The Number Of Americans Living In Their Vehicles “Explodes” As The Middle Class Continues To Disappear

by | Aug 2, 2018 | Headline News | 72 comments

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    This report was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse

    If the U.S. economy is really doing so well, then why is homelessness rising so rapidly? As the gap between the rich and the poor continues to increase, the middle class is steadily eroding. In fact, I recently gave my readers 15 signs that the middle class in America is being systematically destroyed. More Americans are falling out of the middle class and into poverty with each passing day, and this is one of the big reasons why the number of homeless is surging. For example, the number of people living on the street in L.A. has shot up 75 percent over the last 6 years.  But of course L.A. is far from alone. Other major cities on the west coast are facing similar problems, and that includes Seattle. It turns out that the Emerald City has seen a 46 percent rise in the number of people sleeping in their vehicles in just the past year

    The number of people who live in their vehicles because they can’t find affordable housing is on the rise, even though the practice is illegal in many U.S. cities.

    The number of people residing in campers and other vehicles surged 46 percent over the past year, a recent homeless census in Seattle’s King County, Washington found. The problem is “exploding” in cities with expensive housing markets, including Los Angeles, Portland and San Francisco, according to Governing magazine.

    Amazon, Microsoft and other big tech companies are in the Seattle area. It is a region that is supposedly “prospering”, and yet this is going on.

    Sadly, it isn’t just major urban areas that are seeing more people sleeping in their vehicles. Over in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, many of the homeless sleep in their vehicles even in the middle of winter

    Stephanie Monroe, managing director of Children Youth & Family Services at Volunteers of America, Dakotas, tells a similar story. At least 25 percent of the non-profit’s Sioux Falls clients have lived in their vehicles at some point, even during winter’s sub-freezing temperatures.

    “Many of our communities don’t have formal shelter services,” she said in an interview. “It can lead to individuals resorting to living in their cars or other vehicles.”

    It is time to admit that we have a problem. The number of homeless in this country is surging, and we need to start coming up with some better solutions.

    But instead, many communities are simply passing laws that make it illegal for people to sleep in their vehicles…

    A recent survey by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP), which tracks policies in 187 cities, found the number of prohibitions against vehicle residency has more than doubled during the last decade.

    Those laws aren’t going to solve anything.

    At best, they will just encourage some of the homeless to go somewhere else.

    And if our homelessness crisis is escalating this dramatically while the economy is supposedly “growing”, how bad are things going to be once the next recession officially begins?

    We live at a time when the cost of living is soaring but our paychecks are not. As a result, middle class families are being squeezed like never before.

    A recent Marketwatch article highlighted the plight of California history teacher Matt Barry and his wife Nicole…

    Barry’s wife, Nicole, teaches as well — they each earn $69,000, a combined salary that not long ago was enough to afford a comfortable family life. But due to the astronomical costs in his area, including real estate — a 1,500-square-foot “starter home” costs $680,000 — driving for Uber was a necessity.

    “Teachers are killing themselves,” Barry says in Alissa Quart’s new book, “Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America” (Ecco), out Tuesday. “I shouldn’t be having to drive Uber at eight o’clock at night on a weekday. I just shut down from the mental toll: grading papers between rides, thinking of what I could be doing instead of driving — like creating a curriculum.”

    Home prices are completely out of control, but that bubble should soon burst.

    However, other elements of our cost of living are only going to become even more painful. Health care costs rise much faster than the rate of inflation every year, food prices are becoming incredibly ridiculous, and the cost of a college education is off the charts. According to author Alissa Quart, living a middle class life is “30% more expensive” than it was two decades ago…

    “Middle-class life is now 30% more expensive than it was 20 years ago,” Quart writes, citing the costs of housing, education, health care and child care in particular. “In some cases the cost of daily life over the last 20 years has doubled.”

    And thanks to the trade war, prices are going to start going up more rapidly than we have seen in a very long time.

    On Tuesday, we learned that diaper and toilet paper prices are rising again

    Procter & Gamble said on Tuesday that it was in the process of raising Pampers’ prices in North America by 4%. P&G also began notifying retailers this week that it would increase the average prices of Bounty, Charmin, and Puffs by 5%.

