie. It’s more than 100 miles to the machine.
Okay, so some are paying down debt. Consumer debt increased by $10 billion in May and $35 billion in June.
Good for Berdoll. Back when I was a youngun, Barnett’s Fried Pies were sold in stores around Austin for not much money. Small but tasty mini-pies. I still miss the quick-snack pecan pies.
HEB began as the H. E. Butt grocery store in Corpus Christi–and grew.
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“Housing crises aren’t caused by how long it takes to build a residence. They are typically caused by how long it takes to get government permission to build a residence.”
Everything. I’m in the middle of a project for an orthodontist who’s building a new office. The next step for me was dependent on the drywall being in. That was scheduled for end of February. It just went in last week. Why? Waiting on permits. His construction was delayed for over four months waiting for the city to approve permits. How much does four months cost an orthodontist? Heck, I’ve been sitting on more than a $1000 in network and audio equipment that I bought but couldn’t bill.
HEB began as the H. E. Butt grocery store in Corpus Christi–and grew.
Not quite.
And the rest is history.
My sister in San Antonio refers to it (more or less affectionately) as “Butt-Mart.”
Heh, An “always heard” from friends in Corpus, maybe fifty years back. 🙂
Thanks.
It’s significant local history here. Our city library is “Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library;” the H-E-B Foundation is officed here, and does lots of good things; H.E. Butt Foundation Camp is nearby in Leakey, and a popular destination for all kinds of adult and youth groups; and our only two grocery stores are both H-E-B.
I forgot the link in above.:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-E-B
> First, they saved his life. Then they returned to finish laying his sod.
H.O.A. = Libertarian Utopia
What is there about governance by an (effectively) unregulated private corporation, under the guise of contract law, with no consumer protections, for a Tea Partyin’ disciple of Ayn Rand and Ronald Reagan not to love?
“H.O.A. = Libertarian Utopia”
Who says? I’ve definitely heard it (and long ago spoken of it) as one alternative, but most people who’ve dealt with HOAs don’t hold them up as any Libertopian ideal.
I doubt any communists publicly referred to the gulags as “utopia”. But they always defended the ideology behind them, and more often than not the regimes that created them.
Likewise, the Cato Institute, The Institute for Justice, the Goldwater Institute, the Independence Institute, Reason magazine, The Libertarian Examiner, Randal O’Toole, Ari Armstrong, Bob Nelson, etc., have all defended H.O.A. corporations — and in some cases, their incredibly unconscionable behavior — on the (small “l”) libertarian basis that they are based on private contracts that government should not interfere with.
This is also the position of the H.O.A. industry when they lobby against regulation.
Question: Is it your position that H.O.A. corporations are not real world examples of (small “l”) libertarian ideas put into practice?
“Question: Is it your position that H.O.A. corporations are not real world examples of (small “l”) libertarian ideas put into practice?”
Well, of course HOAs are examples of libertarian ideas. But not necessarily libertarian ideals — which you mentioned in your first comment. And I don’t personally agree with Cato, Reason, et al. on quite a few issues.
Do I think HOAs, in theory, are a workable option? Sure. In practice as we all know they’re often unreasonable and tyrannical. And on top of that they may then use tax-paid law enforcement to carry out their will, which is worse.
So libertarianism is great in theory, it’s just that (1) people aren’t good enough for it, and/or (2) the right people haven’t been put in charge.
No, you cannot generalize about all of libertarianism by one type of institution that fails to live up to the best visions for it. ALL theories of human interaction turn our to be less than perfect in the real world.
I’m not sure why you have this particular bug up your butt. But anonymous, unless you plan to de-cloak and present your arguments as an identifiable person, I see no reason take you seriously. The way you twist other people’s points of view, you’re beginning to seem trollish.
Just like we can’t generalize about collectivism, government, communism, universities, labor unions, etc., by the institutions that fail to live up to the best visions for it? If we can’t do that, what do we judge them on?
Libertarians — both small-“l” and big-“L” — have consistently extolled the virtues H.O.A.s as examples of governance by private contract. H.O.A.s are the closest thing we have to real world examples of libertarian (or Libertarian) government — at least according to the libertarians who support them (I don’t necessarily agree with them, for reasons beyond the scope of this comment). So yes, I can generalize about libertarianism based on libertarian support for HOAs, just as we can generalize about communism (or Communism) based on the gulags.
If putting libertarian ideas into practice results in “unreasonable and tyrannical” (your words) governance, then, as Ayn Rand said, “Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong“.
The Mises Institute web site had a great discussion about this back in 2010, at https://archive.freecapitalists.org/forums/t/18417.aspx (“Are HOAs Unlibertarian?”). The link is broken, but I did save this relevant observation:
One H.O.A. attorney referred to H.O.A.s as an example of “repressive libertarianism”
Since this topic — H.O.A.s as expressions of libertarianism — apparently makes you uncomfortable, I’ll hold my tongue and make this is my last comment on this subject here. I seriously hope you explore it in a future article or blog post. I would enjoy reading your thoughts on the matter, beyond the constraints of the comments section.
I’ll just end with this:
My identity has nothing to do with the merits, or lack thereof, of my arguments.
I don’t get paid for my writing, and don’t need potential employers making hiring decisions based on whether or not they agree with my views; which has happened to me in the past, back when I was on team conservative/libertarian — before my HOA experience — and the potential employer was a leftist.
Adieu.
You forget to note that HOAs, however good or terrible a particular one may be, are both voluntary and escapable — unlike coercive political systems. (But that’s about the only good thing you’ll ever hear me say about them. I’m no fan of them myself.)
Why you’re coming here with your complaints, I don’t know. Because neither I nor anybody else here sang the praises of HOAs or defended their more cruel policies.
But I’m glad the above will be your last post on the subject. You appear to be obsessed and just wanting to use this blog to vent.
“My identity has nothing to do with the merits, or lack thereof, of my arguments.”
Perhaps. Or perhaps not. I really don’t care about who you are in the real world. I just notice that you’re one of those people who uses anonymity as an excuse to be trollish.
One thing I found out fairly quickly in my HOA is there is no Bill of Rights what so ever and I will never be a part of one again.
However there is a big difference between CCR’s and a HOA, CCR’s I have found to be a good thing, HOA’s not so much.
“no Bill of Rights what so ever and I will never be a part of one again.”
That’s my take, too. In my 20s I lived in a beautiful townhouse development — made much, much less beautiful by the HOA committee that crept around every few weeks, peering into people’s yards and up at their balconies searching for violations. I got in trouble with them three times for the most absurd things (e.g. a trellis that stuck up two inches above my fence). The HOA attracted exactly the worst sort of officious busybodies, the ones who should never be given power because they love it so much.
OTOH, the Desert Hermitage had an HOA with extensive rules — which everybody ignored. The HOA stuck to maintaining the roads and left everybody alone.
But the things you hear about HOAs doing and getting away with (like foreclosing on homes of old people because of $1200 in overdue dues) are disgusting.
HOAs are great…. for some people. The ones who want to dictate and the ones who want to be dictated to. Everybody else, not so much.
One of the main reasons I bought my present house was that it had no HOA attached, unlike 2 other houses that I liked.
HOAs are voluntary: nobody forces you to buy a house in an HOA, and if you don’t like it, nobody keeps you from moving.
They’re not especially libertarian, but they’re not at odds with libertarian philosophy.