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How to live on $432 a month in America

(shagbark.substack.com)
526 points cactusplant7374 | 1 comments | 23 May 25 16:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.208s | source
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aeturnum ◴[23 May 25 21:06 UTC] No.44076604[source]▶
Some of the claims here are pretty intense, but I do think his closing statement is true enough:

> there’s never been a better time to try to “make it” in America and live the older version of the American Dream. If we can’t see that now, it doesn’t necessarily mean that things have gotten bad — it might mean that our perception has become grossly skewed by an era of hyperabundance, marketing, reality TV, and social media comparison syndrome.

With an extremely strong emphasis on "older version." This vision of life is not the life that most "black pilled" people were raised to expect or plan for. It is very accessible and is extremely discoverable thanks to the internet (with electricity costs like that I'm surprised crypto miners haven't moved in) - but it's a level of self-dependence and isolation that most people do not want. However it's absolutely true that it's never been easier to live a "frontier" lifestyle, only now with 3d printing and amazon and other bountiful resources to fill in traditional gaps.

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sweeter ◴[23 May 25 22:40 UTC] No.44077241[source]▶
I think it's absurd. I work full time in the richest country on Earth and I can't afford an apartment and healthcare. The problem is clearly not advertising.

Real "billionaire goes homeless for one night to prove the stupid poors are lazy and stupid and need to hedge their expectations" type of energy

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titanomachy ◴[23 May 25 23:05 UTC] No.44077393[source]▶
I don’t think it’s similar to the billionaire thing, this guy is apparently living the way he describes full-time.

And he does sort of have a point. You could probably afford an apartment _somewhere_, just not in any of the places you consider desirable.

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Aeolun ◴[23 May 25 23:35 UTC] No.44077571[source]▶
I think the problem that most millenials have is that their parents could afford a house, for a pittance, in those desireable areas.
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1. sarchertech ◴[25 May 25 04:25 UTC] No.44085517[source]▶
My parents bought our house when I was in 3rd grade in 1993 for $80k. A new similar house in their area would probably cost $250k now. But they don’t make 1200 square foot houses anymore so you’d probably need to spend $350k for a 2200 square foot house.

So new houses have more than doubled the pace of inflation in my hometown.

But when we moved in there was no mall, no Best Buy, few jobs. It was much more rural. This happened all over. Things got more developed. Areas that are desirable now weren’t necessarily desirable 30 years ago.

Plus the houses now are so much more insulated and air tight that heating and and cooling costs a fraction of what it did 30 years ago. And the houses are much bigger.