The US economy is doing well. President Biden wants to know why so many Americans are still feeling bad
By many metrics, the US economy is humming along. The jobs market is robust; consumers are spending again; and inflation has eased to a three-year low.
You're viewing a single thread.
Because rent is $2000/month and most places require proof that you make 3 times that amount.
I've never met any motherfucker that makes $6k a month, Joe. Most of us are living paycheck to paycheck.
It's getting increasingly more difficult to give a shit about the social contract when people like Elon Musk have all the fucking money and the rest of us would starve if we got sick.
Fuck.
But the the rich people's yacht money economy is doing well!
I often read from random people who live in some tiny ass apartments in places like NYC or San Francisco or wherever and spend like 3000 dollars a month in rent. Hell i know a guy in Toronto who tells me about his shitty ass apartment with no heat that just raised rent 400 dollars or some shit and ge already paid 1400 to 1600. How do people live like that? Genuine question, i spend 1600 a month but for a whole house and garden. Which is nothing in comparison, but i wouldn't mind spending less just to have more.
I managed to get a house for a reasonable price and interest rate. Neither of those are the case anymore. So unless you can save up $100,000 for the 20% down payment on a $500,000 house, you've got to rent. And then you can't save because rent is so high, so you're stuck renting forever.
A 500k house is hardly even possible anymore here. I worked for a guy who build quite the bice house in a pretty damn expensive neighborhood. He told me he's able to afford it because the neighbouring piece of land is also his and he's gonna sell that. He pointed at a piece of land about the size of a soccer field. I said that's nice, that's a good chunk of the house i assume. Ge told me that the land is worth over 1 million dollars. No house nothing, just a piece of flat grass.
Houses in my neighborhood are still going for around $350,000 for a 45 year old 1500 sq foot, 3 bed, 1.5 bath. I was trying to adjust for an average but I forgot that $350,000 will buy you a dumpster with HOA fees in a lot of places.
I work in an adjacent industry to construction and I can tell you that even the $300k houses are so cheaply made that you would refuse to live in one of you saw them being built.
I've seen stucco being sprayed on exterior "walls" made of Styrofoam (polystyrene), and broken studs toenailed together before the drywall gets hung. That's not even mentioning the number of times I've seen human shit on the floor of the garage.
The number of times these building companies have been sued for breaking building laws would make your head spin. A company in Florida got sued by an entire subdivision because they poured the foundations on the water table and the first rainstorm flooded every house.
It's criminal how much these companies fleece from the American public.
These were built in 1979-81, so hopefully they're not as slapped together as new houses. But I've seen houses built since 2000 where every window is cracked because the wind bent the frames so much.
The next house I live in will be built with my strict supervision.