Nice vest. Does it come in teal too...

Dungeon Crawler Carl said:

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Quote:

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The building codes, particularly the IECC (energy codes) and windstorm design requirements, have sanitized building design.

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Finance bros are the real problem IMO.....

I was at an ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) conference in Vegas years ago. It was like a clone convention of math nerds all dressed in the same blue blazer/khaki pants attire (these days you can spot them by the vests). 1000s Men that have never built anything, swung a hammer or put a shove in dirt, determining the fate of every community in America via spread sheets that optimize construction projects by using the cheapest labor and materials possible.

Don't even get me started about "value engineering" (ie -replacing) spec'd in pressure treated wood to non-treated wood along the roof lines of multi-family residential projects in DFW over the last 15 years.....

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This would be a good thread topic about why our built environment is getting suckier and more sterile. It would be Politics related because governance has a lot to do with it. For instance, revisiting the IECC for a moment, the entire premise of this code is essentially "you don't have the right to buy as much of a commodity as you want and can afford". That being electricity. It all stems from 'green policy' which is un-American and anticapitalistic as you can get.

Wanna know why we have so many cheap foam clad buildings these days? That's why. The government says you aren't allowed to buy as much electricity as you want.

They were shooting for the Green Building movement to become the standard after the downturn after 9/11 and to grow a "new" industry. Got my LEED-AP back in 07. The industry was growing and making sense however 2008 happened then the finance bros became even more obnoxious when QE and ZIRP kicked in.

Energy efficiency should be part of new construction however the Finance Bros are right....the projects need a decent ROI and not just be forced on everyone in one broad stroke especially when a condo project in Santa Fe is completely different than one in Miami.

Dungeon Crawler Carl said:

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They were shooting for the Green Building movement to become the standard after the downturn after 9/11 and to grow a "new" industry. Got my LEED-AP back in 07. The industry was growing and making sense however 2008 happened then the finance bros became even more obnoxious when QE and ZIRP kicked in.

Energy efficiency should be part of new construction however the Finance Bros are right....the projects need a decent ROI and not just be forced on everyone in one broad stroke especially when a condo project in Santa Fe is completely different than one in Miami.

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What is your odd obsession with bashing finance bros lol? Dig deeper on the subject pls…

Dungeon Crawler Carl said:

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They were shooting for the Green Building movement to become the standard after the downturn after 9/11 and to grow a "new" industry. Got my LEED-AP back in 07. The industry was growing and making sense however 2008 happened then the finance bros became even more obnoxious when QE and ZIRP kicked in.

Energy efficiency should be part of new construction however the Finance Bros are right....the projects need a decent ROI and not just be forced on everyone in one broad stroke especially when a condo project in Santa Fe is completely different than one in Miami.

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The decisions should be between the design professional and the owner to make good judgments. There's no point in licensing professionals if you are just going to have prescriptive laws telling you what you can and can't do.

Logos Stick said:

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YouBet said:

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infinity ag said:

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YouBet said:

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infinity ag said:

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YouBet said:

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aggiedent said:

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titan said:

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APHIS AG said:

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I have posted this before.

In the 1970's, an Islamic Imam stated that Islam will conquer not by violence, which it has used for centuries, but by immigration and by out producing by way of population of those lands immigrated to.

And right now, the white culture is being replaced as birthrates continue to fall and Islamic birthrates skyrocket.

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Or you could do as the Japanese do, and even though their birthrate has fallen, they still do not admit Islamists. There is no reason to do so.

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1. The Japanese government has debunked that mistruth.
2. Japanese immigration forms ask zero questions about religion or religious affiliation.
3. Japan reports a Muslim population of about 300,000.

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Japan eased their immigration requirements a few years ago because of their declining birth rate. I can't remember when this happened so I'm sure their Muslim population got in during that period. The new, current government has gone back to their Japanese island fortress mindset which is smart.

Japan is a fascinating place. They've quickly realized that dying out slowly over time while maintaining their culture is superior to rapidly being taken over by a foreign cancer such as Islam. This is very on brand for Japan, culturally. Can't have anything but respect for that position.

