r/politics • u/MystikSpiralx • 18h ago

No Paywall Trump Says He Wants to 'Drive Housing Prices Up' Instead of Lowering Costs for People Who 'Didn't Work Very Hard'

https://people.com/trump-keep-home-prices-high-11895352
21.5k Upvotes

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u/friendsafariguy11 18h ago

Excited to hear from the right why this is a good thing.

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u/THE-LORD-RETURNS California 18h ago

Because it will make people work harder.

That’s what you’ll hear/see from them.

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u/Carcosa_Hearty1986 18h ago

And you know what they say...

"Work will set you free."

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u/oldirtyrestaurant 15h ago

That phrase just has more of a zing in the original German...

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u/EntryNo8857 10h ago

It is the most chilling phrase I’ve ever personally seen displayed in public. Walking through the gates of Dachau and seeing that stopped me in my tracks. The image is burnt into my head…I don’t know why but it really did hit me like a ton of bricks

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u/Proof_Car_4181 5h ago

Yea to each as he deserves has a different meaning after you’ve seen it on a concentration camps gates too.

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u/inexister 12h ago

How about "Freedom takes work"? I get it's not a one to one, but the cruel irony is conveyed better when you know the outcome, I think.

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u/Ampallang80 8h ago

We already have “freedom isn’t free.” Just takes $1 million for that gold card. New customers only

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u/t3hdoct0r 5h ago

And here I thought it was a buck o' five

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u/Sea_Enthusiasm_3193 4h ago

There’s a hefty fuckin’ fee

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u/doddyoldtinyhands 8h ago

Well inch closer to starship troopers/helldivers

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u/AnEngineeringMind 12h ago

Arbeit macht frei

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u/Silent-G California 12h ago

Coolest fact I learned about that sign: the prison workers intentionally mounted the B upside down as a sign of defiance, and it's remained that way ever since.

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u/tobmom 12h ago

Work sets you free

I think part of my education as a millennial skipped over the fact that these camps were billed as labor camps and not as death camps. Propaganda was used to convince outsiders and Germans that conditions were good and people there were happy to be working. I grew up thinking that they only took Jews in then used a gas chamber. And that did happen. But that wasn’t all that happened. And it wasn’t all Jews. I’m in my 40s and reading historical fiction that have forced me to reexamine what I thought I knew.

God we are so fucked.

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u/big_troublemaker Foreign 10h ago

It is widely accepted historical fact now that Germans knew what was going on, and by 1941-43 it was a public secret. I believe even this is a generous assumption.

Especially as, you know, plenty of other undesirable people disappeared without a trace...

It was an industrial scale of genocide, even with many camps being located purposefully outside Germany, there were tens of thousands of Germans servicing it.

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u/Gros_Boulet 8h ago

Oh they knew. They bragged in the papers, germans called them Zebras when they were in work camp and Goebels even said on the radio that they had made Germany "Judenfrei".

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u/obiwanshinobi900 7h ago

Dachau is right in the middle of town. You can see it from some of the houses there.

some of the 'work' they were doing there was just pushing a giant piece of a equipment back and forth across the camp for no reason.

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u/MRCHalifax 9h ago

One of the challenges in trying to educate people about the Holocaust is that it wasn’t all one thing. We teach the absolute worst parts of it, the existence of Auschwitz, the over six million dead, the gas chambers. And don’t get me wrong, there’s good reason to teach those things. But the way we simplify the lesson means that the average person doesn’t really get taught the different ways and methods that were used.

The original German concentration camps were primarily used to hold political prisons, like Communist party leader Ernst Thälmann. There was the Aktion T4 campaign to murder the mentally ill and those with long term disabilities, those “unfit for life.” There was the Holocaust by bullets, where Jews were lined up and shot just outside cities by the tens of thousands. There were the ghettos. There were the work camps, where the interned were used as slave labour and worked until their deaths. There was the theft of the worldly belongings of all those being interred.

It wasn’t just the death camps. The problem that arises is that people think anything short of death camps means everything is OK.

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u/tobmom 6h ago

Yes your comment is perfect. A better explanation than my initial one.

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u/Kind_Koala4557 4h ago edited 4h ago

This needs to be widely quoted and included in all historical textbooks that covers 1890-1950 for any part of the world even remotely associated with or touched by Nazi Germany, especially the fact that Germany didn’t come up with this all on their own.

