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Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

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Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#21

Post by TaylorAlexander »

solotronics wrote: post #13
tempz wrote: post #12

There is a linguistic problem here - extending the term 'middle class' to hide prevailing poverty in the US. You are not middle class if: - you will lose home, car if you are out of job for 6-10 months; - you don't take 30 days vacation a year; - you cannot afford health services without going to debt; - you cannot send your kids to university; - your diet is mostly junk food because you can't afford fresh stuff. If…

by your measure most people in the USA are poor I would guess about 80%+

One interesting factoid I know is that 50% of Americans represent 2% of the income in America.

“The shrinking middle class” is a phrase that is part of common discourse here for a reason - I wouldn’t be surprised if 80% of Americans fit the parent comment’s definition.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#22

Post by totalZero »

tempz wrote: post #12

There is a linguistic problem here - extending the term 'middle class' to hide prevailing poverty in the US. You are not middle class if: - you will lose home, car if you are out of job for 6-10 months; - you don't take 30 days vacation a year; - you cannot afford health services without going to debt; - you cannot send your kids to university; - your diet is mostly junk food because you can't afford fresh stuff. If…

  > take 30 days vacation a year
I know people who earn seven figures who don't, and honestly can't, do this. Vacation is also a function of workplace culture, not just discretionary income and allotted vacation days.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#23

Post by chaosbutters314 »

tempz wrote: post #12

There is a linguistic problem here - extending the term 'middle class' to hide prevailing poverty in the US. You are not middle class if: - you will lose home, car if you are out of job for 6-10 months; - you don't take 30 days vacation a year; - you cannot afford health services without going to debt; - you cannot send your kids to university; - your diet is mostly junk food because you can't afford fresh stuff. If…

So pretty much every scientist at my (US) company is poor? Even uppermanagement in r&d. None of us see 30 days off per year. At most of is 25 after 2 decades.

I'd say 15 days instead of 30 seems fair number for America and probably 30 for europe

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#24

Post by BlanketApple »

flembat wrote: post #18

A good definition for middle class; is that you make a significant income from your capital investments. In that case it doesn't matter if you stop working for a few months; your stocks and shares still pay dividends and your tenants still pay you rent; your capital still keeps on working for you. A good clue is this: if your money all comes from working for someone else; and it all stops when you stop working; then…

I don't think that's anyone's typical definition of the middle class. It usually refers to work autonomy and relying on expertise to sustain yourself (as opposed to menial labor).

Merely having liquid capital to begin with (i.e. not tied up in your primary residence or retirement vehicles) almost certainly puts you on the higher end of the middle class.

I don't think re-defining "middle class" to mean the top 10% (or less) of earners is helpful.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#25

Post by gozur88 »

tempz wrote: post #12

There is a linguistic problem here - extending the term 'middle class' to hide prevailing poverty in the US. You are not middle class if: - you will lose home, car if you are out of job for 6-10 months; - you don't take 30 days vacation a year; - you cannot afford health services without going to debt; - you cannot send your kids to university; - your diet is mostly junk food because you can't afford fresh stuff. If…

It's cheaper to buy fresh food than junk food. If you're buying junk food it's because you don't have a place to cook or you're too lazy to cook.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#26

Post by orangecat »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #21
solotronics wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

by your measure most people in the USA are poor I would guess about 80%+

One interesting factoid I know is that 50% of Americans represent 2% of the income in America. “The shrinking middle class” is a phrase that is part of common discourse here for a reason - I wouldn’t be surprised if 80% of Americans fit the parent comment’s definition.

One interesting factoid I know is that 50% of Americans represent 2% of the income in America.

More like 15%: https://www.statista.com/statistics/203247/shares-of-househo...

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#27

Post by lisper »

totalZero wrote: post #22
tempz wrote: post #12

There is a linguistic problem here - extending the term 'middle class' to hide prevailing poverty in the US. You are not middle class if: - you will lose home, car if you are out of job for 6-10 months; - you don't take 30 days vacation a year; - you cannot afford health services without going to debt; - you cannot send your kids to university; - your diet is mostly junk food because you can't afford fresh stuff. If…

> take 30 days vacation a year I know people who earn seven figures who don't, and honestly can't, do this. Vacation is also a function of workplace culture, not just discretionary income and allotted vacation days.

If you're making 7 figures (i.e. >$1M/year) you can afford to save $0.5M/year. After ten years or so you can retire. I think that counts as being able to "afford" (an average of) 30 days off/year.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#28

Post by [deleted] »

chaosbutters314 wrote: post #23
tempz wrote: post #12

There is a linguistic problem here - extending the term 'middle class' to hide prevailing poverty in the US. You are not middle class if: - you will lose home, car if you are out of job for 6-10 months; - you don't take 30 days vacation a year; - you cannot afford health services without going to debt; - you cannot send your kids to university; - your diet is mostly junk food because you can't afford fresh stuff. If…

So pretty much every scientist at my (US) company is poor? Even uppermanagement in r&d. None of us see 30 days off per year. At most of is 25 after 2 decades. I'd say 15 days instead of 30 seems fair number for America and probably 30 for europe

[deleted]

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#29

Post by jjeaff »

cletus wrote: post #7

I can’t help but think of Snow Crash where Hiro Protagonist (and many others) lived in the U-Store-It former storage facility. This is the the real cost of allowing (particularly foreign) capital to be parked in real estate in the developed world. In NYC for example most new developments are ultra-luxury not because building affordable apartments is uneconomic, it’s just that the ultra-luxury end is way more profitab…

The thing is, this money being parked from overseas isn't even benefitting the local economies. It just props up property values for a select few homeowners.

The people buying these houses are just leaving them empty. There has been some private investigation of some of the homes being bought and built in BelAir right now. One home was found to be owned by a Nigerian politician through multiple layers of shell companies.

This politician has no business owning an $80 million home.

If we simply cut out the corrupt and stolen money flooding into these markets I think we would find it is making for a large chunk of it.

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