    P&G is raising prices because commodity and transportation cost pressures are intensifying. The hikes to Bounty and Charmin will go into effect in late October, and Puffs will become more expensive beginning early next year.

    I wish that I had better news for you, but I don’t. We are all going to have to work harder, smarter and more efficiently. And we are definitely going to have to tighten our belts.

    Many middle class families are relying on debt to get them from month to month, and consumer debt in the United States has surged to an all-time high. But eventually a day of reckoning comes, and we all understand that.

    The U.S. economy is not going to be getting any better than it is right now. So it is time to be a lean, mean saving machine, because it will be important to have a financial cushion for the hard times that are ahead of us.

    ***

    Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is publisher of The Most Important News and the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.

    GetPreparedNow-MichaelSnyderBarbaraFixMichael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years.Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream

    If you want to know what is coming and what you can do to prepare, read his latest book [amazon text=Get Prepared Now!: Why A Great Crisis Is Coming & How You Can Survive It&asin=150522599X].

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      72 Comments

      1. American Middle class was destroyed under NAFTA in a few decades, as it shipped all the manufacturing jobs over seas, and all it takes is a few generations to pass, to destroy their entire wealth base. The Globalist want slaves they can control. The Globalist deserve death. Every last one of them.

        Always seek the truth and expose all of these cockroaches. And stop buying into phony propaganda like that feckless piglet Sgt fraud who hides behind his costume.

        • Nafta and Gatt , you are correct it destroyed America middle class.

          • I live in a town of 35,000 people. Since Nafta, we have lost our paper mill (1200 jobs) two industrial plants (1100 jobs) and countless small business that catered to the big plants.

            Our city is trying to replace the lost industry with retail sales, but those jobs don’t pay shit.

            Middle class blue collar workers are a thing of the past.

            Our biggest employer in the region is the school district and the city government. That blows….

            • Yeah but look at all the trees that got saved.

              • After we become homeless, the next day we’ll be moving into one of the scum politician’s mansions cause I’m gonna kill them and their family and whatever security they have. Promise.

            • Funny thing about replacing factories and mills with RETAIL…. Hard to find shoppers when you’ve shipped all the jobs, along with their paychecks, to China !!!

        • Tariffs and protecting US industry was the income producer and cornerstone of US policy until the globalization craze with was in effect the great sell out of the USA.

          “Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

          • Protectionism made the US great and that was well understood.

            “Protection of our own labor against the cheaper, ill-paid, half-fed, and pauper labor of Europe, is … a duty which the country owes to its own citizens.”
            Daniel Webster

            “The wealth … independence, and security of a Country, appear to be materially connected with the prosperity of manufactures. Every nation … ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply. These compromise the means of subsistence, habitation, clothing, and defence.”
            Alexander Hamilton

            “Free trade results in our giving our money … our manufactures and our markets to other nations. … It will bring widespread discontent. It will revolutionize our values.”
            William McKinley

            “Open competition between high-paid American labor and poorly paid European labor will either drive out of existence American industry or lower American wages.”
            William McKinley

            • Wise words. And lessons that need to be relearned–the hard way it seems.

              • “Free Trade” abolishing indigenous manufacturing was portrayed as a “new and improved” idea never before considered. In reality it was looked at and abandoned for the USA when we had leadership from both party’s that while disagreeing with methods still worked at bettering the nation from their perspective. “Free Trade” is intrinsically linked to globalism / one world goals that are not necessarily in the benefit of the USA and its population. Summing it up, “If you support Free Trade you support selling out the USA”. Its that simple.

                • But you see we’ve replaced manufacturing with financial services, which has made the nation as a whole much wealthier. It’s the poor and middle class’ own fault that they didn’t have millions invested in the stock market when the wealthy elite began the process of destroying our manufacturing base for fun and profit.

