The American dream feels impossible for many young voters, who see no political fix

[Toddsterpatriot]

Actually, if you are playing the long game it absolutely does.

Playing the long game works much better when you buy at market prices than when you buy at 20% over market prices.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

When Hombre and I married we were poor as church mice--would be considered what is now the nation's most disadvantaged--and government resources of any kind to help were pretty much non existent. Many times we hocked my accordion to have grocery money until the next paycheck.

Most, not all of our friends, were pretty much in the same boat. (The farmers and ranchers or those from affluent homes were all much better off, but the rest of us did not resent them in any way but just counted them as lucky.)

But we 'poor folk' pooled resources, shared meals, made our own fun, raised our babies together, and count that as some of the happiest times of our lives. None of us expected to be able to afford a new car or to buy a home until we were at least in our 30s or 40s. But it never occurred to us that we would remain poor. And none of us did. We all went on to work ourselves out of poverty, buy homes and that first new car, to acquire a comfortable living for us and our children.

Ours was a healthy productive society, when people expected to earn what they had, did not expect instant gratification or anybody but themselves to take care of them.

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I love your story. My dad owned a 120 Bass Castiglione and after he passed, my mom occasionally needed to hock it to feed us.

I also remember once eating KFC with homemade biscuits for Christmas dinner because mom worked there and could bring home food that hadn't sold. I remember the occasional time that the store had to overhire when they had a one-day special, and I'd go and work a day to make some extra money.

Might not have been the best of times, but the memories are good.

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[Woodznutz]

Everyone charges "what the market will bear".

Obviously.

Not me. I kept my rents below market and remained nearly fully rented, 96 percent occupancy over 18 years. Vacancies will kill you even if you charge what the market will bear.

I manage a 50-unit apartment building. The owners charge what the surrounding market is. Because of this we are carrying vacancies of our highest priced apartments for months and even a year or more. My boss just doesn't understand that being fully rented at lower rents is more profitable. Fewer turnovers, less work, more profits. I did the math on our current vacancies. The rent lost is staggering.

 

[Oddball]

I was referring to the economic and societal damage they are doing to the people.

Doesn't matter to them....ROI for them and their fatcat oligarch bag men is all.

 

[Oddball]

Did they get wealthy playing the long game in 2007?
Or did they overpay and lose money?

They got bailed out.

Win-win-win.....And you lose, Buckwheat.

 

[teddyearp]

Millions of new illegals a year, I wonder why rent is higher?
Millions of new illegals a year, I wonder why home costs are higher?

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! I started a thread in Economics about just that. It is the 800 pound gorilla in the room that the left is never, ever, ever, ever, going to admit to. It was pretty hard to build one home in 2021 with lumber quadrupling, let alone say what, 10 million new n=homes for the 20 million new Democrat voters? Wonder why Newsom let the Palisades burn and now is planning on low rent housing? Gotta have a place to put all those imported illegal alien voters gardeners, housekeepers, hospitality workers, ag workers, right? And that is from the Democrats mouth, they see the illegals as their low paid work force who will also vote for them for the next hundred years, to quote LBJ.

 

[OODA_Loop]

It a sad state of affairs but of the two presidential choices Trump continues to offer the best hope at economic growth.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

They got bailed out.

Win-win-win.....And you lose, Buckwheat.

Hedge funds who lost money after 2007 didn't get bailed out.

 

[Blaster]

I am a young person that has achieved the American dream because I'm motivated and not afraid of hard work.

 

[Woodznutz]

It's a lot less about having the shiny toys than we're more-or-less forced into the financing grifts, in order to try to protect what little value things have in the here and now.

It's all a product of accepting the Fed's worthless debt-based commercial script as "wealth".

That's why converting some of it into durable, useful, assets is so important.

 

[Oddball]

That's why converting some of it into durable, useful, assets is so important.

That's also why the hedge funds are converting their loot into real estate, while it still has some value.

Then when the big margin call comes, they have both that AND the cash flow.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Not me. I kept my rents below market and remained nearly fully rented, 96 percent occupancy over 18 years. Vacancies will kill you even if you charge what the market will bear.

I manage a 50-unit apartment building. The owners charge what the surrounding market is. Because of this we are carrying vacancies of our highest priced apartments for months and even a year or more. My boss just doesn't understand that being fully rented at lower rents is more profitable. Fewer turnovers, less work, more profits. I did the math on our current vacancies. The rent lost is staggering.

The owners charge what the surrounding market is. Because of this we are carrying vacancies of our highest priced apartments for months and even a year or more.

If apartments are vacant, he's trying to charge more than the market will bear.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

That's also why the hedge funds are converting their loot into real estate, while it still has some value.

Then when the big margin call comes, they have both that AND the cash flow.

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Real estate and metal.

Yep.

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[Woodznutz]

I am a young person that has achieved the American dream because I'm motivated and not afraid of hard work.

How rare that is. Back in the day I knew a guy (leather jacket type, drove a motorcycle). When I found out that he just bought a house I was floored. The guy was 21 years old and had worked full time as a baker from the time he got out of high school. Recently married as well.

I was about two years out of high school when a classmate of mine (along with his brother) bought the apartment building my brother was living in and one next door to it. He was barely 20 years old.

About four years out of high school I bumped into a girl from my class who informed me that her and her husband had just bought their fourth apartment building. Once again, I was floored.

I never saved a nickel until I was about 30 years old. I pissed it away on wine, women, and rock 'n roll.

 

[Oddball]

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Real estate and metal.

Yep.

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Right...But metals don't cash flow.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

Right...But metals don't cash flow.

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Sure they do. About 9 months ago, they, cash flowed me into a new furnace/AC and exterior paint job.

And I'm also hovering at about $30K plus where I was when I made those transactions.

.

 

[Oddball]

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Sure they do. About 9 months ago, they, cash flowed me into a new furnace/AC and exterior paint job.

And I'm also hovering at about $30K plus where I was when I made those transactions.

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Cashing them in at a profit isn't ongoing cash flow.

 

[Monk-Eye]

" Allegiances To Us Citizens Through An American School Of Economics For Harmony Of Interests "

* Nothing Against Capitalism Rather Against Absence Of Personal Volition *

Leave it to the hack-a-rama to spin this as a critique of "capitalism".

The economic libertarian ( economic liberal ) lives in a vacuum of self infatuation , that attributes all economic gains to its own acumen ,while discounting and dispatching any involvement or contributions of any others who are perceived to be exploitable for optimal gains .

Where government is considered by economic libertarians to be oppressive and inefficient at addressing general welfare , when will personal volition of the economic liberal own up to addressing the general welfare before general welfare is perceived by economic authoritarians ( economic conservatives - socialists - communists ) to be the responsibility of government ?

Should social conservatives extend its calls for moral impunity to include economic liberals against its avarice and greed ?

 

[Woodznutz]

The owners charge what the surrounding market is. Because of this we are carrying vacancies of our highest priced apartments for months and even a year or more.

If apartments are vacant, he's trying to charge more than the market will bear.

We're competing with brand new apartments and amenities that we don't offer, so yes we're overpriced. We also have limited windows to fill vacancies as college students are our main market. If we don't fill in August the next window is semester break in January, then spring, then August again. It used to be that if we could show our apartments they would be rented, but at these prices the students aren't even looking. Price matters now more than it did in the past.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

Cashing them in at a profit isn't cash ongoing flow.

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Tell me this winter when I'm basking in the glow of a brand new furnace.

And then tell me when, in human history, metals stopped being used as tender for any debts. Now, tell us what that represents, from then until now, in the percentage of human civilization.

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