>> "More than half say their rent is at least 10% higher than it was six months ago, and in seven say rents have increased at least 20%."
And it's not just businesses of course. we all know how high rents have gotten in residential.
but, what really gets me is that it does NOT have to be this way. I've been reading Henry david thoreau a writer from 200 years ago and I was stunned about how much higher their standard of living was for shelter.
Here are some figures from thoreau's book walden:
Unskilled labor was paid 1$ per day
Skilled labor 1.50$ to 2$ per day
Land was 8$ per acre
Average Houses cost 800 days of unskilled labor (800$)
Rent for a "Spacious apartment" with lots of bells and whistles was 50$/yr (25-100$/yr) so about 50 days of labor per year.
Now, look how far we've fallen in the last 200 years:
at 100$ a day for unskilled labor
The average house now costs 3000 days of unskilled labor plus another 2000 days for property taxes over 50 years. -> that's 5000 days almost 6 times more than 200 years ago.
Apartments: for 50 days of unskilled labor, thats 5000$ a year, you couldn't even rent a room for that much.
* The spacious apartment Henry described included the following: "Rumford fireplace, Venetian blinds, Copper pump and many more things"
Our standard of living for providing shelter has dropped so significantly, that now it takes 30 years to pay off a house whereas back then it took only 10 years, with higher interest rates too! thoreau felt even this was too long and too much of burden, so we went off into the woods and built himself a nice little cabin for just 28$ (cost of building material)
And yes, they didn't have electricity and some of the things we have today. so, there are some differences.
Did we simply get worse at building shelter? No, of course not. The problem is all regulation and zoning and land use policy. Are our regulations so precious that we would give up so much?
Shelter and housing whether its for business or residential doesn't need to be so scarce or hard to come by: it's a political choice people have made.
And it's not just businesses of course. we all know how high rents have gotten in residential.
but, what really gets me is that it does NOT have to be this way. I've been reading Henry david thoreau a writer from 200 years ago and I was stunned about how much higher their standard of living was for shelter.
Here are some figures from thoreau's book walden:
Unskilled labor was paid 1$ per day
Skilled labor 1.50$ to 2$ per day
Land was 8$ per acre
Average Houses cost 800 days of unskilled labor (800$)
Rent for a "Spacious apartment" with lots of bells and whistles was 50$/yr (25-100$/yr) so about 50 days of labor per year.
Now, look how far we've fallen in the last 200 years: at 100$ a day for unskilled labor The average house now costs 3000 days of unskilled labor plus another 2000 days for property taxes over 50 years. -> that's 5000 days almost 6 times more than 200 years ago.
Apartments: for 50 days of unskilled labor, thats 5000$ a year, you couldn't even rent a room for that much.
* The spacious apartment Henry described included the following: "Rumford fireplace, Venetian blinds, Copper pump and many more things"
Our standard of living for providing shelter has dropped so significantly, that now it takes 30 years to pay off a house whereas back then it took only 10 years, with higher interest rates too! thoreau felt even this was too long and too much of burden, so we went off into the woods and built himself a nice little cabin for just 28$ (cost of building material)
And yes, they didn't have electricity and some of the things we have today. so, there are some differences.
Did we simply get worse at building shelter? No, of course not. The problem is all regulation and zoning and land use policy. Are our regulations so precious that we would give up so much?
Shelter and housing whether its for business or residential doesn't need to be so scarce or hard to come by: it's a political choice people have made.