The rich got by for thousands of years without cooking, doing laundry, or running affordable housing programs. The service sector lived on its customers’ estates, often as part of their households.

I expect this is where we’re headed. Several people I know who work on poverty wages in the arts industry here pay their room and board in elder- or child-care for a homeowner.

We often hear that terms like “feudalism” and “landed gentry” applied to Bay Area housing policy are over dramatic. I think they’re dead on.

Considering what childcare costs, room & board sounds like a heck of a deal. As a parent, it actually doesn't sound like a bad arrangement.

It's a common arrangement for upper-middle-class families in much of Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_pair

Happened in the Midwest, too. Though my parents may have just been a tiny bit weird...

Well the idea of an au pair never ever went away. A friend went to do this in Paris. There are lots of sites for arranging one.

> Several people I know who work on poverty wages in the arts industry

I don't have much sympathy for anyone who chooses to work in the arts... One must see the risks taken, and that the rewards are unpredictable.

> elder- or child-care for a homeowner

Are you talking about the very wealthy here? The upper income? The middle or even low income earners that made good financial choices? Looking after children and elderly is honest work.

Are these art workers tied to the Bay Area by anything apart from their choices?

> I don't have much sympathy for anyone who chooses to work in the arts... One must see the risks taken, and that the rewards are unpredictable.

You have different goals in life than other people.

Please try to be aware that the path you've chosen is not the only right one. Some people have different goals.

Some people even have the cognitive ability to regard the goal of fulfillment in life and creativity as more important than the run-of-the-mill goal of survival that most people are seemingly satisfied with reaching towards.

You can have whatever goals you like, but that doesn't entitle you to live in an area you can't afford.

We're not talking about people trying to live in Ginza here. We're talking about a ww2 era and under developed city where housing culture has failed to develop to meet the needs of the city.

This is a failure of city planning and should not be excused or ignored as if this fialure was inevitable.

What a massive oversimplification of extremely complex socioeconomic and cultural issues. Your argument is either deceptive or ignorant.

I think the basic argument here is that many of the people in careers earning significant money do not find those careers fulfilling, but chose them knowing that. Other people chose careers that ARE fulfilling, but have shit compensation. For the people in the first category, people in the second complaining about not being able to afford things sounds like wanting to have their cake and eat it too.

Careers in the arts are generally regarded as belonging to the second category for all but a handful of lottery winners.

> Please try to be aware that the path you've chosen is not the only right one. Some people have different goals....[snip]

I am old enough to have family, friends and acquantances from plenty of different ages and wage brackets: minimum wage hospo, the retired poor, sickness beneficiaries, young and unemployed by choice, successful land-banked hippies, successful founders, successful artists etc. I support my friends and family, even when they are making lifestyle choices.

Your reply comes across to me as condescending.

Your entire premise of lacking sympathy for an oversimplified group of people that only exists in your head was a bit condescending.