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

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

#101

Post by gedy »

buro9 wrote: post #71
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.

It's also caused by the idea that housing should be an asset to make someone else money, rather than solely a place in which a person/family can live. This leads to the AirBnB culture, the landlord culture, and compounds inequality whilst driving unaffordability. I'm sure the idea is abhorrent to the USA, but perhaps removing incentives to be a landlord at every step should be considered... mortgages should be puniti…

> I'm sure the idea is abhorrent to the USA, but perhaps removing incentives to be a landlord

The problem is what will happen is that any US regulations around this will end up targetting middle-class “landlords” who rent out an extra home. And the real issue of huge corporate real estate holdings will be just fine.

It’ll scratch the itch of people wanting to beat down someone in their neighborhood, "boomers", etc who rents out something due to petty envy, but unlikely to solve the issue meaningfully.

A lot of average people buy real estate because it’s one of the few inflation hedges left for them.

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

#102

Post by dragontamer »

sneak wrote: post #85
dragontamer wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’re telling me that an organization that has zero incentive to be efficient with money is being penny wise and pound foolish? All of these pay limits are capped by Senator's pay of $180k ish. No Senator (or House Member) is going to vote for typical FBI agents to have higher salaries than themselves. What we're seeing here is the American people refusing to give pay-raises to our executive class / leadership cla…

I don’t think this argument holds water. US lawmakers make millions of dollars beyond their salaries; the salary for the position is basically irrelevant. You could eliminate the salary and no fewer people would try for the job. Conversely, you could 10x the salary and no more people would try for the job. The paycheck simply isn’t a significant factor in whether or not someone wants to be a senator or representative…

> US lawmakers make millions of dollars beyond their salaries

1. For those where this is true, this is a MAJOR problem.

2. For those where this is false, this means that we're underpaying lawmakers severely.

> The paycheck simply isn’t a significant factor in whether or not someone wants to be a senator or representative.

Should it? I think the primary pay of Senators / Representatives should be their paycheck. Not dark money pools from who knows where.

You're basically accepting blatant corruption as if its inevitable. Erm... no. Lets raise salaries so that Congressmen can take up two houses across the country (one at home for their families, and a 2nd home in the Wash. DC area so they can do their job). And then increase the wages high enough so that "normal people" apply for the position.

Its not like the uber-rich, the independently wealthy, or the paid off bribed people are who we want as Congressmen or Senators. We actually want normies.

-------

Once Senators / Congressmen are at like $300k, which is high but reasonable IMO given the overall budget of the country, then we can work on the GS scale and Executive scale as appropriate. The FBI Director making only $180k can be raised to $300k, and then the layman FBI agent can rise above $70k.

The GS Payscale is a fine idea but only when the top-of-the-ladder truly represents the top. And not "top for government employee" but "top for the country", so that we're actually offering competitive wages and attracting solid talent in all areas of government.

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

#103

Post by s1artibartfast »

api wrote: post #5
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

I knew people making 100K in California spending up to 60% of their income on housing. Housing prices are destroying everything.

I make 200k and spend >60% on housing in California. Pay ~75k in income taxes,leaving 125k,then another 20k in property taxes, then 60k mortgage. Leaves about 40k for bills and retirement.

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

#104

Post by nurple »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #91
buro9 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also caused by the idea that housing should be an asset to make someone else money, rather than solely a place in which a person/family can live. This leads to the AirBnB culture, the landlord culture, and compounds inequality whilst driving unaffordability. I'm sure the idea is abhorrent to the USA, but perhaps removing incentives to be a landlord at every step should be considered... mortgages should be puniti…

Penalizing landlords would lead to greater shortages and mass homelessness of would be renters. The houses simply would not be built. You can't have a right to housing without taking away the right to property. Renters are a Group that are already unprofitable to lend to, so banks would reject most and hike rates higher for the rest. Your proposal only makes sense if landlords provide no service, but this isnt true.…

I'm sorry, but selling the landlord's literal rent seeking as a value to anyone but themselves is just blatant antisocial shilling.

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

#105

Post by IggleSniggle »

koolba wrote: post #19
master_crab wrote: post #4

The problem is the FBI uses mostly the same GS pay scale as the rest of the federal government. So if the pay stinks for them, it also stinks for every other government agency. And that’s a much bigger problem then Mulder and Scully not making rent.

> And that’s a much bigger problem then Mulder and Scully not making rent. It’s only a problem if you want the government to be spending even more money. They already spend approximately 1/3 of the GDP and that’s plenty big enough for many. If they want to pay people more, change the denominator.

I'm not sure that math works out, with the amount of pork barrel the government hands out to contractors. Might be a lot cheaper to bring more talent in-house than to pay somebody else's margins.

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

#106

Post by readthenotes1 »

kilotaras wrote: post #59

Housing theory of everything[0] strikes again. Situation: Housing demand outstrips housing supply. First order effect: housing prices go up Second order effect: your FBI agents are now experiencing financial instability and worries Third order effect: your FBI agents are now more susceptible to bribes [0] https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-housing-theory-of-every...

The FBI has a long history of being a bad actor...

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

#107

Post by buzzy_hacker »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #34
buzzy_hacker wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

you're saying people look at gross income to determine if someone can rent a place rather than net ?

Yes

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

#108

Post by IggleSniggle »

User23 wrote: post #98
koolba wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You'd have to ban all private sector employment, book deals, and basically any other means of money transfer. It's impossible. The only way to stop corruption is to make the incentive structure altogether unattractive. Singapore, for example, has done a world class job doing so and has one of the lowest corruption rates in the world.

How does one measure the corruption rate? What even qualifies as corruption when it's so often "I know it when I see it?"

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

#109

Post by s1artibartfast »

nurple wrote: post #104
s1artibartfast wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Penalizing landlords would lead to greater shortages and mass homelessness of would be renters. The houses simply would not be built. You can't have a right to housing without taking away the right to property. Renters are a Group that are already unprofitable to lend to, so banks would reject most and hike rates higher for the rest. Your proposal only makes sense if landlords provide no service, but this isnt true.…

I'm sorry, but selling the landlord's literal rent seeking as a value to anyone but themselves is just blatant antisocial shilling.

Disagree. The economics are pretty simple.

If someone has a job but no assets, how do you expect someone to pay builders and materials? If they could, they would be an owner, not a renter. If they were credit worthy, they would be an owner, not a renter.

Renting is effectively a short term loan for the value of the house.

Try getting a 12 month loan for $1M without collateral, and see what the interest rates are.

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

#110

Post by Der_Einzige »

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

The spooks spooks, the DIA, don't even get brought up much despite them being such a big deal in terms of doing "james bond" shit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Intelligence_Agency

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