And it keeps getting worse: crazy inflating property prices and matching rent hikes.
A French comedian did a local show. He made a joke that he was going around town looking at the shops. He saw a real estate office and was dumbfounded by the prices. He exclaimed how half a million for an apartment was insane. People laughed and someone mentioned he was way off, it's worse than that. Half a million maybe gets you a small one-bedroom studio in a city, not an apartment.
Worth noting that homeownership has never been part of the Swiss Dream like it's part of the American Dream. Still, the average Swiss person is significantly better of financially than the average American.
Most people don't exactly have a choice. They kinda need places to live near their jobs which almost always dictate where they live.
Also, appreciate the value of ownership? How do you expect almost anyone in Gen Z to afford to own anything more substantial than a car? The oldest of us are just starting our professions after getting out of college/trade school, and getting into jobs that don't pay enough to afford a house anytime soon. We never even had the option of ownership because housing is fucked.
Hell I'm one of the lucky ones. I graduated college without debt and I make really good money, but it's gonna take me 5 years to save up a down payment for a $8k a month mortgage despite living well below my means. I can only imagine how fucked it is for the average person who will never have the chance to own anything at all.
This generation failed to appreciate the value of ownership,
This is the dumbest take of the day. And it isn't even 9am.
Stagnant/low wages, price hikes, wealth being funnelled up the chain, and more and more red tape attached to every transaction are the problem. Not people who don't want to own. Get your head out of your ass.
I will never tire of people who think they know me based on my empathy for those who are worse off.
I don't rent. And I support myself, my wife, and two other families. THAT is why I'm bad with money. Empathy...
Statistically speaking - I probably pay more in tax than the average person makes in a year. And I am happy to do so in order to help fund the safety nets that are important to the rest of the country.
Wanna take another swing, champ?
[Edit: Removed unnecessary insulting term "moron"]
All of the evils we bemoan in modern society start with consumers paying for those evils.
"But I have no choice!"
Choose helplessness, beg our bought and paid for governments to bail you out. How's that working?
Remember how the price of gas collapsed during COIVD? Yeah, because people quit buying.
It's hard to learn self-reliance and related skills. But don't come crying to me saying, "We've never taken ownership of our issues and why won't the government fix it?!"
This is short sighted, however. It may be true in the moment, but in time, the corporate world will gobble up as much as they can and rent it forever, without regulation.
Are you saying it's impossible to live outside of major cities? Or are you trying to argue that life outside of one isn't good enough for you?
Do you think you deserve more before others who have less? Ex: You can't afford living in a major city, but you think someone else should help you out before everyone living outside of major cities?
2 - life without a job (by synecdoche I actually mean "money", by which I actually mean with all the caveats of "in the system in which we live and its attendant axioms) is no good for anyone, not just me
3 - no
4 - your assumption is incorrect (that i think that) and your example is not relevant here (not analogous to what i said) so no I don't think that.
4 - I think my example is very relevant. Either we put measures in place to limit the cost of property, or we spread out and reduce demand.
Our governments are built on making rich people richer as quickly as possible. There's no way we are going to implement safeguards to prevent that unless there is a massive cultural shift.
2 - That's not my point. My point is that you can find a job and even own property from its salary outside of major cities easier than inside of them.
4 - Cool, so the government should step in to funnel money to you before those who have less than you? Why should you get more before people living in places you deem unworthy of you?
I'll just answer #4 for you: Entitlement. You think you're entitled to more while others have less. Other people should step in for you to subvert supply and demand. Where demand is low and supply is high is not good enough for you, even though millions of people live there.
2 - source on "it's easier to find a job outside of cities?" A quick Google suggests the top places for jobseekers are Atlantic City, Charleston NC, DFW, Nashville, Atlanta and Portland, and rural West Virginia and Kentucky as the worst. Edit: and you are the one backing the argument I should move. I don't need to find a new job or move if the area is livable, and the only thing making it unlivable is someone else's greed.
4 - no. and they shouldn't. Again, nonsequiturs. Also I disconcur on your "answer for me" as you freely admit you are strawmanning me with stuff I didn't say.
4 - re properties: rent control. prevent companies from owning residential property. tax empty properties. regulate cost assessments. more programs for first time buyers.
re: cost of living: programs to eliminate food deserts, invest in public transport, fines for monopoly/price fixing on groceries, regulate gas prices
other ideas: fund childcare, universal Healthcare, more education/school funding.
edit: not to mention tracking wages to inflation including minimum wage, UBI, better implementation of disability services, fund carers for disabilities, tax cuts for community programs, end right to work, strengthen unions, prevent banks from sub prime lending on property and vehicles.
You can’t afford living in a major city, but you think someone else should help you out before everyone living outside of major cities?
Not this person but, the government should encourage urban residency. You might ask why and the answers are many, many fold. City residents have significantly less of a carbon footprint is for one reason (and it's a major one).
Right now we're subsidizing our suburbs in the US, and it's an environmentally destructive, regressive thing to do.
many already commute to work. All this does is make us drive farther. What's in it for me? Cheaper house prices - well we had cheaper house prices but they went away, so now I have to commute more. And when I move, prices go up. so I commute more. And then prices go up again. and so i move. And when I move, prices go up. so I commute more. and so i move.
You really look at the world we're in now and think "you know what this world needs? More vehicle exhaust emissions, tire wear, and longer working hours - but hey, at least Blackstone got to create a monopoly on empty houses!"
Why do I have to take the soggy end of a short straw? Why do I have to burn fossil fuels and my free time otherwise I'm SOL? Why can't it be the billion dollar companies who sacrifice a fraction of a percent instead of me sacrificing double-digit percents of my time and money?
Nowhere did I say that any of that "is what the world needs"
I just explained the current reality and a solution for people who might want an answer to their current problems. There's nothing you or I can do about the prices of real estate and rent in the big cities. You can wish it was cheaper to live in the city all day but it's not going to accomplish anything, and Congress and the President are not going to fix it for you either, probably at least in the span of a few decades from now.
So if you want to be able to afford a place to live NOW the answer is what I said.
I'm sorry but you "explaining the current reality" does not solve the issue that myself and I'd wager the vast majority of people cannot just move out of a city without extreme consequences.
You can "explain the current reality" as much as you like. "Just move out of a city bruh" is a phenomenally short sighted idea.
I already did, would never want to live in one either. People living in rectangular hives on top of each other, hearing every annoying noise and bump that the others make at any hour of the day or night... Nah.