I’d like to check in as part of the problem; I pay for google ads and I show up at the top of certain search screens. I’m in a small local market, and google is primed to make about $350,000 off about $3mm of work this year if things keep up the way they are. We have no choice but to play the game to reach our consumers. Sorry guys.
A number of rich migrants have helped keep the high prices high. Sellers are most likely gambling that, if they hold out and don’t appear desperate, the buyers will meet them where they are. As long as they can stay solvent longer than the buyer can stay unhoused, they win.
I’ve seen a lot of this arrogance in the car market, too - I walked away last week and they seemed to think I was playing hard to get. The market is soft, but they act like it’s not.
When I read a fluff piece like this, which tries to justify the insane and out of touch actions of someone like Elon, I always immediately try to sort out the intent. Was this written by a paid PR person, or passed to a friendly outlet they know will publish for the clicks? Is it click bait by itself, with the author talking out the side if their mouth to intentionally draw arguments? Is this a “notice me senpai” article by someone wanting to get closer to Musk and his team?
If you look at the targeting, this is written for the maga and q-anon crowd (if you read this while nodding and agreeing with everything but insist you’re not like them, I have exciting news). It starts as a praise piece for Musk, but once it gets to the transitioned daughter it tips its hand. Note all the comments about woke culture and how it disgusts Musk. The reader is supposed to keep nodding along with the piece and find glee in him screwing those woke people at the end. It’s not subtle at all, but these people don’t need subtle, they need a clear narrative, a pat on the head, and to know the “other” is the right people being hurt.
A great counter view of this is Robert Evens’ “Behind the Bastards” on Musk, because it contains content from people forced to enact all the cocksure, out of touch policies of Musk and his team.
I would suspect it’s a humility issue. It’s a constant challenge, for me at least, to be vulnerable about my weaknesses and not be bull-rushed by other men seeing an opportunity to push me down. Fortunately I’m the boss now, so I can set an example that I can be wrong and trust others to say I’m right, or step back and admit a weakness that another can cover.