6 ms·

There didn't seem to be a lot of strong arguments for the points made in this article. Most of the situation the author finds herself in seems to be due to a po

by netfire 11y ago

There didn't seem to be a lot of strong arguments for the points made in this article. Most of the situation the author finds herself in seems to be due to a poor economy in general (lower pay, rising housing, education and health care costs) and bad financial decisions (not saving up money, buying expensive food, etc), then having anything to do with the sharing economy and not owning something. The author seems to be under the impression that prior to the sharing economy, there weren't middle men still taking a cut for providing vehicles, leasing (or subletting) apartments or providing other services/assets that were needed to do a business. The question would be whether Uber, Zipcar, Etsy, etc are taking any more of a cut than a a more traditional taxi medallion, a car dealership, an art gallery, etc. I suspect they are taking less, since they are transferring a lot of the risk of owning the property and running a business to their contractors. I don't think owning things in general creates wealth. Making smart financial decisions does. If you own a car and are paying a good amount of money to park, insure, maintain and purchase/lease that vehicle and don't drive it enough to justify that expense., it may make a lot more financial sense to use Zipcar, Uber and other public transportation. Similarly it may make sense to invest in owning enough kitchen supplies to prepare your own food instead of eating out all the time (or it may not, it just depends on your situation)

fleitz 11y ago
Yup, I had kids at 22, it forced me to really reevaluate whether $10 on coffee a day was a wise use of funds. I ended up buying an apartment at 22 on tech support salary. It sounds like the author has made a lot of poor choices and doesn't want to hold herself responsible for them.
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  And for anyone thinking that "it's easy to say 'save more and spend less' when you make a six-figure salary, but that doesn't apply to me", take a look at http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/06/05/success-even-after-self-destruction/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/06/05/success-even-after... , which provides a good counterexample.
sjiang 11y ago
"The question would be whether Uber, Zipcar, Etsy, etc are taking any more of a cut than a a more traditional taxi medallion, a car dealership, an art gallery, etc. I suspect they are taking less, since they are transferring a lot of the risk of owning the property and running a business to their contractors." I would think the opposite. What makes you think the companies wouldn't take maximal profit and make their contractors accept increased downside risk at little-to-no increased net income?
- netfire 11y ago
  Competition. If companies are making huge margins by simply providing brokering and marketing services (instead of also providing assets like a car or a gallery), more companies will get in the space and drive the cost down.
  - sjiang 11y ago
    I think you're underestimating the network effect barrier to entry (or infra cost in ZipCar's case). Look at what eBay's head start bought them and what they've done to drive up margins since they won their market. A viable competitor would need to have a significantly better product.
Silhouette 11y ago
I don't think owning things in general creates wealth. Making smart financial decisions does. It's difficult to defend that kind of position when the only viable choices available range from bad to worse. By any rational standard, as someone a little older than the Millenials described in this article, I should be well off -- degree from a good university, work in tech industry, run my own small business these days, etc. -- and yet I have essentially no chance of buying a viable long-term family home in the city where I live. It doesn't make a lot of difference how carefully I save or how hard I work to grow the company revenues, because we simply don't have enough houses to go around. That means the property bubble just keeps on growing, and those of my parents' generation who bought their first home multiple decades ago are now buying up the new ones as well, to use as investments and let out as rentals. They can make more money doing that than all but the most successful and fast-growing business can generate or the very highest paid jobs will pay, and it's effectively passive income most of the time, so the cycle continues with the gap widening by the day. The next generation are even worse off, with pressure to have a degree to get just about any kind of job these days leaving them with tens of thousands in student debts before they even start their first job and in most cases doomed to spend much of their 20s just trying to keep up.
- netfire 11y ago
  That's a fair statement. I should have stated my original position being that making smart financial decisions creates wealth more than simply owning things. Obviously access to education, capital, laws that favor certain classes of people, and just plain luck all influence one's ability to create wealth. That being said, the smart financial decision, in your position, might be to relocate to a different city with significantly cheaper housing, education, food, etc. That has the social/emotional downside of not being as near to friends, family or the things that you like in your city, which may not be it worth it to you. If a lot of people want to live in a certain area, and there is limited space to construct housing (or laws that prohibit new construction) its hard to see how prices would be able to stay low. What do you think the best solution to this problem would be? In my mind, the biggest problem is that we have laws that favor bigger companies and richer people and provider an unfair advantage to those people. (some big companies pay no income tax for example, where that's not an option for a smaller businesses, or small businesses or poorer people can't defend themselves in civil cases due to excessive legal costs)
breischl 11y ago
>> There didn't seem to be a lot of strong arguments for the points made in this article. Most of the situation the author finds herself in seems to be due to a poor economy in general (lower pay, rising housing, education and health care costs) and bad financial decisions (not saving up money, buying expensive food, etc), then having anything to do with the sharing economy and not owning something. Thanks, I was going to say the same thing. The fact that the author kept calling out the expensive coffee, drinks, snacks, etc almost makes me think the whole thing was trolling. I also want to throttle the lady subletting her apartment on AirBnB. That's almost always against your lease, quite possibly the HOA rules, and maybe local ordinances. If breaking contracts and laws is the only way you can afford an apartment then you can't afford that apartment.

