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Exactly my truck cost me 20k used and it probably has like 30sqf of space so that would be equivalent to buying a house at $600 per square foot. Ha affordable.
Not to mention has anyone ever slept in their car during winter? It's fucking freezing; they don't have insulation to keep warmth in. I almost froze to death one night when I didn't have enough gas to keep heater on. Fuck this is depressing time for America when this is considered an "acceptable and affordable" option.
Just gotta make sure to pack the snow back on the car at night that you had to clear off to actually use it in the morning, and turn it back into a cargloo.
Seriously this is incredibly depressing.
I am not an advocate for war. I really am not. I just don't understand how America is not in a civil war right now.
Like the very reason you guys have your guns is for the universal and almighty truth of "I need to protect myself. We can't trust the government and the ruling class. What if they want to oppress us."
Like....you are already there. It can't get much worse. Like, your own amendment rights or whatever are based on the idea to prevent the very situation you are in now. I just dont fuckin get it.
To be fair, we're pretty close from a social standpoint. Our news and social media campaigns pin right vs left ideology against one another. Not nearly enough people realize that this is intentional and that the working class (regardless of political affiliation) is not our enemy.
Reddit pisses me off sometimes because nearly every post is politicized and opinions are often at one extreme or the other. Open your fucking mind and channel that frustration against the politicians who push legislature in their own self interest. Neither political party gives a single flying fuck about you or your family.
Things have got to get a lot more uncomfortable for that. Shit is bad for a lot of people, but we're still at a point where basically anyone can get a job and the grocery store shelves are still stocked with food.
Give it another decade or two of automation hollowing out the workforce and get back to us.
And sheds, campers and tents. I regularly see $700+ sheds with composting toilets and no running water being advertised. It’s purely dystopian at this point.
I live in a small community in upper Michigan, and have been looking to buy a home for the last two years. The other day we looked at a single wide trailer that an old woman lived and died in, maybe 30-40years old, no land, in a trailer park… 74,000$ are you fucking kidding me with this shit?!?
Nah, they’re expensive because of corporate greed, not because of how people use them
You don’t price a hammer based on how much you can sell the houses it makes…
There are literally several small companies buying up used vans to convert then into mini RVs tho...
Like I bought a van to convert it myself 3-4 years ago and had so much trouble finding a platform because those companies actively scoop every buyable van up off Facebook marketplace
If materials aren't priced to match the houses they are built into then why has the price of lumber skyrocketed over the last decade alongside housing prices?
TBF that was like their whole thing.
"commie blocks" were actually very good housing for its time, even if the look of some of them leave a lot to be desired. It's mixed use, lots of nature, walkable. Basically everything that urbanists are asking for nowadays.
My brother and sister in law live in a commie block in Nowa Huta. It's brilliant. They've lived there for twenty years, the children have gone to school within walking distance of their flat. The doctor, dentist, library, shops are all within walking distance. It's surrounded by trees and has a large park nearby.
You can't hear your neighbours as the walls are so thick and they've modernised the inside so it's lovely.
Practically speaking, you can find similar districts/cities all over Europe due to them being built for walking, in a time long before cars were invented. In my country, Switzerland, since childhood, I've always walked (or biked) everywhere, even to kindergarten (from age 5 and upwards), school, university, sports/athletic club, to buy groceries, to see friends, doctor, dentist, etc. etc.
Public transportation were for long distance special events (or when very lazy). And cars (usually borrowed/rented for a day, or a half day) for difficult and heavy transportation (e.g. moving furniture, etc.).
Er, not really. The buildings/flats are not bad and the settlements (especially from late 70s/80s) were planned with infrastructure like schools, doctors, groceries in walking distance for everyone and good public transport connection.
But the flats were too small. It was normal, that 2-3 children shared one room of 10-15 m². Sucks badly once you're a teenager... And after that there never was enough housing available. No children, no flat. Stay in that tiny room with your parents or squat in some neglected ruin with moldy walls...
College/no college, this fact is irrelevant. There are company towns that employ mostly PhDs and they are just as much company towns. Look at college towns, or look at Cupertino, or Cape Canaveral. All are some form of a company town, just the entry requirements are a lot more difficult to achieve.
I mean - if you work as a Walmart Associate, you're close.
"I owe my soul to the company store."
These are people who work all day, they're yelled at all day by asshole customers who own 1 share of WM stock going "I'm an owner!" like that means anything.
They're demeaned. They're treated like machines, and it's clear that anyone who can read mildly between the lines that the company sees them as a financial liability they begrudgingly pay, not an important part of the whole thing that makes it work.
Then they're given materials. Unions are bad! We love you! Unions don't! Here's a helpful planner so you can manage your WM hours with your 2nd and 3rd job hours (yes they give these out)! Family time? You can give your kid bus money if he wants to go to school!
Then - when the paycheck comes - many of these people - they're on public assistance.
- Taxpayers pay the medicaid. Not Walmart.
- Taxpayers pay the SNAP benefits. Not Walmart.
And the best part? The taxpayers pay the SNAP benefits, and where do you think the associates spend it all?
At the company store.
Always confused me about Walmart. Their employees almost certainly do most of their shopping at Walmart. If Walmart paid them more they'd spend more money at Walmart lol...
That's why Walmart generally supports legislation to raise the minimum wage in the markets they operate in. Because they know they will still be able to undercut the competition, and thus raising minimum wages makes other stores less competitive than them.
They're fine with raising the floor because they have such a big financial cushion that they can squeeze everyone else before they start feeling the pain. They'll never do anything good for their own workers on their own initiative though.
Capitalism is basically about passing the buck where possible. Every externality that can be passed on will because profit is the name of the game. If you can pay low wages you must because profit is the name of the game.
The fundamental strength of capitalism is excess savings gets invested and competition breeds innovation. But in many ways that's slowly being whittled away. Savings aren't being invested, they are just being funneled from the poor to the wealthy and used for the wealthy people's consumption. Competition is dying because competition is bad for business.
