5 ms·

I am going to work hard to buy a new house for my family! Wait, I can't afford the house. And i don't have a family. Oh well, at least I have my video games.

tomohawk 4y ago
Cynicism is not thinking. It's not wisdom either. The job that takes the longest is the one you don't start. Don't want to be successful? You're on the right path. EDIT: Since HN won't let me respond, here's my response: When I first graduated, a house was definitely out of reach. It all seemed so unfair. Instead of dwelling on that, I got to work. I now own (completely) my house and am in a profession that is rewarding. You can either hold yourself back with cynicism and blame others for your problems, or you can get to work and solve them. No one else is going to.
- tenebrisalietum 4y ago
  [flagged]
- lumost 4y ago
  A typical student who did the “right things” starts life with 60-120k in debt. To acquire remunerative employment, they must then move to a successful major city likely to consume 30-50% of their income. To afford a house, this individual must then save 2-300k in liquid capital to afford a down payment and prove they have stable employment to purchase a home, which dependent on the whims of the federal reserve may erase what is now 10-15 years of savings. A rational observer would remark on where this 10-15 years of surplus went? A Luddite would argue that one should simply do nothing
  - ninethirty 4y ago
    “Tang ping is the rejection of overworking, where you let things be and do the bare minimum,” said Miao. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/16/china-youth-reject-hustle-culture-face- https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/16/china-youth-reject-hustle-cu... unemployment-economic-uncertainty.html
  - smeej 4y ago
    If they're only in the major cities because they have to be to get their careers going and would prefer to be somewhere else, $2-300k would buy them a complete, well-renovated house large enough for a family in cash in much of the central part of the country. Having to move to a city isn't the same as having to stay in a city.
    - 29083011397778 4y ago
      One moves in a large city to start a career. At which point, by the time that middle America house is within reach, your support system is in the city as well. Friends for pet-sitting, likely family close-ish for child care, public transit to avoid paying for insurance, gas, parking, and a car. An emotional support network, instead of being (for at least the first bit) physically all alone with no friends nearby - because let's be frank: having all your friends a multiple-hour drive away, and none nearby, can feel bleak. Doubly so when your long-term partner isn't ready to sacrifice the above for a house in flyover country. And all of this precludes keeping your professional network nearby as well, making getting a new, better paying job easier as well. None of these are insurmountable. Not at all. But the more barriers in place, the more likely it is that our hypothetical person will be stopped by one.
      - smeej 4y ago
        Granting that I only lived in the Midwest for 8 years, my experience was that those who "moved away to a city" still had most of their family support system in the place they left, not the one they moved too. Yes, they certainly made friends in the city, but their family and "oldest friends," the ones they grew up with, were still at home in flyover country. These people should not be confused, though, with those who could not wait to get away from home and were beyond glad for an excuse to move to the city. Their motives and relationships are completely different. I'm only talking here about the ones who "had to" move to a city to get started--the folks middle-American companies depend on for the long haul after they cut their teeth on the coasts.
  - yucky 4y ago
    >A typical student who did the “right things” starts life with 60-120k in debt. Very few degrees are worth taking on that kind of debt. Also, doing the first 2 years in community college with basic FAFSA is very affordable. And since when do college students not work while going to school? My nephew finished his mechanical engineering degree a couple years ago (State University system with first 2 years in community college) and he ended up with under $12k in debt which he already paid off. Then again, he didn't decide he just had to go to an out of state private university for all 4 years while not working at all. Vastly different approaches will deliver vastly different results.
- nathanaldensr 4y ago
  You assume a level of control over your world that most people can only dream of.
- sh4un 4y ago
bradleyjg 4y ago
Owning a house a the sine qua non of middle class life was a) a historical anomaly and b) a big mistake. We can’t fix the cost of housing because so many people own houses. If 10% of people owned their own homes and the rest were owned by corporate landlords we would not have politicians climbing all over each other to make sure that homes values are a one way bet.
- kcplate 4y ago
  Do you feel that somehow politicians wouldn’t be influenced by the corporate landlords to a beneficial direction to the landlord over the tenant? Or that wealth is better held by corporations than by individuals?
  - bradleyjg 4y ago
    Politicians would like to help corporate donors, all other things being equal. But that imperative for any particular donor is no where near as strong as the need to acquiesce to desires of a large majority of their most engaged constituents (i.e. homeowners). The times when politicians are most strongly in favor of a particular company/industry is when they have a lot of jobs in the district. Campaign donations are a means to an end. Pissing off large numbers of voters directly contradicts that end.
    - kcplate 4y ago
      > Pissing off large numbers of voters directly contradicts that end. Pissing off large numbers of voters is a daily occurrence by virtually every politician in the US. Politicians don’t care about that. They only care about pissing off certain voters and certain political leaders.
      - 1letterunixname 4y ago
        Perhaps. The issue is how much power they can organize into impact. If you piss off a million people with psychosis and intense depression, it might be survivable compared to angering thousands of rich Christian cattle ranchers who call their lobbyists to fine-tune the political hacks in office to their liking. It's not impossible to do it without means, it's more difficult to play the game as an outsider from below rather than work connections through channels from at or above.

