3 ms·

Hasn't this been true forever? Of course people who have a partner will be better off financially since they can pool incomes and split expenses.

• chung8123 9mo ago
  It has not been forever true that households have had two incomes. Now it is common.
  • OGEnthusiast 9mo ago
    I meant it's been true forever that people with partners generally have a financial advantage over single people. (Even if they're not in a two-income household.)
    • fh973 9mo ago
      What has changed is that dual income became the norm, and is no longer an advantage, but mandatory to compete on the housing market.
      • bryanlarsen 9mo ago
        When single income was the norm, the norm was to put a family of 6 in an 800-1200 sq ft residence. That's still roughly equivalently affordable today.
  • zeroonetwothree 9mo ago
    Well, only because one of the household did a huge amount of unpaid labor. A lot of which now has been replaced with paid labor (child care, restaurants, house cleaners, and so on).
• mperham 9mo ago
  "Flophouses" or SROs used to provide affordable housing for young people new to a city, single people, workers, etc but they depend on density and transit to be cheap. They were largely made illegal in the mid-20th century. Land use/zoning laws are why we've built nothing but car-dependent suburbs for the last 50 years.
  • bryanlarsen 9mo ago
    SRO's are for single people, but they're a form of shared housing, so I think the point stands.
  • lgregg 9mo ago
    They are still around but less common. Some progressive cities like Austin calls them a "Boarding House"[0] I'm not sure if there is a unit cap where something like your historical tenement housing could happen like in Manhattan. It's the same idea just a different format. [0] https://www.austintexas.gov/department/get-boarding-house-license https://www.austintexas.gov/department/get-boarding-house-li...