How can people afford rent in big cities nowadays ?

@Roundandroundwego I guess you can't handle having to work for something. When you work for something it means something to you. I'm all in favor of helping people who are disabled or lacking mental health but able-bodied people need to work not have their hands out.
Besides a lot of homeless make more money than we do and don't have to pay taxes.

@Baremine I'm shocked that you would ignore the results of everyone working for money in jobs and paying for the basics as commodities on the "open market". It's killing the ecosystem and millions of Americans are poor and homeless. Privatization has huge flaws.

@JackJames these are facts. And i appreciate you stating them.

@carpediem Thing is, the top 20% (under the top 1%) who comprise a significant part of that electorate (probably around 13%), and make more than 4/5 of the country, aren't as susceptible. I know people making upwards of $150K a year (much more if you consider 2 income households) shrugging their shoulders.

I'm not one to promote class envy and such, but let's face it, they already got theirs and seem to be more concerned about protecting their economic advantage while simultaneously promoting their righteousness. Hence, a person needs to look at how any economic policy put in place actually benefits the upper classes.

I can only imagine the rest aren't voting their pocketbooks, they're voting their emotions over social issues.

@BrewCityBarfly [quote]the rest aren't voting their pocketbooks, they're voting their emotions over social issues[/quote]

Bingo. Vote with your emotions and this is what happens.

@carpediem privatization of housing hurts us all. Only the middle class thinks it's better than us homeless. Maybe it's best for us to let you have this. We're okay.

@BlueVeins seems to be everywhere..I hope your situation will improve one day

@revenant You're very sweet. Things aren't so bad; I have all my needs met, I'm able to save a little money, and I live close enough to work that I can walk there. I just can't save as much as I'd like to and have to be careful about luxuries, but my income is growing fast. I just feel for the cashiers at the shops I visit, the homeless people I pass on my way around town. I feel for all the people who can't afford a car, and have to rely on the underfunded and slow public transport to get around time, wasting probably hours every day. I am very lucky to be where I am.

@BlueVeins privatization itself is the problem.

@Rizz2k23 Or "creative accounting"

@CrazyMusicLover of some sort or another

@Rizz2k23 real estate selling is legal, though it makes people homeless.

@revenant

I rent out a nice room downstairs with a private full sized bathroom, living area, dining room, kitchen and free washer and dryer so you don't have to leave the property. Parking spot right next to the room. All bills paid (cable tv, water, electricity). Guess how much I charge? $650 but I'm suburban near the city limits.

@PatKirby This sounds totally great but you might live in a desolate place with no jobs around.

@revenant

Thanks, but it's the opposite. I live in a large city with a variety of jobs in tech, oil & gas production refineries, health care industry, high tourism, etc... Renting to a good old friend of my uncle's but I wonder if I should raise the rent?

@chrisCA lots of sharing alright and when you read the ads they might as well ask for corpses : cannot smoke, no pets, no children, no going out, no parties, no alcohol, no noise, no weed, no friends over on and on and on !

@revenant That is because a lot of people move into a place and decide to bring a ton of bad habits. Now that list you made - everything except smoking are likely reasons people got kicked out before.
The WORST though is when room mates want to bring in their own room mates, and of course those room mates what to bring in pets, the pets bring fleas...

@chrisCA The problem with "sharing" accommodations and expenses is that one person ends up carrying most of the burden while the other just becomes a lazy worthless slug.

Like both are doing okay at first but then one of them loses their job, car breaks down, family cannot help them, can't find a job... yet somehow they have money to shop on Amazon and plenty of time to surf dating apps.

Basically trying to live with room mates will end up costing MORE than trying to make it on one's own.

@Roundandroundwego This one is privately owned. first owner sold it in 2019 and luckily I got to stay on.

@zonavar68 everyone should have a home in the neighborhood of their choice. Paying and working for it should not be part of the guarantee.

@Roundandroundwego If everyone had a home where they wanted, do you know how many hood rats would move to the suburbs and destroy it?

