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How to live on $432 a month in America

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Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#401

Post by goatlover »

xp84 wrote: post #98
viccis wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yes, it's not a brilliant observation that in the US you are given the option to work at around $15-30k a year ($17/hr part time is going to wind up around there) and use that money to fund an impoverished lifestyle. "Why aren't more kids embracing a life of poverty? How dare they ask for anything better in a country that produces more wealth than any other?"

"impoverished lifestyle" "live of poverty" You're really doing a great job exemplifying the attitude which guarantees misery. The whole point is that living a simple life in the country, with minimal amount of time spent working (thus maximum free time) is arguably a much richer and more fulfilling life than, say, a life where you and your spouse each earn $200,000 working 40-50 hours a week at a Very Important Job t…

One wonders why anyone ever left the country to move to the city then. Maybe not everyone wants to live a simple life in the country. Maybe that's considering boring and socially isolating. Maybe some people want more kinds of experiences and even things. Maybe they want a kind of community that's a lot harder to find in the country, or is even discriminated against.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#402

Post by kiba »

jvanderbot wrote: post #288
xp84 wrote: post #270

I've commented (probably too much) to argue with the harshest critics of this piece, but I am surprised to not have seen much this criticism which is my main one: Supposing I've made peace with the main gist of this: Cut living expenses to a point where you can work ¼ or so of the time most of us spend working by living somewhere cheap and not being so materialistic. The missing piece here is social connections. Fami…

Any discussion of staying near family and friends on a forum predominated by startups out of the bay area is completely disingenuous. But that aside, I suggest this is front page and meaningful not because it brings up a third option (to stay home, move to a city, or move to rural NY), but instead because it advocates accidentally for just staying home . Your family probably already lives in an area that is more affo…

I am substantially happier that I moved into the big city because I built social connections and I don't want to live with my parents anymore. Driving down there is insane and I wish there was decent transportation option.

I can use electric scooter to move around most days. It's a lot more fun than driving my car.

Really, what these places really need is major policy reform to make them more livable. There's a reason why these places are where people want to live after all.

To help make this happen, I donate to two non-profit that works to improve transportation and housing accessibility respectively.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#403

Post by AstroBen »

owenversteeg wrote: post #305

Like other people here, I have my quibbles with the exact math. But the general premise is true: yes, you can live in rural poverty for cheap. The problem is the vibes. A hundred years ago, you would have a community, a place in society, and all of your family and friends nearby. In 2025, the only actual local job the author of the piece can come up with is at a gas station. Top ten occupations, 1920: Farmers, farm l…

Not saying I agree with the premise of the article at all but making life decisions based on how much others will respect it is a terrible way to live

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#404

Post by goatlover »

xp84 wrote: post #102
bluefirebrand wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The type of place being talked about in this article is a place with more houses than people. It's the sort of place that children move away from as they mature because there are few opportunities to build a life there

> few opportunities to build a life for certain values of "a life" of course. The article alludes to our 'great-grandparents' and indeed, we wouldn't be here if the majority of people 100 years ago didn't build "a life" in rural areas without any of the things most of GenZ (and if i'm honest, millennials too) think "a life" requires. But the word "build" you used is telling. I think you mean "buy a life" -- that's wh…

Young people might also recognize that there's a lot more going on in big cities, a whole lot more to do and experience. And attitudes tend to be more excepting of differences. They tend to be more cosmopolitan.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#405

Post by ufmace »

bobthepanda wrote: post #157
Karrot_Kream wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but when it comes right down to it, they mostly eat at chain restaurants and go to the movies, same as they could in a smallish town. They might occasionally go to a pro baseball game or the zoo or something that's only available in the city, but country people can make a day trip to do that too. This hasn't been my experience at all. I live in an urban area and I haven't eaten at a chain restaurant outside of road…

there is a huge market distortion in that dense, walkable living is illegal to build in most of the country. i've seen polling that suggests walkability is in demand for about 40% of the population but there isn't 40% of available homes in such a configuration, so there are also a lot of people who get priced out of that and into suburbia.

To be fair, my impression is most people have highly contradictory desires along these lines.

They say they want to be able to walk to places more. But they also want a big suburban-style house with bedrooms for everyone and storage and garage and lawn etc, easy parking for them, nice wide roads to drive everywhere on and tons of free parking when they get there. This makes it impossible for the area to be walkable unless everyone else lives in small apartments and there's actually only enough parking for just them to drive if they feel like it.

In my opinion, it doesn't work that way. Yeah everyone wants to be the special 1% like that, but only actually 1% will be. If you really want to be walkable, you personally will need to live like that too.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#406

Post by an_guy »

hysan wrote: post #391

I flagged this article and later saw it dead, so I’m quite surprised it came back. I found the content extremely shallow and lacking nuance. Others have mentioned, but it leaves out huge caveats because it would destroy the the conclusion - the cost of moving to the place in the first place, social connections, health (even worse for those with disabilities), emergency services, retirement, etc etc. The list of obvio…

> the cost of moving to the place in the first place, social connections, health (even worse for those with disabilities), emergency services, retirement, etc etc

Anyone moving to bay area for a higher income job would have most of these issues.

A forum full of people willing to migrate for better income and lifestyle should not be criticizing "cost of moving", "social connections", "health disabilities" and "retirement".

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#407

Post by loandbehold »

xp84 wrote: post #270

I've commented (probably too much) to argue with the harshest critics of this piece, but I am surprised to not have seen much this criticism which is my main one: Supposing I've made peace with the main gist of this: Cut living expenses to a point where you can work ¼ or so of the time most of us spend working by living somewhere cheap and not being so materialistic. The missing piece here is social connections. Fami…

Professionals move from city to city all the time due to jobs. In the modern world it's easier to keep in touch with family and friends with Internet and cheap (by historical standards) flights.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#408

Post by s1artibartfast »

rubitxxx15 wrote: post #381
xp84 wrote: post #270

I've commented (probably too much) to argue with the harshest critics of this piece, but I am surprised to not have seen much this criticism which is my main one: Supposing I've made peace with the main gist of this: Cut living expenses to a point where you can work ¼ or so of the time most of us spend working by living somewhere cheap and not being so materialistic. The missing piece here is social connections. Fami…

As an introvert, I believe I could live in a remote location without problem. I often wish I could switch off my hearing to just enjoy silence, and dream of getting a chance to spend time in an isolation chamber. That said, I don’t know if I’d want to live in a depressing small town, unless it had a good diner.

Seems like that low bar you should be able to meet somewhere?

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#409

Post by s1artibartfast »

RajT88 wrote: post #314
cjbarber wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The network effects/moats of places! There needs to be a Kickstarter for coordinating groups of people to move to the same place all at the same time.

Good luck getting people to agree not to compete for the best cheap houses.

doesn't seems to be a problem currently.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#410

Post by rendall »

> A long and mostly endless stream of “blackpills” about the cost of housing can be readily found on any social media platform — and often enough, the “boomers” are the scapegoat; the ones who lived their American Dreams and, as the allegations go, pulled up the ladder behind them as they tasted their successes.

I've often heard the criticism that Boomers lived unsustainably and then pulled the ladder up behind them, making life harder for future generations. But what I don't often hear is a breakdown of the specific policy decisions that led to this. What were they?

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