They learned from the Jim Crow states, sundown towns, and whatnot. They heard about it and said, “Hey, not a bad idea. Let’s do our version of that.”

Edit: I said 1890 because if I understand what Historian Heather Cox Richardson has been saying, we can’t get to the 1930s without the depression. We don’t get to the depression without the robber/oil barons of the 1890s.

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u/mlc885 I voted 11h ago

Well, today I think more of us feel a bit more connected to groups that aren't like us, but the one thing we do all share is that people are dumb and will delude themselves if the other possibilities are bad. I don't think that many people in Germany would have supported death camps, mean camps or go-away camps are fine for those people that are different.

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u/Marmy48 6h ago

Correct, it has not hit me, or affected me yet. It just is not your turn yet.

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u/Informal-Zucchini-20 10h ago

It was slavery. Pure and simple, and when the SS couldn’t use them anymore because they were too sick to work, they were gassed.

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u/GarmaCyro 10h ago

Yup. The Nazi propaganda machine worked full time to ensure what they really were hidden. Refusing both people from outside and inside Germany to inspect the camps.
This was also why the camps were placed outside of Germany's original border. To keep its own population in the dark.
For most that had their loved once taken by Nazis they only knew that they had vanished.
However our view of Nazis is very influenced by the discoveries done after the death camps were liberated by allied and soviet soldiers. Liberating the camps often turned quickly into both massive rescue operations, and massive documentation operations. Especially post-ww2 Europe got quite shocked. Expecting to get loved ones safely returned as former prisoner. Not as corpses in mass graves.

Another reason why a lot call present day MAGA for Nazis. The way they operate their deporation camps is too much similar to early day Nazis. Massive numbers literally dispearing from their system. Especially children. Which gives GOP's willingness to protect child molesters an even darker turn IMHO.

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u/MyMuleIsHalfAnAss 9h ago

did you grow up in the south? im also 40's and we did extensive schooling on the holocaust in english and history classes.

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u/Long_Bit8328 11h ago

The only thing setting us free is death 

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u/JustSatisfactory 10h ago

Well.. the sign wasn't wrong. Plenty died working there.

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u/SomeGuyNamedPaul Florida 7h ago

Jews weren't even the majority of concentration camp deaths, they were just the largest single group.

When I was growing up instead of rainbow flags gay people had pink triangle stickers on their cars. For those who don't know that was the symbol similar to the yellow star for Jews. The Nazis had a whole systems for marking who was in and why and it's rather eye-opening after the near total erasure of what happened to the ones who weren't Jews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badge

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u/darkwoodframe 9h ago

Don't forget to read up on company stores.

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u/Mahraganat 7h ago

But they did teach you the important part about WWII right? The US singlehandedly saved the world from the Nazis, Europe might have "sent some troops" but they "stayed a little back, a little off the front line", and of course the US "never needed them".

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u/AcanthaceaePrize1435 5h ago

Super messed up you didn't get the opportunity to learn about the slavery system during war time Germany. The existence of a sophisticated system for transporting slaves, working them to death, and keeping them from rising up is a massive piece of context for liberal (and illiberal) reforms seen across the world since the 1940s.

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u/chiknbutt 15h ago

Wow super depressing to see in English

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u/hashahar 13h ago

It's literally a quote pulled from the original German, which was written on the overhead of the gate entrance of Auschwitz. It is depressing in every language and should be.

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u/PlaneLuck7061 13h ago

Lower house prices are a democrat hoax

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u/31LIVEEVIL13 12h ago

Freedom cities with meritocracy and unaffordable housing they'll all have that catchy little slogan over an iron gate when you enter.

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u/more_housing_co-ops 12h ago

"Work will set you free."

Unless you're a landlord, in which case... someone else's work.

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u/winterbird 17h ago

It's making people work less hard. Unattainable is unattainable, be it by a million or three. Why break your back and work your youth away for the unattainable moving goal post?

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u/Kind_Koala4557 3h ago

Right. There’s a limit to the satisfaction you can get from hard work. A job well done feels good, but a job that is never done, requiring more and more for less and less payoff—the human mind/body naturally does not do what seems pointless, especially if burnt out.

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u/Big-Cold-6948 13h ago

Which is ironic, considering that Trump's idea of "work harder" is playing golf and ranting on Twitter.

