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

Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 167 posts

Re: Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

#41

Post by hesviiggvv »

buzzy_hacker wrote: post #12
i_like_waiting wrote: post #3

>In New York, for example, starting salaries for FBI agents hover around $73,000. But a nonprofit group in the city reported people need to earn at least $100,000 to afford food, housing and transportation there. Does this hold truth? I know it's expensive city, but 73k is also median salary here, do they want to say that more than half people here cannot afford basic needs? That doesn't sound right

In NYC, you typically need to earn 40x the monthly rent in annual income to not need a guarantor. 73k / 40 = $1825/month in rent. The median 1 bedroom apartment in NYC is $3,263 according to Zillow https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/new-york...

The issue I see with comparing median salary to median rent for a one bedroom is that tons of people (especially young folks just starting out) want to live in desirable places and are willing to share living costs in order to do so. So even if you could magically reset a desirable locality to have comparable median rent and salary, very quickly rent would exceed salary as people that really can’t afford it move anyway.

And if you instead pin salary and say that the median salary at every company must be $X, rents will increase for the same reason.

I suppose you could ban living with roommates, and require median salary at every company to equal some state mandated number. I don’t think that will go well for anyone but you could.

Re: Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

#43

Post by polski-g »

xyzzy4747 wrote: post #32
sealeck wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about crimes which transcend state jurisdiction (try getting 12 different state police forces to co-ordinate and run thousands of investigations together and see how well it goes)? Or issues like counter-intelligence? Or areas where local police forces are corrupt and won't investigate?

We also have the CIA and NSA

Both of those entities are forbidden from doing operations on US soil.

Re: Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

#44

Post by master_crab »

koolba wrote: post #37
metamet wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe their point was that FBI agents struggling to cover housing are more susceptible to external payments.

That’s true for all government employees and elected officials. For Congress specifically, I’m in favor of raising salaries to $1M/year while simultaneously taking a zero tolerance policy on all lobbyist funded excursions. That’ll attract plenty of honest folks as the base salary would be more than enough.

I’m not opposed to this. but a more reliable solution might be extending terms to 6-8 years and then making second terms illegal.

People would still love to hire someone with experience in the highest rungs of government and it would decrease the negative influence of lobbyists on currently serving members.

Re: Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

#45

Post by impossiblefork »

koolba wrote: post #37
metamet wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe their point was that FBI agents struggling to cover housing are more susceptible to external payments.

That’s true for all government employees and elected officials. For Congress specifically, I’m in favor of raising salaries to $1M/year while simultaneously taking a zero tolerance policy on all lobbyist funded excursions. That’ll attract plenty of honest folks as the base salary would be more than enough.

Yes, but the FBI contains part of the US government's attempts to counter spies and infiltrators, and my understanding is that it's seen as especially important that those people aren't easily bribable.

Re: Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

#46

Post by sealeck »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #23
sealeck wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about crimes which transcend state jurisdiction (try getting 12 different state police forces to co-ordinate and run thousands of investigations together and see how well it goes)? Or issues like counter-intelligence? Or areas where local police forces are corrupt and won't investigate?

What about when the FBI is corrupt? Counterintelligence is CIA/NSA (who would never be in danger of that).

The CIA is not authorized to operate domestically, counter-intelligence is the remit of the FBI.

Re: Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

#47

Post by gentleman11 »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #23
sealeck wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about crimes which transcend state jurisdiction (try getting 12 different state police forces to co-ordinate and run thousands of investigations together and see how well it goes)? Or issues like counter-intelligence? Or areas where local police forces are corrupt and won't investigate?

What about when the FBI is corrupt? Counterintelligence is CIA/NSA (who would never be in danger of that).

We’ll, that would help their agents afford rent I guess

Re: Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

#48

Post by mrktf »

dwheeler wrote: post #27

The broader problem is lack of housing that can be afforded by the non-wealthy, which is caused in significant part by zoning laws. If more housing was available, the increased supply would better match the demand.

That is broader problem to solve, not taking account any civil infrastructure the houses will be bought by corporate rent company and renters will be charged "fair price" - pretty same as now (not long ago the was article with discussion about rent price fixing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39575803 )

Re: Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

#49

Post by Libcat99 »

yellow_lead wrote: post #14
i_like_waiting wrote: post #3

>In New York, for example, starting salaries for FBI agents hover around $73,000. But a nonprofit group in the city reported people need to earn at least $100,000 to afford food, housing and transportation there. Does this hold truth? I know it's expensive city, but 73k is also median salary here, do they want to say that more than half people here cannot afford basic needs? That doesn't sound right

A quick google gives me median rent of $3500. After tax, 73k comes to about 54,599. Divided by 12 is 4,546 per month. So you have about $1,000 a month for utilities, food, gas/train, etc. It seems difficult to live on.

No one will rent to you if your rent would be 80% of your income anyway.

Re: Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

#50

Post by dwheeler »

dwheeler wrote: post #27

The broader problem is lack of housing that can be afforded by the non-wealthy, which is caused in significant part by zoning laws. If more housing was available, the increased supply would better match the demand.

NB: Here's one of many articles about this: "The hottest trend in U.S. cities? Changing zoning rules to allow more housing" https://www.npr.org/2024/02/17/1229867031/housing-shortage-z...
Post reply on HN