This is a living hell

My library-card costs 8€ a year and I can work there all day long in a nice quite environment. Internet is free, so are beverages. It also has a streaming-service and I can rent consoles and such there as well. I dont understand why someone would pay 600€ a month just for a desk to work at

That's fucking criminal. You could pay for a camping lifestyle with 5g access for half that and get the same amenities. 1400 dollars for a bed is insane.

So, take the above with a grain of salt because it is, after all, green text. The numbers may be bullshit. The entire thing may be bullshit. Who knows.

But that said. $2000 monthly is more than my mortgage, utilities, insurance, internet, cell phone, and fuel expenditures combined in the same span of time. That is insane. (With what I overpay towards the principal on my mortgage puts me above that, but I wouldn't technically have to. I'd just like to actually own my house some time this century, or at least before I'm dead.)

Why anyone would deliberately choose to live that way is beyond me. There isn't anything special about my situation; I live in the here and now, at precisely the same date and time as this dude, in the same country, in a major metropolitan area. I'm not an executive, CEO, or landlord. I work in the durable goods industry, for fuck's sake.

"Works in social media advertising"

Boyyyyy. RUN.

Landlords, landlords as far as the eye can see.

Image Transcription:

A photo of a young man sitting at the top of a set of wooden steps attached to a bunk bed. Between the two beds is a chalkboard with "1", an arrow pointing up, and "Zach" written on the left side and "Mike", an arrow pointing down, and "2" written on the right side. Under the bed is a gap with a pair of shoes and a couple of hard plastic travel bags. Tucked between the stairs on the left side of the bunk bed and the cement wall is a bicycle. A pot plant is barely in frame, and the floor appears to be bare cement, the doors and wall a temporary wood and clear plastic.

Underneath the image is a 4chan post reading:

'Steven T. Johnson, 27, works in social media advertising and lives in Hollywood. He spends most of his days using things he does not own.

'He takes a ride-share service to get to the gym; he does not own a car. At the gym, he rents a locker. He uses the gym's laundry service because he does not own a washing machine. Johnson doesn't even have an apartment, actually. He rents a bed in a large room with other people who rent beds, for nights, weeks or months at a time. All the residents share a kitchen and bathrooms. Johnson also rents a desk at WeWork, a coworking space. And he says the only clothes he owns are two versions of the same outfit.

'Johnson says he owns so little that he has even been able to get rid of his backpack. "I gave that up two months ago," he says. He says that for him, this lifestyle isn't cumbersome or confusing. "That's what's great," he says. "When you don't own thing, you don't have to keep track of them. You just show up." He pays $1,400 a month to rent a bunk and an additional $600 a month to rent a desk to work at.'

[I am a human, if I’ve made a mistake please let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for ease of use. Thank you. 💜]

Sounds like homelesness but taxed and with extra steps.

Never will I except owning nothing. If that becomes the only reality I will upgrade myself to domestic terrorist.

I assume this dude is some kind of extreme minimalist or something. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I'm not sure millennials are 27 anymore.

Green text = bullshit.

Paying $2000 a month to be homeless lmao

Only 2k to be a child again? Sweet

If I have to live like this somebody is gonna die that's a fucking promise. I refuse.

You'll own nothing, and be happy!... sounds like the WEF has control over 4Chan now

Johnson decides to live like a pleeb in an area that's costly. Johnson's story sounds like there isn't an alternative.

I work in the same industry and have net of 2700€ a month after taxes and rent.

Don't get glued to geographic location that eats all your hard earned money.

Shoot the desklords!

He could probably own a car if he stopped using the ride share. He's probably spending close to $600 a month for the rideshare service unless he's splitting the cost with others. Average rental in Hollywood is (and this is the highest, which is twice what I found elsewhere) $5k a month. I'd rather split rent with some roommates and have a place of my own. Work from home instead of renting a desk. That's $2k alone to put toward rent. Two or three roommates and you could actually save money.

His lifestyle is a lifestyle driven choice, not a cost driven choice. He's paying extra for that lifestyle. Forget food costs since he can't very well prepare much food without owning storage space, so it's eating out all the time for him.

The bed next to him says Zach ⬆️ and Mike ⬇️ not Steve? 🤔

Look at it this way.... if renting was somehow better for you as a consumer, then what would be the motive for a company to rent you a desk, rent you a bed, rent you a car. For short term things, sure. But financially it isn't better for you to rent forever.

In 30 years you'll still be spending that money on a bed each and every month, or you could have paid for a house and now be living rent and mortgage free.

He owns his own business and is doing this by choice. They don't go into numbers, but the fact that the article is titled "The Affluent Homeless" makes me think he's not struggling. The guy is atypical, but the people saying he's a socialist or he's being crushed by capitalism are reading their own politics into this.

The pod space things are criminally overpriced and sometimes dangerous. There was this video of someone showing "futuristic" pods made of cheap plastic and electronic-only doors.

If a fire breaks out in these spaces, people will die. I don't understand why a fire marshal would even allow these places that are filled with dozens of people and no emergency exits.

A trailer park or a tiny home sounds like a penthouse suite compared to these places. But they will build these and charge this much because people are that dumb. I get that LA housing costs are extreme, but surely there are many things you can try to do before this.