OFFS: The Forsakening

[Jadagul]

Anyone who actually wants to get into arguments over the McDonald's budget can point people to the (left-leaning) Wonkblog post on the subject. Which says that if you ignore the health care issue the budget is basically realistic. (The actually disingenous criticism of the budget seems to be that it left no space for food, when the budget had $800 for "other expenses").

[JD]

What really weirds me out is the huge number of people insisting YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY LIVE ANYWHERE FOR ONLY $600 A MONTH, AND IF YOU COULD IT WOULD CERTAINLY BE A CRIME-RIDDEN HELLHOLE. Apparently these people have never been to one of the cities in America where housing complexes actually hang signs outside advertising their low prices and virtually begging people to move in. The more stuff like this I read, the more I think the commentariat really does skew heavily coastal white-collar, and they really cannot comprehend that anyone could live differently than they do.

[thoreau]

Mitch Daniels, formerly governor of Indiana and currently President of Purdue University, tried to get Howard Zinn's book removed from classrooms:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013 ... -zinn-book

Having never read Zinn's book, I have no particular opinion on it. I've read polarized opinions on it from others, but I haven't read it myself. However, my default assumption is that historians should pick history books. I certainly wouldn't want historians picking physics books. (Though if they told us to assign Newton instead of some of the pedagogically reformed newer books I wouldn't argue...)

[Aresen]

Mitch Daniels, formerly governor of Indiana and currently President of Purdue University, tried to get Howard Zinn's book removed from classrooms:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013 ... -zinn-book

Having never read Zinn's book, I have no particular opinion on it. I've read polarized opinions on it from others, but I haven't read it myself. However, my default assumption is that historians should pick history books. I certainly wouldn't want historians picking physics books. (Though if they told us to assign Newton instead of some of the pedagogically reformed newer books I wouldn't argue...)

It would be amusing, especially if they were required to study Principia Mathematica in the original Latin.

[JasonL]

Ways In Which JasonL would be Tempted by the Power of the Dark Side:

If somone said to me "You could make Howard Zinn's stupid ass book go away," I would not sleep well.

[lunchstealer]

What really weirds me out is the huge number of people insisting YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY LIVE ANYWHERE FOR ONLY $600 A MONTH, AND IF YOU COULD IT WOULD CERTAINLY BE A CRIME-RIDDEN HELLHOLE. Apparently these people have never been to one of the cities in America where housing complexes actually hang signs outside advertising their low prices and virtually begging people to move in. The more stuff like this I read, the more I think the commentariat really does skew heavily coastal white-collar, and they really cannot comprehend that anyone could live differently than they do.

Craigslist is a pit of horror, but I was curious anyway. It's hard to sort through all the deliberatly lowballed ones trying to bait-and-switch you, but I saw a 1BR apartment for $450 including heat, water, and garbage that was in a blue-collar and probably not SUPER safe neighborhood, but one you could certainly survive in.

[Hugh Akston]

I lived in a one bedroom in the Denver 'burbs for $575/mo. I lived in a run-down one bedroom in a very nice StL neighborhood for $575/mo. I lived in a roommate situation in a decent building in a decentish LA neighborhood for $670/mo. All in the last 8 years.

[JD]

I just really don't get some people's insistence on it. I pointed out my own experience on one forum, and was promptly told either it hadn't been a major city, I must have been living in a cardboard box under a bridge, or my information was decades out of date, which comment got voted way up.

I mean, yeah, in NYC or SF or Boston, sure, it's more expensive. But all you have to do is go look on one of the many apartment-finder websites and start putting in "maximum price = $600" for Dallas, Little Rock, Ann Arbor, Spokane, Miami, you name it, and you will quickly find results. The way some people harp on the idea that $600 is unreasonable even when evidence on the matter is easily available suggests to me that there's something other than rational thinking going on here. America IS going down the toilet, the working man or woman IS screwed, McDonalds' IS being completely unreasonable, and you CAN'T live anywhere for $600 a month, and anybody who says otherwise is clearly just a corporate shill and we should refuse to look at their so-called evidence lest it pollute our eyes.

[nicole]

Shit, my friend just finished out a roommate living situation in a not-super-nice-but-safe-and-hipster-popular neighborhood here in Chicago where two of them were each paying $400/month for a nice big three-bedroom--something that would cost at least $2k in NYC. Coastal media elitism is real, and it's real stupid.

Also, though, I read through the comments earlier at Jadagul's link, and it's all so "but but but!" that it's complete nonsense. "Oh, sure, that budget might be okay for a single person, but how can you support a family of four on that? And if someone has to work 55 or 60 or 70 hours a week how is that even called living?!?" Short of making everyone solidly middle class, nothing would appease these complaints.

[Kwix]

I am in full agreement here. Prior to my move into white collar bliss I was working two low paying jobs (restaurant work) and buying a home @475/mo. Add to that two additional earners (wife and a roomy, occasionally two) and I dare say I had much more disposable income than I do now.

Of course, being young n' dumb I disposed of it but that's my problem.

[Ayn_Randian]

You can live in a really nice place for $1200/month (assuming a roommate) in Columbus. I mean, take your pick at that price.

