Longer Step: Ideas for Justice and Sustainability

I have an acquaintance who retired as a CA state employee, and was able to sell his CA house (probably with low or no mortgage balance) for a huge chunk of cash. Then he moved here (SW WA State) and bought a nice house, and a giant RV, with that cash, and he lives pretty richly on his CA pension. For him, it was a no-brainer, as the cost of living is lower here and he greatly improved his situation. He got a bigger, better house and better weather (including better protection from climate change here), and his living costs are lower. That's why many thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of Californians are moving to OR, WA, and ID. It makes one wonder if there are enough homebuyers in CA to soak up all that slack. But for us, the picture is different. He is a big load on CA taxpayers, and he's a loss to CA's economy (he's not spending his CA pension there). California is paying him, but he's spending that money in Washington. And this migration is raising real estate...

  Highly recommend Lyn Alden ; she (having a rare combination of an engineer's mind and an economist's training) is a national treasure re unlocking the mysteries of the economy; national debt; the Fed; etc. The Fed is trying to increase unemployment (you read that right), in order to reduce demand, which should reduce inflation. But that will also likely cause a recession. So if you need to make a big expenditure, it might be savvy to postpone it IF it is the sort of cost that is unusually high now but normally cheapens during recessions (e.g., using contractors to do some construction work). But if the item is subject to inflation (e.g., a new car), it's anyone's guess how successful the Fed will be in controlling inflation, and when you should buy. This entire mess could become painful and ugly. She makes the point that it's like the 1940s again for the US, except this time we are a debtor nation in decline, with a mostly-aged population demanding a heavy load ...