Comment by mrDmrTmrJ
1 day ago
What an insane article. It's almost like he hasn't read Eric Hoffer.
Mass movements arise when populations, that had had large increases in living standards, find their living standards are no longer rising. Hoffer cites something like 30% of the country is now 'middle class' and then depressions etc. set in.
Take the quote, "A society so thoroughly steeped in the work ethic and committed to the pursuit of individual achievement cannot but fail to prepare its members for any other kinds of lives."
The reality is the opposite. When work doesn't pay (i.e. when hard work can't lead to buying a condo/house and starting a family) the original premise of "work hard to get ahead" breaks. And here we are.
Any civilization where two 30 year old elementry school teachers can't buy a 1,200 sq-ft 3bdr/2bath condo for less than 30% of their income - is morally bankrupt. Aka 99% of the bay area, or DC, NYC. So people tern to idleness without the ability for work to result in personal progress.
The solutions are simple: make it easy to build housing. If you're bored, deadlift. Spend time outside. And, most of all, change our national household economics to allow ownership and family formation.
Rumors of the death of civilization have been greatly exaggerated. While it's true that failed progressive policies have ruined housing affordability in a handful of coastal metropolitan areas, it's still possible for elementary school teachers to own their own home in many other parts of the country. Try other states like Utah, Idaho, or Michigan.
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Abundance/Ezra-Klein/...
I think the issue is that elementary school teachers, like nurses and doctors, are a core job of any city or town. So it should be affordable for them to live in the town they work in.
Then you'd have to live in Utah, Idaho, or Michigan. There are good reasons those houses are cheap.
I don't understand your comment. What's wrong with living in those states?
The other solution is for the elementary school teachers in your example to move elsewhere in the country.
There’s plenty of space in America. Plenty of schools all over the country where two elementary school teachers could work and have the home you mentioned.
Your comment is based on the strange assumption that the Bay Area, DC, NYC, and other high cost of living metropolitan areas places are all that exist in America.
> The other solution is for the elementary school teachers in your example to move elsewhere in the country.
Unless no children are intended to exist in the expensive areas these elementary school teachers are moving from, shouldn’t all regions, expensive or not, be able to support teachers?
Yes all regions should be able to support teachers.
But the original comment wasn’t about supporting teachers. It was about buying a house.
My comment in reply was saying that if buying a house is so important to these teachers there are many places in the USA they can live to do that.
You can still live in nyc or the other places as two elementary school teachers in an apartment. There’s no human right that says a house (compared to an apartment) is a required part of life.