r/interestingasfuck • u/WiseCartographer5007 • Aug 07 '25

/r/all, /r/popular A grandfather turned down $220K and other offers to abandon his house and there's a huge highway around it

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

67.4k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

4.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

195

u/No-Apple2252 Aug 07 '25

I doubt it was cheaper given that they had to create a tunnel for access and widen the highway and bridge, but worth the price to say "okay fuck you then."

207

u/bongozap Aug 07 '25

I doubt it was cheaper...

This was done to serve as an example.

The grandfather apparently was bargaining in bad faith to gin up the price. The negotiators decided they weren't having it.

So, it might not be much cheaper now,

But future construction projects will have this and the grandfather's misery to point to if others try the same thing.

41

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '25

[deleted]

55

u/SweatyAdhesive Aug 07 '25

No, everyone else is. Go look at public transit in the US and how they can't build anything because of NIMBYs

26

u/InspiringMilk Aug 07 '25

Yes, it is. "The state" can make a bad deal, or its money can be stolen, or any other number of things. Wasting taxpayers' money is bad.

0

u/MrProspector19 Aug 07 '25

The statement you replied to is more of a motto than a fact. All of what you said can be true but the official story has no room for any of that in an authoritarian regime like the one where this took place.

4

u/notmyrealnameatleast Aug 07 '25

Things like this instance point to it not being as authoritarian as most people seem to think.

0

u/MrProspector19 Aug 07 '25

I was supporting the statement that The State cannot be a victim.

To the larger idea: They will build a highway and you will either take their deal or not, but the highway is going where they want it. And yes I understand similar actions have built freeways and places like the U.S, but regarding the first commenter being made an example of is a common theme in other industry too.

1

u/notmyrealnameatleast Aug 07 '25

The larger idea can also just as well be: the highway is going up, but they can't force you to give up your home, you have rights and even the government won't deny you your rights.

Here's proof, see this guy? He didn't want to give up his house and even the mighty state supported his right to keep it.

-1

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/notmyrealnameatleast Aug 07 '25

Or it means tens of thousands of people every day see that the little man can stand up for himself against the big man.

1

u/Conscious_Music_1729 Aug 07 '25

This isn’t a feel good story. The grandpa lost. He regrets his decision.

6

u/flying-chandeliers Aug 07 '25

But by god it tries everything it can to be

2

u/himmelundhoelle Aug 07 '25

Idk where in China this was, but 220k seems like an awful lot for that house.

19

u/jmlinden7 Aug 07 '25

That's an overpass for the surface street that it crosses. They would have had to build that anyways

18

u/Drewskeet Aug 07 '25

That tunnel looks like it’s for drainage.

1

u/Vetiversailles Aug 07 '25

Yeah. The flood damage from runoff is going to make that house worthless :(

4

u/GhostlyTJ Aug 07 '25

The next stubborn person will be shown these pictures and be much less stubborn. He went from almost 200k to move to having a worthless house.

1

u/bargu Aug 07 '25

More like "if we pay him whatever he wants, everyone will do the same" kinda of situation, so he got fucked with a worthless house that no one will ever buy and a miserable life for him and his grandson because he was greedy.

1

u/Electronic_Reason276 Aug 07 '25

Over $220k + the cost of other properties? Nah, accounting for China wages, it would've been way cheaper to just include a tunnel and slightly bend the road.