Why are the rents so high when wages don't support it? (Portland: leasing agent, insurance)

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

Am I the only one who noticed that those with the fewest resources always seem to have the latest and most expensive smart phone?

I went to the local library to see what was available to those without computers. What I found were a few homeless people checking emails. But the majority were teens and preteens surfing porn without their parents watching. And none of the homeless were job hunting.

I asked the librarian about the kids surfing habits and was informed they were not allowed to block them.

You saw teens and preteens surfing porn at the library? You should have found out who their parents were and alerted them to this behavior seeing it is their responsibility.

Also, not everything one does on the internet has to be all about looking for a job.

[EnricoV]

Sheesh. Now this thread has degenerated to what you can find on the internet besides finding a job (because it's the ONLY way you can find a job, you know)?

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by skiffrace

Did you stand behind each of those homeless and read the content of their screen in order to verify that "they were not job hunting"?
How did you identify them as homeless?

There was a sea of porn in plain view on the screens of teenagers?

Pre-teens i.e. small children, are interested in porn as well?

I would like to know the answers as well. I think that most people probably have better manners than to hover behind library patrons who are using computers to determine whether they looking for jobs.

The first thing I would do if I were filling out online apps on a public computer and noticed someone trying to snoop would be to minimize the screen. I wouldn't want some old creep knowing my name or contact info.

[blktoptrvl]

Rents are based on "What the market will bear."

It is difficult for many people to get home loans -- therefore apartments see this as an opportunity to get a higher rate.

[oldtintype]

Originally Posted by freemkt

Never heard of the $29.99 deal; their website doesn't mention it. Good to know I'm paying twice that in order to subsidize service for families getting lots of freebies.

As I've said before, a big problem with free library internet is that for low-end jobs especially, you completely miss a lot of job postings that are filled quickly if you're not online at the right time. With home internet, I can look for a job any time I'm home.

Their website does indeed mention it. Never said it was the highest speed option, but it's available.

[oldtintype]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

Sheesh. Now this thread has degenerated to what you can find on the internet besides finding a job (because it's the ONLY way you can find a job, you know)?

You're really good at twisting things to fit your bitter commentary. No one said it was the only way, but it's the most realistic way in this day and age and a significant hardship to not have access and keeps people from getting ahead. It's not a luxury.

[Leisesturm]

I think it is a luxury to have the luxury of deciding whether or not a particular commodity is a luxury or not. On the very Third World island of Jamaica where I have my origins, cellphones are not considered luxuries. Everyone has them. Computer makers like Dell have provided hundreds of thousands of tablet computers to children in impoverished African countries so they can maybe live out a different economic trajectory from their parents.

In America we have the curious phenomenon of would be Middle Class Americans living without essential services because "they cannot afford them"... ... they die because they 'cannot' afford proper dental care. They lose jobs because they couldn't afford gas for their car. They lose homes and apartments because they lost their jobs because they wouldn't ride the bus with those people and they couldn't simultaneously afford gas for the car and pay the rent.

If you work in McDonald's in NYC you make $7.15/hr and you work a 29 hour week because if you work more than that your employer is obligated to provide some minimal level of health insurance. You cannot work anywhere else because your manager will make every attempt to make your work schedule as random as possible, to the point of your not even knowing what time to report for work the next day until the next day... ... you have to pay for every neccessity ( and luxury) of life out of your net salary. The same McDonald's worker in Europe makes $21/hr and an unexpected medical emergency, the number one cause of middle class impoverishment will not ever happen because your medical expenses are paid by the Universal Health Care infrastructure. There are no premiums, no wonky websites, no hand wringing, no ideological debates. Just common sense crisis management.

And the speed and reliability of Internet access flat out nuke anything available in the U.S. America is still working on the T1 (1.5mbs) standard. Business class broadband is 1.5mps. Don't be fooled. The 10, 25 and higher bit rates advertised by the FIOS and Cable are virtual constructs that are as complicated as the U.S. Tax Code to understand but if you understand that what it means is that you don't really have 25mps except for several minutes out of every hour you would be getting warm.

