I live many multiples of that lifestyle annually, and I only have my investments to fund it. I don't really know how much income that is, but it's plenty. I think the big difference is I don't have kids. Many/most people assume they have to cover their expenses, save for retirement and leave a big inheritance for their kids. Not needing to save for the last part lets you live pretty fast and loose with money.
Guessing Redscare. Also curious to see what conference you’ll be at, though part of me hopes I can someday give you the DC Insider Tour before you become too much of a known quantity.
The 90s and early 2000s were certainly a better time in terms of the affordability of essentials, and above all the cost of rents and homeownership. Some things, like travel and technology, have absolutely gotten more accessible, but that leaves us now in this weird paradox where the average person can afford a flight to Europe (I took one a couple weeks ago) but still struggle to find a housing situation that doesn’t eat up a huge portion of their income. obviously many leftists see this as symptomatic of late stage capitalism but I wonder if it’s a state of affairs they’d actually have predicted.
Federal Reserve printed 40%+ of all currency in existence within the first 2 years of the lockdowns. I don’t know what the figure is now but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t at least 50%+ of all money created was within the last 3 years.
Tack on the annual 3-8% increase whatever the actual increase was in terms of actual money supply and I’m not surprised that what was once easily achievable with a $100k total family income 30 years ago now requires 4x as much income.
Granted the number varies across the country but what’s being described here is at the very least a $175k-$250k per annum life for a single person and if it’s for a family then $300k-$400k is absolutely in the ballpark.
Basic goods have literally become that much more expensive. Housing, energy, food, those costs have skyrocketed at least 50%-300%+ in the last 3 years.
The last 30 years? Expect that to have skyrocketed 400%-600% for just the base level stuff apartment to rent, gas for the car, food to eat groceries.
He's describing The Simpsons, a boomer family (initially) - and a fairly close description of what was possible for them.
(early) GenX like me got their housing start in Toronto in the late 90s and it was a condo. The house was plausible in Toronto until around 2003, 2004 or so; after that, if you missed out (as a middle classer) you missed out forever.
If you take out "living in a cool place" implicit in the equation, it's still possible, but who wants to live in Kenora.
I grew up in the 80s and early 90s. What you say describes the 80s part--one parent worked for phone company as installer; the other was part time in sales for a candy co. Middle of the middle class; went to Disney often.
Left for college in 94; dad was bought out of pension and left for odd jobs it turned out, mom got injured on the job. By graduation 98 it was totally downhill.
Fracking brought some prosperity back to Ohio but not the same or as much.
I benefitted from being born at tail end of US unipolarity in industrial / lower skill labor. Shine was off that by my sophomore year of HS. The lifestyle of that unipolarity was ahistoric, I think.
The divergence is driven by the Fed and financialization. The real wages of labor have not gone up much over the last twenty years. But the equity markets are up huge, and interest rates are lower, which has driven up the value of real estate and almost all assets. So CEOs, private equity, VC, bankers have taken almost all the gains, and the elite absolutely know that - in every field.
Also, energy prices have gone up, and the P/E world has made many things much more expensive. Healthcare, education, concert tickets, high end vacations, etc. while the Fed claims that there is no inflation because you can buy a much larger TV.
A good microcosm of that is skiing. Vail Resorts went bust, Apollo bought it, took it public in the early 2000s. Vail has bought out other ski places, and jacked up prices. The cost of a ski ticket is much higher than it was 10 years ago. Vail Resorts makes a lot of money in real estate development, so they drive prices up for hotel rooms, restaurants, and all the stores in the ski village. What P/E did to skiing, people do in many other industries, and that's why without financial assets pumped by the Fed, everyone is poorer.
You should try to go on From the New World if you want to do an interesting podcast. Yarvin and many other of the more intellectual right have been on such as Tinkzorg and Hanania.
I wasnt a home-owning family man in the 90s but instead I was a postcollegiate downtown NYC slacker.
My first rents (if I recall properly) were:
in 1990 a 2-bedroom apt on Ave A across from Tompkins Sq Park was around $1100 or so (watched the first Wigstock from my window! woohoo);
then same year: a 2-bedroom on the much-nicer Bank St in the West Village was maybe around the same price;
then in 1992 I rented a 1-bedroom on 1st Ave and 4th St for $800.
(All these would be a major steal now, even inflation-adjusted.)
Up till the late 90s I lived a pretty nice life in Manhattan on a $25k salary, with enough loot for rent, grungy clothes food & girls, plus super-cheap drugs readily available on a stroll to Alphabet City.
NYC was a paradise for the young & louche but then came Guiliani and his "crack skulls first, gentrify next" clean-up strategy, and then the true death knell arrived with Sex and the City, when an army of suburban girls colonized NYC to live out their TV fantasies.
All I have left is nostalgia, a few scars (physical and mental), and a glorious schadenfreude knowing how lucky I am to have grown up before the onset of the dismal 21st century.
First.
You’re going to be on Lex Fridman?
Let me guess:
Conference in Europe: somewhere in Hungary, France or Italy
Very popular podcast: Redscare pod
We have this lifestyle. My parents combined make about ~100k. Though I did pay for my college(scholarships and loans).
