HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

P5fRxh5kUvp2th

1,382 karma · joined August 15, 2022

submissionscomments
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on Did insurance fire brigades let uninsured buildings burn?
I said unconstitutional, not illegal.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
You're technically a landlord, yes, but there's an ocean of difference between living with your two best buds who pay you rent and renting an entire house to a complete stranger.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
Lets be clear here, by credit card I meant an actual credit card, not a debit card backed by a bank account, that is effectively cash.

You can do everything you listed without an actual CC, including rent a vehicle (I know, because I do it).

https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/mortgages/how-to-buy-house-n...

And that's kind of the silliness of credit score, you can game it by never actually using credit.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
What makes all of this worse is that I didn't respond because I thought the other poster was claiming that people who can't afford rent won't get rented to, of course that's true.

I responded because there are people who CAN rent who will not be rented to (or will find it very difficult to) because they have little to no credit history, or have a bad credit history.

There are other issues I didn't mention, such as taking a landlord or property manager to court. That can absolutely get you black balled both locally and somewhat nationally and not because someone is maintaining a secret list that everyone is watching, but because a large number of landlords and property manages are farming out SaaS services for background checking to these services and a large part of that is checking public court records. In light of that environment, taking your landlord to court is going to have a major effect on your ability to rent in the future.

Basically, the other poster was just not right and whinging about HN guidelines doesn't change that.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
^ this is a perfect example of how smart people are typically more prone to rationalization than others.

We could paraphrase the above as "the cheap version will last as long as the expensive version if you just don't use the cheap version!".

While technically true, it's also not useful.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
yes panick21_, you're totally right, fixing the poor people problem is totally easy, if only people would listen to you!
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on Repairing Your Car in Your Own Garage Is Considered Illegal in Sacramento, CA
They're talking about mechanics renting space so they don't have to do in their driveway, it has nothing to do with being poor.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
I understand what you're saying, what I'm saying is that most landlords treat people like ass regardless of how that person has treated them.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on Ask HN: Why do search functions everywhere not return what I search for?
The phrasing of the original poster was just fine. You misrepresented what they said and now you're trying to backpedal.

Let it go.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
and I'm saying it's not true that it's available to everyone, certainly not in practice.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
you've moved the goalpost.

Also: If we had a cashless society things would be different, but we don't, so they're not. These what-if's don't actually help the poor.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
Even the attitude.

You're giving them a helping hand by asking them to pay you every month and fixing things that a part of the contract.

---

And to be clear, I'm not bitching that a landlord will evict someone for not paying rent. Those issues have absolutely nothing to do with it.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
The issue is that I'm a great tenant and still have to deal with the crap. I've been renting for well over 20 years at this point and I've never been late, not even once.

That crappy tenants exist is not an excuse for so much consistency in how badly landlords treat their tenants.

The single property manager that treated me well? I stayed in that house for 6 years. Do you know why I moved? The landlord switched property managers. Literally month X everything was fine, month X + 1 I was fighting with them. And what about? They wanted to charge me a processing fee for my rent and wouldn't accept a check. They were based out of state, didn't have a local office, didn't accept check, and were pushing the processing fees onto their tenants. yeah, fuck that.

And what I said above about never being late? Not totally true. That property manager had the same bank I did so I would transfer money directly to her account, send her an email and she would respond with a confirmation that she saw it. At some point she switched banks. I waited until the last day to pick up a cashiers check to run by her office, only, unbeknownst to me, my bank had shortened their hours due to covid so I couldn't. When I realized this I called her, explained the situation, told her I'd be at her office first thing monday morning (it was a friday) and nothing was ever said about a late fee.

landlords tend to be assholes for no good reason and they generally get away with it because of the power differential that exists (or is perceived to exist) between them and their tenants. There are many more laws on the books protecting tenants than landlords and the reason for that is BECAUSE they tend to be assholes. There are laws on the books stating landlords are not allowed to let themselves into others homes whenever they want because if that law didn't exist many of them would.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
Here, let me quote myself

> I'm sure there are landlords that act in good faith as decent human beings, but it seems as if there's something unique about landlords that makes it difficult. In all the time I've been renting I've met a single decent property manager, and no decent land lords.

In reality it's just a random jackass on the internet that wanted to preen in front of others.

Introspection ... lmao. "I should figure out why I keep having to pull out my lawyer to keep landlords from abusing me".

In reality, it's because I rent cheap and they're used to having a power differential that doesn't exist with me.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on WebAssembly: Docker Without Containers
I started skimming and skipping because that's the only thing I was really interested in.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
Hey man, I get it. I'm a worse, less moral, human being than you are. It's just my lot in life, and as such, I deserve to be judged for it.

