[ExI] imaginable wealth

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> 
Subject: Re: [ExI] imaginable wealth

"from poverty to imaginable wealth."

True, though the people who lived there were driven out by the increasing rent.  Or in the cases where they owned the houses, driven out by the increasing property taxes....


Keith regarding increasing property taxes, that is why we have Prop 13.  The property tax bill can only go up 1% a year in California, which means after inflation, property tax goes down over time, assuming you don't move.  Result: many California homeowners are stuck without hope in their own homes.  Even though their property is worth a fortune, they can't move anywhere else in California, because their property tax is low where they are and high elsewhere in the state.  

We long-time California homeowners enjoy having low property taxes of course, but we are trapped, TRAPPED I tells ya!  Struggling in futility we are, for there is no escape.  We resort to useless attempts to console ourselves with material possessions in our splendid prisons we call home, but to no avail.

Those who owned homes in East Palo Alto were not driven out by property taxes.  Many were bribed out by the stunning increase in value of their own homes when Ikea came in, homes which they might have bought for a song in the 1980s and sold for a dazzling fortune recently.
 

>...But that does not answer the question I had about why such large spaces generate awe in people.... awe at large constructed spaces, what could that be a side effect of?

Keith


Hard to say.  You might have been close to an answer with your notion that a human is vulnerable to predators, particularly wolf packs, when out in the open.  Wolves probably shy away from human gatherings with shelters, particularly if they keep fires burning.  Out in the open, away from the clusters of small shelters, that sense of awe and wonder might have led to increased sense of alert, resulting in an increased chance of sensing the wolf pack at a distance.  Or it could be I am reaching for an explanation, which is not at all clear in this case.

spike