PhineasC

Yes, like visiting the US Embassy in Baghdad but with a Red Sox hat on.

It't not just the murders there, although they are bad enough. There is so much urban decay and petty crime now. Low-level crimes have mostly been "de-emphasized" by the police and DA so activities such as public intoxication, petty theft, shoplifting, fighting, open-air alcohol/drug sales and consumption, blocking random streets, and public urination are all more-or-less tolerated now. It makes the whole experience down there just not worth it. There is literally nothing in Baltimore that makes it worth dealing with that BS.

It's sort of like Mogadishu now. You drive in convoy style straight to your destination and drive back out the way you came, taking major highways as much as possible. No detours. There is something of a boycott going on now by the suburban people who are the ones who actually go to the restaurants and other events. They just stopped going. Baltimore is in big trouble.

When do you plan to visit Baltimore?

I agree, which is why I have been saying it will take a big reset to back out of this hole. People will need to get used to consuming less and paying more. That’s a big ask if the government simply sucks up all the “savings.”

Many reasons for our state as a nation. If you want to look at crime, for example, you can look at the very strong correlation between single motherhood and young male criminals. There are similar very strong correlations for many of our ills, but you have to be willing to do something about it.

Pandemics and global shutdowns shouldn’t happen often. It doesn’t make sense to run your business in “once every 100 years disaster” mode all the time. That will cripple you against your competition.

Hmm, will need to check my meme database. I thought Chads were younger jock types who hit on married women in bars and drive lifted trucks. Kens are male Karens on the school boards and yelling at soccer coaches.

A famous male Karen (a Ken).

I don’t think you are someone who is calling for a massive wealth redistribution program and free college/healthcare/housing.

If not HOAs, then just a bunch of Karen-like DIT types running around complaining. Same end point really.

That may be true. They are super common here but perhaps less so up there. Doesn’t change the general concept that much.

Middle class? Definitely. I feel pretty confident that most here from CT, RI, and MA live in typical suburban environments. All the lawn, garden, and pool talk is pretty typical. I’m sure some are in different scenarios. If someone here is living in abject poverty they haven’t talked about it.

Another source of debt that goes under the radar usually is wage garnishments for child support, alimony, and legal judgments (IRS, banks, etc.). More people than you probably think have this going on.

Most here are middle class or upper middle class liberals in neighborhoods with HOAs and well-funded youth soccer leagues who are just virtue signaling. They don’t want to share their wealth with anyone. They don’t even want to let people from the lower classes live in block housing near them due to “property values.”

I don’t think anyone cares what you think.

Many people are in debt over luxury purchases. Thousand dollar phones, laptops, hundreds per month for streaming services, vacations, etc. Tons of credit card debt. There are definitely plenty of people who try to live frugally and still can’t make it. But that’s not everyone.

They need to build more houses like that now in the middle class suburban areas, but no one seems to want them. It's not just the house though. It's also the laptops, cellphones, streaming subscriptions, private school, college, vacations, new car for each kid, etc. That stuff all adds up big time.

Well, you don't have kids so I realize all the school stuff goes right by without any notice. I'm sure all seems well on that front. Just like I am not too worried about any financial woes at Vail.

We will definitely be able to compete better with China once we get rid of all advanced-track math and science classes in the schools.

A lot of people could lower their expenses and achieve that today on their current wages. The scenario I described is what some politicians think constitutes a "living wage" and the bare minimum, however.

Often the same people squawking about income inequality while blocking low-income housing.

Resources are finite. If you massively increase costs for producers and lower taxes for consumers, shortages will occur due to increased demand as prices go up, leading to an inflationary feedback loop. This will wipe out whatever marginal income increases the poor see via a national min-wage increase. No one here is talking about direct government UBI payments based on seized assets from the wealthy, but that is what would be required to do this. A massive, direct wealth transfer scheme. Stop beating around the bush about it. I am not saying a reset is not needed; it may be at this point. But I don't think we can tip-toe our way back out of this situation with small feel-good measures. IMO, the American middle class should be broad and strong, but live in a 2,000 sq ft house with 1 or maybe 2 used cars. One vacation a year, down to some local beach destination or similar. This is how the middle class lived back in those halcyon days of income equality you all seek.

There is a logical endpoint for where this goes, though. Just "raising taxes massively on the rich" isn't going to solve the entire problem (or most of it). The end state some of you are looking to achieve requires pretty strong socialist measures, probably even beyond where Scandinavia is, for example. The levels of spending and consumption by the "poor" in this country dwarfs what it does in Europe and Asia. Reaching better income equality will require a lowered (or different) standard of living, IMO. It's a fallacy to assume that when the government collects this money in extra taxes it will simply hand that back to the common man.

It's possible they are being greedy. It's possible they are operating under very thin margins and just don't have the money. It's possible they consider you easily replaceable and are not worried that much about retaining you. As a business owner, I can tell you that it's one of these three things. You have to decide if it's worth the risk to jump. There are a lot of jobs out there now. Employees have a lot of power. More than they think.