      2. Death to the Globalists and Marxists. And all totalitarians.

      3. China is more of a problem than you think. They compete for our US grown food. The biggest pork producer in the US is owned by China Chinese are coming in and buying up US real estate then raising the rent. Locally the average wage income is not enough to rent the average apt any more. Land lords are extremely greedy trying to rent to Calif refugees who come here with lots of money and are used to Calif prices Illegals are taking up welfare money and public housing. Working Americans are being left on the street as a result. Working homeless are hounded from camp site to camp site. They are expected to die and solve the problem in reality

        • United states IMPORTS 50% of its food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
          Russia is a major food EXPORTER. Times have changed.

          • “Communist” Marxist China is Rothchilds Cabal. Has been for a century or longer. ”’censorship”’ seems you can’t really tell the truth anywhere. Not the whole truth?

        • Yep a war has been successfully waged on the middle class. And it so happens that the middle class was largely white folks. Im convinced that a cold war against whites is being waged on the entire planet. Look how they try and demonize the Russians. Granted the Russians may have bad leaders. So what the USA has bad leaders also. Having bad leaders don’t make the citizens bad. Look at the terms the left and media use to describe those whostand in the way of the agends. Deplorables, Fly over country ect. Any white person who votes Dimocrap is a Race Traitor and A enemy what is left of the making producing middle class

        • I think you will find Tyson chicken is actually the largest pork producer in the U.S.

        • Cencorship? Gee which are the ‘tagged words here’.
          China = Rothchilds & Cabal Talmudic Marxist, Communist Empire. Think of how through the back door for a century they have stolen, confiscated, manipulated the US of TECH, Food, military, and are purchasing up America and now burning them out of their homes strategically and thefting all wild lands through Agenda 21/30.
          It has been in the makes for a very long time. It is just so horrific that most of us can’t wrap our minds about how evil they are and will be. Read “Hellstorm”, “The Bad War”,or Watch “The Greatest Story Never Told (youtube). There is a Russian movie called the ‘Chekist’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_RSDqBn0bA this is what is coming if people don’t wake up.

      4. I have been visiting this web site for quite a spell. I first dropped in when JOG was getting ready to leave. I don’t comment a lot and usually don’t feel a need to unless maybe I’ve had a cold one or two. I have posted under a couple of names. In looking around the internet it is quite noticeable how the attacks have increased on anyone who posts that is not part of the usual few who spend a lot of time on the computer and even some of them.
        Mac, I hope you are making a good living at this but it must be tough to get up in the morning and try to field stories to try and get things started. I wonder how things would change if everyone who posted had to post a verified current photo as well as an, at least approx. address. I think back on the poster Eppe who attempted to get posters in his area to meet. That went over big.
        Also, I think there used to be maybe only one lead story per day, or maybe a couple. I don’t think most readers will bother to do anything but skim over a multi paragraph story and race to the comments section.
        My small family group has the resources, land, and skills to survive most situations. No matter how many posts I read and how many guns we have there is a limit to prepping. Oh wait. I think this site has progressed beyond prepping articles at this point.
        I think that maybe keyboards have a lot in common with automobiles. Ever notice how many people are really rude behind the wheel but when you meet them on the sidewalk they are much more considerate?
        I will check in from time to time but if the story doesn’t interest me I will move on.

        • Exactly. This is about keeping the fear going and the money rolling in. Everyone is being played, both sides. This is not a prepping site anymore, this is a site now designed to keep people in constant fear.

          • Live life with no fear.

          • For me the constant fear went away when I had 2 years worth of supplies. And now with even more, the culling of the soddomites will be a speed bump? No! The prepers will just suffer less?

          • If by fire,flood, hurricane, you had no choice but to live in tent or car. Seems one of those all wheel drive minivans with stuff tied to the roof, might have advantages? Problem is little ground clearance. Bring back the AWD Astrovan. With 4 inch lift. Short tires make more power. Solar panels on the roof .An portable ice maker. A TV. And lots of movies. And the other stuff ,Lay down a 20 gallon water barrel And gas barrel? Cover as bed or benches syphon everything. You can get about 15 to 20 Amps of panels on the roof , 2 or 4 deep cycles, but I wonder if starting batteries put out faster so maybe charge faster? 3 deeps and one starting ? With 15 amps a crock pot is probably the lowest draw cook thing? 15 amps will charge 4 batteries at almost 4 amp charge per battery? A 4 amp charger takes how long to charge a big battery? Ameriseal flat stopper , 8 ply tires, Good pump and plugs, Put expensive oil in all the differentials . AWD needs the good stuff. And having a small light weight trailer thats maneuverable down dirt roads, or disabled traffic areas , driving the shoulders , or railroad tracks.? for more water and?.