I live many multiples of that lifestyle annually, and I only have my investments to fund it. I don't really know how much income that is, but it's plenty. I think the big difference is I don't have kids. Many/most people assume they have to cover their expenses, save for retirement and leave a big inheritance for their kids. Not needing to save for the last part lets you live pretty fast and loose with money.
I had this lifestyle growing up starting in 1998. My parents did not have a combined income of 400k
Guessing Redscare. Also curious to see what conference you’ll be at, though part of me hopes I can someday give you the DC Insider Tour before you become too much of a known quantity.
The 90s and early 2000s were certainly a better time in terms of the affordability of essentials, and above all the cost of rents and homeownership. Some things, like travel and technology, have absolutely gotten more accessible, but that leaves us now in this weird paradox where the average person can afford a flight to Europe (I took one a couple weeks ago) but still struggle to find a housing situation that doesn’t eat up a huge portion of their income. obviously many leftists see this as symptomatic of late stage capitalism but I wonder if it’s a state of affairs they’d actually have predicted.
Federal Reserve printed 40%+ of all currency in existence within the first 2 years of the lockdowns. I don’t know what the figure is now but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t at least 50%+ of all money created was within the last 3 years.
Tack on the annual 3-8% increase whatever the actual increase was in terms of actual money supply and I’m not surprised that what was once easily achievable with a $100k total family income 30 years ago now requires 4x as much income.
Granted the number varies across the country but what’s being described here is at the very least a $175k-$250k per annum life for a single person and if it’s for a family then $300k-$400k is absolutely in the ballpark.
Basic goods have literally become that much more expensive. Housing, energy, food, those costs have skyrocketed at least 50%-300%+ in the last 3 years.
The last 30 years? Expect that to have skyrocketed 400%-600% for just the base level stuff apartment to rent, gas for the car, food to eat groceries.
He's describing The Simpsons, a boomer family (initially) - and a fairly close description of what was possible for them.
(early) GenX like me got their housing start in Toronto in the late 90s and it was a condo. The house was plausible in Toronto until around 2003, 2004 or so; after that, if you missed out (as a middle classer) you missed out forever.
If you take out "living in a cool place" implicit in the equation, it's still possible, but who wants to live in Kenora.
I grew up in the 80s and early 90s. What you say describes the 80s part--one parent worked for phone company as installer; the other was part time in sales for a candy co. Middle of the middle class; went to Disney often.
Left for college in 94; dad was bought out of pension and left for odd jobs it turned out, mom got injured on the job. By graduation 98 it was totally downhill.
Fracking brought some prosperity back to Ohio but not the same or as much.
I benefitted from being born at tail end of US unipolarity in industrial / lower skill labor. Shine was off that by my sophomore year of HS. The lifestyle of that unipolarity was ahistoric, I think.
The divergence is driven by the Fed and financialization. The real wages of labor have not gone up much over the last twenty years. But the equity markets are up huge, and interest rates are lower, which has driven up the value of real estate and almost all assets. So CEOs, private equity, VC, bankers have taken almost all the gains, and the elite absolutely know that - in every field.
Also, energy prices have gone up, and the P/E world has made many things much more expensive. Healthcare, education, concert tickets, high end vacations, etc. while the Fed claims that there is no inflation because you can buy a much larger TV.
A good microcosm of that is skiing. Vail Resorts went bust, Apollo bought it, took it public in the early 2000s. Vail has bought out other ski places, and jacked up prices. The cost of a ski ticket is much higher than it was 10 years ago. Vail Resorts makes a lot of money in real estate development, so they drive prices up for hotel rooms, restaurants, and all the stores in the ski village. What P/E did to skiing, people do in many other industries, and that's why without financial assets pumped by the Fed, everyone is poorer.
You should try to go on From the New World if you want to do an interesting podcast. Yarvin and many other of the more intellectual right have been on such as Tinkzorg and Hanania.
I wasnt a home-owning family man in the 90s but instead I was a postcollegiate downtown NYC slacker.
My first rents (if I recall properly) were:
in 1990 a 2-bedroom apt on Ave A across from Tompkins Sq Park was around $1100 or so (watched the first Wigstock from my window! woohoo);
then same year: a 2-bedroom on the much-nicer Bank St in the West Village was maybe around the same price;
then in 1992 I rented a 1-bedroom on 1st Ave and 4th St for $800.
(All these would be a major steal now, even inflation-adjusted.)
Up till the late 90s I lived a pretty nice life in Manhattan on a $25k salary, with enough loot for rent, grungy clothes food & girls, plus super-cheap drugs readily available on a stroll to Alphabet City.
NYC was a paradise for the young & louche but then came Guiliani and his "crack skulls first, gentrify next" clean-up strategy, and then the true death knell arrived with Sex and the City, when an army of suburban girls colonized NYC to live out their TV fantasies.
All I have left is nostalgia, a few scars (physical and mental), and a glorious schadenfreude knowing how lucky I am to have grown up before the onset of the dismal 21st century.
He's wrong
Yes your productivity is through the roof, I was wondering if it was some post flu energy burst.