Category: Utopia/Dystopia

Utopia/Dystopia

URBAN DENSITY – ITS NOT THAT WE DON’T LEARN, ITS THAT THE RICH DON’T CARE

A 42 story tower where you can “trade a car for a condo” does not sound like affordable housing, which Vancouver desperately needs. It sounds like more wealthy people getting wealthier.  If someone can afford a car to trade, then they do not require “affordable housing”.  And yet metro VC homelessness has spiked sharply, including individuals who work full time jobs.  Rather than do something sensible about it, developers seem to be given preference towards making matters worse.  Note that while the top of the articles say “homeowners”, subsequent articles uses the term “rental properties”.  It is NOT affordable to rent for one’s entire life.

Simple solution to all the media headlining problems (affordable housing, food shortages, climate change) – small town zoning only.  Suburbs.  Local businesses.  1/2 acre minimum per house green space law.  People grow their own food in their own gardens, drive 10 minutes to work every day, and car pool with their neighbor.  Oh my gosh, that sounds like the 80’s!

Western society reached what may have been the most humane society in the history of history in 1980’s.  The Hippies grew up, but kept the dream of an Age of Aquarius in their hearts.  This is the time when I grew up, and those are the values I hold.  People were self-reliant but community oriented.  You knew your neighbors, and for the most part you liked the majority of them.  You knew everybody in town but had space for your own peace and privacy, even within your own home.   People had more freedom to do what they liked, because there was that space to do so.  Nobody thought twice about owning a car and owning a home, even the people on welfare had equity.

And that’s the simple solution – reduce urban density.  Keep the cap on the number of rentals. Tie how much a landlord can charge to square footage, not location.  If the tenant has to live in 450 sq ft, then the most rent can ever be is $450.  If someone wants to make $2500/month, they have to design apartments with 2,500 sq ft.  Simple math.  Not very profitable for the investors, but that’s what Affordable Housing would require.  When existing buildings become places to live rather than conglomerate investments, prices will shrink and housing will become affordable.

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Fair Housing

FAIR HOUSING – CANADIAN MULTIMAT VILLAGE PROJECT

A local project proposed to house all of Vancouver’s homeless – sounds amazing, almost too good to be true.  Maybe it is.  I haven’t looked into it in the depth I normally do, so I don’t know if the guy behind it is legit or not.  I am not recommending the GoFundMe project by posting this blog, I am recommending that you look into it.  And I am posting this blog because the idea behind it is a darn good one. I really hope this is legit, and I very much hope for all those who need affordable housing anywhere that you get a hand up, not a hand out.

While I am not a fan of shrinking living space, this 2br/2ba free standing home would be a huge improvement over my current cramped 1br/1ba I share with my husband.  The kitchen is about the same size but the model has its own washing machine and dryer, while I currently have to do my laundry in shared unit in the basement of the apartment building.  While some apartments have their own w/d, our unit does not.  The apartment I live in is not ideal, but there was a 2 year waiting list for most apartments in the area and only 2 of the dozens we called bothered to called up back when we were looking.

Fair Housing

FAIR HOUSING – HUMAN NEED VS. HUMAN RIGHTS

Food, shelter, and safety – these are the three most fundamental human needs.  If these needs are not met, everything else becomes irrelevant.  Thus, historically, the only times humanity has been able to make social advances is in times of plenty.  We are currently in an unusual time where abundance is being deliberately destroyed and the middle class is being forced back into serfdom by the rich.  A primary Sumptuary Tax is the ability to own a house, especially a house with land.

This was a really cool YouTube video I came across on a German company that built a 3D printed house.  Yup, that’s right – a 3D printer can now build a house with a little bit of highly skilled human help.

In 2020/2021, people who were formerly trapped in a cycle of paying exorbitant rent for lousy apartments have lost even that.  Tent cities in Vancouver are not immigrants. Mainstream media does not like to show people who used to own their own businesses or worked full time jobs who have lost everything.  Many people who still have a roof over their heads are in constant fear of losing it  and ending up on the streets.  Many homeless people have jobs, some even work two jobs, but still cannot afford the high cost of rent.  Then you have retired individuals, the elderly, and those that require assisted living who require a place to live as well.

We do not need a “basic income” if that level of welfare still does not cover food and rent.  What we need is less welfare and more jobs, and place the emphasis less on handouts and more on clean, safe, quiet AFFORDABLE housing.  Human rights require a hand up, not a hand out.

RECOMMENDED READING (compare and contrast):

Utopia/Dystopia

UTOPIA: THE JETSONS 1962

 

There are many dreams of Utopia.  We look around us and want to live in a better place.  The Jetsons is a technological utopia, created in 1962 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera of the famous Hanna-Barbera Productions animation studio.  The show ran for two season (1962, 1963).  It was extremely popular in syndication.  The show was resurrected for a third season (1987-1988) as part of The Futuristic World of Hanna-Barbera series.  The Jetsons is an upbeat animated family sitcom that is Hanna-Barbera’s space age version of The Flintstones.

 THE UTOPIA

The appeal of The Jetsons was that they lived in a Future World.  The Jetson family have all the tecno toys of 1950’s science fiction: flying cars, personal robots, high tech work stations, and everyone’s dream, a house that cleans itself.  Watching The Jetsons on Saturday morning cartoons as child shaped my expectations of what the world would be when I grew up.

And I must say, advances in technology have done a pretty good job of achieving a lot of it.  We have cell phones and personal computers. We have robots for a huge variety of tasks, and personal service robots are gain popular acceptance.  We have robo pets.  Medicine has become techno-magic regarding how we treat the human body.  And God-bless the inventor of the microwave oven, because food does actually pretty much cook itself.  Pop it out of the freezer, pop it in the microwave, and a beep tells you its done.  Of course, someone somewhere had to prepare that meal originally, but today most of that was done by a robotic machine too.

OUR CURRENT DYSTOPIA

One of the idealizations that has not come true from the show is technology solving all the major social ills.  In the world of The Jetsons, there is very little crime and no poverty.  Sickness and disease have been reduced to minor inconveniences.  There is still some remnants of human nature shown in the show.  Much of the situational conflicts for the weekly shows revolve around the stresses in George Jetson’s job.  His boss is unreasonable, his company has a major rival that keeps trying to steal their ideas, and his job is always on the line.  He could be fired at any time, and this keeps George (an easy-going, pleasant guy) in a constant state of anxiety.

We are on the edge of 2020, the magic year for Utopia in many science fiction novels.  Yet we still have not obliterated poverty.  There are many diseases that simply evolve beyond whatever medical cure was developed for them.  Major crime has actually increased with technology as technology has increased the range of personal scope for those with evil intent.   And sadly, housing in major cities only resembles The  Jetsons for the uber rich.  Most of us continue to live in tiny, poorly built apartments.  If anything, the size of the average apartment has continued to shrink in the last several decades while the cost for renting them has soared.  And home ownership is not something done in the city any more.

Overall

Watching The Jetsons is still good fun.  I find it hilarious that even in the sophistication of the Future World, one would still have to go out and walk your dog.  This is why I have a rabbit.  I laugh at my neighbors as they trudge out in Vancouver’s pouring winter rain while I sit warmly in my living room.  Of course, even today, people still opt out for that reason and get a robo pet instead.  I, however, do not think cold metal even remotely replaces a warm cuddle. Thus overall I think The Jetsons presents a future to hope for and work towards, while presenting a good perspective on the need for some things to remain the same.