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This is an interesting topic.
How did people manage 1000 years ago? They did not import people in. How did Japan survive for 10000 years they have a very old culture. Not by importing H1Bs or Muslims.
Or has something fundamentally changed? That is a problem with capitalistic societies where the goal is not more happiness/contentment, it is more money. So many have a lot of money but not happy. And some people have less money and so not very happy either.

Worst thing a country can do is let Muslims in. No mosques. Ban them. This cancer spreads.

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They lost about 3M people during WWII so that didn't help. Since then they westernized because of us which means they followed the western birth rate decline like anyone else. On top of that...they are uniquely weird with their work culture and have some additional weird dynamics going on between men and women which further impacts their decline. They have their version of our incels. There is a term for it I'm blanking on...

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OK. Solution from the Japanese perspective is to let things adjust. At some point hopefully people will realize and change course.

What is NOT a solution is to import 1000s of military grade Muslim men in. That may work short term but long term that would destroy their civilization. We are doing this with our tech work force. Instead of training our own, we import people in or send work outside and then complain our people are lazy.

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Right, which is what they are doing under their new administration. I don't think they are going to suddenly start humping like rabbits though. It will be a slow die off over a couple of hundred years assuming they stick to their tight immigration practices.

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I looked it up: Japan is at TFR=1.15.

Using a calc engine online, keeping it at that rate means a 50% decline in appx 60 years. From a purely mathematical standpoint, its only 35 years to reduce to 50%.



eta: this is a huge crisis for the world imo. South Korea is even worse at 0.7.

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This kind of goes back to Elon's claims from several months ago where he said (and I'll get this wrong) that we will be down to 500M people on the planet in 50 years. It was some crazy ass number like that that was just jaw dropping and seemed absurd on its face. Your number seems absurd too although I'm not going to fight you on the math.

It's just a wild thing to think about and I agree it's a massive crisis that is almost wholly ignored. This issue is the real reason that climate change is simply an outdated crisis and not relevant at all. China is also expected to be half of what they are now in about 50 years as well and we really don't even know what their true population is. Tons of speculation it's already not as high as everyone thinks it is.

Athanasius said:

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We are losing America and The West in general primarily because of one thing-

birth control, including abortion

If you are on it, get off. Today.

If you attend a church that supports it, you are not in a Christ-loving church.

People don't want to talk about it. We've done terrible things.

Now we face it. Be the person God calls you to be.

Save the West.

---

Truth

Dungeon Crawler Carl said:

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They were shooting for the Green Building movement to become the standard after the downturn after 9/11 and to grow a "new" industry. Got my LEED-AP back in 07. The industry was growing and making sense however 2008 happened then the finance bros became even more obnoxious when QE and ZIRP kicked in.

Energy efficiency should be part of new construction however the Finance Bros are right....the projects need a decent ROI and not just be forced on everyone in one broad stroke especially when a condo project in Santa Fe is completely different than one in Miami.

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Dude... I used to crack up when I would visit our corporate office in Bangalore that was LEED super duper certified or whatever.

OK, you guys built energy efficiency into a place that doesn't even have reliable power.

One smart thing the network guys did though was to hook up the WiFi and network switching equipment to a battery backed UPS so that when the lights went out for hours at a time, we could still work off our laptop batteries.

But hey, at least after people were finished in the canteen, they could compost the waste from their North Indian, South Indian, or US Pizza lunch.

WestHoustonAg79 said:

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What is your odd obsession with bashing finance bros lol? Dig deeper on the subject pls…

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Because the vast majority of the ones I've interacted with are arrogant ****** bags who think they are Gods because they are decent at math/spread sheets and have access to vast amounts of nearly risk free credit. Furthermore most are trust fund babies whose mom still cuts their meals and daddy and/or granddaddy set them up with an extremely high paying job straight out of school...... They've never experienced true economic pain a day in their lives and don't know the feeling of dread that comes with trying to decide to pay for a tank of gas to get to a job they hate vs eating a meal.


For example this gem from just a page ago on this thread.....

Quote:

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Your company probably wouldn't be worth a penny without those mean bully finance bros.

