Imagine creating an economic system where basic necessities becoming more affordable is considered a crisis. And then gaslighting everyone into thinking this system is so perfect and wonderful and there’s no way it could ever be better.
this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2025
40 points (93.5% liked)
World News
50432 readers
3023 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
- Blogsites are treated in the same manner as social media sites. Medium, Blogger, Substack, etc. are not valid news links regardless of who is posting them. Yes, legitimate news sites use Blogging platforms, they also use Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube and we don't allow those links either.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
The problem with falling house prices is for the people who recently purchased. Imagine buying a home for $500k and 1 year later you still owe $475k on it and it's only worth $450k.
Eventually people say fuck it, and declare bankruptcy to get over an upside down mortgage.
If enough people do that then the banks fail. If enough banks fail then there's cascading effects across the economy which can lead to mass layoffs, failing businesses, and other crises.
If collapse is what you want then yeah let then fall. But there's a lot more pain in collapse than you realize.
What would happen if the state bailed out the people instead of the banks?
You’re talking about China, right?
Basically every nation unfortunately.
In a true communist system, isn't the idea, that homes should be free? Dropping prices seems like a step in that direction for them
But alas, China isn't a true communist country. Just like many socialist country, their economy still relies on capitalism, and this issue is much more complex than say housing should be free, because the issue they're facing right now is there's way too many supply and there's not enough demand(or simply unaffordable).
Housing price falling might be a good news for people who's looking to buy one as their forever home, but beyond that, it will make upper-middle class and upper class people spending less as the mortgage they're paying doesn't match the housing price in the current market, which could have a cascading effect toward the economy as a whole. Another issue is, when the demand is too low and the housing development company stop their project, ten(or even hundred) of thousands of blue collar will also affected. Now suddenly a "good news" doesn't sound as good as it is. The article explain it better.
And i'm not even talking about the multimillionaires that can escape when they want to.
People forget that China is communistic in social policies so low new home prices so that people can afford homes is good, even at the lower profits for the developers.
You could say that China is anti-oligarchy.
They fall because no one can afford them because they have huge unemployment problems
China has a homeownership rate somehwere between 90% and 96%. Cope harder.
Just that what a lot of people here would consider a home isn't what a lot of Chinese people have. And the middle class is sometimes in way over their head for housing, with apartments going for insane prices even for Western standards.
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/fotoserie-ueber-hab-und-gut-von-familien-china-wie-es-wirklich-lebt-1.2513551 for photos how a large part of the Chinese live, the photographer is Chinese himself.
The issue for China isn't that nobody owns a home, but rather that the young and bright can't afford one that's up to modern standards, an issue shared with the West.
insane prices even for Western standards.
Where? Shanghai and Beijing are expensive by chinese standards, but you can rent a mansion for the price of a suburban shitbox in America. And the rest of China is even cheaper.
Renting is quite cheap in China because property investors traditionally don't expect a ROI from rent, but from sale.
Absolute numbers I could find from last year:
As of August 2024, prices for new homes across 100 cities in China averaged 16,461 RMB per square meter, or about $2,318.50.
In the United States, the average price per square foot is around $233, according to May 2024 data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. This equates to $2,508.01 per square meter.
This with a lower average income in China; it's usually less than 1500 USD/month after conversion.
That adds up. Rent is hilariously low, idk why anyone would buy when your mortgage is going to be double rent.
Given the tendency of the chinese stock market towards low growth, I kinda understand why randos would tend towards land despite returns nearly as bad as Japan.