@CrazyMusicLover privatized not socialist.

@AthrillatheHunt Finical planners say that your housing costs should not be more than 30 percent of your gross monthly income.

@chrisCA privatized housing certainly costs a lot. And because we allowed it landlords, parasites on society, oppress the population and mega landlords get rich while creating homelessness.
Privatized housing costs way more than housing ourselves would.

@AthrillatheHunt spending 30 pct of take home pay or more on rent or mortgage is considered ' in stress'

@acpguy scary

@acpguy [quote] like the idiots in the UK, France, Greece, Canada and other socialist style governed countries. Our liberal socialist controlled education systems are turning out little lazy entitled children that want every thing handed to them. [/quote]



Sorry Ive recovered mentally and I'm back to my old self before this forum and will try not to spread my standard views but focus on God, etc but this is one I couldn't keep quiet about.

@violentred I hope it is not too hard on you.

@revenant No it's just my brother and my 2 best friends

@SW-User There was a man who lived in a penthouse in NYC, he got rich selling potato peelers. They were good potato peelers, he sold them for $5 each. Would bring a large box of them and set up on a sidewalk in an area with a lot of foot traffic. How he sold them was interesting. He dressed in a suit & top hat and spoke in a theatrical voice. People assumed he was an out-of-work actor and it drew him a lot of attention. He did this for decades, ate in the finest restaurants and lived a good lifestyle when he wasn’t hawking potato peelers. I don’t know how many he sold but it was steady business and he was his own boss. Interesting is how many people actually peel potatoes to cook in this day and age. So many young people don’t seem to know how to boil water to make a cup of tea or make a hard-boiled egg.

@cherokeepatti that's why when I was 12, took a Home Ec class and sewing. Now I'm no klutz in the kitchen, and can stitch rips with ease.

@Expressman I don’t understand people who refuse to learn to at least do basic cooking. I have worked with some who were so proud of themselves for not cooking a meal. One woman had married an older man and he took her to restaurants every night for dinner. She would buy something at morning break at the food court for breakfast and would buy a sandwich for lunch. Imagine never slapping a sandwich together because you are too lazy to learn anything in the kitchen. (Her kitchen must have been empty and spotless because she never cooked a thing) When her husband died right before she retired there was no one to buy her dinner, she retired and complained she was going to have to get a job and mentioned a nearby fast food restaurant that she could walk to because she never learned to drive (her husband took her everywhere when he was alive). Another woman about my age started wrinkling badly before she turned 50, was getting chemical face peels. By the time she was 60 she looked old and her eyesight was going to, ate every meal in a restaurant and her family did as well…the chemicals in foods and oils that they use probably created so many freed radicals that it damaged her cells. She also told me that she didn’t believe in vitamins. Last time I saw about 6 years ago she looked at me and told me I hadn’t aged a bit, it had been about 11 years since she had seen me.

@exexec renting does not seem to be possible for many where I am

@exexec privatized housing kills. It's your turn. We're not uncomfortable,, us homeless. We're used to it. We're fine with you having trouble, now. Maybe it's your character. . Mental illness? Drugs.

@littlepuppywantanewlife where you are perhaps. Can't live under a bridge in the winter here.

@revenant I know. We have huge population and sometimes I feel sorry that people can't even afford food. :(

@JimboSaturn that is true also. There is no choice. Salaries are not going up

@revenant My salary will definitely not go up with inflation!

@JimboSaturn it is getting tough out there alright

@bookerdana no middle class ?

@revenant Certainly few in Manhattan

@Roundandroundwego

What the fuck are you babling about

Liberalism/socialism is killing our Democracy

I'm tired or working so that others get free cell phones, free intent, free food etc

@pdockal you're paying more not to provide for yourselves. Privatized medical care is an example. You pay more because you're not socialist. So you also die younger. It's a national choice to be stupid, too.

@hunkalove but then where do the kids get that moneys

@Teirdalin Workin' in the coal mine?

@Funlov I do not think it is as black and white as that. There are lots of factors to consider.