Post: #51

(12-30-2018 03:43 PM)MrLemon Wrote:  With all respect to your comment, I don't agree with one point. I don't think you can accept the situation.

Think of it this way. You have China and India taking 50% of your earnings every day and transferring it to their economies to feed their poor people, while American poor are dying.

You're telling people NOT to complain about it? Fuck that man. You SHOULD be complaining. You should be ready to wage war. If you aren't ready to wage war, then I'm sorry, you are cattle and the USA is a dead nation.

If I believed the USA was worth saving, I'd agree with you. I think it's past that point now, and no amount of warmongering on my part will save it. People here are fundamentally disconnected from reality. I love the USA for what it stands for, but having been abroad I know it's not the only show in town.

If I believe it could be saved, or someone could present me with convincing proof that it can be saved, I will gladly change my opinion. As it stands right now, part of my business model includes making a hefty percentage of my earnings from the Chinese and Indian middle classes.

That is how I chose to react, rather than complain that they were taking my 50%. Now, if you can tell me that we'll make the United States great again and can present me a convincing, action based plan to do so? I'm onboard. Let's do it.

Such a plan doesn't exist, and though I admire Trump's efforts to change that, he can't counteract the reality that the majority of this country just doesn't care, or even worse, has no idea at all. You want to talk about cattle? That's what you should be looking at.

Post: #52

(12-30-2018 03:59 PM)n0000 Wrote:  In part the opportunities are not there anymore, but a large part is that Americans are horrible with money. Square footage per person has more than doubled in the last 50 years which leads to higher housing prices. I see plenty of people driving brand new, feature rich cars that they can't really afford and talking on brand new iphones. You can buy a reliable car for $4000 and a used cell phone on ebay for $60 and $15 per month for the service. There is so much wealth in this country it is unbelievable. All you have to do is get a reasonable job and control the spend side of the equation by being smart.

This is a very good point. I would also add to "Things I would tell myself"

If/when you buy your own house, don't be tempted with all the extra space. That's space you need to fill with furniture and shit. It's extra square footage that costs money on taxes, heating, and cooling. My current house is more than I need, only benefit is that when it comes time to sell it will go very quickly due to the demand for single family homes in my area. But for a first time homebuyer I'd say strongly consider a condo or townhouse and be honest with how much space you really need. And only buy if you plan on being in that spot for at least 3 years, preferably 5.

Post: #53

(12-30-2018 05:14 PM)Veloce Wrote:  

(12-30-2018 03:59 PM)n0000 Wrote:  In part the opportunities are not there anymore, but a large part is that Americans are horrible with money. Square footage per person has more than doubled in the last 50 years which leads to higher housing prices. I see plenty of people driving brand new, feature rich cars that they can't really afford and talking on brand new iphones. You can buy a reliable car for $4000 and a used cell phone on ebay for $60 and $15 per month for the service. There is so much wealth in this country it is unbelievable. All you have to do is get a reasonable job and control the spend side of the equation by being smart.

This is a very good point. I would also add to "Things I would tell myself"

If/when you buy your own house, don't be tempted with all the extra space. That's space you need to fill with furniture and shit. It's extra square footage that costs money on taxes, heating, and cooling. My current house is more than I need, only benefit is that when it comes time to sell it will go very quickly due to the demand for single family homes in my area. But for a first time homebuyer I'd say strongly consider a condo or townhouse and be honest with how much space you really need. And only buy if you plan on being in that spot for at least 3 years, preferably 5.

Buying a single family house and renting the rooms out to cover your mortgage is a really smart move. I know several people who have reduced their housing cost to $0 using this method.

Post: #54

I make 130k per year and save a little over $4,000 per month. I dont know what it feels like to be broke or not have plenty of disposable income.

Post: #55

This thread has some awesome advice. One thing I will add that should be a no-brainer that many people don't think about is the credit card trap.

Most people don't pay off their credit cards in full every month. And, banks and credit firms are vying to get you into debt. As your credit score goes up, you get access to tons of credit, and they are hoping that you make a dumb decision and then have to pay 20% a month in interest. As a 25 year old kid, I have over 100k in available credit, and they are hoping I slip up (I won't.)

If you look on your statement and look at how long it will take to pay if off on monthly installments, you will be looking at an eternity. I had a 3k bill the other day that would have taken 50+ years to pay off with minimums. This is fucking retarded.

