even more quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a new rolling new york times thread

hannah rosin never not trolling men

didn't really know where to put this so I'm putting it here

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/nyregion/new-generation-confronts-unaffordable-luxury-of-food.html

“I don’t think about what anything costs,” Emily Gerard, a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a publishing assistant making the requisite salary, told me recently.

Spoken like someone who doesn't pay her own bills ime.

But what solace can it offer to realize that $300 a week put into an S. & P. 500 Index fund over the past five years would have provided an annual rate of return of 10.34 percent and grown to $100,354 today?

hahaha the girl in the article is 23, if only she had started saving $300/week when she was a college freshman and hadn't spent any money on food in the last 5 years she'd have enough for a downpayment on an apartment she couldn't afford.

New Yorkers in their early 20s spend almost all their money on rent and going out, shocking new trend.

kids be eating!

But what solace can it offer to realize that $300 a week put into an S. & P. 500 Index fund over the past five years would have provided an annual rate of return of 10.34 percent and grown to $100,354 today?

hahaha the girl in the article is 23, if only she had started saving $300/week when she was a college freshman and hadn't spent any money on food in the last 5 years she'd have enough for a downpayment on an apartment she couldn't afford.

New Yorkers in their early 20s spend almost all their money on rent and going out, shocking new trend.

― Sadly, 99.99 percent of sheeple will never wake up (I DIED), Monday, January 14, 2013 9:48 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree this is a poor example, but it's still pretty dumb to live like these people do in your 20s and not save any money.

it's pretty dumb to do a lot of things

And I don't think it's true that most people in their 20s in the city always spent most of their money on rent and going out -- certainly not the going out part.

I mean, we are talking about this:

Typically, she told me, she spends about $250 a week eating in good restaurants, which amounts to about $13,000 annually, and this does not include the additional $50 to $100 a week she spends on cooking classes, wine tastings and cheese pairings. Because about half of her salary is given over to food, she works an additional 10 to 15 hours a week tutoring and baby-sitting to supplement it.

What is she supposed to do, not eat?

I would guess the average white 20 something in nyc probably spends more money on food and less money on drugs than his/her equivalent in 1980 but america's foodie-addiction problem is probably not going to destroy a generation because it is mostly imaginary

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/01/14/the-invidious-reach-of-personal-finance-snake-oil/

Yes, I can't imagine why she hasn't been investing 15,000 dollars a year.

yeah if anybody can tell me how to earn 6% on my money please tell me!!!

it doesn't really make sense to save anyway since the economies gonna implode in 10 years. your 15,000 invested at 6% that grows to $20,000 in 5 years is gonna be real useful when hyperinflation sets in and northeast america is sold to JP Morgan and a big mac costs $1500 morgan-loonies

yeah if anybody can tell me how to earn 6% on my money please tell me!!!

put all your money on a short for this stock: 'NYT'

I don't really think poor investment returns are a good justification for spending $1200 a month EXTRA on food (i.e. on top of what it actually costs to feed yourself, presumably well based on this girl's standards) while living on an editorial assistant's salary. I mean forget the starter condo, how about just putting some money aside for emergencies?

do we know she doesnt have any money set aside for emergencies?

A 23-yo production asst at MTV makes 30K after taxes?? I'm in the wrong industry.

that does seem high

I thought MTV's m.o. was to hire people right out of school, pay them nada, and they move on after a year or two

PAs can make a lot in overtime but no benefits

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/fashion/the-end-of-courtship.html
“The word ‘date’ should almost be stricken from the dictionary,” Ms. Silver said. “Dating culture has evolved to a cycle of text messages, each one requiring the code-breaking skills of a cold war spy to interpret. It’s one step below a date, and one step above a high-five,” she added. Dinner at a romantic new bistro? Forget it. Women in their 20s these days are lucky to get a last-minute text to tag along. Raised in the age of so-called “hookup culture,” millennials — who are reaching an age where they are starting to think about settling down — are subverting the rules of courtship.
http://www.lordheath.com/web_images/margaret_dumont___the_dancing_masters.jpg

OTM

http://thebillfold.com/2013/01/setting-the-record-straight-yaffa-fredrick-on-the-nyt-column-about-her-restaurant-spending/

man, what a dick the new york times was being

but maybe, possibly

haha man reading that response at the bottom I just feel all "you're just a writer for the nyt, you're not my real mom!"

