Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for December 15, 2015

Ah, here’s something. Would you take the A train? I can get you a nice window seat in the last car.

In 1985 I briefly rented the cheapest apartment I could find in Santa Rosa, CA, where rents are quite a bit less than half of San Francisco rents….which are probably less than half of Manhattan rents…This was a shabby 1 bdrm apartment, behind a house, in probably the most run-down part of town ….

and it was $450 a month.

Today it would probably rent for $1600….California rents are ludicrous… but New York City is more so.

lol, the evils of capitalism vs humans. Marx was right about capitalism giving people enough rope to hang themselves with. Controlling greed is the only way humans will survive. as it is now, capitalism is cause of our own extinction. stopping some greedy people is a small price to pay for being able to live in a society, which M. Thatcher said didn’t exist.

Trite hatefilled capitalists use any means to “get over.”

working things out could be done, but there is no profit in it. what do you mean I can screw over someone?

lol human greed is what is killing us and the rest of “life” as we know it.

I lived in this old house since June 1973. No mortgage any more, just $4,200 per year real estate taxes (Cook county IL).That translates to $350 per month plus utilities.

In the mid-eighties I rented a 1-BR right on York Beach, ME (near the Nubble Lighthouse), for $300/mo. In the dead of winter. I left before the season, when the rent climbed to about $300/wk.

We own our two family house here in Ecuador. Electric ( for both families ) is $39 per month. Water is $10.98 per month ( it just went up ). What could be considered property taxes would be $400 per year but because I am over 65, I get a 50% discount on all of the above, as well as on transportation ( air, train and buses ), drugs, and more !By comparison, the house I was renting in Florida cost me $600 per month rent, utilities were $149 per month for electric, &79 per month for water and sanitation.Oh yeah, we get daily garbage pick up down here !Anyone wonder why I left the States ?

@Dave“Actually rent control is the only reason why some families can live in major cities.”.Take from those who have something to offer, give it to those who can’t afford it?Got it..Actually, if nobody could afford the rent, they would cut rates or the city would be depopulated. I imagine there are cities which survive and yet lack such policies of public control over private transactions. (Don’t really care, not in any city if can help it.).Greed. The ones who want everything cheap and the ones who want what their property is worth in a free society.

Caligula@Beleck3“And you’re WRONG about what Marx said.”.Lenin, wasn’t it?.

Or something to that effect..No wait, it was that the Capitalists would sell you the rope to hang themselves with..When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use.Joseph Stalin??Maybe it was never said.

We are not considering sub lets to avoid the rising rents???

free market and level playing field mean that you need oversight. That is the last thing any Republican wants.Cronyism and favors from goverment(like the goverment subsidizing your worker’s wages and benefits) is what they want and they want the middle class to pay for any infrastructure that they need for their business.