Women lure men into marriage with baked goods, MGTOW Redditors warn

@Rhuu
I hadn’t heard of Dustin before, but reading that description I empathize much more with him than his father. I’d imagine the reader is supposed to empathize with Dustin.

They never help you make your point, and (as i said in the last thread), you never link to the source, so we can read it for ourselves.

Lenona also never explains why those sources support her argument. Any English teacher will tell you that you need to have an interpretation for your evidence, you can’t just throw evidence at your audience and expect them to understand your point. I’m not saying anyone has to write a research paper, in fact it’s better if people don’t, but just throwing vaguely cited quotes isn’t helpful. If someone wants to cite supporting evidence, they should summarize it and link the original source rather than posting long, largely irrelevant quotes. There used to be something in the Comments Policy about this, but I think it got removed.

Rent is more than anyone unemployed or under employed can afford, we’re in a pamdemic so most of the underpaying jobs aren’t hiring, and also *it isn’t safe to be out right now*.

In addition, for many, paying rent makes it impossible to put down a deposit on a house, as people don’t have enough at any one time and can’t save it because they need to pay rent, so people end up paying more for rent than they would if they could buy, but have no choice.

@ Naglfar –

I’d also imagine that the reader is supposed to empathise with Dustin, since he’s the titular character of the strip! XD

Re: quotes – interpreting them makes sense! I did that with the long dustin quote, and didn’t think about it. I’ll have to think about that point, so i make sure my links support my points. Hm.

Re: rent – and the down payments are SO MUCH. I was talking with some friends about how hard it can be to save up first, last, and any damage deposits necessary for rent, while still paying your current rent! Saving up for a house is so much worse. Especially for a single person.

@ Bookworm in hijab – you are as welcome as the flowers in spring. 🙂

@ Rhuu, Naglfar, and whoever might find it interesting, Barbara Ehrenreich’s books “Nickel and Dimed” and “Bait and Switch” are good reads about the impact of capitalism generally and the American economy specifically on people’s abilities to find and hold jobs. Your lived experiences have certainly given you full awareness of the info that she presents, but you might enjoy her way of laying it all out. IIRC she also comments on ageism and women’s employment prospects.

@Rhuu to add to your point about moving to a cheaper area, any such advice (or move where there are more jobs) is appliable only to middle/high class people, even if it’s not immediatly apparent.

Move out of where you have your root mean losing quite a bit of social safety net, along with your friends and connections. That’s costly and possibly dangerous depending on how often you need to rely on that.

And there’s also the problem that you need to have quite a bit of reserves to move, even if we suppose that it work out to more money later. It’s the Terry Pratchet point about how being poor is so expensive : a lot of financially wise decisions are out of reach if you don’t already have enough saving to enact them.

In addition to that, a lot of people badly botch their estimations on how moving would impact their living costs, at least in France. Typically, in France, Paris have food and commodities more expensive than the rest of the country. Except you also get paid more for most job, which cancel that. Cheap lodging often is far from public transportation, so you suddenly need a car ; and between gas, insurance, and repairs, cars are a LOT more expensive than they seem.

All that to say that moving to pay less rent or to find jobs is a risky, tricky endeavors that probably should only be suggested to people with a comfortable monetary cushions and/or a social net on their destination.

@Ohlmann
And at least in the US, cities and suburbs are basically designed so that if you want to live somewhere cheap you need a car, and if you want to live somewhere where you don’t need a car, it won’t be cheap. So either way it’s not cheap. And then there’s how most US cities have very limited or nonexistent public transport (with some exceptions like New York or Chicago).

@Moogue

maybe boomers could face up to the fact that the politicians they’ve voted in are eating everyone’s faces, rather than bitching about how young people like lattes and can’t afford apartments.

Ah, but that would require self reflection, and it’s easier to just blame millennials for all the problems they inherited.

Every 5 dollars you spend on a latte, could be more than 5 dollars if you invested it.

Probably not in this economy. It might make Jeff Bezos more money, but not most people.

I’m so sick of people telling young people how financially savy it is to rent.

A good general rule is, if someone claims to be giving one-size-fits-all financial advice, they don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.

@ Rhuu,

How are libraries working where you are? I was gutted when ours imposed the (very sensible and necessary) restrictions; they are slowly easing off and I have such a backlog of books I want to read!

It’s been years since I read her books, and iirc she has some ableist stuff in them, but overall a very well-written, clear exploration. Please tell me what you think!