You arguably have a point (so does the parent), but this isn’t the way to express it in a respectful discussion.
Discourse shouldn't be baselessly disrespectful, sure.
But the robotic, tsk tsk, shaming attitude that gets thrown around on forums whenever someone expresses any negative emotion gets old too.
In any case, complaining about having to pay capital gains tax on gains OVER $500k really is the ultimate first world, privileged problem.
Why is expressing emotional reactions pointless, in your mind? Doing so gives everyone more information about the reactions they might expect to their concerns... it enforces social norms, etc.
The problem is that the comment provides nothing else. You can do the same thing in a more civil and constructive way. Just look at your comments. You are providing logic and rationale for your argument. I don't agree with you, but you're adding to the discussion. Now compare that to "I'm sick of you people. Stop whining about other people's comments you big baby". Someone can correct me, but that doesn't belong here and that rule has been around since the beginning of HN. It's been written and clear along with the reasons why. It's the way things have been done here. If someone doesn't like it, they can post on reddit instead.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
"Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say face-to-face. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more civil and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. 'That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3' can be shortened to '1 + 1 is 2, not 3.'"
I just believe the rules tend to stifle people from expressing how they truly feel about topics, and are therefore information limiting and generally a net loss.
It's a fine line. Some people's feelings are toxic all the time and wrong-headed and truly add nothing of value. Other people, when they have a negative emotional reaction there is probably a lot of accumulated wisdom behind it and you should really listen instead of censoring or rambling on about civility. Very subjective though.
Also, in my opinion, the constant suppression of any negative speech is exactly what gets someone like Trump elected. "Finally, someone on TV is saying what I FEEL and no one can stop him!"
If I were talking to lisper over a beer, I'd probably smile and say that that problem is one that 99% of the world's population would love to have, or something to that effect. Or maybe without the smile and straight to the point "complaining about profits so high that you're getting taxed on them when there are people who are homeless is not a great look".
OTOH, I don't think he's really complaining, just pointing out that the system is pretty screwy even for someone who is in no uncertain terms doing pretty well.
Almost every complaint levied on this forum is a first world problem. Complaining about the ergonomics of a programming language is a first world problem. And secondly, he wasn't complaining, he was describing the economics of his choices. What is infinitely more toxic than 'complaining' about first world problems, is people jumping on explanations like the above as 'complaints' that need to be silenced.
That's just like, your opinion man.
>Complaining about the ergonomics
Look, complaining about work is a typical first world problem, sure. And of course we're all lucky to do the work we do and not live in [wherever.]
Complaining about 20% taxes on $200k of a ~$700k windfall is truly more like a .00001% issue and is pretty obtuse by any measure.
You wouldn't raise an eyebrow, or have any negative reaction to someone making $400k / year bitterly complaining that they have to pay taxes on it? I don't know anyone who wouldn't think that was obnoxious.
>he was describing the economics of his choices.
Sort of, in a fairly facile and borderline deceptive manner.
Where are these bitter complaints? He commented to say that rising housing prices weren't good for him. He explained why. That isn't a complaint. He didn't say "I deserve this money from my rising house price!". He didn't say "the world is so unfair to me". He just explained why this thing that people thought would be helpful to someone like him, was in fact, not helpful.
> Sort of, in a fairly facile and borderline deceptive manner.
What was facile or deceptive about what he said? He's absolutely correct.
First, he withheld the amount of capital gains, so everyone who initially responded naturally assumed it was under $500k, which is true of 99.9% of transactions. That was very misleading information to omit.
Secondly, he complained about broker fees, but it isn't required to sell a house using a broker by any stretch. Just do FSBO if you think the 3% cut (probably less) isn't worth it. And 3% isn't much at all when your already expensive house just went up over 100% in value. Facile and disingenuous.
>Where are these bitter complaints?
Pretending that he and his wife are "trapped" in his house and "can't afford to sell" makes it sound like a horrific and dire situation. Which is completely misleading, he and his wife are quite wealthy and could do anything they wanted. They are pretty much the opposite of "trapped."
