5 ms·

I did this myself for 3 months. Saved about $4k doing so. You start to appreciate simpler things and realize how cluttered your life was before

vertexFarm 8y ago
Did you do it out of choice or necessity? This sounds so out of touch. Most of these people aren't doing it as an experiment to bolster their savings and achieve some kind of minimalist zen, they're doing it because real affordable housing is out of reach. Like I'd love to imagine that Hiro Protagonist and Vitaly Chernobyl are somewhere in Boston, but our current cyberpunk reality is mostly very sad.
- darawk 8y ago
  Why does it matter why he did it? It's a more efficient alternative. If affordable housing is out of reach, adapt your housing. Live somewhere else, or find a way to live where you want more cheaply - like living in a storage space.
  - marnett 8y ago
    This is, again, out of touch with the actualities of poverty. How does someone with no money "live somewhere else?" When someone who is impoverished is evicted, they take their children on a trip to a shelter and go to work the next day for 12 hours physical labor, skipping a few meals to feed their children as needed.
    - darawk 8y ago
      Take a bus. Buses are cheap. Nobody gets evicted without warning. You have time to prepare.
      - marnett 8y ago
        I do not know why you insist down this line of thinking when I am talking about _impoverished_ people. If someone is skipping meals to feed their child, what funds are they using for the bus? And what are they going to do when they arrive at some magical "cheaper COL" and they have no job? I implore you to go volunteer at your local homeless shelter. After talking with several perfectly sane and working homeless individuals you will realize some people really have no money leftover to better their plight. They really are trapped. If you don't feel like actually meeting people whose life and privilege is drastically different than yours, at least read Matthew Desmond's Evicted to round out your knowledge on the America in which you live.
        darawk 8y ago
        I haven't done those things, and i'm not going to any time soon. However, you apparently have, and i'm more than happy to listen to what you have to say on the matter. I don't really buy the idea that someone who is employed can't scrape together a $19 bus fare. Buying the bare amount of food and water necessary to live can be done for $1-2/day, even in a developed country. If you're employed in any sort of regular way, you're making more than that, so I don't really understand the argument that these people are financially incapable of saving up that much money. That being said, i'm more than happy to be wrong if there's some aspect of the issue that I don't understand.
  - zentiggr 8y ago
    You seem to be unaware of the multitude of areas where there is no affordable housing for all sorts of local reasons. I've been homeless before. When your income can't make basic rent+utilities+everything else, there's no good alternative. Either you're squatting in illegal conditions, truly homeless and migrant, or somehow be the 1% that get a complete change of life circumstances and get more money coming in. I enlisted based off by prior job history. Not everybody can do something that drastic. And no, not more efficient. Simpler, maybe, cause no toys or excess possessions, but everything costs more until you can afford to stock up on basics, and get transportation cheaper then buses and taxis, etc etc etc. All around, a hard problem, stepping up out of that economics into even "I have a few bucks in my pocket left over" economics.
    - darawk 8y ago
      I'm aware that some areas have very little to no affordable housing. But i'm also aware that if you move to a city 30 miles or so outside of those areas, housing gets affordable again. Can't afford SF? Go to Fresno. There's jobs, housing, and bus tickets are less than $20. I'm totally willing and interested to listen to arguments that this sort of poverty is a real trap and in some cases i'm sure that it is. But in the argument you make, you yourself saw an exit route (enlistment) and you took it. That sort of resourcefulness is exactly what seems to be missing from most of the arguments that I see about people being trapped.
      - dragonwriter 8y ago
        > I'm aware that some areas have very little to no affordable housing. But i'm also aware that if you move to a city 30 miles or so outside of those areas, housing gets affordable again. Can't afford SF? Go to Fresno. That's...a lot more than 30 miles.
        darawk 8y ago
        You're absolutely correct. Is there some sense in which that matters?
- FredDollen 8y ago
  Current zoning laws prohibit a commercial solution, which is a warehouse style dorm of 100sf 'apartments' for minimal cost.
- furbyhat 8y ago
  What do you mean by choice or necessity? A Choice is a favorable opinion that one has on some matter...in other words a decision is one's perspective and actions. I will never say or admit it was necessity, because of my Pride. No one forced me to make the decisions that I took that led me to that point in my life where making the choice to live in a container for a few months.
ianleeclark 8y ago
It's weird you see this as a good thing. Poor people aren't doing this to de-clutter, they're doing it because they have to.
- ams6110 8y ago
  Developing an appreciation/perspective due to adversity is mostly unavoidable. It can be good, or bad. Learning that you don't need so much stuff is probably good; becoming a hoarder because you developed a fear of losing your possessions is bad.