I know personally, professionals who choose to live without Internet. They think it is evil and don't want their children to have anything to do with it. They live nearly off the grid usually and commute to their jobs by car, hours every day. I don't know... I think monitoring a child's Internet access is a more reasonable way to approach the unpredictability of the Internet but that's me. When parents cut themselves off from the rest of humanity except for employment they are making a selfish choice to deprive their child(ren) of essential socialization. When they keep other trappings of their fear and self-centeredness around... ... the potential for their insular lifestyle to negatively impact uninvolved innocents far away becomes a real possibility. It should not be allowed.

An SRO in a run down part of NYC is $125/wk. You can't cook, you can't use any appliance that uses more than a few hundreds watts. Not even a single ring hotplate or microwave oven. And you have to pay for this on the net income from $7.5/hr. Germany... The Netherlands... they have low wage workers making below minimum wage in places. They aren't paying the equivalent of $125/wk for a SRO because thats what the supply/demand ratio says they should pay. Intrinsic human greed and avarice is always controlled in the better places by enforced laws to protect the common good. America achieved its place at the top of the world's economies by obsolete notions of social welfare. The present decline can directly be attributed to the rise to prominence of a more Conservative ideology.

I get that a Conservative would think its the greatest thing in the world to be a Conservative, but the evidence. The real evidence of murder rates, rates of suicide, rates of random violence, rates of poverty increase, etc. etc. etc. The evidence of the decline of everything social, environmental and econoic. They just DO NOT support the assertion that being Conservative is all that good for everyone. Don't believe me?? Ok... Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands... ... just awful soul sucking places to live right? You either go out strapped or you don't make it back home alive... ... Oh I know what you are thinking ... those countries are just nanny states full of effete snobs... I'd rather take my chances with the gangbangers.... got you covered... Australia, Canada, the UK. The GINI index of the UK is probably not that much better than ours but they at least implemented UHC correctly! Paying premiums of $800/mo with a $3k deductible on a gross salary of $28,000/yr is not that great of a thing no matter what Obama says. They subsidize housing in the UK! They don't call it Section 8, and it is not stigmatized. The UK is America without the entrenched black/white racism and overt Right/Left divide and it does wonders for their overall rankings in social metrics. A debate over whether or not Internet is a luxury would be punctuated by laughter and head shaking in any of the countries I've mentioned in this post except for the U.S.

H

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by oldtintype

You're really good at twisting things to fit your bitter commentary. No one said it was the only way, but it's the most realistic way in this day and age and a significant hardship to not have access and keeps people from getting ahead. It's not a luxury.

Yeah and I don't think anyone really said home internet was a required neccesity for every person(nor did anyone say it should be provided free to poor people or anything like that)--though it's valuable enough for many of us that it's not really considered a luxury in this day and age. For my fiancee and I it's basically a neccesity since our employers basically require us to have home internet for work reasons(they just assume that most people at our level of positions would have it in this day and age). For others who don't need it for work or networking/job purposes it might be considered a luxury.

But there's lots of people who don't have home internet service for purposes of saving money. You go to a cafe or coffeshop and there's a lot of people who will stay for hours with their old laptop to use the internet all day. The library has a line of people using the internet for various reasons--and if you have unsecured home wifi in Portland, you'll find a lot of your neighbors using it for free(I had neighbors that I knew whoe were doing this and they were nice enough to just thank me with beer and food). Likewise not every poor person has a fancy smartphone--I see a lot of people lining up in Downtown Portland for the very cheap pay-as-you-go carriers like Cricket wireless. Not every person who is low on funds and income is a complete idiot who just blows every cent they have and can't figure out how to save money, there's still plenty of people who fall into the poor category(or college students or retired people on small incomes) who live very frugal lives, they just don't have much money.

Now if one can afford it, home internet is a great thing to have--and does provide an advantage in job searching(and working at many jobs) just as it's useful for students, communication, entertainment, etc... Dollar for dollar I'd say I actually probably get more out of my internet service than a lot of other expenses that could be considered luxuries. Like with my work schedule I'm not really able to take additional college courses to further my own education, but I can take online courses from home after work. I can use Skype to talk to friends/family in foreign countries for cheaper rates than calling them. And so on...

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by oldtintype

You're really good at twisting things to fit your bitter commentary. No one said it was the only way, but it's the most realistic way in this day and age and a significant hardship to not have access and keeps people from getting ahead. It's not a luxury.

Look. We don't agree. Get over it. And you might want to knock off the insults. It doesn't help the image of your moral highground.

[oldtintype]

LOL, try a mirror!