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Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

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Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#481

Post by beezle »

Henchman21 wrote: post #340
gruez wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HOAs come with the house. You can't just cancel them like you can cancel your netflix subscription.

No, but you can get elected to the HOA and move to dissolve it. Of course this isn't always advisable, some HOAs aren't awful, and some actually provide necessary services to homeowners.

That is not always an easy thing to do and every HOA will vary. In general it will usually require a very high number (like 80%) of owners to agree, there are often multi-year waiting periods and sometimes poison pills which offer common areas to the local municipality on dissolution.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#482

Post by titanomachy »

fritzo wrote: post #398
bravetraveler wrote: post #111

Despite early success I'm truly no closer to stability [in terms of housing] . With the wrong landlords, I'm practically living with Mom/Dad while nearing my 40s. Fiefdom-building isn't helping at all. I can deal with the responsibility of a leaky roof. I can't deal with another year of No Dogs Allowed.

I'm curious, where do folks place dogs/pets on the necessity-to-luxury spectrum, or in the hierarchy of needs?

Either absolutely critical or completely irrelevant, it seems

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#483

Post by OnlineGladiator »

WalterBright wrote: post #470
OnlineGladiator wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize you're an enormously privileged, wealthy individual telling other people that don't have your wealth and privilege how they should feel the same as you? You don't even say "in my experience" you just condescend to others that they should recognize how great the world is for the 0.1%, completely unaware that it isn't great for people that can't afford food and housing. Nobody gives a shit about their TV wh…

I was born into a lower middle class family with several siblings. My dad skirted bankruptcy. My first car literally came from a junkyard in pieces, bought with money I earned from my paper route. Hardly 0.1%. (I didn't know how bad things were for him until I went through his papers after he died.) I began investing with my first real job, with another crappy car I repaired with junkyard parts. A good friend of mine…

Setting aside everything else I'd normally say, I do respect that you make an earnest attempt to engage with almost anyone.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#484

Post by beezle »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #341
beezle wrote: post #311

Americans confuse need with 'nice to have' which leads to the "I don't have money for food/rent/hc" problem. You do not need cable tv or home internet. You do not need an iPhone or top end Samsung. There are many mid-range Android phones much cheaper that can add a MVNO phone plan for around $20/mo that has more than enough data for necessary internet. Key word: necessary. OTA HDTV is available to many millions at th…

>You do not need cable tv or home internet. I get your point and I generally agree with everything you've written, but I'm a bit at a loss on the home internet thing... our society is entirely tied to our connectivity at this point, so are you simply recommending people use their internet-connected mobile devices and forego another home provider? With you on the cable thing - even the streaming providers that were su…

Home internet is a luxury if you already have a data plan on your phone to accomplish the necessities - that is for access to government and corporate web sites and educational (school related) needs. Social media, in its basic forms are text and photos which also should fit in most included MVNO data plans such as this one from US Mobile which is $22.50/mo or $228/yr (19/mo)

Unlimited High-Speed Data Unlimited Talk & Text 20 GB Hotspot Data

FYI - I live in a fairly rural area and have coverage. The standard home internet plan here runs about $90/mo after all taxes and tithes are paid.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#486

Post by grafmax »

WalterBright wrote: post #476
grafmax wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, ability to buy stock is predicated on having the money to do it, after paying for basic necessities. People who work for a living have less money than those who don’t. So when stock prices rise, even workers who can save see less absolute benefit than owners.

You can buy fractional shares from robinhood for $10. The internet has brought a great democratization of access to the stock market. If you don't have an investment program, the best time to start is right now.