tomohawk 4y ago

Cynicism is not thinking. It's not wisdom either. The job that takes the longest is the one you don't start. Don't want to be successful? You're on the right path. EDIT: Since HN won't let me respond, here's my response: When I first graduated, a house was definitely out of reach. It all seemed so unfair. Instead of dwelling on that, I got to work. I now own (completely) my house and am in a profession that is rewarding. You can either hold yourself back with cynicism and blame others for your problems, or you can get to work and solve them. No one else is going to.

tenebrisalietum 4y ago
[flagged]
lumost 4y ago
A typical student who did the “right things” starts life with 60-120k in debt. To acquire remunerative employment, they must then move to a successful major city likely to consume 30-50% of their income. To afford a house, this individual must then save 2-300k in liquid capital to afford a down payment and prove they have stable employment to purchase a home, which dependent on the whims of the federal reserve may erase what is now 10-15 years of savings. A rational observer would remark on where this 10-15 years of surplus went? A Luddite would argue that one should simply do nothing
- ninethirty 4y ago
  “Tang ping is the rejection of overworking, where you let things be and do the bare minimum,” said Miao. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/16/china-youth-reject-hustle-culture-face- https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/16/china-youth-reject-hustle-cu... unemployment-economic-uncertainty.html
- smeej 4y ago
  If they're only in the major cities because they have to be to get their careers going and would prefer to be somewhere else, $2-300k would buy them a complete, well-renovated house large enough for a family in cash in much of the central part of the country. Having to move to a city isn't the same as having to stay in a city.
  - 29083011397778 4y ago
    One moves in a large city to start a career. At which point, by the time that middle America house is within reach, your support system is in the city as well. Friends for pet-sitting, likely family close-ish for child care, public transit to avoid paying for insurance, gas, parking, and a car. An emotional support network, instead of being (for at least the first bit) physically all alone with no friends nearby - because let's be frank: having all your friends a multiple-hour drive away, and none nearby, can feel bleak. Doubly so when your long-term partner isn't ready to sacrifice the above for a house in flyover country. And all of this precludes keeping your professional network nearby as well, making getting a new, better paying job easier as well. None of these are insurmountable. Not at all. But the more barriers in place, the more likely it is that our hypothetical person will be stopped by one.
    - smeej 4y ago
      Granting that I only lived in the Midwest for 8 years, my experience was that those who "moved away to a city" still had most of their family support system in the place they left, not the one they moved too. Yes, they certainly made friends in the city, but their family and "oldest friends," the ones they grew up with, were still at home in flyover country. These people should not be confused, though, with those who could not wait to get away from home and were beyond glad for an excuse to move to the city. Their motives and relationships are completely different. I'm only talking here about the ones who "had to" move to a city to get started--the folks middle-American companies depend on for the long haul after they cut their teeth on the coasts.
- yucky 4y ago
  >A typical student who did the “right things” starts life with 60-120k in debt. Very few degrees are worth taking on that kind of debt. Also, doing the first 2 years in community college with basic FAFSA is very affordable. And since when do college students not work while going to school? My nephew finished his mechanical engineering degree a couple years ago (State University system with first 2 years in community college) and he ended up with under $12k in debt which he already paid off. Then again, he didn't decide he just had to go to an out of state private university for all 4 years while not working at all. Vastly different approaches will deliver vastly different results.
nathanaldensr 4y ago
You assume a level of control over your world that most people can only dream of.
sh4un 4y ago

bradleyjg 4y ago

Owning a house a the sine qua non of middle class life was a) a historical anomaly and b) a big mistake. We can’t fix the cost of housing because so many people own houses. If 10% of people owned their own homes and the rest were owned by corporate landlords we would not have politicians climbing all over each other to make sure that homes values are a one way bet.

kcplate 4y ago
Do you feel that somehow politicians wouldn’t be influenced by the corporate landlords to a beneficial direction to the landlord over the tenant? Or that wealth is better held by corporations than by individuals?
- bradleyjg 4y ago
  Politicians would like to help corporate donors, all other things being equal. But that imperative for any particular donor is no where near as strong as the need to acquiesce to desires of a large majority of their most engaged constituents (i.e. homeowners). The times when politicians are most strongly in favor of a particular company/industry is when they have a lot of jobs in the district. Campaign donations are a means to an end. Pissing off large numbers of voters directly contradicts that end.
  - kcplate 4y ago
    > Pissing off large numbers of voters directly contradicts that end. Pissing off large numbers of voters is a daily occurrence by virtually every politician in the US. Politicians don’t care about that. They only care about pissing off certain voters and certain political leaders.
    - 1letterunixname 4y ago
      Perhaps. The issue is how much power they can organize into impact. If you piss off a million people with psychosis and intense depression, it might be survivable compared to angering thousands of rich Christian cattle ranchers who call their lobbyists to fine-tune the political hacks in office to their liking. It's not impossible to do it without means, it's more difficult to play the game as an outsider from below rather than work connections through channels from at or above.