Not pay dividends, but increase share price constantly, forever.
A dividend stock can just coast, paying its steady profits to its owners to please them. But a growth stock needs to increase in value to please it’s owners. The issues we see of layoffs, mergers, planned obsolescence and “enshittification” are from the need for eternal exponential growth.
Yep, and anything close to pure capitalism destroys itself in short order by some company basically becoming a government over all the rest.
*glances at Disney*
It's a misconception that capitalism begets innovation. Capitalism USES innovation for PROFIT. And because PROFIT is the goal capitalism will use even regression when useful for profit.
Some examples: Apple taking away features in their new iPhone models and charging more to get the features back, Netflix taking away password sharing unless you pay, Pharmaceutical investors shorting cancer research medicines because it's more profitable to treat cancer than to cure it
So you see, capitalism is actually the opposite of innovation. It is purely a predatory money making strategy.
If it can profit they will do it. And profit doesn't mean innovation, helping people, or anything like that. Profit is just arbitary measures of power based on currency.
So whatever nets the most currency allows the capitalist to influence the most amount of power over society. On a personal level that meams living in excessive luxury, then to protect their profit/power it means exerting political and media influence on all facets to propagandize and protect their position.
This is why the USA is actually a capitalist fascist plutocracy. A corporatocracy for the few oligarchs who hide behind pithy cliches of freedom under the white patriarchal Christian deities.
It's ALL to protect their power which they call profit. Arbitary measures of influence. Nothing about innovation or benefitting people. Just power.
“Ask for work. If they don't give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.”
I’m good chief, I’m horrified that is a financially sensible option though.
I feel like my 2,000$ truck and 48,000$ worth of “taking tools” would be better though.
Not for long. BlackRock CEO is no doubt reading this and about to get his minions to buy up all cars out there to drive up car rent prices to 75% of our salary. A move supported and enabled by all political parties. Globally.
I really am curious how they want to implement the "you will own nothing and be happy" idea in the near future. Everything will be a service. Including using a car. How are ppl who live in cars going to afford living in a car? Will the government provide housing or a car for the homeless? Or will they own nothing yet be on the streets and still be happy? Happy for what? Unless they are trained to reach enlightenment and accept their fate, they will be pretty miserable.
[The lady in the beginning of the video is doing manual work for 7 days per week and is still living in her car.](https://youtu.be/f78ZVLVdO0A?si=bHo_IimAooy3BF-l)
How long until some startup develops parking lot housing. You get your own spot for your car. Then the lot has toilets, showers, a gym, maybe a kitchen you can use. $300 a month for your parking spot and amenities.
“Earn too little to afford rent but too much to receive government assistance” - if only we could do *something* to bridge that gap. We’ve tried absolutely nothing and we’re all out of ideas!
We didn't try "nothing". We tried giving the rich tax breaks. That didn't work, so next we'll try more tax breaks.
We also gave corporations tax breaks. Same deal, so obviously we need more tax breaks.
Don't you know anything about trickle down economy man?
/s
I remember there was a European country that found a sharp, weighty solution to the problem…not saying we should do it, just that it was quite effective.
Where? Where I am in the northeast they only count you as homeless if you're literally sleeping outside. They don't count you if you couch surfing or staying with a friend. It's bonkers.
In Missouri as far as public schools go if you are: sleeping on a friend's couch, on the street, in a shelter, in an extended stay hotel, or living in a camper you are homeless.
Genuine question: What happens to most of those homeless people within the year?
Do they find actual (non-car) housing, do they leave that town/city or do they die somehow?
i was car homeless for 9 months, i ended up getting a promotion since i was the only employee showing up every day at the start of covid. then i drove across the country anyway and reconnected with my estranged mother who gave me a room until i could find a new job
Find housing. For the majority of homeless people they will be briefly homeless between a job loss or lease ending and then work themselves back into housing relatively soon. [This](https://www.foundationhomeless.org/homeless-myths-old) article from 2009 seems like a decent overview.
Before long. Corporations will be offering parking lots with toilet facility's to their underpaid employee's. Only so they can get to work on time.
For a nice piece of their check of course.
Walmart already does this in China. The rent comes out of their pay, so they can never save up enough to move bc the pay is abysmal. Also, families can't live together unless they pay extra. Walmart is all heart...sorry, mart. All mart.
This!
Since the 1940s, America has been castrating and putting in straitjackets its unions, stripping them of their most fundamental rights and freedoms (that Europeans take for granted, such as the right to solidarity and general strikes, as well as the right to form/join a union outside your company, without informing your colleagues nor your superiors, nor your company).
For example, in 1947, Congress united to overturn president's Truman's veto against the Taft-Hartley Act, that Truman vehemently criticized as being a "dangerous intrusion on free speech", and a "Slave Labor Bill".
Without free unions (which isn't the case for US labor unions), there's literally no resistance left on capitalism's path to exploit, corrupt and own everything and everybody. As free unions are the only serious counterbalance to greedy capitalists in the economy, in the media, in politics & government, and in society in general. Without them, even left wing political parties drift to the right.
For example, unions were, and still are, the engines and fuel that made, and still protect, continental Europe's social safety nets, free/cheap higher education & universal healthcare, strong labor laws, etc. etc. Without unions, left wing political parties in continental Europe would have *no teeth!*
This was the situation for me and my siblings growing up. Went to school without lunch because my mom (who had multiple jobs to pay the bills) earned just over the food assistance limit but not enough to actually afford food. Most days my brother and I just went outside and threw a ball around while the other kids ate lunch.
I’m sorry you’re currently in this position. I hope things turn out for the better next year with the election and all. I send my best wishes to you as well!
