The Rent is Still Too Damn High
Why the cost of living is going up and how to stop shaping yourself around society’s expectations
Oh, why did no politicians listen to Jimmy McMillan in 2010? His entire political party was named “The Rent Is Too Damn High” party, and all they did was laugh at him. In 2010 when I saw this video of a political debate, you bet your butt I had no idea what they were talking about until Jimmy started talking.
Back in 2010, I was a freshman in high school still living with my parents, and I had no idea what rent prices were in my area. I knew my mom struggled with her expenses from time to time, but we always made it through, so my takeaway from his words was very little except laughter.
Now, as a 25-year-old trying to find his way through adulthood, I want him as senator or president right freaking now. I just started my college education, and I’m trying to find a way to afford rent prices in Massachusetts while working part-time. My current lease in Massachusetts with two roommates is $1,700 per month, and my complex just raised the price by $100 for the 2021 year.
This price seems crazy when I look at my friends living in Arizona and Indianapolis, Indiana, and seeing how they can afford rent all by themselves, or just with a single friend or significant other. Rent prices in these areas range drastically, but an ordinary apartment can be found for around $500 per month. Here in Massachusetts, you can’t even find a studio apartment for $1,000 per month without hours of searching and a bit of luck.
Why Is Rent Increasing?
Watching his debate now, I wonder, “how much was rent in New York in 2010?” It must have been getting very bad if he made his entire party based around it! According to my research, the average rent was around $1,600 per month. Currently, it’s at about $2,200 per month, and seemingly only going higher.
Why has rent continued to go up in places like New York and Massachusetts? Well, I’m not a politician nor know anything about economics, so the honest answer is I don’t know. This is coming from someone with 7 years of adulthood under his belt, and a real estate license.
A lot of people say it’s because minimum wage is going up, so rent prices just keep rising! This is a theory that definitely makes sense, but wages themselves are not going up at all. For example, a high school teacher’s salary in New York and Massachusetts are both around $50,000/year, and that has been the same since 2010. Yes, it has gone up by a percent or two each year, but that still doesn’t explain the $600 rent increase in 10 years. It certainly doesn’t make paying that high amount of rent, especially if you have children, any easier.
Deserving
There are times when I feel like the government changes rent prices to say who is deserving of a roof over their heads, and who isn’t, based on their income. To comfortably afford a $1,400 per month one-bedroom apartment in Massachusetts, one must make 3 times that amount at $4,200 per month or $50,000 per year. This all doesn’t take into account their other expenses, such as car insurance, medical expenses, food, and other necessities before even adding their small wants like Netflix for around $10 per month.
They may be able to afford it, but it can still be stressful making rent, even at $50,000 per year. Someone like me, who works two jobs, goes to school for engineering, and does the occasional side hustle when I’m not burnt out, makes around $2,300/mo. This isn’t enough for any apartment alone in Massachusetts. If I don't have friends or family to room with, I’m out of luck and have to live out of my car.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s surprisingly common amongst those in their 20s in expensive states like Massachusetts, New York, and California. We can make it work, but at the same time, we ask ourselves, “why?” We’re working multiple jobs, doing side hustles, going to school to hopefully make more money, and we still are left out in the cold. Some may say this is how life is supposed to be, but I say no.
There are lots of different ways to think about “deserving”. You don’t deserve the bad things in life, and honestly, we don’t deserve a lot of the good. I believe deserving is the wrong way to think about it, where we’re trying to prove to a higher power that we should be able to afford this roof over our heads because of this specific kind of paper in our pockets.
We shouldn’t think about life this way.
At times in life, we’re feeling like we’re trying to match what the world wants us to do. We go to college because that’s what society says to do, even at astronomically high tuition costs per year, so we do it. We’re told living out of your car isn’t normal and we should figure something else out. Some people listen to that, and some people don’t.
We’re all individuals with different outlooks on life and what we want to do with it. Some of us find that college is the right way to go after trying several different career paths before it, and others think college is horrible and start their own businesses right out of high school.
Others just want to ignore all of it and be as free as they can be! They get a car they can feasibly live out of, deck it out with things that they can afford that make them happy, and they go off and be a digital nomad. Maybe they make money writing at coffee shops, or they give tours at National Parks!
Van life is dramatized so much in today’s society, as well as getting looked down upon, but in reality, they’re just people trying to make it work. We’re just trying to be happy, make enough money doing what we love to do what we love, and go with the fucking flow.
No matter where you are in life, please don’t try to shape your life around society’s expectations for you. Do the van life, start an OnlyFans, or be an engineer and go to college. Keep doing you and keep struggling. It’s how we learn.
