How Can We Know Which End Is up, When We Are Drowning in Lies?

THE VIEW FROM HERE - We live in an ocean of lies, half-truths, and deceptions.  People are born with no lie detectors.  If something seems reasonable, we accept it.  When mother says, “Dinner is ready,” one knows she does not mean “Wash the car.”  Words have meanings and some people are reliable.  That’s about the limit of what one can believe.  Not everything is a lie, but even when people are telling the truth, there is seldom a way to verify. Even if they believe what they are saying, they could be mistaken.

Our brains function on two premises (a fact which I just invented): (1) First-in info organizes subsequent information, and (2) If it feels good, it’s true. Lies which satisfy emotions are far more readily accepted than facts which make us feel uncomfortable.  Thus, if you’re fed a nonsense myth by a trusted and loved person early in life, your belief system is built upon that falsehood and it becomes part of your identity. 

No matter how many times LA’s Big Lie #1 is debunked, people still believe there is a housing shortage. Thus, taxpayers are willing to shell out billions of dollars for more “Affordable Housing.”  Of course, when half of society is housing insecure, the term “Affordable Housing” is soothing.  The reality is that LA has a huge housing glut and we are being ripped off royally, but how would we know?  Why is $600K to $800K an unreasonable amount to construct an apartment, per former City Controller?  

Average Sale Price of a Detached Home in Los Angeles 2023 is $952K. False

(1) When a single family home in LA costs $952K, how can an affordable apartment cost between 63% and 84% as much? Redfin  The median prices for a detached home in Riverside County is $575K, less than one affordable unit in Los Angeles. Redfin

(2)  Redfin says, “median sale price.“ ”Sales price” does not mean “value.”  When one does not know the difference, they’re easily mislead. Due to decades of Wall Street fraud, it is unlikely anyone knows the value of LA residential real estate.  People wrongly assume that sales price means Value.  We’re at the mercy of the liars and they have no mercy.  Then, the public’s the need to feel good kicks in. It feels good to believe that the value of your home has doubled in the last 15 years.  If you sell soon enough, you might get out before the crash. The selling price of a house is not based on what it is really worth, but on what people believe it is worth. 

The Truth and Myth of Supply and Demand

The proper price for an item is the amount which a willing seller will accept and what a willing buyer will pay.  The myth omits the word “willing” and claims that the paid amount is the fair market value.  When a buyer has been deceived about the value, his purchase is not “willing.”  Massive frauds hype the alleged values of homes so that Los Angeles has no willing buyers.  When a family overpays hundreds of thousands for a home because it believes the lies, it is not a willing buyer.  Per the official inflation calculator, a home in Hollywood north of Franklin which cost $21,000.00 in January 1971 is worth only $161,994.21 in September 2023, but the real estate agencies place its value about $1.5 Million. This home has not been renovated. A comparable renovated home across the street has a value of $2.2 Million (and it still has its 1920 electrical box).

Because the home buyer segment of the population (Gen Zer’s and Millennials) are leaving, the demand for housing in Los Angeles is dropping.  As they vacate living spaces, the housing supply increases.  Los Angeles already has a glut of over 100,000 vacant units. The State Department of Finance projects that Los Angeles will lose another 1.7 Million residents.  Yet, the city leaders lie, lie, lie, and claim we need another 430,000 units. At 2.5 ppl per unit, 430,000 units are enough additional housing for another one million people. That’s a 2.7 million person discrepancy, but the public never notices the non-stop frauds pushing up housing prices as demand drastically decreases.  Wall Street Buys Up Homes.

Some Small Lies Are Right Before Our Eyes

Cereal boxes are smaller but the advertising says “same low price, new and improved.”  They mean the same price will buy a smaller amount, which most people would call a price increase.  “New and improved” – really?  The new part is true; at least I do not think its cereal is from 1955, but “improved”? They probably mean their profits are improved.

The news claims “Gaza City is the most density populated place on earth,” except it is not. Gaza City is the 63^rd most populated place (about 550,000 ppl).  The entire Gaza Strip has about 2.2 million people in 125 sq miles, which is 5.5. times larger than Manhattan (27.5 sq miles) which has about 1.64 million people.  In reality, Gaza City’s density is not unusual.

People quibble whether Gaza City has 42,000 ppl or 34,000 ppl, but whichever figure is accurate, its density is consistent with LA’s Koreatown and East Hollywood.  How would anyone know this?  Because the news keeps repeating the false density meme, people believe it.

Another common falsehood which is repeated daily is that “Israel occupies Gaza.”  False.  Israel withdrew in 2005, and since then it has been run by Gazans who elected Hamas to its leadership. Gaza has the government it wanted.

From mundane cereal boxes to world altering events, we are surrounded by lies. Seldom do we have a way to distinguish fact from fiction.  Our children may have to go into debt for college because of the labyrinth of lies fraudulently hyping home prices.  If a family’s mortgage were $2K less a month, it could afford to send its kids to college. Instead, families shell out hundreds of millions to Wall Street for excessive mortgages so that their children will start adulthood deep in debt.

“Housing First” – a meme to build housing for the homeless and then provide services. It’s true, while being a big lie. Housing First for the poor can be better than the streets – or it can be worse.  Cutting through all the BS can be a full-time job.  Tim Campbell does a good job showing the absurd nonsense that the poverty industry imposes on us. For example, October 9, 2023 Homelessness: Descent Into Madness.  Campbell has many other articles.

NewGeography  is a great place to realize the fatally flawed data behind virtually everything LA City Hall says about density, housing, and mass transit. 

Because Angelenos are drowning in an ocean of lies, half-truths and deceptions, we lack the ability for self-government.

(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor.  You may email him at [email protected].)