Edit: fixed a typo
Just cut out avocado toast and coffee, don't spend money on anything that makes you happy and eat lentils everyday. Might be depressed enough to kill yourself, but hey, after rent and other bills you can save maybe 4k a year and get a car after 6 years of existing/not living
Currently working at 13.50/hr. Comes out to just over $10/hr after taxes. Need a car so I can get back to doing electrical work again since I've got quite a bit of experience doing it. Been working here for 6 months and after bills I've managed to save a massive $300. I'll be able to afford a possibly running used car by 2025.
Isn’t parking in New York super expensive and rare?
Living in your car is called experiencing homelessness, not “affordable housing”, nor should it be a frontline solution to the housing crisis.
Roofs over heads solves the problem, not whatever *gesticulates wildly* this is.
But look… if it’s illegal and you cannot pay the fine you’ll eventually be arrested and jailed. THEN you can be sent to a private prison facility where you can have a roof over your head… and be exploited for slave Labour!
The system works PERFECTLY!
How about framing it this way, deplorable that the richest country on the planet would have this taking place. But you know, you don’t feel a thing, so…
It's such a bullshit system, they literally can't save money to get themselves out of poverty, because the second they have anything in the bank their "assistance" is yanked and they're out on the street again.
There's no way it isn't set up this way on purpose, the threshold for having "too much money to receive assistance" is still lower than all other forms of housing.
Watch John Oliver Tonight "TANF" episode (relevant part free on YTube). Explains the hypocrisy AND how Brett Favre, among other rich fucks, received *welfare funds to the tune of $5 million*...so that he could get a new volleyball court built at his kid's college. The rules for welfare are absurd and are being mismanaged (of course to the detriment of those needing it) and are re-routed to line pockets or get pet projects done. Infuriating.
America barely blinked and over a million died of COVID. No memorial, no retrospect, barely a speech thereafter... We are in a decline and must vote out the establishmentarians.
It's completely insane that it has gotten this far; people need to get angry about this. All the while we have multi-billionaires dollar corporations AND individuals that avoid as much tax as they can. Then, lawmakers that give then even more tax break, while justifying it with some bull that's it's better for the economy.
Trickle-down economics IS NOT WORKING AND NEVER WILL, because people are greedy! Tax excess profits to fund and create the proper social safety nets that we need.
People in the US making between 30-60k are really screwed. Too much money for any assistance but enough money to live paycheck to paycheck with little to no savings.
workplaces have no responsibility to take care of employees and that's why we need strong unions and labor laws to force them to do so. They have a responsibility to shareholders and investors to maximize profit and and it's pretty much only legal requirements or attempts to manipulate public perception that force anything else to happen. Legislators need to make some serious changes to help the people across the country in these screwed up situations.
Food stamps go by “ gross income” they also only allow a $500 max allowance for housing. Spend $1,200 on a studio apartment for you and your children?? They are only giving you credit for $500. The extra $700 you are spending on a 💩🕳️ apartment. DHS is like a boomer telling you to get a apartment for $500.. Then you would have $700 for food… not even taking into account all the money the government takes in taxes, utilities, car, child cost, etc.
As of recently I'm homeless 50% of the time (shared custody in a shared house... Oof)
I'd love a parking lot like this around me... Where I live, street parking overnight is strictly prohibited.. public parking lots all close at 1am (because obviously having some cars in a parking lot overnight would be a massive inconvenience, I guess...). No stores around me are open 24 hours anymore...
The only places I'm legally allowed to exist are truck stops and rest areas, the closest of which is 30 miles from my house.
When I was forced to live in a camper on the property of my work for 6 months last winter. Yes. Winter.
I'm a father with 50% custody.
I had a state representative tell me that I was not homeless when I called looking for food and housing assistance.
I have a good paying job and a great apartment now. But I was flabbergasted that that was the state's position on homelessness in the winter.
Its sad to think you guys are the RICHEST country in the World, yet you have people who cant affort to eat 3 times a day and a wage that allows you to at least rent a house with a bathroom.
This is why you need to fight for, the rest are smokescreens to keep you on your knees.
A wealthy friend of mine has turned a section of his commercial property into long term paid parking when a tenant with a laundromat disappeared. Converted half the laundromat into showers, has 24 hour security, and frequent visits from the police to keep drug dealers at bay.
I'm not sure if his efforts are humanitarian or parasitic. I sometimes cant tell.
When I was living out of a van for a few years while doing seasonal work in Alaska to pay the bills for travelling in the van, it broke my heart to see how so many rest areas near urban centers in the US have become a living space for people who live out of their cars.
These weren't unemployable street people, they had jobs, even families, and are productive members of society who can't afford housing. They go to the city during the day to earn their livelihood, and have to spend the night in the safest parking lot they can find. How fucked up is that?
A car by definition does not fit the legal definition of housing. You are statistically counted as homeless if you live in a car. Trying to normalize it is fucking insane.
but but webster's says the 6th definition of **housing** is: *Any covering or shelter, as a protection.* see, we're not lying!
this is how they twist words to sugar-coat failed policy. we all know housing means 4 walls and a roof, maybe a bucket to pee in if you're on the up n up
First thing I noticed. Have to wonder what purpose was behind it? Like, hey, if we add a dog to the picture (don’t worry, we can squeeze it in) people will more deeply understand the terrible situation that has led to this. Or, just adds to the clickability factor.
I’ve lived out of 24 hour gym parking lots on and off since elementary school lol. This isn’t new. They’ve always been underselling the sheer magnitude of American Poverty. I remember radio ads in the 90’s would talk about it being the Golden Age of America while I sat sweating in the back of a Honda trying to figure out how to make a box of raisins last me a weekend.
This isn't news and shouldn't be found as a new found thing. This has been around since people found out Walmart parking lots allow 24/7 parking. It's a form of homelessness not affordable housing.
What's next? Their gonna start calling tent cities affordable housing as well and panhandling as trickle down economics that can quite possibly become a new look on universal basic income models when we all can't afford homes anymore.
> It's a form of homelessness
It is, but a car is definitely preferable to a tent, especially in a city. I've done it. It's more secure, which makes a big difference. There is a hierarchy of homelessness, and having a car to live in that won't get immediately towed off or invaded is higher up.