She has less student loan debt and puts more in her 401k than I do. God speed, lady.

I should say a higher percentage into her 401k.

iirc author has been full of crap fairly regularly, like this was the first nyt occupy article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/nyregion/protesters-are-gunning-for-wall-street-with-faulty-aim.html

And yet the middle class stubbornly hangs on, trading economic pain for the emotional gain of hot restaurants, the High Line and the feeling of being in the center of everything.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/realestate/what-is-middle-class-in-manhattan.html

the first picture = stubbornly hanging on in gorgeous subsidized apartment. fuck you nyt.

In any case, it's bizarre spin to say that the middle class "stubbornly hangs on" when in fact the middle class has been dwindling for decades as people flee for brooklyn, queens, the suburbs, etc. Most of the non-rich left who don't live in subsidized housing are probably young singles with roommates.

Upper edge of middle class, horrifying. oh geez. Is lower upper class the minimum for a non-horrifying life?

I saved a little money in my 20s by not knowing anyone to hang out with and living in a crappy smalltown, and it turns out that a few years of keeping a little off a crappy smalltown wage each month don't buy you a whole lot in the 30-something world of houses and can-I-afford-kids and how-come-my-friends-go-skiing, so I say go out and eat all the fancy pork bellies of New York City while you're young, I wish I had

one male friend recently told her: "I don't like to take girls out. I like to have them join in on what I'm doing — going to an event, a concert."

thought for a moment this might actually lead to the radical thing of guys going out with women with shared interests and maybe that would be a GOOD thing for actually seeing them as humans with thoughts, but no, I guess it is another chance for the man to curate his experience portfolio while the woman is expected to go "you are so cultured, I would not have thought of any ways to spend my time without joining in on yours!" and be the great plains hunter's trophy until something with a prettier skull comes over the horizon

hi I'm bitter. let me weep w/ Hanna Rosin for the downtrodden 20something males, some of whom may now have to wait until age 30 to have the decisive upper hand in all their relationships for the rest of their lives

(am i trolling? i'm having a bad weekend)

Is lower upper class the minimum for a non-horrifying life?

Once you've taken care of the bare necessities of food, shelter and warmth, a non-horrifying life has much more to do with how you spend your time than how much money you spend.

aps, that is a booming post that I very much enjoyed reading.

Booming indeed. Quite OTM.

Oh the agonies they must suffer

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/realestate/being-related-to-the-family-firm.html

man I am not the scion of anything

Real estate salesperson???? Was real estate agent too gauche?

Also as the child of a real estate salesperson who is not an heir with vast lifestyle options and who lost a whole lot of money in the latter half of the '00s, I would like to personally strangle everybody involved in this article.

http://observer.com/2013/01/when-your-townhouse-is-actually-too-big/

Not sure where else to put this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ketrhWr58wA

class class

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/opinion/sunday/the-quiet-ones.html

didn't everyone in masada kill themselves rather than surrender? that's one grim-ass train car.

And yes, I said “devotee.”

dear reader, she bit him.

Today, online, NYT front page:

Article title: "In Kansas City, Learning the Butcher’s Art"

Below that, the summary:

Rather than attracting hipsters in search of one-off adventure, a class in butchering caters to people interested in actually applying the lessons in life.

I'm not even sure what to say anymore...

class takes novel approach of appealing to people actually interested in learning the subject being taught

small but growing number of people outside of New York City sincerely pursuing their interests