I said something about landlords being inherently parasitic to my aunt thinking shed be a receptive audience because of being poor and having left-wing politics and a history of activism but she objected that there are good landlords
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Inherently is a very strong word
@sun youre right but I think its a great majority. such a stark position of power over someone as being able to directly render them homeless often results in abuse of this power. with other services provided if you do a bad job they can go elsewhere, its much more difficult with a shitty landlord.
@georgia I think it’s complicated by, yes if you view it systemically why people don’t have access to a home. But in a simple sense many people don’t do valuable enough work to afford a full house. I realize that is controversial to say but just because a human did the work doesn’t mean the value exchange will always work out to affording a good life.
@sun housing is extremely hard for most people to afford these days not because they aren't performing worthy work, but because wages havent increased with the housing market. wages havent increased imo mostly because shareholder value go up is seen as the supreme good. for instances my aunt I mentioned performs valuable work, shes a good teacher in underperforming communities, but shell likely never be able to afford a house.
@georgia of course I mean like
If you are 60 and you still work at Burger King what the fuck did you expect
If you are 60 and you still work at Burger King what the fuck did you expect
@sun @georgia
If you see an elderly person working any job, you shouldn't be asking yourself what they "did" to deserve that life. You should be outraged at a government that views it's citizens as disposable meat bags.
As a knowledge worker you need to see the writing on the wall, you're much closer to becoming one of the masses of poor working class Americans than you think.
If you see an elderly person working any job, you shouldn't be asking yourself what they "did" to deserve that life. You should be outraged at a government that views it's citizens as disposable meat bags.
As a knowledge worker you need to see the writing on the wall, you're much closer to becoming one of the masses of poor working class Americans than you think.
@subnetter @georgia I grew up from that class and I don’t consider it as morally inferior but it is not valuable work and that person could definitely have moved on to something better, and you know it
@subnetter @georgia fast food work specifically I mean.
@sun @georgia @subnetter idk. that pathway used to provide a living wage and a stable if small life. I've met many retired and semiretired service workers who bought a house and had a small family off that wage in very upmarket areas.
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@kernow @georgia @subnetter I ran some numbers for it and even at the absolute peak of relative buying power of minimum wage (1968) it didn't reach national median home prices. in effect if you bought a house on only minimum wage income, it was only possible in certain areas and a particularly cheap house. This is of course improved situationally if you are a dual-income minimum wage earner household. this was also again at the absolute peak, if you go start going earlier, it becomes unaffordable again.
I am not denying your experience though you can find lots of people that did it but it was never true generally on a national scale it seems.
I am not denying your experience though you can find lots of people that did it but it was never true generally on a national scale it seems.
@sun @georgia @subnetter not today ofc, but nothing can provide that sort of stable and small life today. I blame regulatory and market issues making housing an investment rather than a consumable good, and old people occupying existing housing stock (including the unfair 55+ covenants) in this class.