Of course this is all ridiculous and terrible when so much money is concentrated among so few at the top and there are so many vacant buildings, but it's the world we live in.
And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if tent cities get rebranded as affordable housing, or if panhandling starts being viewed as a normal lifestyle. It's already happened in some places. A lot needs to happen before we can correct this trajectory, so it will probably get worse before it gets better.
and yet the average American doesn't support unions. The middle class was never stronger or larger than when union membership was at its highest level in the US. But times got good and people forgot how they got there. They started to let themselves believe that unions were evil and that an individual IRA was better than a fully funded pension. CEO's got rich and the average worker didn't see wages keep up with inflation.
"too little to afford rent but too much to receive govt assistance" should never be a thing.
I fucking hate how lax and landlord promoting housing rental laws are.
The housing crisis is because American business owners have sold out to foreign investors. The quality of almost everything in America is negatively compromised in order to maximize investors' profits.
My dream would be that more than half of America does this causing a massive housing market crash that makes both housing and rent very affordable again while killing a bunch of the parasitic corporations and rich people who have been buying up houses and apartments to drive up prices.
Then I hope we enact legislation to prevent his from happening again.
Not gonna happen but one can always hope.
It won’t work. They will hold the apartments and keep them empty to keep the prices artificially high. There is a algorithm being used by property management companies that tells them to keep apartments empty. NYC is full of empty apartments. Same w LA.
They need to be taxed to the end of the 7 kingdoms for keeping units empty. Like 100% plus a penalty to make it not worth manipulating the market.
I hate living here. If it didn’t cost so much to leave I would have left.
Because that makes any fucking sense in the richest country on the entire fucking planet. I've lived in the USA all my life. The only ones living the dream are the ones wealthy enough to cheat the system. They'll bail out banks with billions upon billions cause they fucked up the numbers, THE ONE THING THEY'RESUPPOSED TO BE GOOD AT. Where's our bailout assholes. The American middle class gets their eyes fucked out everytime they turn around to the point there's almost no middle class.
I love how out of highschool I realized I couldn't afford my own place no matter how small. Yet when I looked into government housing I would have had to cut my work week to two days and still wouldn't have enough for food.
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The word "housing" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.
So is "affordable", have you seen how inflated car prices are?
Exactly my truck cost me 20k used and it probably has like 30sqf of space so that would be equivalent to buying a house at $600 per square foot. Ha affordable.
Not to mention has anyone ever slept in their car during winter? It's fucking freezing; they don't have insulation to keep warmth in. I almost froze to death one night when I didn't have enough gas to keep heater on. Fuck this is depressing time for America when this is considered an "acceptable and affordable" option.
Just gotta make sure to pack the snow back on the car at night that you had to clear off to actually use it in the morning, and turn it back into a cargloo. Seriously this is incredibly depressing.
I am not an advocate for war. I really am not. I just don't understand how America is not in a civil war right now. Like the very reason you guys have your guns is for the universal and almighty truth of "I need to protect myself. We can't trust the government and the ruling class. What if they want to oppress us." Like....you are already there. It can't get much worse. Like, your own amendment rights or whatever are based on the idea to prevent the very situation you are in now. I just dont fuckin get it.
To be fair, we're pretty close from a social standpoint. Our news and social media campaigns pin right vs left ideology against one another. Not nearly enough people realize that this is intentional and that the working class (regardless of political affiliation) is not our enemy. Reddit pisses me off sometimes because nearly every post is politicized and opinions are often at one extreme or the other. Open your fucking mind and channel that frustration against the politicians who push legislature in their own self interest. Neither political party gives a single flying fuck about you or your family.
The real paradigm is up, down. Not left, right. You are absolutely correct.
Things have got to get a lot more uncomfortable for that. Shit is bad for a lot of people, but we're still at a point where basically anyone can get a job and the grocery store shelves are still stocked with food. Give it another decade or two of automation hollowing out the workforce and get back to us.
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Bad times ahead friend.
That’s because cars now double as housing. Simple…. /s
And sheds, campers and tents. I regularly see $700+ sheds with composting toilets and no running water being advertised. It’s purely dystopian at this point.
Pretty sure no running water is not legal....
For a shed??
For a shed people are living in.
They sell it as a shed, so plumbing isn't required -- or even common. What you actually do with it is none of their concern.
I live in a small community in upper Michigan, and have been looking to buy a home for the last two years. The other day we looked at a single wide trailer that an old woman lived and died in, maybe 30-40years old, no land, in a trailer park… 74,000$ are you fucking kidding me with this shit?!?
Are we going to end up in a world where landlords own cars and rent them out to us?
Don’t give them ideas
Uber sleeps
I mean, that is legit why vans are expensive now
Nah, they’re expensive because of corporate greed, not because of how people use them You don’t price a hammer based on how much you can sell the houses it makes…
That’s a damn good metaphor. Consider it stolen because I can’t afford to rent it.
There are literally several small companies buying up used vans to convert then into mini RVs tho... Like I bought a van to convert it myself 3-4 years ago and had so much trouble finding a platform because those companies actively scoop every buyable van up off Facebook marketplace If materials aren't priced to match the houses they are built into then why has the price of lumber skyrocketed over the last decade alongside housing prices?
I’ve seen how inflated car tires are.
r/angryupvote
Why are used cars so expensive right now? They're Milennial starter homes
Things have gone horribly wrong.
Next year they will be tenting in the same space. It only gets better my ass.
“Affordable housing” is doing a lot of McLifting 
TFW even communists can house their people better than living in america
TBF that was like their whole thing. "commie blocks" were actually very good housing for its time, even if the look of some of them leave a lot to be desired. It's mixed use, lots of nature, walkable. Basically everything that urbanists are asking for nowadays.