You can game credit cards IF and ONLY IF you pay them off monthly, and preferably use them on expenses that are netting you income in return. So, if you are running ad dollars that make you 1.5 or 2x your money, put that on your amex and pull in the miles. Your annual fee on these cards is peanuts to what you can get in rewards for traveling, accommodation, experiences, etc. You can use these rewards because these companies make a killing on the 60% of people that don't pay off their bill in full every month. This also saves you a ton of money when you go elsewhere. I got a $400 flight for $65 in taxes just recently, and you can definitely find even better deals than this on business class airfare.

Don't fall into this trap and you're going to be far ahead of most.

Post: #56

(12-30-2018 05:24 PM)Axel99 Wrote:  I make 130k per year and save a little over $4,000 per month. I dont know what it feels like to be broke or not have plenty of disposable income.

Let's see, you make 130k and save 50k. I'll assume you pay around 40k in taxes, so you have 40k left to pay your expenses, that's a litte over 3 k a month. Unless you have no debts/rent/children you can't have more than 1-2k a month in "disposable income", unless by disposable income you mean income you could potentially spend but actually put into savings. Nice brag, though.

Post: #57

(12-30-2018 04:08 PM)Investment Bro Wrote:  

(12-30-2018 03:43 PM)MrLemon Wrote:  With all respect to your comment, I don't agree with one point. I don't think you can accept the situation.

Think of it this way. You have China and India taking 50% of your earnings every day and transferring it to their economies to feed their poor people, while American poor are dying.

You're telling people NOT to complain about it? Fuck that man. You SHOULD be complaining. You should be ready to wage war. If you aren't ready to wage war, then I'm sorry, you are cattle and the USA is a dead nation.

If I believed the USA was worth saving, I'd agree with you. I think it's past that point now, and no amount of warmongering on my part will save it. People here are fundamentally disconnected from reality. I love the USA for what it stands for, but having been abroad I know it's not the only show in town.

If I believe it could be saved, or someone could present me with convincing proof that it can be saved, I will gladly change my opinion. As it stands right now, part of my business model includes making a hefty percentage of my earnings from the Chinese and Indian middle classes.

That is how I chose to react, rather than complain that they were taking my 50%. Now, if you can tell me that we'll make the United States great again and can present me a convincing, action based plan to do so? I'm onboard. Let's do it.

Such a plan doesn't exist, and though I admire Trump's efforts to change that, he can't counteract the reality that the majority of this country just doesn't care, or even worse, has no idea at all. You want to talk about cattle? That's what you should be looking at.

Yeah I get it. I'm just not sure that strategy can play out the way you think. Well, what do i know? This is far above my pay grade. This is why I vote for leaders who I think will lead.

But i do think, when the US is dying, they have nuclear weapons and an army that rules the globe, and drones and black helicopters that can grab anybody, anywhere in the world at the push of a button. What do you think...that this will just end nicely? Sorry. Not going to happen. It will end with war, and as a current or former US citizen, you can and will be drafted.

I think attempting to rebuild the US economy isn't optional. Because if we go down, I promise you, we will take the human race with us. But maybe i'm being too dramatic.

Post: #58

Everyone around me pretty much spends everything they earn or get, like it will be gone tomorrow if they don't.

If they get a payrise they rush out and get a new car or house, and increase spending.

No one can pleasure delay, save or think about the future.

Lucky for me, expensive shit doesn't interest me, and I am a bit of a tight ass.

I could have the next ten years off work if I want to.

Post: #59

(12-30-2018 01:31 PM)Aurini Wrote:  The secondary effect of delayed marriage.

We all know (and it should be self-evident) that marriage serves as a powerful wealth builder. Shared rent, shared responsibilities, and the psychological comfort of having somebody waiting at home for you, all serve to increase your ability to earn income. Economists love to point out how married men earn more money than single men; part of this is because they have to. Mouths to feed at home. But we shouldn't discount how beneficial it is to have a Helpmeet at home, even if it's a modern woman.

But there's a secondary factor that occurs because of delayed marriage. We're not just missing out on the benefits of marriage - we're experiencing unique costs associated with being single.

What's the average age of marriage now, versus then? 30 versus 20? 28 versus 23? Either way, 5-10 years of one's prime working life is now dedicated to the mating market, rather than building personal wealth. The mating market involves conspicuous displays: peacock feathers. For teenagers, this means pulling stupid stunts to show off their bravery. For young adults, this means brand-name cars, shoes, and expensive restaurants.

