New York City is America's unhappiest town

[alfred russel]

Chicago is at heart an industrial town. It's done well not to go the way of Detroit.

It is the capital of the midwest, the region of the country that has really struggled the most recently.

I think a good comparison is with Big 10 football. Tremendous heritage, still definitely one of the big boys, but no longer truly among the best even if out of tradition some put it there.

[Jacob]

I believe he's responding to the OP. However, garbon assures us that his apartment is quiet as a library.

Mine is surprisingly pretty quiet. While I live on a party street in NYUland, I face a quiet courtyard. Only here a bunch of noise if people are chatting in the hallway and/or having a roof party on a nearby building.

Oh and sometimes some doves coo on my fire escape.

... and rent is roughly 2K/month for a one bedroom? Is it big/ small/ tiny?

[alfred russel]

Look, if I could go to New York and take any piece of land I saw because the original inhabitants were dying in droves due to a combination of my superior firepower and resistance to my own smallpox, sure, I might consider it; likewise if I could move to Asia, obey only the laws I felt applied to me and trade opium for silver and blowjobs, I would be mightily tempted.  But the times change, buster.  There is no center and no frontier.  The whole Earth is owned by someone else already.

There is one frontier left.

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/alaska-the-last-frontier

I don't know much about it, no one does except for reality TV viewers, but I think you should bring a jacket.

[Barrister]

Look, if I could go to New York and take any piece of land I saw because the original inhabitants were dying in droves due to a combination of my superior firepower and resistance to my own smallpox, sure, I might consider it; likewise if I could move to Asia, obey only the laws I felt applied to me and trade opium for silver and blowjobs, I would be mightily tempted.  But the times change, buster.  There is no center and no frontier.  The whole Earth is owned by someone else already.

There is one frontier left.

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/alaska-the-last-frontier

I don't know much about it, no one does except for reality TV viewers, but I think you should bring a jacket.

Indeed.  I think homesteading still applies in Alaska.  If you go, clear the land and make it productive you can get free title. 

[garbon]

I believe he's responding to the OP. However, garbon assures us that his apartment is quiet as a library.

Mine is surprisingly pretty quiet. While I live on a party street in NYUland, I face a quiet courtyard. Only here a bunch of noise if people are chatting in the hallway and/or having a roof party on a nearby building.

Oh and sometimes some doves coo on my fire escape.

... and rent is roughly 2K/month for a one bedroom? Is it big/ small/ tiny?

Oh it is certainly on the small side - but more than enough room for one person. In fact in comparison to the first apartment I shared in the city, this one be a much nicer 2 bedroom conversion if it came to that. (/my one sister is big on the idea that I should rent out a room...)

[Ideologue]

Anyway, in response to all this GO NORTH MIDDLE-AGED MAN crap, I pay $650 a month.  For a two bedroom.  In a good neighborhood (except for the occasional nomadic peoples from a couple of miles down the street, but all settled men must face wandering bandits).

[garbon]

Anyway, in response to all this GO NORTH MIDDLE-AGED MAN crap, I pay $650 a month.  For a two bedroom.  In a good neighborhood (except for the occasional nomadic peoples from a couple of miles down the street, but all settled men must face wandering bandits).

ok?

[Josquius]

The Pilgrims didn't pay 2000$/month for a cockroach infested basement in Brooklyn, I'm sure.

True, but I've picked up a vibe from CdM and Ide that indicates they may not be willing to make a dangerous multi month journey on a rickety rat infested boat in order to become farmers in a land where they will have to build their own houses and the natives sometimes try to kill them.

True, I recall Ide looking into teaching abroad once but it was Korea he wanted to go to, not the Middle East.

Though seriously.... Certainly things were tough for pioneers way back when but let's not forget that at the time having to build your own house, grow your own food and sometimes have people try to kill you wasn't too abnormal in their home countries. We may be softer but the analogy isn't perfect

[CountDeMoney]

Anyway, in response to all this GO NORTH MIDDLE-AGED MAN crap, I pay $650 a month.  For a two bedroom.

So do I.  It's called a mortgage.  I'm just not paid enough to live there anymore.

[derspiess]

Your mortgage is 650 a month??  Lucky.

[CountDeMoney]

Being undersold before the boom hit in that part of town along 17 years of equity doesn't hurt.  Locked in a 30 year fixed back in '97.

But you're forgetting to tack on the $195 condo fee, and the neighbors I have to call the cops on every other week when it's payday and we need to get our drink on for Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots with the lil' Missus, while everybody slams their car door into yours. 

Not bad for a single family of me, though.  Just lucky I didn't cash out of it and roll it into a new mortgage right before my wealth was redistributed.  It's all I have left.

[alfred russel]

Though seriously.... Certainly things were tough for pioneers way back when but let's not forget that at the time having to build your own house, grow your own food and sometimes have people try to kill you wasn't too abnormal in their home countries. We may be softer but the analogy isn't perfect

I'm not seriously telling anyone to move to nyc or alaska. It is more that if you aren't satisfied with the direction your life is going you should switch things up. Maybe even radically.

Our immigrant ancestors came to America from a lot of different circumstances, but in general I think it is safe to say the risk and hardship most of them accepted was a lot less than we would face today if we were to do something like move to the Dakotas.

[Admiral Yi]

Dorsey, have you ever moved someplace new without a job in hand?

[alfred russel]

Dorsey, have you ever moved someplace new without a job in hand?

Nope. I've always been employed in a way that I thought I had long term prospects for wealth and success, with one exception when I went back to school.

Also, it would be possible to get a job in hand before moving somewhere. Iirc Ide had an opportunity in Korea. Or it would be possible to go back to school, get seriously into a hobby, push hard for a professional certification, etc.

[Ideologue]

Anyway, in response to all this GO NORTH MIDDLE-AGED MAN crap, I pay $650 a month.  For a two bedroom.  In a good neighborhood (except for the occasional nomadic peoples from a couple of miles down the street, but all settled men must face wandering bandits).

ok?

My point is that with $2k after taxes I can almost live like a human being here.  The $3.5k in NYC I'd be lucky to get, I couldn't even afford a hooker on Christmas.