[lbo-talk] 15 clams+

snitsnat snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com
Wed Mar 23 11:39:18 PST 2005


At 01:39 PM 3/23/2005, Doug Henwood wrote:


>Jordan's examples imply 40-50% of pretax (median) income going to housing.
>That seems pretty damn steep.
>
>Doug

median: half below, half above. fuck all in the half above. that's about how i feel right now. :)

and it's just... damn... wrong. Do the entire budget and see what life is like even at higher incomes. Who am I kidding? We all know.

And, it's just damn wrong because it's the same reason why inequality persists. People lucky enough to have gotten into the game a few years ago can afford houses. The rest of us.... And, if you're a single parent, forget it.

That wasn't the case several years ago. Though it wasn't that common, there _were_ fixer uppers available for 60-70k, when the rest of the starter home market was generally going for 90-100k. A first time home buy could swing a house on that, even at the median income. A typical clerical workers wage or social service worker who make about 22-28k could swing 70k. And the upfront costs were negligible and, often, they barely had to have more than $1000 down -- and plenty of people could swing that through loans from family or from a credit card.

also, the median wage has barely increased in the last 7 years, so the sec'y was making about 23-27k then. She could actually afford a starter home that didn't require that much fixing up.

Today, the typical starter is now 200k, you can maybe get a real dump for $150k. It wouldn't be very wise to swing a mortgage on a single income, though I'm sure the banks are happy to do so.

But anyway, as I was saying: this situation is just keeping wealth in the hands of those who already have since they are affording the houses on the equity from a previous house.

whatever. fuck all people who just don't give a shit. i get to listen to a joker on another list who thinks it's just dandy that people have to work 2-3 jobs and anyone who cant' find work is a born loser.

whatever. and fuck all the maoist creeps who get worked up about injustice all over the world but think the entire u.s. is an exploiter class. what the fuck ever. fucking self-hating americans is what they are.



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