This article illustrates a cultural problem that is emerging especially with the 20-30s generation.<p>You can try blaming it on baby boomers, high living costs, lifestyle choices, avocados etc.<p>They don't care about ownership or property and instead want to consume everything as a service right away for convenience. This might be a one off service or something they are tied into with some contract.<p>I'm 31 and my peers either can't or won't buy property, cars, phones, kitchen utensils or other assets.<p>It's like feudalism 2.0, there's a whole bunch of people who own nothing now and are tied into contracts which can be quite onerous. Serfdom 2.0 for the middle classes. Ready to be milked by the people who own these services.<p>Another example is the music market. It's become intangible with Spotify etc. I still keep digital copies of music and host a Plex server which I control. Noone can deny me access that way. I still have CDs if something really goes wrong.<p>It's almost like it's cool to be a consumer of Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Deliveroo, Lime, DriveNow instead of painstakingly saving for that second hand car or holiday at that hotel resort.
As millennial and house owner in Berlin, I totally disagree with those statements.
If you try to rent an apartment as a family of 4 (say, min. 85-90 m²), you have to pay at least something not less than 900€, excluding annual costs review, electricity, internet and so on. On top of that, there's the "incremental-steps", set usually on 3%.
Sure, owning a house is not easy and requires efforts, but in the era of 0% interests or negative interests, buying a house in a Big City IMHO represents a far better investment than keeping money in a bank account or giving away for rental.<p>A House can also work as insurance: if for some reasons you are facing economic difficulties, you can think of selling it and moving in a smaller apartment. As renter, what happens if you're already in difficulty and can't afford to pay the actual rent?<p>I hate much everything of the "rental" services: you can access something but you can't own it. What happens if in 10 years I want exactly access that thing again? Will it be there? I'm sure it won't and there are tons of examples already (See: Disney content flying away from Netflix, Music disappearing from Spotify due to copyright/labels, Games not available anymore on Steam due geolocalization, etc. etc.)
I'm paying less for my 240m² house that I own than I did when I when I was renting a 70m² apartment a year ago. I live in a better neighborhood with three times the space and with every monthly payment I'm building my net worth. I take ownership of my home and learn skills to maintain and repair it. I run around naked with really loud music at night and it's nobody's business but mine. Feels great. Also free parking and I'm growing food that I eat. Neat. There is no doubt that owning my home is a lot better for me than renting, both economically and living standard wise.<p>As for the server: excluding third party physical access is a major security feature.
Hi Joel.<p>I'm your landlord, and I'm selling the house. You know, cause like, it's mine. I want you out next month.<p>Yeah, I'll take the stability of buying, thanks.<p>The server comparison is disingenuous because migrating data is essentially trivial and has almost no emotional impact compared to moving home.<p>I mean, it'd be brilliant if I could rsync my cabinets.
So, some ants, a money pit, and the HVAC acting up. Sounds like the author just doesn't like regular maintenance of a house? I wonder if they also get angry with their car. You have to change the oil twice a year! What an inconvenience
This person has owned a home for a year. Ve has experience and obviously an authority on this subject.<p>Seriously though, servers do not appreciate in value. If they did and were scarce it would make a lot more sense to run than cloud out.<p>There are downsides to home ownership and significant risks, but I think it’s the most tangible path to wealth for the middle class. Not everyone is fit for home ownership as they move or value flexibility, but for those who can plan and own a home in thirty years it zeros out for the costs of maintenance, taxes, etc. It’s not quite like getting a refund check back for thirty years of rent, but it’s similar.
Not buying it. I’m on the backend. My house is paid off in 18 months. Even with my average 5-7k per year of maintenance I’m paying a lot less than a crappy two bedroom rental in my top20 metro area on the US and my property is already worth triple+ my initial cost for a reasonable 1800 sq ft plus basement. I did get a place that was waaaay less than banks wanted to qualify me for because I understand the cost of maintenance. A pool would be an albatross around my neck for instance - never would buy a place with one bc of the maintenance.
While owning is always combined with upkeep, renting is always taking money out of your pocket and putting it into somebody else's. At least in this economy (Western Europe) it's not exactly considered wise to never buy property, and makes sense in the long term for very few.<p>And to further the analogy of server's, pay a worker to do the upkeep if you can and would rather spend your time otherwise. There are people who'll take care of your bugs, crumbling infrastructure and beautification needs for a small token.<p>This really reads a rather petty complaint.
10 stories apartments.<p>Instead of visiting Tokyo go visit Moscow or any capital from the previous eastern european communist countries. See how that worked out for the rich and poor.<p>You compare housing with data. Devaluation of humans to the point where you believe they can be compared to just 0s and 1s is whats wrong with your article. But i guess you still think this is just a statistic. Someone else did too.
I recognise the problems with home ownership, and agree that affordable rent may even be the answer for some people that don't want that responsibility, but the solution of "10 storey buildings" just isn't the answer.<p>Case in point: the Sydney apartment building disaster. Multiple apartment buildings with problems, losing tons of money by having to move out of cracking/leaking/structurally unsound buildings. And almost no support or compensation coming their way.<p>Unfortunately, strata based housing many times results in developers extorting "owners" with fees, little to no maintenance (or just the bare minimum), cutting corners on building, and so on. At least with home ownership you know exactly what you need to do, and if it doesn't get done then it's your own fault. Even renting a house is better, because you can very clearly see if things are wrong. An apartment building is harder to get a clear overall picture of. Walls sinking? Foundations cracking? Ceilings dipping? Roof leaking? You can usually only see some of these issues in any given apartment depending on what floor you're on, how big your apartment is, etc.
my big issue is that it ties you to somewhere, if i want to leave where i am i can just give my landlord the appropriate notice and leave, if i owned where i live i then have to find someone to buy my house before i can leave, which could take weeks or even months<p>the problem with your "build more homes to crash the price 80%" is its a great idea for those who dont have houses already, but for those that do it means enormous losses on their original investments, now do you think the people making the decisions on those sorts of things rent or own? something tells me they own and wouldnt be too keen on losing 80% of their investment<p>thats also why it does work in japan, unlike here property is not an investment its something to live/work in for as long as it lasts, as such prices only go one way, down, over the course of 20-30 years the value of most japanese houses falls to zero and they are knocked down and rebuilt
The essential difference is that the location of your server matters a lot less than where you are located.<p>Maybe you have a job that you can work remotely and never have to travel but there is more to life than work. Your neighbours, friends, kids, schools and your favourite coffee shop are part of who you are.