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Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

latimes.com

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Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#171

Post by disnsj »

iak8god wrote: post #95
etr-strike wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The op is a bit bombastic.

That being said his point is true. They printed money and that money had to increase the price of something.

If you give printed money to state employees consumer goods go up.

If you give it to banks (QE) the price of financial assets goes up. The financial bubble we’re in is huge (pray, what great increase in productivity has occurred in the last ten years that the stock market has gone up so much).

If the CPI included financial instruments (ie my retirement) this inflation would be easily spotted.

QE is maybe the most pernicious inflationary policy yet since at least the previous inflationary spending gave money to normal people but now financial oligarchs are the only ones who make money!

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#172

Post by strictnein »

drdeadringer wrote: post #100
joshuamorton wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How doesn't it matter? It's, for most employers, an 10-11 day difference.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#173

Post by foobarian »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #6
cletus wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: why are you having children in such a financially precarious situation when it’s only going to increase your living costs? EDIT: by “financially precarious” I mean that above you said you were a new grad having difficulty finding work. I assume it is your intent to work after the baby is born (rather than being the primary caregiver) or it wouldn’t matter so much about finding work. If your wife ret…

Assuming I'm in a "financially precarious situation" is a bit presumptuous. My wife is an employed college grad, and we have much more saved than the average American. We have health insurance, and have already completely paid off the medical bills for her birth. We are fine. It's still too risky and difficult for us to relocate, though. Our family all lives nearby, so we have a support structure here. My wife has an…

Speaking as a recent parent and having known recent parents I can tell you that having family (your parents and in-laws) close by is worth tens of thousands of dollars a year in child care costs, and you should count your blessings if you can rely on it.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#174

Post by lsc »

totalZero wrote: post #164
lsc wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so, there's what, 11 standard paid holidays, so 30 days off would be 'four weeks of vacation' - The set of people who make more than a million dollars a year who can't negotiate four weeks of vacation... I think is small. There's this persistent myth of the driven executive... I mean, I guess it's possible that other fields of endeavor are different? but everywhere I've worked? the more they pay you, the better they…

Would you please consider that not everyone works in the same field as you? I worked on a trading floor with a trader, early 30s, very profitable and well respected. Took a week off to go to the Mediterranean with his girlfriend (from what I hear, he proposed to her on that trip). Had his mandatory two-week vacation the next month. While he was away on that two-week vacation, I heard several people, including the gro…

compare this to your average retail job, where not only do you get zero paid vacation, and you get your schedule, if you are lucky, a week ahead.

As far as I can tell, this holds in the middle, too; I do okay, but I don't get paid like a very profitable broker, and I don't get four weeks vacation (not usually, anyhow... it is pretty easy for me to quit and get another job, of course, but that usually results in less of a raise than going from having a job to having another job.)

My point is just that there's a pretty strong correlation between getting paid more and being treated better in other ways. It's not an absolute correlation, certainly; but the fact that the man had four weeks off and had a job to come back to, I think, supports my assertion more than the fact he got criticized for taking it all at once detracts from it.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#175

Post by downandout »

rxhernandez wrote: post #120
downandout wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in California. It's a beautiful place. But I fail to understand the point of living or doing business there in 2017. High state taxes, high crime rates (that will only get higher as more people are driven to homelessness), impossible housing market, etc. I now live in Nevada. I can easily drive or fly to California for vacation if I want, housing is relatively reasonable, and there are no state taxes. If yo…

> high crime rates (that will only get higher as more people are driven to homelessness), impossible housing market, etc. I now live in Nevada What on earth are you talking about? You live in the state that is in the top 5 for violent crime rates. California doesn't even break the top 15.

You have to look at crime rates in the specific area where you live, because they are all over the place and sometimes vary from street to street. Certainly you wouldn’t say that all California neighborhoods are equal in this regard. The area I live in (in Nevada) is upscale and has a violent crime rate more than 50% below the national average.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#176

Post by Veelox »

lisper wrote: post #27
totalZero wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

10 years? Try again, even if you are burning 200k a year you can do it in 5 1/2 years.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#177

Post by pj_mukh »

justherefortart wrote: post #41
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…

Move outside the city. I lived in Pacifica. Pretty much anything along BART is easy to get into the city. I parked at Colma where fortunately the dead don't drive :-) Pacifica was awesome because you're just a hill from the hustle and bustle but it felt like a detached town. So many nice people there. Hwy 1 is annoying at rush hour (or most hours) but it was a really nice community.

Same. Moved out to Oakland, I can easily get studios and 1Bdrm apt's (they cannot fill my condo). Takes me 20mins to get into work on BART.

I don't like the term "Fake News" because journalism is alive and strong today, but the media certainly has its narratives and loves picking and choosing stories. The reality is just a lot more boring.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#179

Post by azemetre »

Feniks wrote: post #82
perl4ever wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When reading an article about New Zealand restricting foreign real estate investment, I found their reasoning compelling. Housing can be used to house people, or for speculation, like Bitcoin or gold. If you believe that providing shelter takes strict priority for the limited housing stock then it is moral and necessary to restrict the demand from investors. Quantifying the scale of the problem is another issue, but…

New Zealand also gave out passports for people who "invested" in the country. California does something alike, giving US citizenship to anyone born in the country.

US Citizenship by birth is a right granted by the US Constitution and has very little to do with the State of California.

Re: Living in a parking lot in Santa Barbara

#180

Post by stickfigure »

losteric wrote: post #90
hashkb wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you're facing what they're facing. Sounds like you make quite a bit more than the people profiled in this article.

His anecdote is more powerful because of his income. You'd expect someone with low income to have trouble finding housing... that's a problem, but the situation makes sense. When someone struggles to find housing while making multiples of middle income, something is deeply fucked. That says a lot about how bad it is for everyone else.

His anecdote is more powerful because of his income

Or more likely, his anecdote is made-up because of his income. Alternatively, his income is made-up because of his anecdote.

It's not hard to find accommodation in SF (let alone the East Bay) with a $150k/yr income. Something is being exaggerated.

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