The reason young people are compelled to blow their money on "avocado toast" isn't simply the fact that they have bad spending habits, and they're a bunch of greedy hedonists (though this is part of it). It's because they're stuck in a period of delayed-adolescence, attempting to attract a mate.

Imagine you had a group of peacocks and peahens, separated by a pane of glass. Upon sexual maturity both would begin their conspicuous displays of attraction; but because their mating ritual could never reach fruition, they never stop the conspicuous displays. Both sides are burning up calories and exhausting their life-supply, when nature designed them to use those calories in raising the young. You'll wind up with two groups of animals who are exhausted and stressed out by the time they reach mid-maturity.

For our species, the glass separator is the birth control pill. In the normal course of things, horny young people get together and pregnancy occurs: at that point, the conspicuous spending disappears, and they both reorient towards building a solid foundation in life. But for us, we're still trying to attract a mate. We're burning up all our resources in a race to the bottom - and since our competition has credit cards, we need credit cards too.

You could respond that you don't need money to get laid, you just need game. There's that homeless guy who was picking up chicks left, right, and center, whom we had a thread on way back when. And yes, this is true - I do well enough despite being a cheap bastard - but you're missing the point. The number of people who figure out how to hack the system is going to be a minority; the majority will believe what the advertisements tell them, that you need to buy brand name jeans and expensive footwear to get laid.

It's a war of attrition, and our genes are screaming at us that we need to do whatever we can to reproduce. If that means using a credit card to buy avocado toast - then so be it. The only other choice is extinction.

This is an excellent point. I'd mention another expense of trying to attract a mate that hits people's bank accounts more than an entire wardrobe of brand name clothes; living in a major city. It's well known that millennials are concentrating in big cities with exorbitant rents more than previous generations did.

There are, of course, many reasons people move to the city, but I strongly suspect this is among the most common. When I describe my struggles meeting quality women on RVF, the advice I'm given always amounts to "sounds like your location sucks, you need to be in a city." Plenty of people I know in real life have said more or less the same.

Young women, particularly those with the sort of ambitious personalities that refuse to get fat, tend to flock to cities. I don't know exactly why, but I suspect it's because they're much more prone than men to getting bored and lonely without endless human interaction. No matter the reason, it creates a horrific ratio imbalance in rural/suburban areas and forces men's hand. How many men who would otherwise have been content to stick it out in their "boring" hometown have been pushed to a major city due to utter lack of dating prospects?

The city agglomeration effect is amplified in our generation, causing many who earn decent salaries to become rent poor. Meanwhile, our grandparents were already married in their 20's and didn't need to move to a giant overpriced clusterfuck of humanity to stave off soul-crushing loneliness. They were building equity paying off the mortgage on their modest suburban home.

Post: #60

I remember moving to a town of 2,000 people. When I was applying for a part time job (on top of my full time job) the receptionist who booked in my interview was a really beautiful women. Imagine my shock, when I investigated online, that she was like 18 or something and already married to some rural hick.

Anyway I remember spending the whole summer in that place without getting any Tinder matches nor meeting any single women. To me a lot of rural places you're probably going to be an incel unless you met someone in high school or you bring a woman with you.

Edit: Also a lot of women I met in that town (not off Tinder though) were actually single moms from bigger cities who moved into this town for cheaper rent / real estate for their kids. So an already bad dating market is then flooded by a bunch of single moms with attitudes.

Post: #61

Something not yet mentioned...there are not as many consequences to being broke as there used to be. If you have nothing coupled with no income, you will be eligible for all of your basic needs to be too taken care of. In fact, having more than a few thousand dollars worth of assets will make one immediately ineligible for all of their benefits. So, the headline is a wee bit misleading as ironically a good chunk of those people essentially must live paycheck to paycheck to maintain their lifestyle.

Post: #62

Lots of good posts ITT. I think this is a complex issue, as many good points have been raised.

I got a lot of economic red pills from listening to guys like Stefan molyneux, Peter schiff. The reasons why we are earning 1/3 of what we were in the 60’s are numerous. The global elites will never relent on the feminism forcing women into the work force. Nor will they stop the mass immigration and then affirmative action policies elevating immigrants over the native population. The free trade agreements that aren’t actually free trade.