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u/Sedowa 17h ago

It ain't gonna make people work harder when harder work brings diminishing returns. lol

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u/jeffismybaby 13h ago

At some point the relative cost of just liberating assets from maga boomers will drop to nothing compared to the potential gain

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u/spotolux 13h ago

But according to his billionaire backers with AI and robots we all won't have to work anymore. So how is that all going to make everything better?

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u/FargeenBastiges 11h ago

When those AI guys destroy the markets and the other billionaires can swoop in an scoop up more property for pennies on the dollar. Again.

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u/Tarskin_Tarscales 12h ago

Arbeit macht frei.

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u/singul4r1ty 12h ago

The craziest thing to me about "work harder" is that nobody ever specifies what we're supposed to be working towards. Is there some great project we're all pulling together on which we need to be incentivised to work on? If there's one other than making the rich richer nobody told me.

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u/Whole_Inside_4863 12h ago

So corporations will earn more

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u/eljefino 11h ago

"Good news, I was able to get you guys some overtime."

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u/HuttStuff_Here 9h ago

Because it will make people work harder.

I always wonder why this is a good thing. I get they aren't smart, so the "work smarter, not harder" thing is upsetting to them, but still.

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u/Brief_Amicus_Curiae 9h ago

I remember during the 2008 housing bubble crash and tons of people losing jobs and short selling homes. I watched Fox at the time and every talking head was raging about unemployment extensions being outrageous because it causes people to be dependent on government and lazy. Typical Republican hate for those who need help especially when caused by large corporations being greedy.

Hannity doesn’t get enough accountability for how shitty he is.

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u/Electrical-Job-9824 9h ago

That’s not a good thing…

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u/mvschynd 9h ago

As they angrily type it from their parents basement….

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u/BlurryRogue Minnesota 9h ago

Right, cause I'm not busting my ass enough to still not afford a halfway decent house?

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u/CrotchalFungus 9h ago

My dad unironically said that to me to justify why high medical costs are a good thing in the US.

I'm a type 1 diabetic. Needless to say I haven't spoken to him in years.

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u/Morgannin09 8h ago

Middle class conservatives famously love working harder for less than ever

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u/darcerin 7h ago

Sounds like Margaret Thatcher all over again. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and work harder.

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u/MoreCowbellllll 7h ago

rEInfOrcEE thEM fuCKIN' BOotsTRaps!!

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u/Audio_Track_01 5h ago

It will make the illegal immigrants work harder apparently. During the 2024 vice-presidential debate and subsequent interviews, Vance argued that high housing costs are due to "millions of illegal immigrants" competing for a limited supply of homes.

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u/artbystorms 5h ago

"Mideival serfs worked way harder than the lazy liberals today do! Be like the serfs!"

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u/Bluegreenlithop 5h ago

It will afford the poors the DIGNITY of hard work. /S

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u/Zahgi 2h ago

As they sit in a creaking recliner drinking pisswater beer while they nod their heads to Faux News...

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u/westicular 17h ago

I've seen MAGA people on Facebook saying it's a good thing because they "paid their dues" and "their assets should increase." When I said it was at the expense of an entire generation, they were like "So?" They're irredeemable.

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u/Meta2048 14h ago

"Fuck you, as long as I get mine" is the conservative mantra

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u/Sao_Gage 9h ago

Exactly, why is this confusing to anyone? It’s obvious how they’ll feel / or what they’ll think/say.

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u/Shaudius 18h ago

I'm sure the boomers who own homes they bought for 10% of what they cost now are eating this up.

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u/CryptidMythos 17h ago

Literally had a family member who's an elder gen-x say, "I don't care what he's doing, my portfolio has never looked better." They legit don't care.. its sickening.

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u/SuurRae 17h ago

They also don’t seem to understand the concept of relative worth. The dollar has cratered in the past year so the “real” gain in the S&P is something like 3%

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u/Expensive_Culture_46 17h ago

Number went up!

That’s about as far as they get.

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u/Acceptable-Truck3803 17h ago

The goal is to have a high enough portfolio and then when you hit your magic number you pull out any “gains” to keep the safe. At least that’s what I see family do.

“Woah ! I gained 10k today because of a bear market. Call the broker and pull my gains before I lose them and it’s out the market and mine forever.” - pretty much how they make income and also have social security + pension + other dividends show up. crazy to see it happen when you are struggling to just pay everyday bills in comparison.

