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I live in Irvine, CA, and per the article we are the sixth most expensive for a renter. I live with my parents and three sisters and we do pay $1950 for a two b

I live in Irvine, CA, and per the article we are the sixth most expensive for a renter. I live with my parents and three sisters and we do pay $1950 for a two bedroom apartment, three dollars off the actual median. Though what I find hard to believe is how my family does it. I attend a local community college close by, and have been doing so for the past four years after high school. Every year I fill out the FASFA (a Free Application for Student Aid limited to only six years), and I usually ask my parents for their tax record of the past year which gives me a look at our overall income. My parents for the last four years combined have made roughly an average of $31,000/yr. I've never asked them why we initially didn't move to a cheaper state when we migrated from Mexico, but I assume they enjoy the quality of life here. Though I'm skeptical on whether the trade offs are worth it. We give up most of our life for work, so we may have a few hours off in the week and the weekend. And the the latter applies to my mother, older sister, and I, it does not apply to my father who works the entire week as a gardener with his own workers and clients and only gets a few hours each week (more now since it gets dark earlier with autumn/winter daylight savings). Though above all, I find it odd that we give our only life (?) to living for rent, food, and necessities. Which is not to say work is bad, after all, work I think has three functions: “to give a man a chance to utilise and develop his faculties; to enable him to overcome his egocentredness by joining with other people in a common task; and to bring forth the goods and services needed for a becoming existence.” But otherwise, I still believe there ought to be a healthier and more natural approach to modern day work and life balance. The quote above is from E.F. Shumacher’s Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. A book I have come to admire and tend to revisit from time to time.