What scares me the most, is the looming currency collapse. All the “quantitative easing” under Obama since 2008 (which is just objecting billions of money from the federal reserve into the economy to stimulate it) is building up pressure for an even bigger economic collapse in the US (just wait, there will be more “quantitative easing” under trump). There will be a US dollar collapse, followed of course by the Canadian dollar, euro, British pound. With central bank-controlled fiat currency, and the ability of government to dilute the non-asset backed currency using the central banks, money has no real value anymore. We are in a period of hyper-inflation in the west, how else can you explain the prices of houses in LA, Toronto, Vancouver?

Does it matter how much money you have, when money becomes worth less than toilet paper? Fiat currency in Venezuela or Zimbabwe isn’t even good for ass wipe, let alone something a farmer is going to trade food for.

On paper my dad who is retired is a millionaire, but he eats peanut butter and walks or takes the bus to make his savings last. What does a million dollars mean anymore when the average house price is over $1 M in shithole socialist Canada?

I can understand why Roosh says he is staying in Europe because it’s 1/4 the cost of living. I would probably go there too, but I have no passive income. I have a lot of savings for my age, but the money is meaningless when the dollar is rapidly losing value every year.

We need to go back to a gold-backed currency, and eliminate all debt-based financing of government spending (this is how the USA achieved $21 trillion national debt). In fact, the whole notion of taxes is a violation of basis property rights and the Magna Carta. But this is what the globalists want, all the wealth controlled by a small number of unelected elites.

Post: #63

(12-31-2018 12:35 AM)Hypugamy Wrote:  Lots of good posts ITT. I think this is a complex issue, as many good points have been raised.

I got a lot of economic red pills from listening to guys like Stefan molyneux, Peter schiff. The reasons why we are earning 1/3 of what we were in the 60’s are numerous. The global elites will never relent on the feminism forcing women into the work force. Nor will they stop the mass immigration and then affirmative action policies elevating immigrants over the native population. The free trade agreements that aren’t actually free trade.

What scares me the most, is the looming currency collapse. There will be a US dollar collapse, followed of course by the Canadian dollar, euro, British pound. With central bank-controlled fiat currency, and the ability of government to dilute the non-asset backed currency using the central banks, money has no real value anymore. We are in a period of hyper-inflation in the west, how else can you explain the prices of houses in LA, Toronto, Vancouver?

Does it matter how much money you have, when money becomes worth less than toilet paper? Fiat currency in Venezuela or Zimbabwe isn’t even good for ass wipe, let alone something a farmer is going to trade food for.

On paper my dad who is retired is a millionaire, but he eats peanut butter and walks or takes the bus to make his savings last. What does a million dollars mean anymore when the average house price is over $1 M in shithole socialist Canada?

I can understand why Roosh says he is staying in Europe because it’s 1/4 the cost of living. I would probably go there too, but I have no passive income. I have a lot of savings for my age, but the money is meaningless when the dollar is rapidly losing value every year.

We need to go back to a gold-backed currency, and eliminate all debt-based financing of government spending (this is how the USA achieved $21 trillion national debt). In fact, the whole notion of taxes is a violation of basis property rights and the Magna Carta. But this is what the globalists want, all the wealth controlled by a small number of unelected elites.

Lets keep the globalist/elites stuff to those threads. This thread is going pretty good so far with lots of actionable analysis for everyone, especially the younger guys. There's plenty of other threads (probably too many) for the circle jerk, non-actionable content above.

Post: #64

(12-30-2018 11:35 PM)LowerCaseG Wrote:  Something not yet mentioned...there are not as many consequences to being broke as there used to be. If you have nothing coupled with no income, you will be eligible for all of your basic needs to be too taken care of. In fact, having more than a few thousand dollars worth of assets will make one immediately ineligible for all of their benefits. So, the headline is a wee bit misleading as ironically a good chunk of those people essentially must live paycheck to paycheck to maintain their lifestyle.

Also, if you're broke, I mean really broke, you'll have more free time and can get laid way more if you're about that life. You won't be getting much quality on the values side, but you can still get good looking tatted up girls with issues. Checking out, not giving a damn about finances, is a completely viable strategy for racking up numbers in the West, if quantity is the only goal.

Paycheck to no paycheck to paycheck to no paycheck can definitely pay off in bangs.

