The Off Topic Topic

[grumbler]

Pompey was an Equestrian? Huh.

His father, Pompey Strabo, was a novus homo.

Was that ever proved?

Non quaeris, non dico

[Legbiter]

Pompey was an Equestrian? Huh.

His father, Pompey Strabo, was a novus homo.

Was that ever proved?

Non quaeris, non dico

 

[Agelastus]

Pompey was an Equestrian? Huh.

His father, Pompey Strabo, was a novus homo.  He did achieve senatorial status, but maybe not until Pompey the Great was older?

Pompey was in many ways more of a renegade than Caesar - he became Consul for the first time while being underage, while having never held any of the positions of the cursus honorum that granted entry to the Senate (I don't think he was ever even a military tribune), and although he would have had a enough wealth to qualify as a senator via the census he was never one of the Pedarii (the "backbenchers" of the Senate who had never held political office and "made up the numbers") despite Sulla's increase of the Senate to 900 members.

[Syt]

In case anyone is looking for a new domicile.

http://www.worstroom.com/

[Zanza]

In case anyone is looking for a new domicile.

http://www.worstroom.com/

Fuck. That's awful.

That said... when I lived in Hoboken, my room had its own front door, but to get to the kitchen and toilet, I had to cross through the bedroom of my landlord as the whole apartment was just one row of rooms.

[celedhring]

Reminds me I got: a new apartment!

It's actually smaller than the one I'm currently renting, but I live in pretty much the middle of nowhere. I'll be cutting my commutes in half, and living in much livelier neighborhood with more access to stuff.

[derspiess]

Enjoy that big city living!

[Valmy]

Enjoy that big city living!

I like the one where the guy will let a woman use his pool for free so long as she agrees he can give her body rubdowns.

[derspiess]

Saw this pic in a WaPo article on Russia's position on the current Venezuela crisis

[celedhring]

Enjoy that big city living!

It's not Barcelona - rent there is getting to absurd levels and I'm too old to share - but it's an improvement over living in the sticks, and I can get to downtown Barcelona in 30-40 min.

When I lived in Barcelona I paid a large rent to live in a matchbox apartment right in the center of things, then I went for a big apartment (with backyard and shit) in the middle of nowhere. Now I'm trying to strike a compromise.

[Josquius]

In case anyone is looking for a new domicile.

http://www.worstroom.com/

All too often I see people misreading this issue.
Its not a lack of housing in certain cities.
its jobs being entirely focussed in these cities.

[Admiral Yi]

Being focussed (sic, cheap shot) is one of those phrases people use to suggest a Thatcherian plot to achieve an end without specifically mentioning the actual policies employed to achieve this perfidious end.

I was mulling over your recurring theme about government favoring London and finance over the boondocks and manufacturing/extraction during a smoke break.  I am personally unaware of any positive policies government engaged in to bring this about.  There were obviously the removal of policies that favored the boondocks previously, such as subsidies to inefficient and loss-making industries such as coal mining and ship building and the deregulation of finance known as the Big Bang.  But it would be more honest to call the previous state of affairs "a focus" on the hinterlands and the current state of affairs no focus at all.

There is a wealth of academic literature on the natural, unsubsidized, unregulated advantages enjoyed by cities when it comes to generating high value work: proximity to universities, their graduates, and their research and network effects--proximity to colleagues and their ideas, and pools of talented potential employees.  And as a second order effect people who provide services (restaurants, bars, transportation, etc.) are going to enjoy higher returns in those places because of the higher incomes. Those advantages are not the result of Thatcher moving an industry/services slider over a couple notches, they are inherent.

So Squeeze, as long as you keep up with this focus talk, I'm going to think you're clinging to a mythical narrative not based on evidence or logic and I will continue to hound you mercilessly.

[Eddie Teach]

Doesn't do a waiter much good when >100% of that increased income is taken up by the increased rent.

[Josquius]

Being focussed (sic, cheap shot) is one of those phrases people use to suggest a Thatcherian plot to achieve an end without specifically mentioning the actual policies employed to achieve this perfidious end.

I was mulling over your recurring theme about government favoring London and finance over the boondocks and manufacturing/extraction during a smoke break.  I am personally unaware of any positive policies government engaged in to bring this about.  There were obviously the removal of policies that favored the boondocks previously, such as subsidies to inefficient and loss-making industries such as coal mining and ship building and the deregulation of finance known as the Big Bang.  But it would be more honest to call the previous state of affairs "a focus" on the hinterlands and the current state of affairs no focus at all.

There is a wealth of academic literature on the natural, unsubsidized, unregulated advantages enjoyed by cities when it comes to generating high value work: proximity to universities, their graduates, and their research and network effects--proximity to colleagues and their ideas, and pools of talented potential employees.  And as a second order effect people who provide services (restaurants, bars, transportation, etc.) are going to enjoy higher returns in those places because of the higher incomes. Those advantages are not the result of Thatcher moving an industry/services slider over a couple notches, they are inherent.

So Squeeze, as long as you keep up with this focus talk, I'm going to think you're clinging to a mythical narrative not based on evidence or logic and I will continue to hound you mercilessly.

Its not just the boondocks. Its everywhere outside London.  The UK is missing a true second city that would make a second hub for example- Manchester is many times smaller than all logic says it should be.
You do know that the UK has cities other than London right?

To deny that this is an issue is to do as the brexiters do and deny fact.

[Admiral Yi]

Its not just the boondocks. Its everywhere outside London.  The UK is missing a true second city that would make a second hub for example- Manchester is many times smaller than all logic says it should be.
You do know that the UK has cities other than London right?

To deny that this is an issue is to do as the brexiters do and deny fact.

I said calling it a result of focus is a lie, and you come up with the straw man that i deny it's an issue, and Eddie comes up with the straw man that anyone who moves to London is automatically better off.  Neither of those is a rebuttal of my point.