on some level I think you have a point, but at the same time, do you think they'd have second thoughts giving a loan to some mid-level person working for random house?
and income-wise, 20 years in the future - would you be someone w/ a lifetime of experience in publishing or a successful freelance web designer?
― iatee, Monday, 29 August 2011 19:56 (twelve years ago) link
okay wk but can someone make that money over the 10 or 20 or 30 years it's going to take to pay back that mortgage?
I don't know, I've been working steadily in the field for about 16 years although I've only been paying a mortgage for half of that time. But more to the point, is this something banks should consider? Would it be fair of them to not give a mortgage to an autoworker since their job probably won't exist in 30 years? There are a ton of jobs you could apply that thinking to.
is there even going to be an internet or a thing known as a 'web site' by then?
A designer is a designer, and there will always be a need for graphic design.
― the wheelie king (wk), Monday, 29 August 2011 19:57 (twelve years ago) link
depending on their ages (like if they're in their 20s or early 30s), they probably have the historically reasonable expectation that their incomes will rise in the next 20 years.
― sarahel, Monday, 29 August 2011 19:58 (twelve years ago) link
that's to say, in some ways freelancers w/ demonstrated skills and clients are in better places than lots of corporate people in nyc xp to myself
― iatee, Monday, 29 August 2011 19:59 (twelve years ago) link
I'd have second thoughts about giving a loan to a guy who works in publications too! I don't think publications is that bad of a field either
― dayo, Monday, 29 August 2011 19:59 (twelve years ago) link
a married couple I'm friends with who both work in publishing just bought a house last year. They had trouble getting a mortgage, but it was mainly due to location and the fact that one is employed by the other.
― sarahel, Monday, 29 August 2011 20:01 (twelve years ago) link
xp Oh, it is.
― arch midwestern housewife named (Laurel), Monday, 29 August 2011 20:01 (twelve years ago) link
ok, I just cyberstalked those people and now feel all creepy but basically her career looks much more impressive than his. Although they're both self-employed so yeah, it may be a little tough to get a loan.
― the wheelie king (wk), Monday, 29 August 2011 20:10 (twelve years ago) link
nyc is like the worst place to buy vs. rent in the whole u.s.: http://info.trulia.com/index.php?s=43&item=113
― s.clover, Monday, 29 August 2011 20:43 (twelve years ago) link
Remember we're also talking about the size of the *loan* not the cost of the house/apt/condo itself. The couple featured in the article were planning to pay something on the order of 3.5% down/ A quick look reveals that they're going to be paying roughly 4 thou+ a month. Interest rates are already hella low because of, well, everything. And the cap is being reduced to what it was before the govt. was trying to prop up real estate after the bust. Ok, I mean, if this impacts someone, that's too bad. But we're basically talking about the government ceasing to give a benefit to people that can afford 4k/mo for housing. So I mean, I guess this is a dick thing to say, but if that extra cost on the loan is going to put it over the top for you, then maybe you shouldn't be trying to buy a house with 3.5% down, or something?
― s.clover, Monday, 29 August 2011 20:59 (twelve years ago) link
this is a lot like the AMT though -- for lots of the country it only affects the wealthy, but in some areas it affects a significant number of middle class people that the initial legislation wasn't intended to affect.
― sarahel, Monday, 29 August 2011 21:02 (twelve years ago) link
David Brooks would like to let you know about the safaris he went on and how elegance just ain't haimish.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 14:29 (twelve years ago) link
then maybe you shouldn't be trying to buy a house with 3.5% down
I haven't read the article but most places in NYC require 10% down and some require 20%, so I don't even know how 3.5 is possible
― dmr, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 16:06 (twelve years ago) link
david brooks can suck a choad
― notorious ilx wet noodle (remy bean), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
It's an fha loan. Which raises another question...
― s.clover, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 16:21 (twelve years ago) link
it took an African safari for David Brooks to admit he has the emotional maturity of a 12 year old
― (gr8080), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 22:22 (twelve years ago) link
You’ll find multiple generations at a Comfort Inn breakfast area, and people are likely to exchange pleasantries over the waffle machine.
sigggggggggghhhhhhhhhh
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 22:40 (twelve years ago) link
omg that Brooks piece
― remembrance of schwings past (gbx), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 23:12 (twelve years ago) link
As an antisocial weirdo I have never exchanged pleasantries with anyone over the waffle machine.
― Do not go gentle into that good frogbs (silby), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 23:33 (twelve years ago) link
Joe Nocera is off today.
