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So you have given up on your hometown? The Poor are leaving and moving west into Urban PA. The Middle Class are moving back to certain areas , although by the end of the decade the whole city should have decent Middle Class population and Families should start moving back as well. Idk why they haven't cleaned out corruption yet , Christie should target that to free up the states wasteful spending. I think you have to give Newark at least 10 more years before giving up , its going to be a tough 10 years. Up and downs and improvements and destruction but i think 10 years form now Newark will be a smaller version of its neighbor JC.
Not just Newark, I've given up on the whole state. The taxes, corrupt school system, the ****ty attitude a lot of people have. I've wanted to pack my **** and leave for awhile now. I'm ready to go to a whole new part of the country and call it "home." I don't know if Arizona is that place, but on paper it seems to be everything I want.
I'm not wasting anymore of my life on this dump of a city than I already have. Crime is going down, but 1/4 of the city lives in poverty. Booker will never do what really needs to be done in order to fix this city. He needs the poor in order to stay in office. All he does is spend money the city doesn't have, toy with stats, and brainwash kids into thinking he's dramatically improving Newark. Which isn't hard seeing how bad James was. And yet he was in office for 20 years. That just shows you most people don't give a damn what's going on in their communities here.
That is the general consensus of people here in NJ,CT,NY, its to dam hard to live here and living paycheck to paycheck shouldn't be the way as at some point you have to retire or your family dynamic is going to change when you have kids. Here is more on the subject:
That is the general consensus of people here in NJ,CT,NY, its to dam hard to live here and living paycheck to paycheck shouldn't be the way as at some point you have to retire or your family dynamic is going to change when you have kids. Here is more on the subject:
"There simply are not nearly enough jobs for everyone."
The statistics are interesting, but the diagnosis is wrong.
Part of the problem is the housing bubble (that's why incomes haven't gone up enough to keep up with housing costs, and it also means less dollars for retirement)
The housing bubble went hand in hand with a credit bubble, and a tendency towards excessive borrowing. This goes hand in hand with not saving.
Even for those who do save, the picture for future retirees is not a pretty one. The aging population means it will be harder for future retirees to enjoy the same kind of retirement as their predecessors. That's part of why pension plans are in trouble -- they are too slow to adjust to this demographic shift.
One statistic that really did stand out was that the federal worker was paid 60% more than the private sector worker. While at a federal level, this may go unnoticed (as the federal government is largely funded by borrowing and high income earners), when the same thing happens at a state or local level as is the case in NJ, the middle class could well find themselves taxed out of existence, because the middle class carry much more of the tax burden at this level.
In NJ, mortgage payments weigh heavily on recent home buyers, and even those who bought pre-bubble are faced with property tax bills that are comparable to a mortgage payment.
And all potential retirees ultimately face the fact that the population is aging, which will mean later retirements and smaller payments. The aging population will weigh on the growth of personal 401ks and public pension plans (which are still "assuming" returns above the historical norms for the stock market despite the fact that those returns are unlikely to continue, and that those are mixed stock/bond portfolios which would have lower expected returns than an all-equity portfolio)
The statistics are interesting, but the diagnosis is wrong.
Part of the problem is the housing bubble (that's why incomes haven't gone up enough to keep up with housing costs, and it also means less dollars for retirement)
The housing bubble went hand in hand with a credit bubble, and a tendency towards excessive borrowing. This goes hand in hand with not saving.
Even for those who do save, the picture for future retirees is not a pretty one. The aging population means it will be harder for future retirees to enjoy the same kind of retirement as their predecessors. That's part of why pension plans are in trouble -- they are too slow to adjust to this demographic shift.
One statistic that really did stand out was that the federal worker was paid 60% more than the private sector worker. While at a federal level, this may go unnoticed (as the federal government is largely funded by borrowing and high income earners), when the same thing happens at a state or local level as is the case in NJ, the middle class could well find themselves taxed out of existence, because the middle class carry much more of the tax burden at this level.
In NJ, mortgage payments weigh heavily on recent home buyers, and even those who bought pre-bubble are faced with property tax bills that are comparable to a mortgage payment.
And all potential retirees ultimately face the fact that the population is aging, which will mean later retirements and smaller payments. The aging population will weigh on the growth of personal 401ks and public pension plans (which are still "assuming" returns above the historical norms for the stock market despite the fact that those returns are unlikely to continue, and that those are mixed stock/bond portfolios which would have lower expected returns than an all-equity portfolio)
There's nothing we can do that will give us the kind of retirement our grandparents had.
However, keep in mind that the "standard" assumptions about pension and retirement fund growth are wrong. You will need to save much more. For example, I'd recommend that those making 80k or more max out their 401k.
Another approach would be to do very little now and cry like a spoiled baby several years later. While this strategy is much cheaper, and sometimes effective, it's risky.
One thing that can be done about aging population is to hedge bets by placing some retirement savings in places where population is still growing. It's risky to abruptly dump a huge amount of money into emerging markets, which could have wild boom/bust cycles, but when you're dollar cost averaging it could work a little better.
The government could help home owners by not trying so hard to help. If you didn't buy a house during the peak of the bubble, you've already done yourself a huge favor Keep that lesson in mind when the next bubble pops up.
How many people now here that have actually lived in Newark have confirmed what I (as a former Newark resident) have been saying?
The problem isn't the lack of funding or works projects. It's the general social morale of the city. Maybe not so much in the Ironboubnd, but for the most part, households in the city are headed by a single parent. Most households are also apathetic about things like education and fiscal independence. It's always great hearing about someone from Newark getting a full ride to Princeton or Columbia but for every kid like that there are at least 100 his age in Newark who are living the thug life.
Some people are just in total denial about Newark. They think everyone here is in a ****ed up, uncontrollable situation. Some believe that the schools are a mess because of lack of funding or resources, and everyone can be turned around like in freedom writers or something. In reality, a lot of people are where they are today, because of the decides they made growing up. Sure some are in pretty bad situations, but most people choose to be in gangs, choose to do drugs, choose to not get an education. They didn't want to change their lives badly enough. They were either too lazy or too unwilling to do what it takes to get out. They would rather blame other ethic groups, or blame where they grew up, because it's a lot easier that way. Bottom line, until you truly experience Newark and the people here, you don't really have a clue what you're talking about.
But, at the same time a lot of people stereotype those who live or use to live in Newark. Which I can understand to a certain extent. But clearly not all of us are ghetto-thug trashbags. I know I definitely am not. And I would be more than happy to prove it, if my posts haven't already. There are decent people here who do want a better life. Who want to get out, go to college, and make a honest, good living. But unfortunately they are the exception and not the rule.
The Ironbound perhaps is the most stable (financially and otherwise) part of Newark.
And there are parts of Vailsburg w/ surprisingly decent housing stock
And for those who say Newark will never change, you may simply be too young to remember. There wasn't always an nj.com reporting on a lot of the crime in the city. Newark has a super long way to go, and its movement is slow if anything, however. No one on this board is going to actively say Newark is as bad as 20 years ago.
Honestly, no major east coast city is as bad as it was 20 years ago, so that's not saying much.
Honestly, no major east coast city is as bad as it was 20 years ago, so that's not saying much.
Yes...it is. How many cities were as bad as Newark? And the subject isn't other east coast cities, it's Newark. Year '95, Newark was the #1 most dangerous US city.
Arizona is among the top ten most dangerous states. 21% of Arizona is below the poverty line (24% of Newark is below the poverty line)
Just sayin.
It's a different kind of crime and poverty. Newark is black crime and poverty, Arizona is Mexican crime and poverty.
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Keep that lesson in mind when the next bubble pops up.