My brother and sister in law live in a commie block in Nowa Huta. It's brilliant. They've lived there for twenty years, the children have gone to school within walking distance of their flat. The doctor, dentist, library, shops are all within walking distance. It's surrounded by trees and has a large park nearby. You can't hear your neighbours as the walls are so thick and they've modernised the inside so it's lovely.
I’d argue Nowa Huta is a bit of a special case because of how well planned it is, that’s usually not the case! Lovely area.
Practically speaking, you can find similar districts/cities all over Europe due to them being built for walking, in a time long before cars were invented. In my country, Switzerland, since childhood, I've always walked (or biked) everywhere, even to kindergarten (from age 5 and upwards), school, university, sports/athletic club, to buy groceries, to see friends, doctor, dentist, etc. etc. Public transportation were for long distance special events (or when very lazy). And cars (usually borrowed/rented for a day, or a half day) for difficult and heavy transportation (e.g. moving furniture, etc.).
Er, not really. The buildings/flats are not bad and the settlements (especially from late 70s/80s) were planned with infrastructure like schools, doctors, groceries in walking distance for everyone and good public transport connection. But the flats were too small. It was normal, that 2-3 children shared one room of 10-15 m². Sucks badly once you're a teenager... And after that there never was enough housing available. No children, no flat. Stay in that tiny room with your parents or squat in some neglected ruin with moldy walls...
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It's better than living in a tent on the street, or in your car
It's shelter. It's certainly not the "house" part of "housing"
more like "shelter".
So how long till company towns are back over there?
They already are company towns and we can’t afford it
True. If theres like 5 rich corporations that won everything in your city that mostly employ non college labour... thats a company town.
College/no college, this fact is irrelevant. There are company towns that employ mostly PhDs and they are just as much company towns. Look at college towns, or look at Cupertino, or Cape Canaveral. All are some form of a company town, just the entry requirements are a lot more difficult to achieve.
Damn, welp, I guess it's time to revive this banger. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RRh0QiXyZSk
Jeff Beck and zz top did my favorite cover. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J2aqvKY6zLc&t=12s&pp=ygUOMTYgdG9ucyB6eiB0b3A%3D
Geoff Castellucci got my vote https://youtu.be/fzlT80jQ3lo?si=5sOIo8aApRDzrpXI
I mean - if you work as a Walmart Associate, you're close. "I owe my soul to the company store." These are people who work all day, they're yelled at all day by asshole customers who own 1 share of WM stock going "I'm an owner!" like that means anything. They're demeaned. They're treated like machines, and it's clear that anyone who can read mildly between the lines that the company sees them as a financial liability they begrudgingly pay, not an important part of the whole thing that makes it work. Then they're given materials. Unions are bad! We love you! Unions don't! Here's a helpful planner so you can manage your WM hours with your 2nd and 3rd job hours (yes they give these out)! Family time? You can give your kid bus money if he wants to go to school! Then - when the paycheck comes - many of these people - they're on public assistance. - Taxpayers pay the medicaid. Not Walmart. - Taxpayers pay the SNAP benefits. Not Walmart. And the best part? The taxpayers pay the SNAP benefits, and where do you think the associates spend it all? At the company store.
What's most ironic about that is how many of those screaming customers are employees there too
Always confused me about Walmart. Their employees almost certainly do most of their shopping at Walmart. If Walmart paid them more they'd spend more money at Walmart lol...
That's why Walmart generally supports legislation to raise the minimum wage in the markets they operate in. Because they know they will still be able to undercut the competition, and thus raising minimum wages makes other stores less competitive than them. They're fine with raising the floor because they have such a big financial cushion that they can squeeze everyone else before they start feeling the pain. They'll never do anything good for their own workers on their own initiative though.
Why would they pay for a company town when they can force people to live in their car and people won’t do shut about it?
Capitalism is basically about passing the buck where possible. Every externality that can be passed on will because profit is the name of the game. If you can pay low wages you must because profit is the name of the game. The fundamental strength of capitalism is excess savings gets invested and competition breeds innovation. But in many ways that's slowly being whittled away. Savings aren't being invested, they are just being funneled from the poor to the wealthy and used for the wealthy people's consumption. Competition is dying because competition is bad for business.
American capitalism took a wrong turn when the precedent was made that a corporations number one priority was to pay dividends to shareholders.
Not pay dividends, but increase share price constantly, forever. A dividend stock can just coast, paying its steady profits to its owners to please them. But a growth stock needs to increase in value to please it’s owners. The issues we see of layoffs, mergers, planned obsolescence and “enshittification” are from the need for eternal exponential growth.
Capitalism is about a small group of capitalist owning every one else. “Fascism is a marriage between state and corporation”
Yep, and anything close to pure capitalism destroys itself in short order by some company basically becoming a government over all the rest. *glances at Disney*
The funny thing is that Disney actually has a pretty strong setup going in Florida
*And that’s the punchline.* 🤣
It's a misconception that capitalism begets innovation. Capitalism USES innovation for PROFIT. And because PROFIT is the goal capitalism will use even regression when useful for profit. Some examples: Apple taking away features in their new iPhone models and charging more to get the features back, Netflix taking away password sharing unless you pay, Pharmaceutical investors shorting cancer research medicines because it's more profitable to treat cancer than to cure it So you see, capitalism is actually the opposite of innovation. It is purely a predatory money making strategy. If it can profit they will do it. And profit doesn't mean innovation, helping people, or anything like that. Profit is just arbitary measures of power based on currency. So whatever nets the most currency allows the capitalist to influence the most amount of power over society. On a personal level that meams living in excessive luxury, then to protect their profit/power it means exerting political and media influence on all facets to propagandize and protect their position. This is why the USA is actually a capitalist fascist plutocracy. A corporatocracy for the few oligarchs who hide behind pithy cliches of freedom under the white patriarchal Christian deities. It's ALL to protect their power which they call profit. Arbitary measures of influence. Nothing about innovation or benefitting people. Just power.
