Re:Ask HN: What is really wrong with the US economy, really?
by sliverstorm on Thursday February 27, 2014 @06:56PM
(#7316255)
Housing & health care are indeed the greatest costs, I'm just arguing that other costs are usually not so small in comparison that they can be waived in this discussion as negligible. If you rent a studio for $800 (as you could in this town), cutting your communication costs by $100-200 yield a moderate but real impact.
I don't mean I live in the middle of nowhere and commute to the city, I mean it's a satellite town of the variety you often find near large cities (To give you an idea). 150,000 people, and I live 200 yards from one of many fire stations.
Re:Ask HN: What is really wrong with the US economy, really?
by kevingadd on Thursday February 27, 2014 @07:08PM
(#7316331)
I guess my PoV is that saving $2k+ a year is nice, but not significant if that's still only ~2 months rent. It's better - much better than it being 1 month's rent - but to me, you have to focus on the expenses that are the biggest and are most likely to grow. You can definitely save a lot of money by chipping away at the tinier stuff, but if that's not growing, I'm not sure it buys you much.
I suppose from another point of view, it's better to start with the small things you have control over, and make some tiny but measurable improvements, so you don't despair at how big everything is. That's fair.
Will you still argue that housing + health care don't dwarf most other expenses? Cost of living is a sum of costs, not just the cost of rent or the cost of health care. That sum keeps going up.
Also, for many people sharing a big apartment/house is simply not an issue - having kids, having health issues, or a simple lack of available large housing. I've definitely shared places here in the past to cut costs, but that comes with all sorts of hidden costs built into it, and it's riskier.
Living 1 hour from a major city already imposes significant costs. I hope you're not an hour from the nearest hospital or fire station (I used to live that far from the nearest hospital, in an area with no fire coverage. Not the greatest...)