But I must ask, could you judge in silence? I suspect I'm not the only one who finds the noise distracting.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
Rather than explain you keep trying to argue, and what you've done is shown the sheer level of your ignorance.

I know a man who dated a woman in college whose family was so rich she didn't know how to operate a washing machine, the help did that. Her solution to the conundrum was to just buy new clothes. One can imagine that when talking about the "middle class" she probably thinks they're like her except with less money. But you and I can recognize this as existing in an entirely different world than the middle class.

And in that vein, poor is not "middle class but with less money".

We're not talking about buying a corolla off the lot because you can't afford a BMW. We're not talking about buying a 2 year old corolla because you can't afford a BMW either.

We're talking about buying a $300 car that just happens to be a corolla and can't be driven on the highway because it flat doesn't go fast enough to legally do so. We're talking about owning 2 $300 cars to mitigate the risk when one of them inevitably breaks down and the constant repairs as a result causing the TCO of that vehicle to be far greater than the newer model corolla you're comparing it to. We're talking about not being able to afford insurance on one, or both, of those so that you're always in fear of police.

We're talking about the constant need for money for the laundromat because you can't afford to purchase a washer and dryer, or you live in a place where such things aren't even possible.

And if your thought goes anywhere near "well just buy another $300 car when that one breaks down", it means you have zero understanding of what it means to be poor.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
I've never been late on rent since I started renting and I have no credit. Not even a little, I literally have no credit and I'm in my 40's.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours? (2022 edition)
I've had this exact conversation so many times over the years.

In truth, you just don't know the tools that well. And that's ok, but as someone who does and regularly does these things in both IDE's and in vim, you're wrong.

But I'm not going to bother trying to convince you, the same way I'm not going to try and convince you that my gf of 11 years is pretty awesome. I don't need you to get better to know that you're wrong.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
I drive a 2004 corolla that I bought off the lot and I'll probably drive it for another 10-20 years.

But I also grew up dirt poor and understand the difference between where I'm at now and where my family was at when I was young, in terms of vehicles.

There's a world of difference between an older, well-maintained, vehicle, and buying a car for $300 off the side of the road.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
They just gave you a real-world example, umbrellas...
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
Can you explain something to me?

An example is generally a way to solidify or convey an idea.

Why do some people think that attacking the example somehow invalidates the idea?

It's an excerpt from a fantasy book.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
> Demonstrating a proven track record of financial responsibility

credit is a record of your debt load, nothing else, but landlords use it as a proxy.

I have no credit and had to laugh when I realized no one would rent to me despite my 6-figure income. I had to start vetting THEM to see if it was a waste of time or not.

These kinds of things sound good in your head, but they're just not reality.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
> Renting is a service that is available to everyone

Go try to rent a decent place with no credit history and then tell me you still have that opinion.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
If they're unrelated then maybe they should have posted in a different thread with a different article.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
Then just use cash.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
You're not renting to poor people ... and you're rationalizing.

poor people don't have 3x income to rent ratio, middle class people do. poor people don't drive $30k+ vehicles, middle class people do.

The only thing you got right is that poor people make bad financial decisions. Often times they're forced into it, although not nearly always. Poor people trade time for money.

People are often predatory towards the poor because there's a combination of money being there but not having enough to protect yourself from the bullshit.

Personally, the one group of people I have absolutely no sympathy for are landlords, and I say this as someone with a 6-figure income who rents. I grew up dirt poor, to the point of being homeless.

And the number of times I've had a landlord try to pull some shit only to be shocked when my lawyer got in touch is entirely too damned high. Only for the problem to magically go away.

And why? Because you would never imagine my resources by looking at me and how I live. landlords do this shit as a matter of course and only back off when they realize not only CAN you defend yourself, but you WILL defend yourself.

Think about it like this.

There are laws on the books that very explicitly state if a landlord makes a persons property inaccessible before they're legally required to move, that person can sue them for the value of everything lost.

1. How do you think I know that (they gave away 2 of my pets, reptiles)?

2. Why did that law need to be passed?

---

I'm sure there are landlords that act in good faith as decent human beings, but it seems as if there's something unique about landlords that makes it difficult. In all the time I've been renting I've met a single decent property manager, and no decent land lords.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours? (2022 edition)
People get so hung up on this, but it's literally the shallowest sort of refactoring. If you're choosing your tools strictly for this you're doing yourself a disservice.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours? (2022 edition)
add the c and it will prompt so you can make the determination yourself.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th··on Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations
It's about the legal definition of gambling rather than the human understanding of it.

It's slimy, but per the legal definition, it isn't gambling.

Should it be illegal? personally, I think if it's targetted at children then yes.

← PreviousPage 5 of 33Next →