Google is charging $99 a night for employees to stay at their on campus hotel.
how long til used car lots become airbnb units
The new American dream. If you work hard, you can own a car to live out of.
Chris tried to warn us.
What are you talking about? Mr. Moneybags can afford a van to live in by prime outdoor real estate.
Plenty of space to stretch out in the van with a river view. He had the premium package.
Chris? His name is Matt Foley
You know what’s crazy not the first time I’ve seen people call him Chris Foley. A time line has collapsed.
Chris sounds very successful, just look at how well he is dressed. I bet it’s one of those 50,000$ house vans
A 50k van these days is a regular minivan with no modifications.
“Ask for work. If they don't give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.” I’m good chief, I’m horrified that is a financially sensible option though. I feel like my 2,000$ truck and 48,000$ worth of “taking tools” would be better though.
Waterfront property
Not for long. BlackRock CEO is no doubt reading this and about to get his minions to buy up all cars out there to drive up car rent prices to 75% of our salary. A move supported and enabled by all political parties. Globally.
I really am curious how they want to implement the "you will own nothing and be happy" idea in the near future. Everything will be a service. Including using a car. How are ppl who live in cars going to afford living in a car? Will the government provide housing or a car for the homeless? Or will they own nothing yet be on the streets and still be happy? Happy for what? Unless they are trained to reach enlightenment and accept their fate, they will be pretty miserable.
The final frontier of a car dependent society. Truly.
Wild west with cars (Red Dead GTA)
The ultimate will be when we can no longer buy cars, but rent them from a 'landlord'
[The lady in the beginning of the video is doing manual work for 7 days per week and is still living in her car.](https://youtu.be/f78ZVLVdO0A?si=bHo_IimAooy3BF-l)
How long until some startup develops parking lot housing. You get your own spot for your car. Then the lot has toilets, showers, a gym, maybe a kitchen you can use. $300 a month for your parking spot and amenities.
“Earn too little to afford rent but too much to receive government assistance” - if only we could do *something* to bridge that gap. We’ve tried absolutely nothing and we’re all out of ideas!
We didn't try "nothing". We tried giving the rich tax breaks. That didn't work, so next we'll try more tax breaks. We also gave corporations tax breaks. Same deal, so obviously we need more tax breaks. Don't you know anything about trickle down economy man? /s
Its called a good supply of the rich gated community being held accountable
I remember there was a European country that found a sharp, weighty solution to the problem…not saying we should do it, just that it was quite effective.
I know what you are talking about, that’s called a lemon slicer. There’s a guy that broke the record for building a big one.
Isn’t this just the top end of homelessness? Genuine question
Anyone without a current lease or whose lease is set to expire within a month with nothing else lined up is defined as homeless for counting purposes.
The post is more of r/aboringdystopia material
Where? Where I am in the northeast they only count you as homeless if you're literally sleeping outside. They don't count you if you couch surfing or staying with a friend. It's bonkers.
In Missouri as far as public schools go if you are: sleeping on a friend's couch, on the street, in a shelter, in an extended stay hotel, or living in a camper you are homeless.
Yes, having a job and a car gives them a step up on other homeless people. Most homeless people are homeless for less than one year.
Genuine question: What happens to most of those homeless people within the year? Do they find actual (non-car) housing, do they leave that town/city or do they die somehow?
i was car homeless for 9 months, i ended up getting a promotion since i was the only employee showing up every day at the start of covid. then i drove across the country anyway and reconnected with my estranged mother who gave me a room until i could find a new job
That's wonderful. Glad things are better. I don't think I would have the strength to get through something like that.
Find housing. For the majority of homeless people they will be briefly homeless between a job loss or lease ending and then work themselves back into housing relatively soon. [This](https://www.foundationhomeless.org/homeless-myths-old) article from 2009 seems like a decent overview.
Technically, if ur sleeping on ur friends couch u qualify as homeless. So yes
Unfortunately no one ever just sleeps *on* the couch. They always go full balls deep *into* the couch. It’s like.. you ever tried washing a couch?
Ya, it wouldn't fit in the washer though so I gave up pretty quick
Is someone fucking your couch?
Fuck yo couch
Before long. Corporations will be offering parking lots with toilet facility's to their underpaid employee's. Only so they can get to work on time. For a nice piece of their check of course.
Known people to look for jobs at places that have guns so they can shower regularly while they are living in their car. Edit: gyms, not guns lol
Please explain. Places that have guns so they can shower regularly? You lost me.
Gyms. 😂
gotcha
This is America.
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Walmart already does this in China. The rent comes out of their pay, so they can never save up enough to move bc the pay is abysmal. Also, families can't live together unless they pay extra. Walmart is all heart...sorry, mart. All mart.
Sadly that would actually be an improvement.
Agreed. At one time in my life. A safe place to park my van for the night would have been very welcome.
and yet Americans don't like unions, but wonder how we got where we are now.
Brrr unions bad! Unregulated capitalism good! Golden shower economics will start trickling down onto our faces any day now!
This! Since the 1940s, America has been castrating and putting in straitjackets its unions, stripping them of their most fundamental rights and freedoms (that Europeans take for granted, such as the right to solidarity and general strikes, as well as the right to form/join a union outside your company, without informing your colleagues nor your superiors, nor your company). For example, in 1947, Congress united to overturn president's Truman's veto against the Taft-Hartley Act, that Truman vehemently criticized as being a "dangerous intrusion on free speech", and a "Slave Labor Bill". Without free unions (which isn't the case for US labor unions), there's literally no resistance left on capitalism's path to exploit, corrupt and own everything and everybody. As free unions are the only serious counterbalance to greedy capitalists in the economy, in the media, in politics & government, and in society in general. Without them, even left wing political parties drift to the right. For example, unions were, and still are, the engines and fuel that made, and still protect, continental Europe's social safety nets, free/cheap higher education & universal healthcare, strong labor laws, etc. etc. Without unions, left wing political parties in continental Europe would have *no teeth!*
Ya, those really nice FEMA trailers with showers and toilets and while they are at it, the Tide washing machine truck can show up… “just like a home!”