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Beyond that in the big picture it's really the Rent Seeking Economy that I have a problem with, the finance bros are just the ugly faced vest wearing foot soldiers of it. It's deep discussion that needs to be had over days instead of a few quick posts on F16.

Quote:

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Rent-seeking is the practice of seeking to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth. In economics, it involves manipulating the social or political environment to gain economic benefits, often through lobbying or exploiting the political process to obtain favorable regulations, subsidies, or tariffs rather than through creating new wealth through market-based production

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The very long story short is.....this practice is the foundation of the problem that OP is expressing. The immigrants are just the easiest thing to identify and blame.

You can't have thriving local communities when a bunch of hedge fund finance bros in offices in New York, Miami LA etc are buying up all the assets of a country with risk free credit then extracting all of the value then flipping them to slum lords.


The extremely easy credit over the last 20-25 years was great for "GDP" but it sucked the soul out of this country.

YouBet said:

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Logos Stick said:

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YouBet said:

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infinity ag said:

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YouBet said:

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infinity ag said:

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YouBet said:

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aggiedent said:

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titan said:

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APHIS AG said:

---

I have posted this before.

In the 1970's, an Islamic Imam stated that Islam will conquer not by violence, which it has used for centuries, but by immigration and by out producing by way of population of those lands immigrated to.

And right now, the white culture is being replaced as birthrates continue to fall and Islamic birthrates skyrocket.

---

Or you could do as the Japanese do, and even though their birthrate has fallen, they still do not admit Islamists. There is no reason to do so.

---

1. The Japanese government has debunked that mistruth.
2. Japanese immigration forms ask zero questions about religion or religious affiliation.
3. Japan reports a Muslim population of about 300,000.

---

Japan eased their immigration requirements a few years ago because of their declining birth rate. I can't remember when this happened so I'm sure their Muslim population got in during that period. The new, current government has gone back to their Japanese island fortress mindset which is smart.

Japan is a fascinating place. They've quickly realized that dying out slowly over time while maintaining their culture is superior to rapidly being taken over by a foreign cancer such as Islam. This is very on brand for Japan, culturally. Can't have anything but respect for that position.

---

This is an interesting topic.
How did people manage 1000 years ago? They did not import people in. How did Japan survive for 10000 years they have a very old culture. Not by importing H1Bs or Muslims.
Or has something fundamentally changed? That is a problem with capitalistic societies where the goal is not more happiness/contentment, it is more money. So many have a lot of money but not happy. And some people have less money and so not very happy either.

Worst thing a country can do is let Muslims in. No mosques. Ban them. This cancer spreads.

---

They lost about 3M people during WWII so that didn't help. Since then they westernized because of us which means they followed the western birth rate decline like anyone else. On top of that...they are uniquely weird with their work culture and have some additional weird dynamics going on between men and women which further impacts their decline. They have their version of our incels. There is a term for it I'm blanking on...

---

OK. Solution from the Japanese perspective is to let things adjust. At some point hopefully people will realize and change course.

What is NOT a solution is to import 1000s of military grade Muslim men in. That may work short term but long term that would destroy their civilization. We are doing this with our tech work force. Instead of training our own, we import people in or send work outside and then complain our people are lazy.

---

Right, which is what they are doing under their new administration. I don't think they are going to suddenly start humping like rabbits though. It will be a slow die off over a couple of hundred years assuming they stick to their tight immigration practices.

---

I looked it up: Japan is at TFR=1.15.

Using a calc engine online, keeping it at that rate means a 50% decline in appx 60 years. From a purely mathematical standpoint, its only 35 years to reduce to 50%.



eta: this is a huge crisis for the world imo. South Korea is even worse at 0.7.

---

This kind of goes back to Elon's claims from several months ago where he said (and I'll get this wrong) that we will be down to 500M people on the planet in 50 years. It was some crazy ass number like that that was just jaw dropping and seemed absurd on its face. Your number seems absurd too although I'm not going to fight you on the math.

It's just a wild thing to think about and I agree it's a massive crisis that is almost wholly ignored. This issue is the real reason that climate change is simply an outdated crisis and not relevant at all. China is also expected to be half of what they are now in about 50 years as well and we really don't even know what their true population is. Tons of speculation it's already not as high as everyone thinks it is.