        • If I had to let folks know what I look like and exactly where I live. I wouldn’t post anymore. Im more afraid of pissing some irrational mental case or Bible Thumper than I am about being on some kind of list.You know I have animals and even species of the same kind don’t always get along. They fight and establish a pecking order. Some are just naturally mean. I once had a billy goat that tried to beat up and rape everything. The nanny goats even where terrified of him. Rodney King asked cant we all just get along? The answer is no it isn’t possible we cannot get along. And as the nation and planet’s society’s continue to deteorate and regress There will be more and more dissagrement and fighting. I actually haven’t any desire to live in harmony with cull parasites. I enjoy a argument on the internet especiall when I know im right LOL.

          • good post, old guy!

        • we would never have known eppe died if he hadn’t put a bunch of us together and talking to eachother. i enjoy talking to some of the others from time to time still. who was that ass that made eppe die of a heart attack, again? i can’t even remember his name, but he sounded an awful lot like the blowhard that’s still on here.

          • BTW, i think eppe added a LOT to this website with his always joking around….i miss him, and i hope y’all haven’t forgotten him.

      5. It’s not just greedy landlords. Are there some. It takes four months rent on one of my properties just to cover the taxes. Another two to keep up on maintenance. That leaves six months to cover cost of initial purchase and renovations. It will be several years before I even begin to ” profit” from that property. So it’s not just greedy landlords. It is companies that want to pay 1990 prices for goods and services including employee costs. Rather than passing on profits to employees, and the constant rise in taxes…hey I got an idea let’s vote for that millage to fund….. whatever you ate voting for more taxes! That are often double or triple for landlords so guess what they have to increase rents ..think about that before you decide to give more money to the schools that are wasting money, the roads that are broke and clogged or the 4hers who don’t know how to market and sell their products…

      6. There is a connection between homelessness and drug abuse.

        The CIA has been accused of being the main drug importer. Even the Queen Of England has been accused of being involved. During Vietnam drugs came back in the caskets Of dead soldiers and then wound up being pushed on college campuses.

        Versace was murdered by a jealous man. Other accounts have Versace involved with Organized Criminals laundering drug money through his business, getting pressured by them to pay all his taxes. Cunanan, the alleged murderer, was found dead in a building owned by a crime boss.

        If you want to stop Globalism, and end homelessness, perhaps you might want to start with teaching your eight and nine year old children that the guy who offers him drugs is going to show up some day. Take him to a homeless camp so he can understand where drugs take people.

        With all this said, I am well aware that not ALL homeless are drug addicts. But that is besides the point I’m trying to convey.

        _

        • People choose to be homeless.

          Most are drug addicts.

          Next time you see a homeless person, offer him a job of mowing your yard or some other labor job. They won’t do it.

          • I worked with the homeless dude. They don’t all choose that lifestyle.

          • JS, in my area most of them are either druggies or drunks. I see them all over town standing on street corners with their cardboard signs saying things like, “homeless, hungry, anything will help” or whatever. I’ve seen very few that would take any kind of job. The number of homeless in my area has increased in just the past 2 years. It’s all I can do to avoid them. I don’t give them anything because all you’re doing is supporting a drinking habit or drug habit.

            • In Virginia, I’ve seen quite a few panhandlers over the years. Only once when I offered food (an apple or some such) was it accepted. They only want the cash for their nefarious habit.

              • I know some who for whatever reason don’t have the IQ to survive in a complicated society without good management. Some from years of malnutrition,muscles and bones are deteriorated to the point that even light physical labor is something they can’t do day in day out. Malnutrition has aged them faster? But from my observations 70% of them get food stamps and ,high ( finding ) and trading .

          • A lot of famous people have spent some time out on the streets. Hitler. Kurt Cobain. Jimi Hendrix. Many of the leaders of the ’60s movement.