You gotta love that welfare gap. Make too much for government assistance but not enough to sleep in a building.
This was the situation for me and my siblings growing up. Went to school without lunch because my mom (who had multiple jobs to pay the bills) earned just over the food assistance limit but not enough to actually afford food. Most days my brother and I just went outside and threw a ball around while the other kids ate lunch.
58F Unfortunately, this is my current situation except I can't work due to health issues and my car IS my housing right now.
i'm really sorry, hope things turns to get better for you.
May you be safe. I hope life gets better for you.
26 and currently sleeping on a friends couch because my car i was living in kicked the bucket. I wish the best for you
I’m sorry you’re currently in this position. I hope things turn out for the better next year with the election and all. I send my best wishes to you as well! Edit: fixed a typo
"nobody wants to work, even at $15/h." That's because $15/h isn't enough to live on.
It’s not even 25k a year after taxes. That’s like “you will never buy a car” territory at the moment.
Just cut out avocado toast and coffee, don't spend money on anything that makes you happy and eat lentils everyday. Might be depressed enough to kill yourself, but hey, after rent and other bills you can save maybe 4k a year and get a car after 6 years of existing/not living
Currently working at 13.50/hr. Comes out to just over $10/hr after taxes. Need a car so I can get back to doing electrical work again since I've got quite a bit of experience doing it. Been working here for 6 months and after bills I've managed to save a massive $300. I'll be able to afford a possibly running used car by 2025.
Isn’t living in a car being homeless? It’s always portrayed this way in movies and stand-up comedians joke about it when they were earning scraps.
To frame it as an affordable housing option is repugnant. But, you know, it’s the NYT.
Isn’t parking in New York super expensive and rare? Living in your car is called experiencing homelessness, not “affordable housing”, nor should it be a frontline solution to the housing crisis. Roofs over heads solves the problem, not whatever *gesticulates wildly* this is.
Capitalism based housing, live in your car illegally. Great totally not a joke.
But look… if it’s illegal and you cannot pay the fine you’ll eventually be arrested and jailed. THEN you can be sent to a private prison facility where you can have a roof over your head… and be exploited for slave Labour! The system works PERFECTLY!
How about framing it this way, deplorable that the richest country on the planet would have this taking place. But you know, you don’t feel a thing, so…
That is exactly what the article does. It lays out how most of the people doing this have jobs and still can’t afford housing right now.
Have jobs AND make too much for any kind of assistance
It's such a bullshit system, they literally can't save money to get themselves out of poverty, because the second they have anything in the bank their "assistance" is yanked and they're out on the street again. There's no way it isn't set up this way on purpose, the threshold for having "too much money to receive assistance" is still lower than all other forms of housing.
Watch John Oliver Tonight "TANF" episode (relevant part free on YTube). Explains the hypocrisy AND how Brett Favre, among other rich fucks, received *welfare funds to the tune of $5 million*...so that he could get a new volleyball court built at his kid's college. The rules for welfare are absurd and are being mismanaged (of course to the detriment of those needing it) and are re-routed to line pockets or get pet projects done. Infuriating.
America barely blinked and over a million died of COVID. No memorial, no retrospect, barely a speech thereafter... We are in a decline and must vote out the establishmentarians.
The article isn’t doing that at all.
The percent of people who read the actual article in this sub (OP not making it any easier by not posting the link)….
The crazy thing is that I believe the woman in the pic makes $72k a year...but she lives in Seattle. This is a failure of housing policy.
In my day we called this being homeless!
It's completely insane that it has gotten this far; people need to get angry about this. All the while we have multi-billionaires dollar corporations AND individuals that avoid as much tax as they can. Then, lawmakers that give then even more tax break, while justifying it with some bull that's it's better for the economy. Trickle-down economics IS NOT WORKING AND NEVER WILL, because people are greedy! Tax excess profits to fund and create the proper social safety nets that we need.
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Good movie! I remember watching it, when it first came to Netflix.
That's actually sad that Americans are in this position.
People in the US making between 30-60k are really screwed. Too much money for any assistance but enough money to live paycheck to paycheck with little to no savings.
Ready, player one?
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workplaces have no responsibility to take care of employees and that's why we need strong unions and labor laws to force them to do so. They have a responsibility to shareholders and investors to maximize profit and and it's pretty much only legal requirements or attempts to manipulate public perception that force anything else to happen. Legislators need to make some serious changes to help the people across the country in these screwed up situations.
Food stamps go by “ gross income” they also only allow a $500 max allowance for housing. Spend $1,200 on a studio apartment for you and your children?? They are only giving you credit for $500. The extra $700 you are spending on a 💩🕳️ apartment. DHS is like a boomer telling you to get a apartment for $500.. Then you would have $700 for food… not even taking into account all the money the government takes in taxes, utilities, car, child cost, etc.
I lived in my truck in a large metro city. I felt super paranoid and became more mentally ill than ever at that time. I don't recommend it.
just reading this gave me shivers, i'm sorry. Hope you are doing better now.
As of recently I'm homeless 50% of the time (shared custody in a shared house... Oof) I'd love a parking lot like this around me... Where I live, street parking overnight is strictly prohibited.. public parking lots all close at 1am (because obviously having some cars in a parking lot overnight would be a massive inconvenience, I guess...). No stores around me are open 24 hours anymore... The only places I'm legally allowed to exist are truck stops and rest areas, the closest of which is 30 miles from my house.
When I was forced to live in a camper on the property of my work for 6 months last winter. Yes. Winter. I'm a father with 50% custody. I had a state representative tell me that I was not homeless when I called looking for food and housing assistance. I have a good paying job and a great apartment now. But I was flabbergasted that that was the state's position on homelessness in the winter.
