Too Damn High

The average monthly rent in my state is $3,313. The average annual income is $39,666. Let's crunch some numbers, shall we?

An annual income of $39,666 is a monthly income of $3,305.50. We can stop there. We're done. You're $7.50 short. 

Except, well, not quite. Approximately 40% of your income is taken up by income tax, social security, etc. That means your actual take-home pay is $1,983.30. So now you're $1,329.70 short. There's not a chance in the world you're going to find a place that much cheaper than the average, unless it's a refrigerator box in a gutter somewhere under a bridge. And not a very nice refrigerator box, either!

Are there any mitigating factors we can dig up? Of course. That $3,313 is the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment. So what if you get a studio apartment instead?

That's $2,765 per month. Progress! Now you're only $781.70 in the hole every month.

Except for a few minor necessities. Food. Utilities. Health insurance. A car if you need one to get to work. Fuel for the car. Forget about having a family, of course. Those are all impossible dreams.

How about a second job? If you're lucky enough to find a second full-time job, you can double up that income to $3,966.60 per month. Success! $3,966.60 minus $2,765.00 leaves you $1,201.60 for your other monthly expenses. Okay, with inflation doubling the cost of just about everything that might be a bit tight. And you're going to be pretty short of sleep. But it's at least in the ballpark of survival.

Have we missed anything? Well, $3,966.60 is the average income. God help you if you make less than that. And you'd better pray that inflation stops dead this minute, because you absolutely cannot afford any increase in your expenses. If your landlord decides to raise your rent, you're out on the streets.

Anyway, good luck. Me, I'm looking to move to a shithole in a rural state. My landlord has been raising my rent at least 25% every year since COVID ended. 

Housing is unaffordable

Housing is now unaffordable for a record half of all U.S. renters, study finds

And yet the rich, all the economists in the media, and everyone in government has no idea why so many Americans feel that the economy is shit. After all, isn't Wall Street doing great? What else do those filthy subhuman peasants WANT, after all?

I just hope I live long enough to see some of these aristocratic pricks lose their heads.

It's the economy, stupid (STILL!)

When I moved into my apartment eight years ago I was paying $1,035 a month (utilities not included). Now it's $1,895 a month. That's an 83% increase. In the same time the price of groceries and everything else has gone up by approximately 50%.

The biggest hits to rent were since the start of Covid, about three years ago. I was hit with two 25%+ increases over two years. Meanwhile my income was going up about 2% a year, which was actually considered GOOD at the time. I'm eating through the last of my financial reserves at a furious pace.

I asked around. Most people have seen rent increases in the 50% range over the past three to four years. The number of people losing their homes is through the roof.

So if the rate of inflation is slowing, that doesn't do a goddamned thing to bring down those unsustainably high prices. NPR economists keep happily announcing that the new higher prices are the "new normal", the baseline; the most we can hope for is for the rate of inflation to be maintained at a "healthy" 2%.

So basically the rich took a HUGE bite out of everyone else, pushing a lot of us to homelessness and putting the rest of us in mortal fear of the same fate. And they won't be giving it back. And that's why Joe Biden is going to lose big.