Post: #65

In America, corporations send well paying jobs to countries like China or India, or being replaced by illegal immigrants who would work for low wages and send money to their home countries. Then many politicians and economists can't figure out why wages are stagnating. When someone like Donald Trump comes along and exposes what's going on, many people get angry at him and calls him racist, sexist, fascist, bigot, etc...

Post: #66

(12-30-2018 10:41 PM)Delta Wrote:  When I describe my struggles meeting quality women on RVF, the advice I'm given always amounts to "sounds like your location sucks, you need to be in a city." Plenty of people I know in real life have said more or less the same.

Young women, particularly those with the sort of ambitious personalities that refuse to get fat, tend to flock to cities. I don't know exactly why, but I suspect it's because they're much more prone than men to getting bored and lonely without endless human interaction. No matter the reason, it creates a horrific ratio imbalance in rural/suburban areas and forces men's hand. How many men who would otherwise have been content to stick it out in their "boring" hometown have been pushed to a major city due to utter lack of dating prospects?

The city agglomeration effect is amplified in our generation, causing many who earn decent salaries to become rent poor. Meanwhile, our grandparents were already married in their 20's and didn't need to move to a giant overpriced clusterfuck of humanity to stave off soul-crushing loneliness. They were building equity paying off the mortgage on their modest suburban home.

I think there's two reasons why women flock. The first is that we can fairly assume they are more attracted to the materialistic lifestyle and convenient living. In the city, it's much easier to find everything you are looking for in daily life. Favorite restaurants, bars, grocery stores, laundromats, drug stores, malls, movie theaters, etc. Things are closer to each other, people are closer to each other, and I think women value that perk more than men whereas men are more ok with being out on their own and "away from it all". Also for materialism, the city is where you will see the nicest stuff that lures women. Small examples being clothes, purses, and jewelry.

The second reason is something I think women have more awareness of than we give them credit for. The city is typically where the best men are available. Women know the 1% are going to primarily be in big cities whether it's for doing business or living an elite life on a top floor penthouse. Women I believe at least have the initial dream of finding such a man. It can also be men to network with for their dreams. I can't imagine how big this is in a place like LA where women flock with dreams of being movie stars and famous singers, with elite men being their fastest way for them to achieve something. Men I think tend to be more realistic about their reasons for city life.

(12-30-2018 05:28 PM)TheFinalEpic Wrote:  This thread has some awesome advice. One thing I will add that should be a no-brainer that many people don't think about is the credit card trap.

Most people don't pay off their credit cards in full every month. And, banks and credit firms are vying to get you into debt. As your credit score goes up, you get access to tons of credit, and they are hoping that you make a dumb decision and then have to pay 20% a month in interest. As a 25 year old kid, I have over 100k in available credit, and they are hoping I slip up (I won't.)

If you look on your statement and look at how long it will take to pay if off on monthly installments, you will be looking at an eternity. I had a 3k bill the other day that would have taken 50+ years to pay off with minimums. This is fucking retarded.

You can game credit cards IF and ONLY IF you pay them off monthly, and preferably use them on expenses that are netting you income in return. So, if you are running ad dollars that make you 1.5 or 2x your money, put that on your amex and pull in the miles. Your annual fee on these cards is peanuts to what you can get in rewards for traveling, accommodation, experiences, etc. You can use these rewards because these companies make a killing on the 60% of people that don't pay off their bill in full every month. This also saves you a ton of money when you go elsewhere. I got a $400 flight for $65 in taxes just recently, and you can definitely find even better deals than this on business class airfare.

Don't fall into this trap and you're going to be far ahead of most.

Agreed completely. I'm a strict debit card user because of things like you said above. I'm not a splurge spender by any means, but I was always paranoid about accidentally being late on a credit card payment. However, I have a few friends in the travel rewards game, and they have encouraged me to dip my feet in. Looking for a card to get for that and take advantage of sign up bonuses. I think the obvious rules from what I've read on these should be pay your bills on time to avoid interest and do not sign up for a card where you have to spend a lot more than what you do every day to get the perks. An example would be signing up for a rewards card where you have to spend 4k in 3 months to get the bonus when you may not usually spend 1k in that time.

