R2I Club Member Hangout

No need to concoct corruption stories and bring up cliched 'complexes' - there are very simple factual reasons to bash US currently. A poorly educated country just elected a felon, and that felon is going to pardon all the other felons that invaded the capitol - it's akin to giving Bharat Ratna to Afzal Guru!

Returning_Indian wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2024 8:46 pm

r2somewhere wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2024 9:15 am
$175 billion is a small investment to keep USD as the world reserve currency. FDR made similar investments from 1939-41 that led to Britain surviving the Germans and paid off handsomely later. Of course this time, Mussolini has taken over the White house, so outcome will be different. We will now see billions flowing into Elon's pockets.

USD being reserve currency has nothing to do with Ukraine war. I don't even know what rest of the content has to do with corruption by Biden and public money being funneled to rich. It's amazing that people are not even looking at this corruption scandal and justifying with different lenses. This is classic case of media being sold out and public money being stolen in broad daylight and people are clapping.

It has everything to do with USD being reserve currency. Military might and projection is a basic requirement for a currency to be reserve. Thats why it was the Pound back when UK was still a power.

SAPPORO wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2024 9:28 am It's the same old vile attitude of blaming the raped rather than the rapist with not even a passing mention of Putin's aggression. As the only world leader, the US is "damned if you do, damned if you don't" - no one expects a developing country like India to do anything in the world stage other than killing a few random folks in a foreign country just to score political gains and/or to be part of the 'big league" even fleetingly!

Just brainless repetition of Putin's propaganda. The same Republicans were thirsting for blood in 2003 vs Iraq and I will bet you will cheer on the next US invasion that the Republicans undertake.

r2somewhere wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2024 11:31 am It has everything to do with USD being reserve currency. Military might and projection is a basic requirement for a currency to be reserve. Thats why it was the Pound back when UK was still a power.

The decline of US dollar has started - see this
https://dailyreckoning.com/gradually-then-suddenly/
I think we will also have to prepare for next several decades of high interest rates (good for savers)

sark wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 8:03 pm

r2somewhere wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2024 11:31 am It has everything to do with USD being reserve currency. Military might and projection is a basic requirement for a currency to be reserve. Thats why it was the Pound back when UK was still a power.

The decline of US dollar has started - see this
https://dailyreckoning.com/gradually-then-suddenly/
I think we will also have to prepare for next several decades of high interest rates (good for savers)

No it hasnt. Anyone thinking that Trump will actually end wars and stop military spending is living in fantasyland. He likes Russia but wont have any issues invading Mexico, Canada, Iran or even China.

And high rates dont help savers. Inflation goes up by same proportion.

US' rich city cannot allocate funds for its fire department. A state with one of the highest per capita GDP in the world cannot manage it's municipality. This is what happens when corruption is rampant and kickbacks fund their villas worth millions. Water czar paid nearly a million dollars and fire department doesn't have enough funding. Countless such unnecessary positions to reward campaigns and kickbacks. And then there is funding that goes to illegal immigrants and what not. But God forbid if you are tax paying citizen, you are SOL. Insurance companies won't even provide cover and if they do, it more than the mortgage itself.

Returning_Indian wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2025 9:55 pm US' rich city cannot allocate funds for its fire department. A state with one of the highest per capita GDP in the world cannot manage it's municipality. This is what happens when corruption is rampant and kickbacks fund their villas worth millions. Water czar paid nearly a million dollars and fire department doesn't have enough funding. Countless such unnecessary positions to reward campaigns and kickbacks. And then there is funding that goes to illegal immigrants and what not. But God forbid if you are tax paying citizen, you are SOL. Insurance companies won't even provide cover and if they do, it more than the mortgage itself.

Natural disasters are not covered by insurance. Also they are exiting many markets that includes CA which is witnessing wildfire regularly. Few years back NorCal saw a devastating fire and heard insurance companies have pulled out of that market. One of my friend in NorCal said insurance companies send drones to inspect roofs. If they find too many leaves they deny coverage. Hard to believe but I don't think he was lying.

One more thing I find it difficult to understand - why do they build such flimsy house made of wood? One hurricane, tornado or fire destroys everything. If you notice the videos, the foundation and fireplace are intact as they are made of concrete. Why not build house using concrete/brick? Extensive use of wood is one reason for fire to spread easily and for such weak houses they charge millions. I know concrete structure may need more labor and takes time but my homes in India are built of concrete. It has withstood heavy rains/floods and I don't carry any homeowner insurance.

Returning_Indian wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2025 9:55 pm US' rich city cannot allocate funds for its fire department. A state with one of the highest per capita GDP in the world cannot manage it's municipality. This is what happens when corruption is rampant and kickbacks fund their villas worth millions. Water czar paid nearly a million dollars and fire department doesn't have enough funding. Countless such unnecessary positions to reward campaigns and kickbacks. And then there is funding that goes to illegal immigrants and what not. But God forbid if you are tax paying citizen, you are SOL. Insurance companies won't even provide cover and if they do, it more than the mortgage itself.

yes. Blame immigrants, blame Liberals, blame DEI. Everything except carbon emissions, because that hurts feelings of fascists.

old-spice2 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2025 6:50 am One more thing I find it difficult to understand - why do they build such flimsy house made of wood? One hurricane, tornado or fire destroys everything. If you notice the videos, the foundation and fireplace are intact as they are made of concrete. Why not build house using concrete/brick? Extensive use of wood is one reason for fire to spread easily and for such weak houses they charge millions. I know concrete structure may need more labor and takes time but my homes in India are built of concrete. It has withstood heavy rains/floods and I don't carry any homeowner insurance.

My guess is simply money. It's very expensive to build concrete houses than it is wood. Even with all the disasters, it's so much cheaper to re-build with wood. Especially when they are building 10000sqft houses. Cost in India for construction was generally Rs. 2000 psft without any fancy interior. 2500sqft house would cost 50lakh rupees and that is when labor is so much cheaper in India. After wuhan virus this cost is probably double in India, so around 1cr. In US this cost would be 3-4times as concrete is labor heavy process. So a 2500 sqft standard house would be around around three quarter of a million. And then add all the fancy interior which is also more expensive to do in concrete houses than it is in wood. How many Americans can afford this? It's just cheaper to build wood and live in big houses.

It takes significantly longer to build concrete/brick houses. Wood is better suited for cold climate than concrete. Lack of expertise in labor involved at mass level is also a big issue. Building one or two houses where specialists can come and build is one thing. But building at mass level requires people who have had that experience. And then there is ease of availablity of wood.

I have heard that people did build it in Florida but at a very miniscule level.

Anyhow with all the population decline coming, it's of no point to build houses that will last very long. I am already worried on what will happen to all the Chinese houses when their population will be half of what it is now.

Insurance should cover wildfires unless it's specifically excluded. The insurance companies are on the hook for that and that's why some of them stop issuing new policies.
The wood houses are cheaper to build/rebuild/customize and they are better in saving lives in case of earthquakes and they are as traditional for Americans as the brick-and-mortar houses are for Indians. At least there are continuously upgraded building codes to keep loss of lives to a minimum.
We do have concrete block houses in Florida but it's the windows that do the trick to withstand hurricanes up to 200mph. I am amazed at the technology behind home building in the US.
I would buy home insurance in India if I ever owned anything there since those houses can also suffer flood and fire damage and most importantly the premiums are very low.