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What does this say about real estate investing long term. Or any investing for that matter. No growth, only contraction.

as far as the number... I used this calculator on github with 1 million as the population to basically get a percentage.

my params: 1.15 TFR, no immigration, starting pop appx 1 million, first birth age 21, mean age 59 (Japan's mean age)

that puts the population under 50% of original in appx 50-60 years.


ile.github.io/population-calculator


eta: I also asked grok and chatgpt to estimate the number of deaths in Japan over the next 60 years. They gave me 90-95 million. Their population is appx 144 mil. That means they have to add 25 million to get it to 50% of where they are over the next 60 years.

Something to consider is whether its correct to use later 20th C let alone the present, as the benchmark. Maybe the populations should be assumed lower which are needed for the level of acheivements obtained? We may be overestimating the importance of drop in numbers, as very the lethal effect of the Progressive drive to import non-compatible cultures to boost numbers (and hijack votes obviously).

This goes back to the Japanese apparent choice to shrink rather than become a regressed place. Maybe it will work because maybe the numbers needed to sustain a cultural level are not now's figures or the later 20th C's figures?

As one poster put it, maybe its more important to "lean into" cultural first world and Western Civ identity, than numbers.

A. G. Pennypacker said:

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YouBet said:

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Logos Stick said:

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YouBet said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

YouBet said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

YouBet said:

---

aggiedent said:

---

titan said:

---

APHIS AG said:

---

I have posted this before.

In the 1970's, an Islamic Imam stated that Islam will conquer not by violence, which it has used for centuries, but by immigration and by out producing by way of population of those lands immigrated to.

And right now, the white culture is being replaced as birthrates continue to fall and Islamic birthrates skyrocket.

---

Or you could do as the Japanese do, and even though their birthrate has fallen, they still do not admit Islamists. There is no reason to do so.

---

1. The Japanese government has debunked that mistruth.
2. Japanese immigration forms ask zero questions about religion or religious affiliation.
3. Japan reports a Muslim population of about 300,000.

---

Japan eased their immigration requirements a few years ago because of their declining birth rate. I can't remember when this happened so I'm sure their Muslim population got in during that period. The new, current government has gone back to their Japanese island fortress mindset which is smart.

Japan is a fascinating place. They've quickly realized that dying out slowly over time while maintaining their culture is superior to rapidly being taken over by a foreign cancer such as Islam. This is very on brand for Japan, culturally. Can't have anything but respect for that position.

---

This is an interesting topic.
How did people manage 1000 years ago? They did not import people in. How did Japan survive for 10000 years they have a very old culture. Not by importing H1Bs or Muslims.
Or has something fundamentally changed? That is a problem with capitalistic societies where the goal is not more happiness/contentment, it is more money. So many have a lot of money but not happy. And some people have less money and so not very happy either.

Worst thing a country can do is let Muslims in. No mosques. Ban them. This cancer spreads.

---

They lost about 3M people during WWII so that didn't help. Since then they westernized because of us which means they followed the western birth rate decline like anyone else. On top of that...they are uniquely weird with their work culture and have some additional weird dynamics going on between men and women which further impacts their decline. They have their version of our incels. There is a term for it I'm blanking on...

---

OK. Solution from the Japanese perspective is to let things adjust. At some point hopefully people will realize and change course.

What is NOT a solution is to import 1000s of military grade Muslim men in. That may work short term but long term that would destroy their civilization. We are doing this with our tech work force. Instead of training our own, we import people in or send work outside and then complain our people are lazy.

---

Right, which is what they are doing under their new administration. I don't think they are going to suddenly start humping like rabbits though. It will be a slow die off over a couple of hundred years assuming they stick to their tight immigration practices.

---

I looked it up: Japan is at TFR=1.15.

Using a calc engine online, keeping it at that rate means a 50% decline in appx 60 years. From a purely mathematical standpoint, its only 35 years to reduce to 50%.



eta: this is a huge crisis for the world imo. South Korea is even worse at 0.7.