If used right, the rewards seem to be nice. With sign up bonuses on certain cards, I've figured out you can get about $600 in rewards after a year even if you're a minimal spender like me. That can be a round trip ticket abroad for free if you search right. I don't know about you guys, but if my plane ticket is covered, costs on the ground are next to nothing once you get there.

I'm getting a bit off topic, but the point above is to work smarter not harder when it comes to saving.

Post: #67

(12-31-2018 02:00 AM)yankeetravels Wrote:  Agreed completely. I'm a strict debit card user because of things like you said above. I'm not a splurge spender by any means, but I was always paranoid about accidentally being late on a credit card payment. However, I have a few friends in the travel rewards game, and they have encouraged me to dip my feet in. Looking for a card to get for that and take advantage of sign up bonuses. I think the obvious rules from what I've read on these should be pay your bills on time to avoid interest and do not sign up for a card where you have to spend a lot more than what you do every day to get the perks. An example would be signing up for a rewards card where you have to spend 4k in 3 months to get the bonus when you may not usually spend 1k in that time.

If used right, the rewards seem to be nice. With sign up bonuses on certain cards, I've figured out you can get about $600 in rewards after a year even if you're a minimal spender like me. That can be a round trip ticket abroad for free if you search right. I don't know about you guys, but if my plane ticket is covered, costs on the ground are next to nothing once you get there.

I'm getting a bit off topic, but the point above is to work smarter not harder when it comes to saving.

Yankee, what I do is I use my credit card for almost everything, then a month or so later, the balance on it gets automatically taken out of my bank account, as it's connected to it. That way it's an automatic process, nothing for me to keep track of. Also, this protects me from certain scams (for example I got charged several hundred dollars via fraud, and the credit card issuer simply resolved the issue). So it's basically using my cash, just making it flow through the credit card so I can get free money from them in rewards. Again, on the backs of people that do the opposite.

I don't like using credit at all, but the reason I do this is to raise my credit score so that when I want to invest in real estate, which I've done before and will do again, my credit score is beneficial to me.

Just a heads up, touch base with your bank to see what options like that are available and see what kind of rewards they come with. It's nice to get free money, even if it's not that much. The bigger benefit is allowing you to build a nice credit record.

Also, when you travel, having a credit card in addition to an ATM card means whenever you go to the ATM, you can leave the credit card behind, so in the unlikely event that you get mugged, you'll still have access to cash once you get back to your condo. Also, get the Schwab ATM card that reimburses you the ATM fees, it's a 3rd backup card for any eventualities, on top of the savings it generates every month.

Note that I don't use my credit card at all when I'm abroad, I pay for everything (on the ground) in cash. The level of credit card reader scams is higher in certain countries than back in America, so you may want to avoid using that card too often abroad. Of course if it's an online purchase, I use the credit card.

Post: #68

I disagree completely with the poster above of men leaving rural centres for cities because of women (though I can't be sure since I come from a multi-generational urban family).

The bulk of available rural jobs are agricultural. An area where we've seen not only a fourfold increase in productivity in 2-3 generations - fertiliser, better irrigation, pesticides and then the big boy GMO- but also an area which demands significantly less labour than before. 2% of America feeds 98% with vast vast surplus.

It's natural that people will flock to cities to access jobs in the service sector, manufacturing etc.

Post: #69

(12-31-2018 08:22 AM)MANic Wrote:  I disagree completely with the poster above of men leaving rural centres for cities because of women (though I can't be sure since I come from a multi-generational urban family).

The bulk of available rural jobs are agricultural. An area where we've seen not only a fourfold increase in productivity in 2-3 generations - fertiliser, better irrigation, pesticides and then the big boy GMO- but also an area which demands significantly less labour than before. 2% of America feeds 98% with vast vast surplus.

It's natural that people will flock to cities to access jobs in the service sector, manufacturing etc.

I live in Canada, and a lot of the high paying jobs are in mining or oil/gas. These jobs are generally in remote locations, smaller cities/towns. Manufacturing is on the steady decline here, as green energy policies chase away any work. Nowhere is this more obvious than southern Ontario. Edmonton, Alberta used to be known at the industrial heartland for all the petrochemical industry, now it's a green-energy, SJW/Socialist shithole that no oil company wants to invest in. In Canada, big cities are becoming public sector strongholds, with the service sector, banking, telecommunications making up the bulk of employment from what I can see.

