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DigitalJanitor Dirt hippie
Joined: 20 May 2012 Posts: 792 | TRs | Pics
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RichP wrote: | Finding a place where one can afford to live and make a decent living is becoming increasingly difficult. Even in poor, rural areas the cost of housing is prohibitive. |
^THIS. My beloved KittCo is depressing in this regard... jobs are very low paying, benefits scarce or nonexistent, and the price of housing just keeps going up IF it can be obtained at all. Unfortunately between the college and Suncadia/vacation rentals the area is trapped with critically low vacancy rates and it seems to be getting worse. We're constantly warning folks that the grass is not greener here and mere survival is often hard and uncertain, having watched waves of people getting painted into a corner despite flailing around at multiple jobs and housing situations until they have to leave.
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Randito Snarky Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 9495 | TRs | Pics Location: Bellevue at the moment. |
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Randito
Snarky Member
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Tue Dec 17, 2019 2:29 pm
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I think part of the challenge in Kittitas county is it is close enough to Puget Sound city that people commute to Seattle jobs. So property prices reflect King county incomes. As telework has become more prevalent high tech/high income workers are spreading out. I've seen this in Spokane as well. MSFT/AMZN/GOOG workers can locate there , work remotely and still bop into Pugetpopolis on cheap flights from Geiger field. Spokane county real estate prices have grown quickly recently. Newport,wa recently installed fiber optics throughout the town and surrounding area and started promoting the area to remote workers and online service businesses.
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treeswarper Alleged Sockpuppet!
Joined: 25 Dec 2006 Posts: 11272 | TRs | Pics Location: Don't move here |
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treeswarper
Alleged Sockpuppet!
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Wed Dec 18, 2019 1:32 pm
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HitTheTrail wrote: | Smaller outlying towns are becoming bedroom communities for Wenatchee due to more affordable housing. Entiat is one of them. Even up the Entiat valley. The further up the valley you go the cheaper it gets and the closer you get to better hiking (but a longer commute). |
I know of people who commute from here to Wenatchee to work, or as one neighbor put it, not quite to Wenatchee for him.
That's 4 hours of driving each day.
What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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Brucester Member
Joined: 02 Jun 2013 Posts: 1102 | TRs | Pics Location: Greenwood |
I had just hiked the CDT when I happened upon the 265 sq ft place. The only thing appealing to be was it's convenient location. I know we are not supposed to look back but I sometimes do, can't help not to wonder if I didn't choose such a small place to live. I passed up some epic hikes, did my brain shrink while inside that dorm room or what? I passed up a hike across Australia and canoeing the Yukon River from the source to the sea....
I'll try out this 600 sq ft and maybe try shorter thruhikes like the WT or the JMT... The games not over yet...
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cdestroyer Member
Joined: 14 Sep 2015 Posts: 1249 | TRs | Pics Location: montana |
mason county has also grown in price and population. A 12x20 apt I rented in 1977 for 250 a month is not no longer an apt but a business and rents for 550 a month. there was no Walmart or mcdonalds or even a bus. times do change
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Bernardo Member
Joined: 08 Feb 2010 Posts: 2174 | TRs | Pics Location: out and about in the world |
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Bernardo
Member
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Fri Dec 20, 2019 8:24 pm
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Anne Elk wrote: | There's no getting around the fact that the high cost of housing is restricting everyone's freedom, quality of life, and reducing people to the level of serfs (and worse) in numbers not seen since the days of ... serfs. |
I don't want to run afoul of the no politics rule so let's assume either party could adopt any policies for the moment. What is to be done about our road to serfdom? What is the fundamental cause of the worsening of living conditions? BTW, I'm not sure if this is true, GDP per capita is increasing. Could be that the average person is better off than ever. Let's keep it high level. No particular person is to blame for our woes, but what are the underlying megatrends? Are there any reasonable actions that could be taken or are we doomed to increasing serfdom?
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Anne Elk BrontosaurusTheorist
Joined: 07 Sep 2018 Posts: 2410 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle |
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Anne Elk
BrontosaurusTheorist
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Fri Dec 20, 2019 10:11 pm
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^ Bernardo, I guess this would be a useful underlying megatrend: For most US workers, wages have barely budged in decades.
Pew Research Center wrote: | After adjusting for inflation, however, today’s average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power it did in 1978, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then. In fact, in real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would today. |
Lots of interesting numbers in that report. You asked, "What is to be done about our road to serfdom? " That's the $64K question, but we can't get into it here, economics is as political as global warming. We seemed to be on a nice upward trend in the 50's and 60's, but that was mostly for white folks, and we weren't dealing with globalization and corporatism on the scale we are now. This is too much digression into danger territory for this thread.
"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
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Get Out and Go Member
Joined: 13 Nov 2004 Posts: 2127 | TRs | Pics Location: Leavenworth |
After military service and finishing college, 40 years ago as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay, I spent 2 years in this cozy 1 room house, without electricity or running water. I did have my transistor radio where I heard the news of John Lennon and St. Helens, as well as a Czech-made Jawa 350 for transportation. Youth served me well.
Mi Casa
"These are the places you will find me hiding'...These are the places I will always go."
(Down in the Valley by The Head and The Heart)
"Sometimes you're happy. Sometimes you cry.
Half of me is ocean. Half of me is sky."
(Thanks, Tom Petty)
"These are the places you will find me hiding'...These are the places I will always go."
(Down in the Valley by The Head and The Heart)
"Sometimes you're happy. Sometimes you cry.
Half of me is ocean. Half of me is sky."
(Thanks, Tom Petty)
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