You make plenty of good points I agree with, and i make zero excuses for those who exhibit laziness or complacency. I just feel the older generations don’t quite understand the gravity of the situation because they aren’t living it. It’s not in the same ballpark, or universe for that matter as when you were coming of age. My response to Riv outlines alot of it. When you look at the numbers it is really quite jaw dropping. Nobody is blaming the older generations for carving out a life for themselves, it’s what we all are trying to do. It’s just that blaming younger generations for not being able to accomplish what you did isn’t exactly a fair judgment when you see the numbers are so heavily weighed against them.
The interest on my first house in 1976 was 7%, which was about the average. In 1986 I "lucked" into a house loan interest of 9.5% (which was temporary drop in the rates). Eventually, mortgage rates reached almost 20%. Today's rates aren't "unreasonable" when you look back at history. Even with house prices proportionally lower, some of us still had to find other sources of income in addition to our "real" jobs, just to make the house payment and stock the fridge. It was fucking hard. I earned "comfy" if and when I can afford it. A whine free, pure statement of fact. I too am incensed by the way the housing market is being manipulated. So vote for people who might work to change that dynamic (Hint. It ain't gonna be the Right Wing). And least wages have gone up under Biden, regardless of how far they yet have to go.
Right, things never ever change. The way it is today is the way it will be forever, right? Those of us who can remember back that far (aka boomers) know that interest rates can go much higher - and much lower - than the current rates. Housing prices go up more often than down, especially if inflation isn't taken into account, but they can also go down. The housing market today is very tough, no doubt. But your thesis that it will always be so is just silly. barfo
It kills me when people complain about inflation rates today - inflation in the late 70's was 3 times today's rate. Some of us capitalized by buying houses and flipping them a few years later for a nice profit. Then in the 80's Reagan increased interest rates dramatically to get inflation under control. No more flipping houses and my new truck had an interest rate of 21%. But we adapted, adjusted life styles and carried on. Things today are not perfect - they never will be perfect but they are much better than some years past for many people. And if you don't like the people in office get involved and find people you want or run for office yourself. Bitching and moaning about the current state of affairs never helped improve anything.
I understand markets change and prices go up and down. That will always be the case i’m sure. The increasing presence of asset firms in the market is a whole new thing though. They are being allowed to run amok and historically speaking (in this country) that type of power and influence rarely ever gets relinquished. Until legislation is introduced to correct this, or a true free market is introduced, things will probably continue to go to shit.
Once again fellas, it’s the year 2024 right now and shit done changed. Your comparisons only drive my point home. Median income in 1980 was 21k. Now it’s 57k. 1980 rent was 5.7% of income, now it’s 38.7% of income. 1980 median home price was 47,200, now it’s 416,100 A home was 2.25 years of salary. Now it’s 7.3 years of salary.
21 K in 1980 is worth just under 80K today....I learned long ago not to budget today thinking in 1950s dollar values.
I'm definitely complicit to some degree, nobody said otherwise. The spectrum matters. It's not all the same, obviously. Let me know where you're going and I might see you there. I'm starting to consider options and plan accordingly to get out. This country is falling apart with or without Trump. Civil War is near with or without him. The conditions that make him relevant are because of both parties making people unsatisfied. The country is too corrupt and broken to fix itself. Too much money in the system for the system to change itself. Like Rome before. Who said I want Trumpism? I literally shit on him every chance I get, but because I do the same with Biden, you think I'm with Trump. I'm not with Trump and I'm not with the corporate Democratic party either. The country has done a lot more for you than it has a person like me.
Improve? It's actively been making it worse. I would have settled for keeping it the same. It's more than just the billions to other countries while our infrastructure falls apart and housing costs rise, it's that they let the corporations gouge us for everything we've got until we have no choice but to fall off the cliff. I totally understand that people of an older demographic have no idea what's actually happening, but it's happening for younger Americans.
I actually didn't mean to suggest you were a Trump fan. I was still in the mindset of my prior paragraph, which was about the scenario where Trump wins. Thus my comment to you assumed he'd won, and that the decision was then about what to do about it. I guess in your case, since you consider both candidates disasters, you unfortunately don't have much to look forward to politically. I can't see any possibility (well, maybe 0.00000001%) that anyone but a D or an R is going to be elected anytime soon as president, nor will the Congress change hands except back and forth between the two parties. As for your comment that this country has done more for me than for you, I accept that as true, although I don't know your particular circumstances well enough to be 100.000000% sure. barfo
It's probably an intentional divide/conquer strategy. I know humans are good at dividing and fighting on their own, but crafty leaders have long known there are ways you can push that. You can actually chart the increase in these issues being mentioned in the media. In a nutshell, I suspect it boils down to this: the dollar will collapse, we won't be able to rely on exploited Asian labor, and the elite are afraid of a revolution. To avoid that, they divide the population and try to get it hating each other. The talk of the "Great Reset" is what they will try to implement from the ashes of our current society. It's going to be a Chinese-style society. The massive influx of migrants are to water-down the population with people who are used to working for low wages under authoritarian regimes.
Yeah, it looks like he was watching the "wrong" skydiver, and then someone had to grab him to pose for a picture. Definitely dementia. Next thing you know he'll be ranting about sharks and electric boats. barfo
Another of Joe's flaws, which are relatively minor compared to his flat out stupidity and corruption, is that he likes to plagiarize. I bet you lefties are going to try and argue that Robert Kennedy actually copied Joe.
Joe's looking pretty spry there! Guess he got over that case of dementia. Must have taken some of that thar horse medicine. barfo