by netfire 11y ago

fleitz 11y ago

Yup, I had kids at 22, it forced me to really reevaluate whether $10 on coffee a day was a wise use of funds. I ended up buying an apartment at 22 on tech support salary. It sounds like the author has made a lot of poor choices and doesn't want to hold herself responsible for them.

JoshTriplett 11y ago
And for anyone thinking that "it's easy to say 'save more and spend less' when you make a six-figure salary, but that doesn't apply to me", take a look at http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/06/05/success-even-after-self-destruction/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/06/05/success-even-after... , which provides a good counterexample.

sjiang 11y ago

"The question would be whether Uber, Zipcar, Etsy, etc are taking any more of a cut than a a more traditional taxi medallion, a car dealership, an art gallery, etc. I suspect they are taking less, since they are transferring a lot of the risk of owning the property and running a business to their contractors." I would think the opposite. What makes you think the companies wouldn't take maximal profit and make their contractors accept increased downside risk at little-to-no increased net income?

netfire 11y ago
Competition. If companies are making huge margins by simply providing brokering and marketing services (instead of also providing assets like a car or a gallery), more companies will get in the space and drive the cost down.
- sjiang 11y ago
  I think you're underestimating the network effect barrier to entry (or infra cost in ZipCar's case). Look at what eBay's head start bought them and what they've done to drive up margins since they won their market. A viable competitor would need to have a significantly better product.

Silhouette 11y ago

I don't think owning things in general creates wealth. Making smart financial decisions does. It's difficult to defend that kind of position when the only viable choices available range from bad to worse. By any rational standard, as someone a little older than the Millenials described in this article, I should be well off -- degree from a good university, work in tech industry, run my own small business these days, etc. -- and yet I have essentially no chance of buying a viable long-term family home in the city where I live. It doesn't make a lot of difference how carefully I save or how hard I work to grow the company revenues, because we simply don't have enough houses to go around. That means the property bubble just keeps on growing, and those of my parents' generation who bought their first home multiple decades ago are now buying up the new ones as well, to use as investments and let out as rentals. They can make more money doing that than all but the most successful and fast-growing business can generate or the very highest paid jobs will pay, and it's effectively passive income most of the time, so the cycle continues with the gap widening by the day. The next generation are even worse off, with pressure to have a degree to get just about any kind of job these days leaving them with tens of thousands in student debts before they even start their first job and in most cases doomed to spend much of their 20s just trying to keep up.

netfire 11y ago
That's a fair statement. I should have stated my original position being that making smart financial decisions creates wealth more than simply owning things. Obviously access to education, capital, laws that favor certain classes of people, and just plain luck all influence one's ability to create wealth. That being said, the smart financial decision, in your position, might be to relocate to a different city with significantly cheaper housing, education, food, etc. That has the social/emotional downside of not being as near to friends, family or the things that you like in your city, which may not be it worth it to you. If a lot of people want to live in a certain area, and there is limited space to construct housing (or laws that prohibit new construction) its hard to see how prices would be able to stay low. What do you think the best solution to this problem would be? In my mind, the biggest problem is that we have laws that favor bigger companies and richer people and provider an unfair advantage to those people. (some big companies pay no income tax for example, where that's not an option for a smaller businesses, or small businesses or poorer people can't defend themselves in civil cases due to excessive legal costs)

breischl 11y ago

>> There didn't seem to be a lot of strong arguments for the points made in this article. Most of the situation the author finds herself in seems to be due to a poor economy in general (lower pay, rising housing, education and health care costs) and bad financial decisions (not saving up money, buying expensive food, etc), then having anything to do with the sharing economy and not owning something. Thanks, I was going to say the same thing. The fact that the author kept calling out the expensive coffee, drinks, snacks, etc almost makes me think the whole thing was trolling. I also want to throttle the lady subletting her apartment on AirBnB. That's almost always against your lease, quite possibly the HOA rules, and maybe local ordinances. If breaking contracts and laws is the only way you can afford an apartment then you can't afford that apartment.