>we can't afford to move!
Lies. They could easily afford to move.
They bought their house for something like $600k and now it's probably worth $1.3M. They pay 20% taxes on the $200k, so $40k and they lose 3% if they use a broker. That's another $40k, so $80k total. Let's make it an even $100k. So they have $1.2M to throw around, subtract $500k to pay off the existing mortgage, that's $700k free and clear.
$700k is a hell of a down-payment, even in the ritziest areas of Marin. Buy whatever you want.
I own a restaurant in norcal and have an employee whose room share / rental house burned in the recent fires. He goes to SRJC, doesn't have any family in the area, had no rental insurance, makes $12 an hour and no savings.
THAT's a dire situation, and considering I know people in situations like that, OP's framing of his (extremely cushy) situation as "I can't afford X!" is pretty disgusting to me.
There's nothing misleading about that. He didn't mislead you. You misled you.
> Pretending that he and his wife are "trapped" in his house and "can't afford to sell" makes it sound like a horrific and dire situation. Which is completely misleading, he and his wife are quite wealthy and could do anything they wanted. They are pretty much the opposite of "trapped."
You don't really understand money, it seems like. The fact that you have equity in the home you live in doesn't mean you can "do anything you want". I already explained why this is so.
> They bought their house for something like $600k and now it's probably worth $1.3M. They pay 20% taxes on the $200k, so $40k and they lose 3% if they use a broker. That's another $40k, so $80k total. Let's make it an even $100k. So they have $1.2M to throw around, subtract $500k to pay off the existing mortgage, that's $700k free and clear. $700k is a hell of a down-payment, even in the ritziest areas of Marin. Buy whatever you want.
700k is indeed a great down payment. But you have no idea what their income stream is like. If they aren't making a large income, they won't be able to afford their mortgage payments if they need to buy a house in an expensive area like SF. What he means by 'trapped' is that they have theoretically made all this money, but the money is of no actual use to them. And he is completely correct.
> I own a restaurant in norcal and have an employee whose room share / rental house burned in the recent fires. He goes to SRJC, doesn't have any family in the area, had no rental insurance, makes $12 an hour and no savings. THAT's a dire situation, and considering I know people in situations like that, OP's framing of his (extremely cushy) situation as "I can't afford X!" is pretty disgusting to me.
Gee, it does indeed sound dire. Maybe you should pay your employees more rather than yelling at people on the internet for being insensitive about money? Seems you're in a position to actually do something about that situation. But you won't. And there's a very good reason you won't: because it's bad business. The economics don't make sense for you to do that. Just like the economics of the OP's situation don't make him wealthy. Absolute values are irrelevant, it's the equilibrium that matters.
And secondly, making silly statements like "THATS NOT DIRE THIS IS DIRE" is absurd. Almost everyone posting here lives in a first world country. There are infinitely 'more dire' situations out there than any of us are in, and playing this childish 'no true scotsman' game is a waste of time.
The OP is using him or herself as an example of a real behavior in response to real economic incentives, no matter how unsympathetic you find their circumstance. The fact that this situation discourages moves that most other markets encourage is a worthwhile point to bring up. Among other things, it reduces supply which has a profound effect on new buyers.
Incentives influence actions much more than personal criticism does. The OP’s relatively fortunate outcome does not mean that they don’t have something relevant to share. In contrast, targeting them with pejorative shaming is totally unhelpful.
They bought their house for something like $600k and now it's probably worth $1.3M. They pay 20% capital gains taxes on $200k, so $40k, and they lose 3% if they use a broker. That's another $40k, so $80k total. Let's make it an even $100k. So they have $1.2M to throw around after the sale. Subtract $500k to pay off the existing mortgage, that's $700k free and clear.
$700k is a hell of a down-payment, even in the ritziest areas of Marin. They can buy whatever they want.