            “There are an estimated 553,742 people in the United States experiencing homelessness on a given night, according to the most recent national point-in-time estimate (January 2017). This represents a rate of approximately 17 people experiencing homelessness per every 10,000 people in the general population.” — The National Alliance of Homeless People

            Twenty-percent — 20-percent — of the total homeless population in the United States are veterans.

            Most didn’t choose homelessness. Most came from broken families and no social safety net that families and friends normally use to provide in times of crisis.

            Many lost faith in the lies the rest of us accommodate our lives to. The homeless do not possess a normalcy bias common in the rest of the general population.

            Problem is once you loose faith in your family, society, your culture, your country, you never get it back. Most homeless, if they get off the street and rejoin humanity, they are just hanging on by a thread.

            It’s like recovering from mental illness, a nervous breakdown, depression, alcoholism, drug abuse. Except you never do.

            If the force that drove them to homelessness before comes back they usually resort to the next level of homelessness — Suicide. Hitler did. Except Hitler tried to take the whole world with him. We will most definitely see more Hitlers in the future. Kurt Cobain did. Jimi Hendrix did.

            • Watch Hellstorme.

            • Watch the documentary, Hellstorm.

            • Or , The Greatest story never told.

      7. One way to get in the middle class, and stay there, is to marry the right person. I married a smart, frugal, upwardly mobile woman, who is responsible for our joint success. We raised up four youngun’s and mostly, they’re doing good. Some, more than others. I did my part in the marriage until time and health caught up with me, but that didn’t hold her down at all. I’m still able to pitch in with money and ideas and financial strategies. We have demolished a lot of debt, and managed to save real money. My tidbit of advice today is that if you’re still using a debit card, close it, and use cash with a daily budget. You might be surprised to find you have money left over from the budget at the end of your pay period, and you can use it to pay down debt, save, or put in some kind of investment where your money works for YOU. Be creative. And if all you do is put it in a safe place and save it, inflation may gnaw at it alright, but you’ll have something for a rainy day. And stay out of debt where ever you can.

        • Good advice, Sean if you marry the wrong person it can set you back years, as I know all too well. I have managed to get past that, and do well with little debt as possible. Cutting up the debit card and credit card(s) is a good idea.

      8. This is news? OMGosh…. this has been going
        on since 1960’s. Our govmt has been pretty
        much on a ” middle class will support us”, logic.
        Keeping every one in their own class was the goal.

        Except with Reagan, the mob bosses ran the
        country. Unions, and the likes of them decided
        who picked up the tab…or who to PAY, EXTORT, or ROB.
        They lived high on the hog….. while companies went
        bust….and the working man busted his butt to keep
        up the lifestyles of the “MOB”. TPTB, and Demoncrap party.
        They buried their competition.

        Now they do it with drugs….since the old ways… and
        resources have dwindled.

        The Republicans needed resources so some went
        “Demoncrap Lite.” Which we now have a majority.

        Most of DC now lines the bird cage with the
        Constitution they took an “OATH TO PROTECT”,
        which means SQUAT TO THEM, now.
        The exceptions are the FREEDOM FIGHTERS
        like MARK MEADOWS.

      9. Too many people fail to comprehend the differences between wanting something and needing something..Live below your means and you’ll be ok..Try living like the “Jones’s” on today’s average wages and you’ll end up being exactly what this article is about..

      10. If I were unfortunate enough to not be able to afford rent or a mortgage, I would invest in a self sufficient RV and get an older commuter car, set it up for towing, and move on.
        Get out of the city, stay out of camps. There is enough “stuff”
        out there that if you can be flexible you can live quite well. Now if you are incompetent, mentally ill, or a druggie, this advice won’t help, but then you would not be reading this.

        • When I first moved to the DC area with my then young son, I gave serious thought to renting a boat. It was much cheaper than an apartment, and of course, it would always have a view. Two things stopped me: leaving my son as a latchkey kid until I got home and cats (they don’t do water much). It took a while to find something I could afford although I had a couple of friends who didn’t mind having me around since I fix things or make things.