AznHisoka 9y ago
How much is the average home in irvine? do you rent from a multi family home?
- eclipxe 9y ago
  $950-$1m for starter/mid-range single family.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - scruple 9y ago
    > $950-$1m for starter/mid-range single family. Trulia is showing the median sales price in Irvine for the past year-ish at $766k [0]. Zillow is showing the median sales price at $764k [1]. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but it's the only data I could find. [0]: https://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Irvine-California/ https://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Irvine-California/ [1]: https://www.zillow.com/irvine-ca/home-values/ https://www.zillow.com/irvine-ca/home-values/
  - goodoldboys 9y ago
    Irvine itself may be that expensive, but there are plenty of affordable* options in nearby Orange County cities. *affordable is relative - I'm talking homes in the 500-600k range
ttonkytonk 9y ago
You are spot on. I am homeless because I don't work, but really all I desire is a good spot to put my tent. Of course I enjoy free food and amenities such as the library, but I also volunteer at the soup kitchens and some other functions from time-to-time at least. I have no desire to work 50 hours or more a week at a thankless job at this time. That does not mean I'm comfortable with being a "smooch", just that I think it's kind of irrelevant. We need to give up the blame/excuses game and focus on the health of communities as a whole.
- extra88 9y ago
  You get paid to do a job, why do you need thanks as well? I wonder if your current lifestyle will make it difficult to transition to another lifestyle when it's no longer sustainable or you tire of it. At least you're volunteering and as odd as I find it to be homeless and spending time on this site, it suggests an interest in and connection to activities that will work out later. BTW, a mooch is someone who lives off others ("to mooch" is also a verb). A smooch is slang for a kiss.
  - coding123 9y ago
    Many of the people that ditch society find it much better than society, and love living outdoors and traveling wherever. It doesn't mean those people don't code - I have met quite a few of us on the road that code and live in dilapidated trailers, work for free/ volunteer for churches. As odd as it may seem to _you_, its not this lifestyle that is trapping its the housed one. You would have to live it to understand.
    - extra88 9y ago
      I try to keep an open mind about different lifestyles but I know I'm fairly risk-averse so it can be hard to relate. It's also more difficult to live that way when others are depending upon you.
      - cyberpunk0 9y ago
VLM 9y ago
The other side of the positive pursuit of pleasure coin is the negative absence of pain. Wikipedia claims "rated as having one of the lowest violent crime rates among cities with over 100,000 inhabitants by the FBI every year since 2005". Another good wikipedia quote is "Irvine has been frequently recognized among the top school systems in California and the United States". There are much cheaper places to live, but you might have not written your post because as a little kid you got shot as a bystander and died, or never learned enough from bad schools to get into CC, or your computer or whatever you're posting with got stolen. Better to be poor in paradise than rich in hell, etc.
- macawfish 9y ago
  Mexico is a whole country
  - VLM 9y ago
    "why we initially didn't move to a cheaper state" The world's a lot bigger than just Irvine and Mexico...
    - macawfish 9y ago
      I misunderstood your comment as saying that Mexico is some kind of socioeconomic hell.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  The other side of the positive pursuit of pleasure coin is the negative absence of pain Writing a $1k check every month just for the privilege of a 500ft^2 dump in a crowded and expensive city is pretty painful.
IkmoIkmo 9y ago
> I've never asked them why we initially didn't move to a cheaper state when we migrated from Mexico, but I assume they enjoy the quality of life here. You should ask them! In fact, I'd love for you to get back to us on how the conversation unfolded. After all, any decision requires some origin, maybe confronting them with questions about affordability, work/life balance and quality of life, plus some alternative cities and a roadmap to getting housing and employment there, makes them decide to move in a few years.
dahart 9y ago
> I find it odd that we give our only life (?) to living for rent, food, and necessities. Couldn't agree more. A few years ago, I found myself doing so much overtime that I had no life outside of work. No time for family, no time for hobbies, throw civics completely out the window. I came to the conclusion that there's no amount of money that makes that worth it. Except I had the option to relax and still make enough money for my basics. If not working overtime would actually mean having to move somewhere that I didn't know anyone, or not feeding or housing my family, I think I'd probably just get used to the idea of working overtime forever. > I've never asked them why we initially didn't move to a cheaper state when we migrated from Mexico, but I assume they enjoy the quality of life here. Though I'm skeptical on whether the trade offs are worth it. You obviously know your parents better than I do, but I would assume anyone migrating with kids to another country -- which would be scary as hell -- would be looking for the strongest support system. Having relatives or friends nearby might be important, or even having Spanish speaking neighbors and businesses within reach. While there are lots of cheaper places to live than Irvine/California, California is also friendlier to immigrants than other states. Having lived in Mexico and seen that standards of living and work are different than the US, I might also assume your parents believe they are making a trade off that is worth it relative to what their lives in Mexico might be, rather than optimizing cost of living in the US. And I don't know, but as a parent I can imagine they might have their hopes resting on you, and not care much about their own quality of life. ;) > my father works the entire week as a gardener with his own workers and clients If he has a business, he can't move without starting over from scratch. I started a business, which failed, and got some perspective on how hard small business in the US can be, and how unsupportive this country is in certain ways. Taxes and health care are a nightmare when you're bootstrapping a small business. And I have literally nothing to complain about, I was so lucky compared to the position your father's in, I can't really imagine how hard starting and sustaining a gardening business is when you have a family. > Which is not to say work is bad, after all There's a pervasive belief in the US (and globally, I imagine) in the benefits and necessities of hard work. While I personally share and appreciate the optimism, I do wonder if that works against us. Rich people all talk about how hard they worked and believe hard work is why they got where they are. Yet nobody has ever made it to the top by pulling the most overtime at McDonalds or working harder at being the best janitor. Maybe the opportunity to do hard work that leads to economic leverage is the thing. School would be one example. It may be true that you have to work hard once you get the opportunity, but working hard doesn't necessarily do anything to achieve opportunity, and maybe working too hard at something that isn't leveraging might reduce the chances for the opportunity to work hard at something that could change your trajectory.
lhuser123 9y ago
> Though above all, I find it odd that we give our only life (?) to living for rent, food, and necessities. I think they did it for you, not for them, and you should be very grateful.
klipt 9y ago
> I've never asked them why we initially didn't move to a cheaper state when we migrated from Mexico Well California Community Colleges received $9.2 billion in state funding last year: http://www.lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3372 http://www.lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3372 So the same thing that makes California expensive (strong economy, high taxes) helps subsidize education for lower earning Californians like you.
mikestew 9y ago
I've never asked them why we initially didn't move to a cheaper state when we migrated from Mexico I initially assumed strong Spanish-speaking community, other Mexican immigrants...but you can get that in Arizona for half the price. So then I wondered if the quality of life in L. A. is so much better than it was in Mexico (I mean, they moved for a reason, right?) that it never occurred to them to wonder if it can be had for less. But they’re your parents, ask them. :-)
runT1ME 9y ago
Studying CS? I live in Irvine and my father is from Mexico. :) I'm always happy to meet new tech folk around here and/or chat if you're interested. Contact info in profile.