― badg, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 23:33 (twelve years ago) link
I exchanged presents with my mom on Christmas once and gave her a waffle machine and it was a pleasant day
― unwarranted display names of ilx (mh), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 00:42 (twelve years ago) link
david brooks i been to the comfort inn and there aint no haimish there son
― ice cr?m, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 01:23 (twelve years ago) link
This is a generalized phenomenon, which applies to other aspects of life. Often, as we spend more on something, what we gain in privacy and elegance we lose in spontaneous sociability.
youre like blowing my MIND man!
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 01:39 (twelve years ago) link
drink and song and fraternity and waffles is all a man needs
― remembrance of schwings past (gbx), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 01:45 (twelve years ago) link
next time in editorials: david brooks tries to befriend a hobo by the underpass, finds the guy's grouchiness an "affirmation of the dignity of the human spirit" then discovers his wallet missing
― notorious ilx wet noodle (remy bean), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 01:56 (twelve years ago) link
what a scamp! haha welp back to being not homeless
― remembrance of schwings past (gbx), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 01:58 (twelve years ago) link
boudu saved from drowning by david brooks
― Murdered plants communicate with a bowl of shrimps in another room! (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 02:14 (twelve years ago) link
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4058/boudu.jpg
haha if ever there was someone who deserved someone like Boudu to come into their lives and make a total mockery of it, it's David Brooks.
― Murdered plants communicate with a bowl of shrimps in another room! (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 02:15 (twelve years ago) link
that's gotta be the tritest take-away from a trip to africa ever
― shannon goon (symsymsym), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 07:06 (twelve years ago) link
if you look up the "reporting" Brooks claims to have been doing in Africa you'll find a relatively short article about Richard Leakey which contains not a single quote
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 10:31 (twelve years ago) link
REMAKE! (again)
― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 13:21 (twelve years ago) link
― shannon goon (symsymsym), Wednesday, August 31, 2011 2:06 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
in the grand tradition of the autobiography of malcolm x, david brooks takes a trip to africa...
― D-40, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 14:51 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/fashion/recent-college-graduates-wait-for-their-real-careers-to-begin.html
― max, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:43 (twelve years ago) link
Likewise, Amy Klein, who graduated from Harvard in 2007 with a degree in English literature, couldn’t find a job in publishing. At one point, she had applied for an editorial-assistant job at Gourmet magazine. Less than two weeks later, Condé Nast shut down that 68- year-old magazine. “So much for that job application,” said Ms. Klein, now 26.
One night she bumped into a friend, who asked her to join a punk rock band, Titus Andronicus, as a guitarist. Once, that might have been considered professional suicide. But weighed against a dreary day job, music suddenly held considerable appeal. So last spring, she sublet her room in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn and toured the country in an old Chevy minivan.
― max, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:44 (twelve years ago) link
didn't they do this same article in like 1993?
― sarahel, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:46 (twelve years ago) link
I thought the article was pretty good
― iatee, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:46 (twelve years ago) link
i didnt read the whole thing im just sort of loling at the generation gap/assumptions being made there
― max, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:47 (twelve years ago) link
1993 and 2011 are 'a little bit different'
― iatee, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:47 (twelve years ago) link
unemployed recent college grad asked to tour the country with moderately-successful punk band? ONCE, that would have been unheard of! but in this climate, you never know
I was more amused at my reaction of 'okay reading story, another grad, wait why Titus Andronicus oh it's THAT Amy'
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:48 (twelve years ago) link
yeah i liked that article
i mean any style section piece that features someone who makes $12/hour and can barely afford food doesnt really belong in this thread imo
― :: (Lamp), Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:48 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, FedEx bought out Kinko's, so you can't say you graduated w/honors in English and are now assistant manager at Kinko's.
― sarahel, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:48 (twelve years ago) link
a freelance gig writing for Elfster.com, a “secret Santa” Web site.
what the shit
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:49 (twelve years ago) link
and it kinda sucks, but you can use the copiers at work to make copies of your zine and fliers for your friends' bands shows
― sarahel, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:49 (twelve years ago) link
i knew s4r4h in that article in college! she is nice.
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:50 (twelve years ago) link
“I have a college education that I feel like I am wasting by being there,” he added. “I am supposed to do something interesting, something with my brain.” For a while, Mr. Shore ran LongevityDrugstore.com, an online drug retailer that he started, but it went nowhere. To stretch his pay check, he made beans and rice at home and drove slowly to save gas. Eventually he quit, got work as a dock hand and is now thinking of becoming a doctor.
― elmo argonaut, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:51 (twelve years ago) link
wtf @ driving slowly to save gas
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:51 (twelve years ago) link
yeah lamp otm
usually these articles are like 'Ryan couldn't even land his dream job at Goldman and has been forced to suffer the indignities of working at a small consulting firm'.
this one is basically normal middle class kids
― iatee, Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:52 (twelve years ago) link
But when his parents started charging him $500 a month for rent
what assholes!
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 1 September 2011 19:52 (twelve years ago) link