And, by the by, our fast food restaurants pay $9 to $10. That's entry-level here. That's what Starbucks and most retail pay as well.

[Jadagul]

Shit, my friend just finished out a roommate living situation in a not-super-nice-but-safe-and-hipster-popular neighborhood here in Chicago where two of them were each paying $400/month for a nice big three-bedroom--something that would cost at least $2k in NYC. Coastal media elitism is real, and it's real stupid.

Also, though, I read through the comments earlier at Jadagul's link, and it's all so "but but but!" that it's complete nonsense. "Oh, sure, that budget might be okay for a single person, but how can you support a family of four on that? And if someone has to work 55 or 60 or 70 hours a week how is that even called living?!?" Short of making everyone solidly middle class, nothing would appease these complaints.

Why in God's name would you do that?

[Hugh Akston]

Shit, my friend just finished out a roommate living situation in a not-super-nice-but-safe-and-hipster-popular neighborhood here in Chicago where two of them were each paying $400/month for a nice big three-bedroom--something that would cost at least $2k in NYC. Coastal media elitism is real, and it's real stupid.

Also, though, I read through the comments earlier at Jadagul's link, and it's all so "but but but!" that it's complete nonsense. "Oh, sure, that budget might be okay for a single person, but how can you support a family of four on that? And if someone has to work 55 or 60 or 70 hours a week how is that even called living?!?" Short of making everyone solidly middle class, nothing would appease these complaints.

Why in God's name would you do that?

nicole is deeply self-loathing and likes to punish herself by ignoring the First Rule of the Internets.

[JD]

Also, though, I read through the comments earlier at Jadagul's link, and it's all so "but but but!" that it's complete nonsense. "Oh, sure, that budget might be okay for a single person, but how can you support a family of four on that? And if someone has to work 55 or 60 or 70 hours a week how is that even called living?!?" Short of making everyone solidly middle class, nothing would appease these complaints.

Why in God's name would you do that?

Sometimes you just have to turn the rock over and see what's underneath.

But yeah, I've also seen a lot of complaints of the form "But you'd be working 65 hours a week! And you wouldn't have much to spend on entertainment!" Well, no shit. It's called "working hard". If your only employment options are minimum-wage jobs, you are going to be working hard in order to have a reasonable, but not cushy life. I don't know what to do about that, but yeah, I do think that some of these people think that every single job in the world, down to pushing a broom, should pay enough that the worker can afford to raise a family on that one salary, in a good neighborhood, with enough left over for plenty of entertainment. That's a nice idea, but there's no way someone pushing a broom is going to create that kind of marginal value for an employer.

My only consolation is that while these people are whining about how it's impossible to do, millions of immigrants around the world are shutting up and actually doing it.

[nicole]

Shit, my friend just finished out a roommate living situation in a not-super-nice-but-safe-and-hipster-popular neighborhood here in Chicago where two of them were each paying $400/month for a nice big three-bedroom--something that would cost at least $2k in NYC. Coastal media elitism is real, and it's real stupid.

Also, though, I read through the comments earlier at Jadagul's link, and it's all so "but but but!" that it's complete nonsense. "Oh, sure, that budget might be okay for a single person, but how can you support a family of four on that? And if someone has to work 55 or 60 or 70 hours a week how is that even called living?!?" Short of making everyone solidly middle class, nothing would appease these complaints.

Why in God's name would you do that?

nicole is deeply self-loathing and likes to punish herself by ignoring the First Rule of the Internets.

Hugh understands me.

Also, sometimes I think this is the most contact I probably have with normals. And yes, I realize what the idea that it's normals who are commenting on the internets are says about me and my contact with normals.

[dhex]

it's not contacting normals, it's getting felt up by their id.

[Shem]

You can live in a really nice place for $1200/month (assuming a roommate) in Columbus.

Hell, I had my own 1 BR apartment in Arlington VA for $1250, and that included utilities. All I had to pay for was cable and internet, and that was supercheap because the high rise negotiated deep discounts in exchange for exclusive rights for the company.

[Hugh Akston]

I have my own 1bd duplex in LA for $975. With a front and back yard and reserved parking. $1,200/mo could get you a pretty nice place in NoHo or downtown Glendale. I think a friend of mine just left a 1bd in WeHo that was $1300.

[dhex]

What if Trayvon Martin was wearing Google Glasses?

[Ayn_Randian]

What if Trayvon Martin was wearing Google Glasses?

I must say I like that as a thought experiment. A recorded society is a polite society, perhaps?

[Fin Fang Foom]

What if Trayvon Martin was wearing Google Glasses?

He would kinda have deserved it?

[JasonL]

What if Trayvon Martin was wearing Google Glasses?

He would kinda have deserved it?

No, that's if he were wearing Bing Glasses.

[Taktix®]

If he were wearing Bing glasses he would have got lost on the way back from the Skittles store.

Zing!

[Eric the .5b]

What if Trayvon Martin was wearing Google Glasses?

I'm not seeing the OFFS. It'd rile up fewer people than "What if Trayvon Martin had been armed?".

[dhex]

i think it was written in an uneasy panic.

anyway at 6 am this was funny

He would audio commend his Google Glass to “Record All Danger!”

and obviously terribad.

edit: also the answer is "we'd have footage of his death".