AznHisoka 9y ago

How much is the average home in irvine? do you rent from a multi family home?

eclipxe 9y ago
$950-$1m for starter/mid-range single family.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- scruple 9y ago
  > $950-$1m for starter/mid-range single family. Trulia is showing the median sales price in Irvine for the past year-ish at $766k [0]. Zillow is showing the median sales price at $764k [1]. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but it's the only data I could find. [0]: https://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Irvine-California/ https://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Irvine-California/ [1]: https://www.zillow.com/irvine-ca/home-values/ https://www.zillow.com/irvine-ca/home-values/
- goodoldboys 9y ago
  Irvine itself may be that expensive, but there are plenty of affordable* options in nearby Orange County cities. *affordable is relative - I'm talking homes in the 500-600k range

ttonkytonk 9y ago

You are spot on. I am homeless because I don't work, but really all I desire is a good spot to put my tent. Of course I enjoy free food and amenities such as the library, but I also volunteer at the soup kitchens and some other functions from time-to-time at least. I have no desire to work 50 hours or more a week at a thankless job at this time. That does not mean I'm comfortable with being a "smooch", just that I think it's kind of irrelevant. We need to give up the blame/excuses game and focus on the health of communities as a whole.

extra88 9y ago
You get paid to do a job, why do you need thanks as well? I wonder if your current lifestyle will make it difficult to transition to another lifestyle when it's no longer sustainable or you tire of it. At least you're volunteering and as odd as I find it to be homeless and spending time on this site, it suggests an interest in and connection to activities that will work out later. BTW, a mooch is someone who lives off others ("to mooch" is also a verb). A smooch is slang for a kiss.
- coding123 9y ago
  Many of the people that ditch society find it much better than society, and love living outdoors and traveling wherever. It doesn't mean those people don't code - I have met quite a few of us on the road that code and live in dilapidated trailers, work for free/ volunteer for churches. As odd as it may seem to _you_, its not this lifestyle that is trapping its the housed one. You would have to live it to understand.
  - extra88 9y ago
    I try to keep an open mind about different lifestyles but I know I'm fairly risk-averse so it can be hard to relate. It's also more difficult to live that way when others are depending upon you.
    - cyberpunk0 9y ago

VLM 9y ago

The other side of the positive pursuit of pleasure coin is the negative absence of pain. Wikipedia claims "rated as having one of the lowest violent crime rates among cities with over 100,000 inhabitants by the FBI every year since 2005". Another good wikipedia quote is "Irvine has been frequently recognized among the top school systems in California and the United States". There are much cheaper places to live, but you might have not written your post because as a little kid you got shot as a bystander and died, or never learned enough from bad schools to get into CC, or your computer or whatever you're posting with got stolen. Better to be poor in paradise than rich in hell, etc.

macawfish 9y ago
Mexico is a whole country
- VLM 9y ago
  "why we initially didn't move to a cheaper state" The world's a lot bigger than just Irvine and Mexico...
  - macawfish 9y ago
    I misunderstood your comment as saying that Mexico is some kind of socioeconomic hell.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
dsfyu404ed 9y ago
The other side of the positive pursuit of pleasure coin is the negative absence of pain Writing a $1k check every month just for the privilege of a 500ft^2 dump in a crowded and expensive city is pretty painful.

