Being comfortable doesn’t garner attention or internet points. It also doesn’t make for good discourse. Lemmy along with most social sites bias the discussion to how poor things are to make it seem like everyone is on the verge of homelessness. While it’s not representative of the real proportions, it’s still capturing the downward trend of CoL and income getting closer. Hopefully the squeaky wheel gets some reform, but the trend has been happening and identified for decades so that further compounds the doom and gloom.
Housing is in not great, but I hoesntly don’t think we should be in a society where buying a full sized house on a starting salary is something everyone should be able to achieve. Not because I don’t think people deserve housing, but because it’s not a sustainable goal. There should be nicer affordable housing with higher density. I think part of the expectations or entitlement comes from consumerism making us feel like we should all have that house and car. If there was enough inventory of big houses with yards for everyone, I can only imagine the suburban hellscape we’d need to accommodate. Every city will have to look like suburban LA and the transit infrastructure will be a standstill.
FWIW, I’m in the boat where I’m doing okay SINK and targeting early retirement. But it did take discipline and working in a position with some upward mobility. I live in a town house with shared walls (not great). But I have peers who make 1/2 as much as me with budgets of spending 2-3 times the cost of my townhouse just so they can get their ideal vision of a home. They could pull it off, but they’d also be living on a razors edge and one step from financial ruin.
Being comfortable doesn’t garner attention or internet points. It also doesn’t make for good discourse. Lemmy along with most social sites bias the discussion to how poor things are to make it seem like everyone is on the verge of homelessness. While it’s not representative of the real proportions, it’s still capturing the downward trend of CoL and income getting closer. Hopefully the squeaky wheel gets some reform, but the trend has been happening and identified for decades so that further compounds the doom and gloom.
Housing is in not great, but I hoesntly don’t think we should be in a society where buying a full sized house on a starting salary is something everyone should be able to achieve. Not because I don’t think people deserve housing, but because it’s not a sustainable goal. There should be nicer affordable housing with higher density. I think part of the expectations or entitlement comes from consumerism making us feel like we should all have that house and car. If there was enough inventory of big houses with yards for everyone, I can only imagine the suburban hellscape we’d need to accommodate. Every city will have to look like suburban LA and the transit infrastructure will be a standstill.
FWIW, I’m in the boat where I’m doing okay SINK and targeting early retirement. But it did take discipline and working in a position with some upward mobility. I live in a town house with shared walls (not great). But I have peers who make 1/2 as much as me with budgets of spending 2-3 times the cost of my townhouse just so they can get their ideal vision of a home. They could pull it off, but they’d also be living on a razors edge and one step from financial ruin.