          • I owned a 45 foot sailboat. I had to rebuild it( one of my skill sets, boat building) but a marina can be a very expensive place to live. Unless you know what you are doing, a boat can be very dangerous, and you can’t just call 911.
            If my wife didn’t get sea sick I’d be in Alaska enjoying the summer and fishing right now and making plans to spend time in Patagonia.
            But alas I’m on the hard in Hawaii.
            P.S. Cats do fine on a boat.

      11. When I was a young man, living in a VW van or an old school bus was the Liberal Hippie Back-to-Nature thing to do. Getting rid of all the material trappings that kept you from natural, holistic, drug addled bliss.
        Now they call it “poverty”
        I sure with the Liberals would make up their damn mind.

        • In the ’70s you could pick-up a brand new pick-up truck for half of what a new car cost. That ended as soon as the car companies caught on.

          Pretty true of everything. Anytime there is a good deal to be found Capitalism exploits the crap out of it.

          Scooters. Motorcycles. Boats. Anything that had formerly been on the out-skirts of the main economy was swept in.

          Diamonds are another. They use to be a great store of value. Handed down from generation to generation. No more. They have been over-produced. Their value has fallen. To offset the crash of value of diamonds the same people who brought you fake news introduced fake diamonds — Cubic Zirconia.

      12. More tax cuts for the wealthy won’t help the situation. It’s hard sleeping upright in a car. A nation that doesn’t care about citizens being homeless has no regard for anything besides their own personal enrichment. That describes both political sides to a tee, so the public majority have zero representation from a clearly predatory capitalistic fascist government. The warhawks want their World War 3 and are determined to go forward towards that goal, it appears nothing can stop them. In reality not enough people are even trying seeing as how the police state murder citizens without any provocation. The people sleep while the noose is tightened. A widespread collective response is needed now more than ever though it is very difficult to organize with all communications spied upon, people won’t attempt to organize in private because snitches always infiltrate. Things will get worse until any effective response is near impossible. Methodical gradual tyrannical subjugation is the gameplan and it’s working.

      13. One more time and emphatically…the reason is wages are unable to keep up with inflation due to globalism, Free Trade, Feminism, and defecit spending. Additionally we have no money, only currency based upon wishful thinking and empty promises and dumb looks by Congress.

        A blue collar worker in 1990 could easily make a base pay of $35,000 plus decent benefits. The equivalent due to inflation is $65,000 not including benefits.

        YET…the median household income ie more than one person…is $55,000. Two people cohabitating are making less than one male breadwinner in 1990.

        This is an inescapable dilemma that Congress and the President is not addressing. And you can’t raise wages by such a staggering amount without a monumental stagflation happening.

        The only solution is debt forgiveness to pay down mortgages and student loans gradually to bolster net worth and stability without raising wages. This will greatly help ALL and make the American economy robust and rock solid as when you are debt free, you suddenly have economic power.

        That helps food security as people then have more disposable income due to less debts, it decreases homelessness, it makes marriage more stable, etc.

        True political empowerment results from paying down debt. What happens is people are no longer on the lowest tier of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

        • Debt forgiveness would not help me.
          I am completely debt free, owning my home and vehicles.
          I paid off my mortgage the “right” way… making good on my promise to the lender.

      14. “And thanks to the trade war, prices are going to start going up more rapidly than we have seen in a very long time”.
        I think the one sided trade war that China has been waging on us for 30 years is what got us here!
        Now that we are hitting back maybe the middle class will have jobs to buy things with. You cant even buy cheap Chinese stuff with no job!

        “and consumer debt in the United States has surged to an all-time high. But eventually a day of reckoning comes, and we all understand that”.

        I pray that this time the Day of reckoning comes to those who MADE the loans. Don’t bail the banks out!

      15. Snyder makes the remark that the trade wars will make homelessness worse. When it was the removal of Tarriffs that destroyed the Middle class blue collar manufacturing. You need to realize that nothing was ever built or fixed without making a mess or collateral damage. I the long run unless we get SHTF WROL the Tariffs are going to be very positive for the making producers. Trumps new hats are green & have the logo Made in America.

      16. For me the constant fear went away when I had 2 years worth of supplies. And now with even more, the culling of the soddomites will be a speed bump? No! The prepers will just suffer less?