The point is that workers have far less money to save. Therefore when stocks go up due to increased productivity, even workers who have enough money to save still don’t benefit, in absolute terms, as much as owners.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#487

Post by beezle »

standardUser wrote: post #370
beezle wrote: post #311

Americans confuse need with 'nice to have' which leads to the "I don't have money for food/rent/hc" problem. You do not need cable tv or home internet. You do not need an iPhone or top end Samsung. There are many mid-range Android phones much cheaper that can add a MVNO phone plan for around $20/mo that has more than enough data for necessary internet. Key word: necessary. OTA HDTV is available to many millions at th…

> I was head of an HOA for about 10 years This fully explains the rest of your screed against the working class.

When I started as head of the HOA, I was out of work and not exactly cup runeth over with money myself as it was 2009 so please, take your snark elsewhere.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#488

Post by marcusverus »

inerte wrote: post #465
marcusverus wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> persistent irritation > went to Urgent care You waited until it became a problem, then went to an expensive option instead of contacting your GP and getting a recommendation for an in-network care? And were surprised that it was expensive? This is healthcare 101 in the US. You could have gotten the same care for a reasonable price had you done 1 hour of due diligence. We do not need to remake the system--which will…

I thought by adding the bit about "navigating the complexities" it would prevent comment like yours. You're blaming the victim here. "it is YOUR FAULT for not reading the fine print"... yeah I know. I am stupid regular guy who would rather NOT have to understand the fine print and have things just work better like the rest of the developed world.

You're an adult. You paid dearly for the convenience of an urgent care, and you clearly learned your lesson. You were not a victim, you were a sucker. In America, we do not reorganize entire industries to soothe the bruised egos of suckers. We just encourage them to do a quick Google search next time.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#489

Post by beezle »

lesuorac wrote: post #411
M4R5H4LL wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is anecdotal but here is the truth: I have a home that I bought around 20 years ago in Cali, and the HOA tripled during that time and is now rapidly approaching $700/mo. And that's with less benefits since we lost the earthquake insurance. And not to mention the special assessments that started showing up in 2025. You could make all sort of assumptions, but there is nothing special about the community.

> And not to mention the special assessments that started showing up in 2025. You could make all sort of assumptions, but there is nothing special about the community. It's pretty sad that both parts of the statements are true. Special Assessments occur when HOAs aren't capitalized correctly to cover the costs of largely maintenance and this issue is very wide-spread that being a part of an HOA that keeps issuing the…

So many, many HOAs and condo assocs. are poorly managed and have no capital plans (I even had a condo once where the agreement prohibited a capital fund!).

Two points - first to yours on it being more difficult to sell. In fact, it can be the opposite. To get a mortgage these days it often requires the hoa/condo to have at least 10% of the annual budget in reserves. While often not the case, buyers should also be comparing the relative reserve states too and realize low reserves means specials

The second point is that failure to reserve the majority of the cost of expected capital needs can result in a situation of liens and foreclosures (to get a paying owner in) and the HOA going cup in hand to a bank who may or may not loan the shortfall at a terrible interest rate. Or the project is put on hold and the cost may rise because of inflation or further deterioration of whatever was being renovated.

When homeowners gripe about the dues and 'look how much is in reserves' I always ask: so when the roof needs to be replaced, you'll be good to cut a $5 or 10K check within 30 days? No? That is why the HOA reserves the vast majority of the cost.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#490

Post by beezle »

pessimizer wrote: post #400
beezle wrote: post #311

Americans confuse need with 'nice to have' which leads to the "I don't have money for food/rent/hc" problem. You do not need cable tv or home internet. You do not need an iPhone or top end Samsung. There are many mid-range Android phones much cheaper that can add a MVNO phone plan for around $20/mo that has more than enough data for necessary internet. Key word: necessary. OTA HDTV is available to many millions at th…

> You do not need cable tv or home internet. This is a deeply stupid comment. Right now, the way marginal people get any work is from from the internet, and people interviewing for even awful jobs expect you to get on zoom calls with them. Every single step you expect people who can't afford to feed themselves makes them that much more unemployable. You don't need new shoes, you don't need a haircut. Hell, you don't…

Is there a reason they can't use the internet that is available from their phone data plan?
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