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I have what would appear to be a good middle class job at a state university but because I live in the Bay Area, half my paycheck goes to rent. Many of my cowor
by whyenot 9y ago
I have what would appear to be a good middle class job at a state university but because I live in the Bay Area, half my paycheck goes to rent. Many of my coworkers are now working weekend jobs just to stay ahead. Positions remain unfilled for many months because the jobs don't pay enough. The chances that the state will give us a meaningful pay raise is basically zero. The California Faculty Association negotiated a 10% pay raise over 3 years and that required major arm twisting right up to a strike vote.
Forget home ownership, forget starting a family. This current situation just isn't sustainable.
- averagewall 9y agoIt sounds like working at a university in the Bay Area is what's unsustainable. Why not just let the market sort itself out? If the university can't find staff, they'll have no choice but to raise salaries or move out. No need for union pressure. You've chosen to take the low pay and high cost of living, so it must be good enough for you. Perhaps at some point you'll be pushed over your limit and move out yourself.
- twoodfin 9y agoThe point of this article is that "the market" in housing is not functioning as one. Supply isn't rising to meet demand because it's being constrained by arguably unjust political restrictions.
- forgottenpass 9y agoSupply isn't the thing expected to raise boundlessly whenever demand goes up. Prices are. In this case supply is said to be bounded by government. But imagine an alternate reality where SF was Tokoyo-fied to the max. The city has every last housing unit that could possibly be squeezed in. The peninsula is slowly sinking into the ocean. And there is still more demand for housing. What then? Supply isn't going to rise then, either. So all I see is a whine that the government should prioritize one interest group's desires for lower prices over all the other desires and interest groups that coalesced to constrain housing in the first place. Want to talk about the market not functioning like a market is "supposed to"? Look no further than consumers overpaying to pack into a city for salaries that do not offset the higher cost of living.
- jjawssd 9y agoYou complain but you still put up with it which is why nothing ever gets done
- VLM 9y agoOversupply, ironically, from the educational sector. Lets say the economy is big enough to consume X new graduates of major Y. The problem we have as a nation and an economy is we've been producing between 2X and 100X degrees of major Y for many years. The majority of OPs fellow grads from that graduation year are working as bartenders or waiters or salespeople or software devs, so being stuck in horrible living conditions yet in his academic field means OP graduated at a very high percentile of class (maybe more than 99th if he's english lit, or at least 90th for a "normal" field). If OP bails there are at least 10 to 100 grads who currently have worse jobs probably not even in the field, with the same degree as OP, chomping at the bit to take his awful job. Restriction of supply is the only way out. That means eliminating socialized student loans, and that would result in crying and squealing like the world has never seen before, so that's not politically possible. A massive world war and draft? Close the borders? We know the demand side of the economy will never grow big enough to provide enough jobs for the people already qualified and living here, so don't count on the demand side to fix things, its gotta be a supply side solution. In the long run, a large fraction of the population has to immigrate elsewhere or die or tune in turn on drop out NEET style or do hippie commune UBI or have a (hopefully nonviolent) revolution ... I'm unaware of any viable alternative to the list. Kicking the can down the road BAU style means the inevitable crash will be much bigger.