IkmoIkmo 9y ago

> I've never asked them why we initially didn't move to a cheaper state when we migrated from Mexico, but I assume they enjoy the quality of life here. You should ask them! In fact, I'd love for you to get back to us on how the conversation unfolded. After all, any decision requires some origin, maybe confronting them with questions about affordability, work/life balance and quality of life, plus some alternative cities and a roadmap to getting housing and employment there, makes them decide to move in a few years.

dahart 9y ago

> I find it odd that we give our only life (?) to living for rent, food, and necessities. Couldn't agree more. A few years ago, I found myself doing so much overtime that I had no life outside of work. No time for family, no time for hobbies, throw civics completely out the window. I came to the conclusion that there's no amount of money that makes that worth it. Except I had the option to relax and still make enough money for my basics. If not working overtime would actually mean having to move somewhere that I didn't know anyone, or not feeding or housing my family, I think I'd probably just get used to the idea of working overtime forever. > I've never asked them why we initially didn't move to a cheaper state when we migrated from Mexico, but I assume they enjoy the quality of life here. Though I'm skeptical on whether the trade offs are worth it. You obviously know your parents better than I do, but I would assume anyone migrating with kids to another country -- which would be scary as hell -- would be looking for the strongest support system. Having relatives or friends nearby might be important, or even having Spanish speaking neighbors and businesses within reach. While there are lots of cheaper places to live than Irvine/California, California is also friendlier to immigrants than other states. Having lived in Mexico and seen that standards of living and work are different than the US, I might also assume your parents believe they are making a trade off that is worth it relative to what their lives in Mexico might be, rather than optimizing cost of living in the US. And I don't know, but as a parent I can imagine they might have their hopes resting on you, and not care much about their own quality of life. ;) > my father works the entire week as a gardener with his own workers and clients If he has a business, he can't move without starting over from scratch. I started a business, which failed, and got some perspective on how hard small business in the US can be, and how unsupportive this country is in certain ways. Taxes and health care are a nightmare when you're bootstrapping a small business. And I have literally nothing to complain about, I was so lucky compared to the position your father's in, I can't really imagine how hard starting and sustaining a gardening business is when you have a family. > Which is not to say work is bad, after all There's a pervasive belief in the US (and globally, I imagine) in the benefits and necessities of hard work. While I personally share and appreciate the optimism, I do wonder if that works against us. Rich people all talk about how hard they worked and believe hard work is why they got where they are. Yet nobody has ever made it to the top by pulling the most overtime at McDonalds or working harder at being the best janitor. Maybe the opportunity to do hard work that leads to economic leverage is the thing. School would be one example. It may be true that you have to work hard once you get the opportunity, but working hard doesn't necessarily do anything to achieve opportunity, and maybe working too hard at something that isn't leveraging might reduce the chances for the opportunity to work hard at something that could change your trajectory.

lhuser123 9y ago

> Though above all, I find it odd that we give our only life (?) to living for rent, food, and necessities. I think they did it for you, not for them, and you should be very grateful.

klipt 9y ago

> I've never asked them why we initially didn't move to a cheaper state when we migrated from Mexico Well California Community Colleges received $9.2 billion in state funding last year: http://www.lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3372 http://www.lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3372 So the same thing that makes California expensive (strong economy, high taxes) helps subsidize education for lower earning Californians like you.

mikestew 9y ago

I've never asked them why we initially didn't move to a cheaper state when we migrated from Mexico I initially assumed strong Spanish-speaking community, other Mexican immigrants...but you can get that in Arizona for half the price. So then I wondered if the quality of life in L. A. is so much better than it was in Mexico (I mean, they moved for a reason, right?) that it never occurred to them to wonder if it can be had for less. But they’re your parents, ask them. :-)

runT1ME 9y ago

Studying CS? I live in Irvine and my father is from Mexico. :) I'm always happy to meet new tech folk around here and/or chat if you're interested. Contact info in profile.