---

This kind of goes back to Elon's claims from several months ago where he said (and I'll get this wrong) that we will be down to 500M people on the planet in 50 years. It was some crazy ass number like that that was just jaw dropping and seemed absurd on its face. Your number seems absurd too although I'm not going to fight you on the math.

It's just a wild thing to think about and I agree it's a massive crisis that is almost wholly ignored. This issue is the real reason that climate change is simply an outdated crisis and not relevant at all. China is also expected to be half of what they are now in about 50 years as well and we really don't even know what their true population is. Tons of speculation it's already not as high as everyone thinks it is.

---

What does this say about real estate investing long term. Or any investing for that matter. No growth, only contraction.

---

Pain.

titan said:

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Something to consider is whether its correct to use later 20th C let alone the present, as the benchmark. Maybe the populations should be assumed lower which are needed for the level of acheivements obtained? We may be overestimating the importance of drop in numbers, as very the lethal effect of the Progressive drive to import non-compatible cultures to boost numbers (and hijack votes obviously).

This goes back to the Japanese apparent choice to shrink rather than become a regressed place. Maybe it will work because maybe the numbers needed to sustain a cultural level are not now's figures or the later 20th C's figures?

As one poster put it, maybe its more important to "lean into" cultural first world and Western Civ identity, than numbers.

---

My biggest concern in all of it is how this wind down looks. Will it be orderly? Will you have the right mix of talent necessary to affect an orderly wind down? The bad case results in systems and services just failing because no one is left alive that knows how to operate stuff.

We are looking at the Dark Ages 2.0 in many geographies with the combination of massive depopulation and deglobalization. The latter will simply not be necessary much less sustainable. We will be returning to an earlier much more isolated era. This issue is one of the reasons I'm so gung ho on us focusing on the Western Hemisphere. The Old World will not be nearly as relevant for us in the future as that entire place descends into chaos and the new Dark Ages.

Qalinle Ibrahm abducted a 12 year old in Minnesota and r*ped her

St. Paul IsIamic Center wrote a letter of community support, saying he has not "assimilated into non-Somali culture" pic.twitter.com/ZOrQC15ROI

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 2, 2025

Bad cultures are a cancer consuming the host body. But, bad cultures are not necessarily always imported.

The culture of thuggery, gangs, is a cancer.

The culture of crime is a cancer.

The culture of cheating the system for personal gain is a cancer.

Personal responsibility, ethics and living by a moral code is a culture we need to promote, but it is dying.

A true, free society relies on people living together in mutual respect and benefit. Unfortunately that is waning.

Looks like everything in America is for sale.

All that matters is if he can be put to work as a slave or if he can vote for a certain political party.

Ciboag96 said:

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Qalinle Ibrahm abducted a 12 year old in Minnesota and r*ped her

St. Paul IsIamic Center wrote a letter of community support, saying he has not "assimilated into non-Somali culture" pic.twitter.com/ZOrQC15ROI

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 2, 2025

Bad cultures are a cancer consuming the host body. But, bad cultures are not necessarily always imported.

The culture of thuggery, gangs, is a cancer.

The culture of crime is a cancer.

The culture of cheating the system for personal gain is a cancer.

Personal responsibility, ethics and living by a moral code is a culture we need to promote, but it is dying.

A true, free society relies on people living together in mutual respect and benefit. Unfortunately that is waning.

---

True. Looks like its a combination of both. Depending on how much believe all the IQ stuff (agnostic on it, not sold) it at least looks true enough you can import regression and bad in the case of don't want any more Somalis, and certainly none like this guy or Islamists.

That secured, next you get rid of the Left paradigm of enabling and making excuses for crime. Get crime and punishment simplified again and closer to a little tolerance for any violent recidivism, and it will slowly go away as each subtracted.

Gotta move past the current crop of Academia and Media if you are going to restore mutual respect and benefit and accountability.

To YouBet's point --- yes, also, this somewhat contracting world needs to focus on making the Western Hemisphere secure, and less focus far distant. Its probably the Eastern Roman Empire phase of history and we need to shore up a solid area rather than diluting over too much.