Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 210 posts

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#91

Post by joejerryronnie »

antif wrote: post #63
grandmczeb wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is the the real cost of allowing (particularly foreign) capital to be parked in real estate in the developed world. It's amazing to me that people don't recognize this as xenophobia when other forms ("Mexicans are taking our jobs!", "Migrants don't have the same values!") are so readily called out. High housing prices are a self inflicted problem. When you mix supply restrictions with tax breaks explicitly des…

California Proposition 13, to me, has been a ticking time-bomb of a 'youth tax' over the past forty years. As much as I respect that it serves to protect the vulnerable and elderly from heightening costs, it has unduly shifted that burden onto everyone else. I believe todays homelessness is surely in part being caused by this untouchable stick-in-the-mud legislation. Property tax appraisals for neighboring houses are…

If you want to see the most bi-partisan, passionate, and active opposition in the history of California, try taking on Prop 13. This will never get repealed because it's the one thing every politician knows will rally the vast majority of voters, regardless of ideology, and result in an immediate political death sentence.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#92

Post by grecy »

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…

I agree with you, though in the replies you are seeing the difference between how OECD countries define "poor" and how Americans defines "poor".

The vast majority of people in Canada, Australia, Western Europe, etc. would be disgusted by how much "middle class" Americans work, how little vacation they get and how much they get for their tax dollars.

In the eyes of virtually every Developed Country, "middle class" Americans are poor.

Of course, Americans don't have this perspective, because they are in it, they can't see it.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#93

Post by beamatronic »

SilasX wrote: post #14
santaclaus wrote: post #9

I've met tenured computer science professors at UC Santa Barbara who couldn't afford to live in Santa Barbara. That place is nuts. Similar situation with Stanford and Palo Alto.

IIRC, planning commission members couldn't afford to live in Palo Alto.

The official poverty line is $250k household income in Palo Alto.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#94

Post by merb »

rleigh wrote: post #53
pjmorris wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My metric for food price is calories per penny. For example, the 760 calorie slice of pizza for $1.99 at Costco works out to about 3.8 calories per penny, while the 500 calorie Caesar salad for $3.99 works out to about 1.3 calories per penny. In my worked example, the fresh food is more expensive than the junk food from the point of view of 'How much money do I need to spend to keep myself alive today?' Could you pos…

You can buy an entire sackful of potatoes for around the cost of two slices of pizza, and it'll last for weeks. Or several pounds of flour which will likewise last for a while--you could make your pizza bases in a few minutes if you wanted to, then just add the toppings you want. These are all vastly better value for money than buying pre-made food. I don't buy for a moment that processed food is cheaper than the raw…

> entire sackful of potatoes

if you have a kitchen to cook them, yes. else you probably have just a sack of vegetables that nobody could eat in his raw form. living in a box means eating pre-made food and you can buy healthy pre-made food (like the cesars salad) it's just not affordable.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#95

Post by iak8god »

etr-strike wrote: post #67
iak8god wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over the last four decades, the slow and steady annual inflation looks very easy to plan for: http://www.inflation.eu/inflation-rates/united-states/histor...

You’ve lost your mind if you really believe inflation has only been roughly 2% the last decade.

> You’ve lost your mind if you really believe inflation has only been roughly 2% the last decade.

Do you generally find that being insulting without providing evidence for, or even explaining, your position usually brings people around to your point of view?

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#96

Post by currymj »

i think reading about people suffering misfortunes like is naturally very frightening. my instinct is to scramble for reasons why this is abnormal, or the result of avoidable mistakes, or due to a unique situation that isn't likely to be repeated. the just-world fallacy in action.

the fact is, there are lots of stories like this. maybe you're immune because you live in a more reasonable place or your strong technical skills or whatever. then again, 30 years ago being a paralegal was a good job and working people could afford to live in places like Santa Barbara.

it's a fact that you could be next. we can't predict the future, there will only be more and more upheavals and disruption in the economy, unless things change drastically. employers and investors are working very, very hard all the time to devalue and deskill engineering. maybe your RV will be self-driving though.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#97

Post by morganvachon »

gozur88 wrote: post #51
pjmorris wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My metric for food price is calories per penny. For example, the 760 calorie slice of pizza for $1.99 at Costco works out to about 3.8 calories per penny, while the 500 calorie Caesar salad for $3.99 works out to about 1.3 calories per penny. In my worked example, the fresh food is more expensive than the junk food from the point of view of 'How much money do I need to spend to keep myself alive today?' Could you pos…

A pound of uncooked white rice is $0.69, and it has 1696 calories, which works out to 24.6 calories per penny. That's about 19x better by your metric.

Yep, and it doesn't take much to turn that rice into a full meal. If you've got a freezer and a microwave, fresh-frozen veggies are a good alternative to always buying fresh veggies for the time constrained. It's a little more expensive but you lose virtually none of the health benefits and gain ease of preparation.

Throw some veggies in with the rice and some soy or teriyaki sauce, and you've got a healthy meal that is compatible with most diets. If you're a meat eater, you can cook some chicken breast to go with it; if not, some tofu for protein will help make it more filling.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#98

Post by drdeadringer »

aphextron wrote: post #34

I'll be facing this soon as well, at least they've got RV's. After getting back from my third open house for the week, with double digit atendees, I think the bay area just isn't for me. A perfect credit score and a job making double the median wage is not enough to land a 1 bedroom apartment apparently. I'll probably end up sleeping on someones couch for a few months to finish my work contract, and get out of this h…

Where are there open houses for 1 bedroom apartments?

Note: While I am in the bay area, I am not in the SF-specific market.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#99

Post by johnnyb9 »

grecy wrote: post #92
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…

I agree with you, though in the replies you are seeing the difference between how OECD countries define "poor" and how Americans defines "poor". The vast majority of people in Canada, Australia, Western Europe, etc. would be disgusted by how much "middle class" Americans work, how little vacation they get and how much they get for their tax dollars. In the eyes of virtually every Developed Country, "middle class" Ame…

You seem to have left out the fact that Americans make much more than their Canadian, Western European, or Australian counterparts?

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#100

Post by drdeadringer »

joshuamorton wrote: post #16
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…

Do you mean 30 days total vacation, or 30 days of elective pto in addition to company wide vacation days?

I don't know how this matters.
Post reply on HN