      17. “Barry’s wife, Nicole, teaches as well — they each earn $69,000, a combined salary that not long ago was enough to afford a comfortable family life. But due to the astronomical costs in his area, including real estate — a 1,500-square-foot “starter home” costs $680,000 — driving for Uber was a necessity.”

        How about an 800 square foot starter home? That’s the first house I had. Or how about a used mobile home? That was the first home I owned. It was paid off in just three years.

        These people are expecting to have everything at the start of their careers, whereas their grandparents had to work up to what they have.

        Maybe they should move. They might make less in KY or TN or NC, but the lower housing costs would more than make up the difference.

        Oh, and Snyder is still wrong about the tariffs.

        • Archivist, AMEN they should get out of Cali. They can definitely come to TN where I’m at They will make LESS money but their cost of living will be MUCH LOWER than Cali. It’s hard for me to see the tariffs being positive for our people.

          • I’ve given some thought to getting a spot in TN for a retirement home and a place to have space for a garden, quilting, my floor loom, my attempts at woodworking, etc. Anything I like to do seems to require space…well, more than I have in this shrimpy townhouse. Any recommendations for an area to consider?

            • East tn is wonderful, away from the tourist traps. We are loving our 5 acres, and have built it up to a regular littlehomestead.

            • Lake Cumberland area in Kentucky, huge lake with a thousand coves, surrounded by hills.
              Looking to get away from interstates? Pike County in far eastern ky and the entire area are the farthest away from interstates in Eastern America and in Appalachia. Also not too cold half the year like upper Appalachia.
              Look at the eastern third of ky on a relief map, nothing but thousands of hills with the largest in Harlan county.

        • They would make about the same in Kentucky as teachers, maybe more.

          Here they could live pretty good, cheaper homes, electricity, etc. Compared to California they would feel wealthy.

      18. Seems no matter what emergency, motel rooms are totally booked for miles around? Practicing and finding out a system if you had no choice but to live in your car, might mean you will suffer less? Camping equipment in a duffle bag in the trunk?

      19. People living in their cars? But. But. We are in a recovery?

      20. Forget NAFTA. The US sends $40b per year to Israel. That’s why there are so many homeless.

        • Got that right Molon Labe, and (((THEY))) interfere in our elections, every single one of them. Did you know 9% of the US Congress are Dual Citizens? Like they give a crap about America, their loyalty is to pillage America for their original country’s benefit. Need to Kick AIPAC out of America for good. As they Blackmail 30% of Congress to get that $38 Billion in slush fund welfare money to then use to destroy America for their sole benefit. Makes NO Sense. Death to all Traitors foreign and domestic.

      21. How many tissues are in a box of Puffs now? Most companies have no problem defending a price increase but they remain silent when they shrink a product.

      22. I’ve got 18 homeless people living on my property, including an infant and an alzheimer’s patient. I am doing what I can to help. None of them are drug users and all of them help out with the gardens and orchards and such. One family has saved up enough to buy a property and will be moving next month. A small success, but some progress.

      23. Don’t you love all those Billionaires and Millionaires that have so much money and are so generous with it that so many look up to them as Heroes!!!!!!!

        It is a good thing that there starting to do head transplants so that they can live much much longer!

        Luke 16:19-31(NIV)
        The Rich Man and Lazarus

        19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

        22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

        25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

        27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

        29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

        30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

        31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

        • Thank you for the scriptures. That inspired me to open up e-Sword and read some more in Luke. Humans are really no different now than they were then.

      24. If things are going well for you and you can afford it, buy a hearse and not a two-passenger sports car. Plenty of room in back to stretch out. A quality sleeping bag and a pillow and you’ll be fine. If you die, it will help cut the funeral costs. Every successful investor should get one for when SHTF happens.

      25. There are many panhandler alcoholics and several of them are indigent veterans. Unlike drug abuse, alcohol has 7 calories per gram compared to 3.5 per gram for carbs, and 9 grams for fat. So alcoholics can live on it exclusively for short periods of time. But this has disasterous long term health effects like esophageal varices, massive kidney and liver issues, heart problems, and can easily cause early onset dementia. Of course it can induce psychosis or withdrawl can too.

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