Any time I go to a large city im exhausted by being charged for doing anything. How do people have fun if theyre poor(the neat part, you dont, probably). And to make it worse many of them probably have a 1 bedroom apartment so its not like you can sit in there all day long (at least i cant).
I realize im still spending money by being in my house out of town, but still, at least things I buy are owned by me, and im not paying someone else every time I want to do anything. If I want to stay at home all day I have tons of stuff to occupy my mind without going nuts.
I figure 98% of lemmy users live in big cities so id like to hear this perspective!
A lot of interesting answers here. I’d like to talk about something related: everything is rented. Especially in a big city.
You’ll pay to rent a home, a car, a bike, a seat (on a bus or in a place). Especially when you’re in a big city, you don’t own much of anything. You’ll rent a car by getting a taxi or using a ride share service or similar, just so you can get around, or rent a bike to do the same in one of the many variations of public bike sharing services. Then you’ll rent an apartment for a place to live, never buying or owning property of your own. Some people even rent to own their furniture and appliances.
Even those that “buy” a car are often on a lease agreement, which is just an exclusive rental with the option to buy at a discount at the end.
Your phone is probably on some kind of payment programme with your carrier so technically that’s a form of rental as well.
You’ll finance computers and other expensive items, which you don’t technically own until the balance is paid in full.
When living in a city, I’m not sure exactly what you personally own… At most it’s a short list of personal effects… Maybe a few things from Ikea? Some dishes and utensils?
… And it’s only getting more and more extreme. There’s subscription and rental services for almost everything now.
I live outside of any major cities in my area and I own most everything I have. I still have a mortgage, which is a sentence I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to say, but here I am… And I have a few debts, but my name is on the deed to my property, my car is paid off, I paid back my student loans… Other than some credit cards and my house, I own everything I have, outright. I used to live in a city and bluntly, I didn’t own much when I did.
I had somewhat of a debate going with, of all people, a prospective employer, during an interview even. His position was that everything would end up being rented/leased/whatever, with the only exceptions being subscription services for stuff like food and services. He was convinced that was the way things were headed and it was only a matter of time. At that time, I disagreed with him, but looking at everything now, is only proving his point. I got that job by the way.
So my answer for OP is, not much, and the list is getting shorter all the time.
This is probably the most biased and assuming opinion I’ve read on Lemmy… So far. However, I do agree with the second half of your last sentence.
Then you agree with me.
Almost the entirety of the contents of that post were arguments that my interviewer was asserting. I disagreed with him.
I have noticed that a lot more is going to a monthly recurring model, rather than buying something outright.
We used to buy DVDs, we now Subscribe monthly to streaming services. As an example, and hardly the only one.
Bluntly, I don’t think people will accept this shift in ownership for much longer. I know many people who outright reject the notion that everything needs to be paid monthly.
It’s part of the reason why I moved to where I live now, so I can actually own my home. Not just indefinitely rent it from someone else. I strongly believe in ownership and the rights an owner should have over their property… As long as that property isn’t a living person, which would be a very different discussion. I digress.
I hate that I’m seeing this trend. But I’m seeing it, and I know it’s a problem for basically everyone who isn’t one of the owners of the things people are buying/renting/getting “as a service”.
Hmm partially. Thanks for the clarification tho. I do agree there are conveniences that are rentals . I think home ownership is a totally different conversation however so I’ll leave that one alone.
Your statement that companies move towards this garbage subscription model is 100% accurate tho. Couple that with enshitification and you’re at the whims of stakeholder value and CEO bonuses. iTunes can remove and add songs to your library whenever, games can be bought then supporting servers decommissioned, hardware you’ve bought is intentionally hobbled because it’s behind some other subscription, and like you said it’s only getting worse. And every one of these collect and sell your data. So not only are you buying a service but you’re also a product bought and sold. That being said, rental conveniences are different than the subscription model. I don’t think ownership levels are different between urban or city.
I’m also jealous of your outright home ownership lol. I’m working on my mortgage and with the locked in <3% apr I’m not going anywhere. But damn I’d love me 5 acres with a dry lot, access, and utilities already placed.