Most women seem to flock to the big centers because women are always location-independent. A woman just needs to make enough money to get by, and is free to move to whatever coastal city makes her heart flutter and has nice views.

I live in a city of 250,000. Not the best for finding new/hot pussy, but I have a good job here the opportunities for work I have had were in places like Toronto (which is not exactly poosy paradise, it's just big) and involved a wage cut. As for the topic, I could live in a city with better options but would be forced to live on a lot less money (lower wage, double the rent). At least I can save money, am comfortable, can travel where I am.

Post: #70

Some good points mentioned earlier - doubling the workforce etc. Just my two cents - could be more coherent but I'm in a rush and have a strong prefence for speech over text

The debt trap is a really big problem. Not only for its role in promoting reckless consumption but also for its role in re inflation. Once upon a time, a mortgage was viewed as an enabler, now it's a necessity. The property market in key global urban centre's is one massive bubble still and way out of touch with reality (although some posit that real estate in major cities is the favourite parking spot of black money).

You can also not discount the role of young single migrants in the rental charade. New York, the Bay area etc. are not places for families even at its peripheries. I assume that at some points rental rates moved from "what would a family pay for this apartment?" to "what can we get all these single professional suckers to pay?"... No family = willingness to share flats and rooms = more income earners staying for the same space = more rent.

Too many young single kids flooding major cities leaving no place for regular Joe and his family or for retired Joe. The natural response to Joe Shmuck is then "F off, if you can't afford it". So you have Joe moving to a 3rd tier city where things are cheaper but the pay is dirt as most well paying jobs are in the cities.

Why are major jobs still only in NYC, Bay area etc ? Why not diversify?

Well they haven't had to, since all the worker bees have flocked to the city kicking out families etc. Google couldn't give a fuck if some programmer is sharing a flat in SanFran with 3 other engineers. They'll only move if talent isn't willing to come to them... and as for the worker shmucks?

They're overpaying, not saving enough and pretty depressed. They're also forced to push back marriage and children due to their inability to sustain a family in the city , an inability to find a decent paying job in their field outside of it and the moderate pull of hedonism.

Post: #71

^^The major jobs have been in NYC for at least 30-40 years. San Francisco Bay Area is more of a recent phenomenon...last 15 years or so.

Jobs have diversified a bit to cities like Austin, Denver, Boston, Seattle, North Carolina and Chicago.

Post: #72

40 years ago, there was still a buoyant manufacturing industry. Way more ostensibly qualified professionals with third rate degrees believing they can access top-tier jobs of they stick it out in a NYC etc.

Of course, I'm just pulling a lot of this shit from my behind. I'm not even American

Post: #73

(12-29-2018 06:32 PM)NoMoreTO Wrote:  I worked for a Bankruptcy Trustee about 15 years ago, I still remember some of the lessons.
- "All men who go bankrupt get divorced" (seems obvious now)
...

It's amazing that fathers, brothers, and friends do not warn men of this more when they consider getting married.

Post: #74

(12-31-2018 08:22 AM)MANic Wrote:  I disagree completely with the poster above of men leaving rural centres for cities because of women (though I can't be sure since I come from a multi-generational urban family).

The bulk of available rural jobs are agricultural. An area where we've seen not only a fourfold increase in productivity in 2-3 generations - fertiliser, better irrigation, pesticides and then the big boy GMO- but also an area which demands significantly less labour than before. 2% of America feeds 98% with vast vast surplus.

It's natural that people will flock to cities to access jobs in the service sector, manufacturing etc.

I did a statistical analysis on demographic breakdowns by American counties a couple of months back. It was just an informal one, but I had some interesting takeaways.

I was asking the question "Which areas have the most women? The least?" (I suppose I could isolate it down to women in the 18-30 demographic, but I'm not sure where the data is buried on my hard drive, and I'm too lazy right now; maybe I'll write a blog post about it). The information didn't surprise me, because I'm already familiar with how the sexes skew. When it came to majority-male counties, I found about a dozen that were ~80% male. I didn't recognize the names offhand, but I would presume that these were mining towns, oil towns, or prison colonies. But when I ran the numbers for the areas with the highest number of women... I think 52% was the highest I came across. These were the big cities you'd expect - I think Houston and Miami were on the top of the list - but the variations from city to city were extremely minor.

This fits with the "More nobels, more dumbels" distribution you find everywhere between the sexes. Men tend to go to the extremes - in both good and bad ways - while women stay safely in the middle.