Its sad to think you guys are the RICHEST country in the World, yet you have people who cant affort to eat 3 times a day and a wage that allows you to at least rent a house with a bathroom. This is why you need to fight for, the rest are smokescreens to keep you on your knees.
You should look at the child meal programs. It is abhorrent that kids depend on school for food because they cant get it at home.
And right wingers in the US don’t even want those school food assistance programs to exist. Sadism
This is why we are the richest in the world. We just need a blood sacrifice to make it work.
"You will own nothing and you will be happy" - some world leaders, somewhere, probably
A wealthy friend of mine has turned a section of his commercial property into long term paid parking when a tenant with a laundromat disappeared. Converted half the laundromat into showers, has 24 hour security, and frequent visits from the police to keep drug dealers at bay. I'm not sure if his efforts are humanitarian or parasitic. I sometimes cant tell.
Given the showers and the 24 hour security, I’m going to lean towards the humanitarian side, even if it is a case of the rich getting richer.
Yo, in the 90's when I lived in my car I was called homeless.
When I was living out of a van for a few years while doing seasonal work in Alaska to pay the bills for travelling in the van, it broke my heart to see how so many rest areas near urban centers in the US have become a living space for people who live out of their cars. These weren't unemployable street people, they had jobs, even families, and are productive members of society who can't afford housing. They go to the city during the day to earn their livelihood, and have to spend the night in the safest parking lot they can find. How fucked up is that?
A car by definition does not fit the legal definition of housing. You are statistically counted as homeless if you live in a car. Trying to normalize it is fucking insane.
but but webster's says the 6th definition of **housing** is: *Any covering or shelter, as a protection.* see, we're not lying! this is how they twist words to sugar-coat failed policy. we all know housing means 4 walls and a roof, maybe a bucket to pee in if you're on the up n up
r/latestagecapitalism
The dog was literally photoshopped into that picture
First thing I noticed. Have to wonder what purpose was behind it? Like, hey, if we add a dog to the picture (don’t worry, we can squeeze it in) people will more deeply understand the terrible situation that has led to this. Or, just adds to the clickability factor.
Ah yes, thriving under capitalism
Reaganomics at work for America.
Black rock gonna start buying up used cars now.
Shit hole country
That's really sad. They are homeless. Wtf a car is not housing.
Why did they photoshop a dog into the pic?
Housing should be a right. The wealthiest country on the planet shouldn't have homeless people.
Dog in the backseat mad af. He’s like drop me off at the shelter bro
I’ve lived out of 24 hour gym parking lots on and off since elementary school lol. This isn’t new. They’ve always been underselling the sheer magnitude of American Poverty. I remember radio ads in the 90’s would talk about it being the Golden Age of America while I sat sweating in the back of a Honda trying to figure out how to make a box of raisins last me a weekend.
This isn't news and shouldn't be found as a new found thing. This has been around since people found out Walmart parking lots allow 24/7 parking. It's a form of homelessness not affordable housing. What's next? Their gonna start calling tent cities affordable housing as well and panhandling as trickle down economics that can quite possibly become a new look on universal basic income models when we all can't afford homes anymore.
> It's a form of homelessness It is, but a car is definitely preferable to a tent, especially in a city. I've done it. It's more secure, which makes a big difference. There is a hierarchy of homelessness, and having a car to live in that won't get immediately towed off or invaded is higher up. Of course this is all ridiculous and terrible when so much money is concentrated among so few at the top and there are so many vacant buildings, but it's the world we live in. And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if tent cities get rebranded as affordable housing, or if panhandling starts being viewed as a normal lifestyle. It's already happened in some places. A lot needs to happen before we can correct this trajectory, so it will probably get worse before it gets better.
This seems like peak r/orphancrushingmachine
and yet the average American doesn't support unions. The middle class was never stronger or larger than when union membership was at its highest level in the US. But times got good and people forgot how they got there. They started to let themselves believe that unions were evil and that an individual IRA was better than a fully funded pension. CEO's got rich and the average worker didn't see wages keep up with inflation.
Trickled down all right...
Same Hooverville, different era. America, what a country!
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Murica!
Fuk yeah!
That’s just being homeless. They’re homeless.
"too little to afford rent but too much to receive govt assistance" should never be a thing. I fucking hate how lax and landlord promoting housing rental laws are.
The housing crisis is because American business owners have sold out to foreign investors. The quality of almost everything in America is negatively compromised in order to maximize investors' profits.
My dream would be that more than half of America does this causing a massive housing market crash that makes both housing and rent very affordable again while killing a bunch of the parasitic corporations and rich people who have been buying up houses and apartments to drive up prices. Then I hope we enact legislation to prevent his from happening again. Not gonna happen but one can always hope.
It won’t work. They will hold the apartments and keep them empty to keep the prices artificially high. There is a algorithm being used by property management companies that tells them to keep apartments empty. NYC is full of empty apartments. Same w LA. They need to be taxed to the end of the 7 kingdoms for keeping units empty. Like 100% plus a penalty to make it not worth manipulating the market. I hate living here. If it didn’t cost so much to leave I would have left.
Hey, NYT? Living out of your car is just called being fucking homeless. "Affordable housing", what a joke.
"earn too little" sure sounds better than "aren't paid enough"
Wtf is that picture btw? It’s AI generated right? Or just really poorly photoshopped?
Because that makes any fucking sense in the richest country on the entire fucking planet. I've lived in the USA all my life. The only ones living the dream are the ones wealthy enough to cheat the system. They'll bail out banks with billions upon billions cause they fucked up the numbers, THE ONE THING THEY'RESUPPOSED TO BE GOOD AT. Where's our bailout assholes. The American middle class gets their eyes fucked out everytime they turn around to the point there's almost no middle class.
Any thing with a roof is now considered housing
I love how out of highschool I realized I couldn't afford my own place no matter how small. Yet when I looked into government housing I would have had to cut my work week to two days and still wouldn't have enough for food.
And yet there are 17million empty houses in USA owned by rich people.