Like he** I'm going to pay these prices! (Boston, Lexington: limousine, wage)

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by msRB311

I think the bottom line here is that no one on this forum cares that anyone in Boston is poor. They are the wealthy people of Boston (so they say) and they just think life is swell. That's all they know.

This really isn't about being poor. This kid is doing just fine. He's young, living at home for free, apparently going to graduate school, and also working part time.

I'm guessing you worked hard to get where you are, and I doubt it happened overnight. Probably struggled a bit along the way too. The OP seems to want to bypass all of that, so it's difficult to have empathy.

[msRB311]

I'm not sure what his situation is. I agree that you do need to put the work in to get to where you want to be. There may be some places in the city he'll never be able to afford to live in.

I think people get frustrated that the majority of their income goes to living expenses with not as much left for savings/retirement. I know the 300k salary crowd doesn't give this a 2nd thought but it's not easy for someone who's a teacher, social worker, office manager, etc.

[id77]

Originally Posted by msRB311

I'm not sure what his situation is. I agree that you do need to put the work in to get to where you want to be. There may be some places in the city he'll never be able to afford to live in.

I think people get frustrated that the majority of their income goes to living expenses with not as much left for savings/retirement. I know the 300k salary crowd doesn't give this a 2nd thought but it's not easy for someone who's a teacher, social worker, office manager, etc.

The 300k salary crowd also largely votes in favor of things like living wage increases, fair and equal pay, and other progressive things that are trying to chip away at this problem. They largely support tax increases to themselves to pay for these programs. Saying they simply don't care about other people is rhetoric.

The 300k crowd isn't out there trying to hose poor people or pretend they don't exist. They're in bidding wars with other 300k crowd people over getting the home they want in the town they want. Sellers want to make as much money as they can, so they cater to these buyers and their money. A teacher or social worker who bought 30 years ago in Belmont or Lexington is absolutely going to do everything they can do get as much money from their home sale as possible -- are they also not giving a 2nd thought about how hard it is for other teachers or social workers?

If you were in charge, what would you do to solve this problem?

[FCMA]

Earlier, someone suggested that only high IQ are capable of getting the good jobs to pay for Boston COL. Plenty of high IQ people out here working in lower paying fields not motivated by the money or without reasonable opportunity and privilege to reach the necessary degree. Now there’s the sentiment that you gotta put in the hard work so no empathy for the OP - yes it takes time (if ever) and he is at least well positioned through living at home and seeking more education. Still, newsbreak - everyone who works full time and up probably works just as hard as you. Not all get a salary in line with Boston COL just for showing up and “having a high IQ” suited to STEM careers like the average C-D forum posters do.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by id77

The 300k salary crowd also largely votes in favor of things like living wage increases, fair and equal pay, and other progressive things that are trying to chip away at this problem. They largely support tax increases to themselves to pay for these programs. Saying they simply don't care about other people is rhetoric.

The 300k crowd isn't out there trying to hose poor people or pretend they don't exist. They're in bidding wars with other 300k crowd people over getting the home they want in the town they want. Sellers want to make as much money as they can, so they cater to these buyers and their money. A teacher or social worker who bought 30 years ago in Belmont or Lexington is absolutely going to do everything they can do get as much money from their home sale as possible -- are they also not giving a 2nd thought about how hard it is for other teachers or social workers?

If you were in charge, what would you do to solve this problem?

I think we need more middle manager type roles...we sp have highly paid tech/bio/medical jobs where people are making the 200-300k a year. There used to be more people in admin roles, more people had secretaries, more companies had receptionists, people working in the mail room, etc. It seems like many of those roles have been removed. I guess it's good for the companies if they're saving money...but is it really good for everyone? Boston seems to have become a city of wealthy people and that's trickled over to the whole greater Boston area. It feels a bit Marie Antionette. There are a lot of service workers working in restaurants, stores, the MBTA, constructions workers, nstar who don't make enough to live in the city they serve.

It would be nice if these dripping with money tech companies had positions for people who didn't have a degree (these days the admins need degrees) also it seems like now specific departments have one admin person...which really isn't even an admin person...that seems like it should be a manager.

I think hospitals have lower level positions in admitting, it seems like many Drs and professors have admins/people who handle their schedules. At tech companies it's really only the CEO these days who has an admin. It seems like most companies start at manager where you have to have experience and at that point no one can or will work for a small amount of money. Companies no longer want to train someone, they want someone who can already do a job. This isnt helpful for someone who might want to change careers or better themselves.

Clearly no one is going to care about these people as the Boston economy is booming and continues to recruit and collect the top people in like every industry from all over the world. But the housing is overwhelming to a lot of people. Even people who stay here after college who may one day make a lot don't have the money currently.

So basically many companies have eliminated lower level positions which helped them, but not the overall people of the city of Boston.

The 300k crowd might 'notice' the poor or even lower middle class people but they sure as hell don't want to hire them or work with them. That is the real problem.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by msRB311

White flight happened before I was born. What does that have to do with anything anyways ? Should we all just feel sad and horrified forever that racism once happened in Boston ? And maybe still does happen ? What does that have to do with how expensive it is to live here?

It impacts housing costs because suburbia uses fortress zoning laws to protect housing prices and keeps them beyond the reach of lower income people. Things like frontage requirements and minimum lot size. Zoning to forbid any kind of high density housing. Personally, I benefit from it since it limits the number of children in the public school system and keeps my property taxes low. Developers use 40B to bypass zoning for apartments reserving 25% as affordable housing but it doesn't happen very often and only on garbage plots of land with things like toxic waste issues where they couldn't profitably be subdivided into single family homes.

[msRB311]

I don't think it has much to do with zoning...it's the prices. I'm not even talking about affordable housing. I dont think affordable housing is helping people at all. I do think poor people need to be responsible for themselves...you can't just sit there and expect a city to take care of you. I guess maybe I'm talking about middle class/lower middle class. I feel for people who work hard but can't afford to live close to their jobs. It seems like someone is a failure in this city if they are middle class and that's just classism. People scream and cry about racism that happened 200 years ago but there's classism that happens every day and people seem to think that's ok. It's like oh ok, well we're wealthy- we worked hard, we had opportunities that many people didn't, or we inherited money from our rich family and we can live here.

[yellowstatus]

The unfortunate truth, at least in tech, is that huge productivity gains have come from exceptionally talented small teams. Netflix in SF running circles around Time Warner and other older media companies with 1/20th the workforce is a prime example. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, take your pick.

Hiring inexperienced or entry level jobs are in many cases a detriment to performance. Rather than hurt this formula, I think it would be more societally beneficial to tax these winners and redistribute the prosperity. Income inequality is a trending worldwide phenomenon.

[msRB311]

Welp that was my solution. I think it has contributed to the wealth gap. Clearly agile high functioning teams are what is desired. I guess admin people slowed people down ? Or just made their paychecks smaller.

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by id77

The 300k salary crowd also largely votes in favor of things like living wage increases, fair and equal pay, and other progressive things that are trying to chip away at this problem. They largely support tax increases to themselves to pay for these programs. Saying they simply don't care about other people is rhetoric.

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