vertexFarm 8y ago

Did you do it out of choice or necessity? This sounds so out of touch. Most of these people aren't doing it as an experiment to bolster their savings and achieve some kind of minimalist zen, they're doing it because real affordable housing is out of reach. Like I'd love to imagine that Hiro Protagonist and Vitaly Chernobyl are somewhere in Boston, but our current cyberpunk reality is mostly very sad.

darawk 8y ago
Why does it matter why he did it? It's a more efficient alternative. If affordable housing is out of reach, adapt your housing. Live somewhere else, or find a way to live where you want more cheaply - like living in a storage space.
- marnett 8y ago
  This is, again, out of touch with the actualities of poverty. How does someone with no money "live somewhere else?" When someone who is impoverished is evicted, they take their children on a trip to a shelter and go to work the next day for 12 hours physical labor, skipping a few meals to feed their children as needed.
  - darawk 8y ago
    Take a bus. Buses are cheap. Nobody gets evicted without warning. You have time to prepare.
    - marnett 8y ago
      I do not know why you insist down this line of thinking when I am talking about _impoverished_ people. If someone is skipping meals to feed their child, what funds are they using for the bus? And what are they going to do when they arrive at some magical "cheaper COL" and they have no job? I implore you to go volunteer at your local homeless shelter. After talking with several perfectly sane and working homeless individuals you will realize some people really have no money leftover to better their plight. They really are trapped. If you don't feel like actually meeting people whose life and privilege is drastically different than yours, at least read Matthew Desmond's Evicted to round out your knowledge on the America in which you live.
      - darawk 8y ago
        I haven't done those things, and i'm not going to any time soon. However, you apparently have, and i'm more than happy to listen to what you have to say on the matter. I don't really buy the idea that someone who is employed can't scrape together a $19 bus fare. Buying the bare amount of food and water necessary to live can be done for $1-2/day, even in a developed country. If you're employed in any sort of regular way, you're making more than that, so I don't really understand the argument that these people are financially incapable of saving up that much money. That being said, i'm more than happy to be wrong if there's some aspect of the issue that I don't understand.
- zentiggr 8y ago
  You seem to be unaware of the multitude of areas where there is no affordable housing for all sorts of local reasons. I've been homeless before. When your income can't make basic rent+utilities+everything else, there's no good alternative. Either you're squatting in illegal conditions, truly homeless and migrant, or somehow be the 1% that get a complete change of life circumstances and get more money coming in. I enlisted based off by prior job history. Not everybody can do something that drastic. And no, not more efficient. Simpler, maybe, cause no toys or excess possessions, but everything costs more until you can afford to stock up on basics, and get transportation cheaper then buses and taxis, etc etc etc. All around, a hard problem, stepping up out of that economics into even "I have a few bucks in my pocket left over" economics.
  - darawk 8y ago
    I'm aware that some areas have very little to no affordable housing. But i'm also aware that if you move to a city 30 miles or so outside of those areas, housing gets affordable again. Can't afford SF? Go to Fresno. There's jobs, housing, and bus tickets are less than $20. I'm totally willing and interested to listen to arguments that this sort of poverty is a real trap and in some cases i'm sure that it is. But in the argument you make, you yourself saw an exit route (enlistment) and you took it. That sort of resourcefulness is exactly what seems to be missing from most of the arguments that I see about people being trapped.
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      > I'm aware that some areas have very little to no affordable housing. But i'm also aware that if you move to a city 30 miles or so outside of those areas, housing gets affordable again. Can't afford SF? Go to Fresno. That's...a lot more than 30 miles.
      - darawk 8y ago
        You're absolutely correct. Is there some sense in which that matters?
FredDollen 8y ago
Current zoning laws prohibit a commercial solution, which is a warehouse style dorm of 100sf 'apartments' for minimal cost.
furbyhat 8y ago
What do you mean by choice or necessity? A Choice is a favorable opinion that one has on some matter...in other words a decision is one's perspective and actions. I will never say or admit it was necessity, because of my Pride. No one forced me to make the decisions that I took that led me to that point in my life where making the choice to live in a container for a few months.

ianleeclark 8y ago

It's weird you see this as a good thing. Poor people aren't doing this to de-clutter, they're doing it because they have to.

ams6110 8y ago
Developing an appreciation/perspective due to adversity is mostly unavoidable. It can be good, or bad. Learning that you don't need so much stuff is probably good; becoming a hoarder because you developed a fear of losing your possessions is bad.