It’s a realization more and more Americans are making. Not just enlightened readers of Revolver, but also their less-informed, less worldly friends and family members. For some, the realization comes when they have kids and finally have to worry about the “local schools” For others, it comes when they retire. And for others, it’s a simple matter of taking their first international vacation since the end of the Covid era and flying through a foreign airport before returning to one of America’s abominable aerodromes. The realization goes, more or less, like this:
“Holy s***, I don’t live in a First World country.”
Sad, but accurate!
America might still be a military and economic superpower. The dollar might be the world’s most powerful currency (and we think it’s likely to remain so). America is still a country with high salaries, and coming to America is still a decent way to make a fortune, if one has the right skills and the right connections.
And yet, for the average person on the ground, America is no longer really a First World country in the sense of being a country where a high-quality way of life can be had for an affordable price. For young people, the “American dream” feels more and more like the “American scam” — an overpriced, subpar version of the old product. The median U.S. home price is more than $360,000, but in America’s “top” cities it can be two or even three times that. And what do Americans enjoy in return? Tent cities in parks and, increasingly, on subway trains.
Even in the more “affordable” boomtowns, the situation can be dire. Consider this home Revolver found in about a minute of looking.
Seven hundred thousand dollars for barely 2,500 square feet is a lot, but hey, it’s understandable in one of the nation’s most expensive and exclusive metro areas.
Except, of course, it’s not. This house is in Nashville — a lovely city in many ways, but nobody’s idea of an elite enclave. But like almost every large city in America, it seems to be priced like one. In July 2013, this house cost just $275,000. In less than a decade, it has nearly tripled in price. The listing’s opening line hints at another dark aspect of the modern American experience: It gloats about the public elementary school it is zoned in, because in America, everybody knows that thousands of public schools are entirely unusable disaster zones where white students are hunted for sport that no sane parent with means would ever allow their child to attend.
This sad reality can be shown through a brief tour around the world.
www.revolver.news
IMHO the American Dream began fading in the late '70s and '80s when it began to take two incomes to buy a house.
Then free trade kicked in and many middle class production jobs were exchanged for service industry jobs that Clinton said would replace them.....And they did but the joke was the service industry doesn't pay middle class wages......The illusion of wealth was created by free and easy credit.
Blah.....We should have taken the pain in 2008 but instead we got TARP and QE.
Of course the above speaks more to city/burb living but hell, anything within 60-100 miles of a population center is subject to such pricing now.
“Holy s***, I don’t live in a First World country.”
Sad, but accurate!
America might still be a military and economic superpower. The dollar might be the world’s most powerful currency (and we think it’s likely to remain so). America is still a country with high salaries, and coming to America is still a decent way to make a fortune, if one has the right skills and the right connections.
And yet, for the average person on the ground, America is no longer really a First World country in the sense of being a country where a high-quality way of life can be had for an affordable price. For young people, the “American dream” feels more and more like the “American scam” — an overpriced, subpar version of the old product. The median U.S. home price is more than $360,000, but in America’s “top” cities it can be two or even three times that. And what do Americans enjoy in return? Tent cities in parks and, increasingly, on subway trains.
Even in the more “affordable” boomtowns, the situation can be dire. Consider this home Revolver found in about a minute of looking.
Seven hundred thousand dollars for barely 2,500 square feet is a lot, but hey, it’s understandable in one of the nation’s most expensive and exclusive metro areas.
Except, of course, it’s not. This house is in Nashville — a lovely city in many ways, but nobody’s idea of an elite enclave. But like almost every large city in America, it seems to be priced like one. In July 2013, this house cost just $275,000. In less than a decade, it has nearly tripled in price. The listing’s opening line hints at another dark aspect of the modern American experience: It gloats about the public elementary school it is zoned in, because in America, everybody knows that thousands of public schools are entirely unusable disaster zones where white students are hunted for sport that no sane parent with means would ever allow their child to attend.
This sad reality can be shown through a brief tour around the world.
The American Dream Has Become the American Scam; These Five Foreign Real Estate Options Prove It - Revolver News
It's a realization more and more Americans are making - not just enlightened readers of Revolver.
www.revolver.news
IMHO the American Dream began fading in the late '70s and '80s when it began to take two incomes to buy a house.
Then free trade kicked in and many middle class production jobs were exchanged for service industry jobs that Clinton said would replace them.....And they did but the joke was the service industry doesn't pay middle class wages......The illusion of wealth was created by free and easy credit.
Blah.....We should have taken the pain in 2008 but instead we got TARP and QE.
Of course the above speaks more to city/burb living but hell, anything within 60-100 miles of a population center is subject to such pricing now.