My conclusion from all of this is that there's no point in moving somewhere because of demographics alone. There is no "pussy paradise" of 80% female residents to balance out the majority-male cities. You've got a choice between City A, with a 52.3% breakdown, or City B, with a 52.2% breakdown. It's a negligible difference, especially when you account for city culture (Toronto could be 60% women, still not worth it).

Every so often you'll read newspaper articles that try and advertise such-and-such a city as having the most women in it. The reality is that the difference doesn't matter. Ignore these articles.

***

On a historical side note, the rural/urban breakdown was 99:1 for most of human history. Over the past two-hundred years we've flipped that ratio; you now have one farmer for every 99 urban residents. Even 'rural' towns, as we think of them, would have been considered major urban centers in the past. It's an interesting development that few are aware of.

Post: #75

I think the main problems, as have been pointed before, are the debt and living below your means. But at the same time, reading through the thread, I just can't believe how good you have it in the US. Talking about 40-130k year income, so many facilities, opportunities, it's unbelievable.

I come from a 3rd world country in EE, and do you want to know what's considered a good income here? 12-15k$ a year, that's a good fucking income. And some families, with 2-3 kids, live only from that. And another fucked up thing? We have the major big corporations, with the big supermarkets, and everything, but the prices? The prices are the same as in tier1 geos. So imagine having to live with that.

I am a young guy, 23 years old. Do you want to know what all my peers are thinking about? Move to another country to manage to put some scrapes aside, and to make a living, or get a 500-800$ monthly job here, getting abused in every possible way. You talk about people buying expensive cars on a debt, we take a debt to buy those 2nd hand used cars from you.

One of the main advantages though is that real estate is way more less expensive than in the US, but with 12-15k annual income, how do you think you can afford to buy one? So yeah 40% of the population, take credits to afford a home, and they are gonna be debt burned all their life, just to repay that fucking apartment, because houses here are a luxury in big cities, mostly for the rich(if you don't come from the poor villages). And don't let me tell you about the quality of the apartments, built with the cheapest materials, just to make a profit.

The main thing I've learned from my father, is to never take on debt. My father came from a really poor background, having 12 siblings, barely having anything to eat. By the time he was 12 years old, his father made him sell honey by the railway so he can pay rent just to stay in his father's home. He used to steal food from colleagues in school, so he could give it back to his siblings. He had to work hard his entire life, travelling abroad working for years so his family could have food on the table, considering my mother didn't work a single day in her life.

I remember when I started highschool, I only had 1 outfit to wear every single day.(I remember one day even wearing my mother's jeans, because I literally had nothing to wear) My father was re-investing all the money he was making, and we only had the basic necessities. After beeing mocked at school by my classmates every day, one day I got the courage to go to my dad and ask him for some money to buy new clothes, because I never even had the courage to ask him for money. He told me, if you want money, you have to work for it, so he had a plantation of strawberries on a field, and he brought me on a weekend to work for 10 hours. I remember I was exhausted, every worker from there was laughing at me, at how my father makes me work for him with the other workers. At the end of the day, my father gave me 15$, for 10 hours of working the field in the sun. I remember beeing so mad, breaking my back 10 hours only for 15$, I couldn't even buy myself a pair of sneakers. That was the moment I knew that I would never do this again, and that in life if you don't create something for yourself, nobody will help you. I've made my father a promise that day, that I will have more money in life than he ever will. And do you know what he told me? Maybe on the moon. I remember clearly, that was the breaking point for me, as soon as I got home, I went to my computer and searched for: "how to make money online".

7 years fast forward? Now I have my own business, employees, live alone, properties, my own car, without a single help from my parents. I've worked my ass off, every single day, while others were partying, I was reading and reading, most of the nights falling asleep on the keyboard. It was a hard journey, I had to sacrifice a lot, from having experiences with girls, going out with the guys, going to parties, etc. But I don't regret anything, because at the end of the day, I know I am a better man because of it.

My whole point is that, this new generation is pussified. They don't really know what hard work is, everybody is used with instant gratification because of the internet, techonology in general and social media impact on our lives. And when you also come from a poor country, your options are so limited, no wonder 99% of my peers feel so lost. It's a sad reality we live in, as someone said before, only you are responsable for your life, and you have to make the right decisions, otherwise you will be left behind.