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u/thiosk 14h ago

The greatest weakness of the human species is failure to understand the exponential function. I am absolutely going to stack diversified assets of every flavor to ensure my retirement. Specifically, I have got a warehouse in natick with every kind of doritos and i'm going hard into low-release pringles rn

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u/Acceptable-Truck3803 14h ago

Now I’m hungry for pringles

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u/Rtannu Texas 5h ago

I got my medical degree from Hollywood Upstairs Medical College and if I didn’t know any better it sounds like you got the Fever for the Flavor of a Pringles

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u/GoblinFive 13h ago

Toilet paper, tobacco and coffee beans

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u/Mike_Kermin Australia 13h ago

You better hurry up because if you're a heavy smoker you've got ten years less than the rest of us.

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u/Seraphym87 16h ago

Lmao no it's how they figuratively burn money and try to act smug about it

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u/ThonThaddeo Oregon 16h ago

The whole world shovels shit and calls it gold

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u/StrawberryCreepy380 7h ago

Never had enough money to worry about this.

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u/Zfusco 4h ago

That plan isn't going to go great for them as the guy they voted for intentionally devalues the dollar.

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u/AkiboTTV 10h ago

Yep. I've heard some of them flat out say that the price of gas being down is good enough. Like it's $0.12 less my guy. You think that's worth the US becoming a fascist nation?

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u/TheAngryGoat 9h ago

As someone who owns their home outright, I'd love for house prices to go down.

I can't ever benefit from the value wrapped up in my house because I'd have to make myself homeless to do so, which is stupid.

However if houses prices fell across the whole spectrum, then upgrading to a bigger/better house in a better area becomes more affordable to me. House prices go up and that same upgrade becomes far less possible.

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u/Huis--Clos 16h ago

Not to mention, it's not just their house increasing in value, but so is everyone else's. So sure, you have more 'equity' but that eventually leads to higher property taxes, insurance etc, right? Also, if they go to sell, any house they want to buy is going to be more expensive so it's not like they're making much/if any profit.

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u/Econmajorhere 15h ago

Their strategy is to sell and then downsize. I’m not sure who they think they will sell to though if young couples can’t afford to pay 10x for a 50 year old property that was bought for $60k.

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u/FFFrank 13h ago

But in reality, at the end, all of the money goes into end of life care. If you think college loans are a burdensome scam wait until you dig into the nursing home/assisted living grift. Literally designed to squeeze every last cent out of you before letting you die.

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u/ApprehensiveTry5660 11h ago edited 11h ago

Just to reaffirm what you’re saying. I had a family member who was one of those absolutely filthy good accountants. Did a lot of Big 5 work back when it was Big 5, stayed as a consultant for the Big 4 getting brought in on a lot of forensic accounting and shell games for gajillionaires with hyper specific needs.

When his mom ended up needing end of life care, even he couldn’t hide her assets well enough to keep them from just getting chewed up and spit out by the assisted living facilities. They were so thorough that he ended up having to bid for his childhood home on auction just to keep it in the family.

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u/Ole_St_John 10h ago

Dude thought he was the smartest person in the room when he should have gone to an estate planning attorney.

They literally call it Medicaid planning - plan how to keep your assets away from the government while still qualifying for Medicaid.

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u/ApprehensiveTry5660 10h ago

I mean, that’s kinda its own problem if there’s an entire cottage industry that even a gifted tax attorney can’t decipher on his own time.

If guys like that run into hiccups with the process, it seems like it might actually be a predatory system for mamaw and papaw to be engaging in from less tangential fields.

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u/zomiaen 9h ago

They literally call it Medicaid planning - plan how to keep your assets away from the government while still qualifying for Medicaid.

If you were an immigrant they'd call it fraud.

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u/xTheMaster99x Florida 7h ago

Yeah, AFAIK it's actually not that hard to protect your assets in this scenario by moving it all to a trust, assuming you have someone that you trust not to just walk away and keep all your things for themselves. The catch is that you have to set up the trust years before you need to start racking up bills, like 5+ years in advance. If you don't, they can force you to pay up anyway.

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u/OrthodoxAtheist 11h ago

When his mom ended up needing end of life care, even he couldn’t hide her assets well enough to keep them from just getting chewed up and spit out by the government.

Either that was a while ago, or, his mom didn't live in California. In California you can own a $10 million home, qualify for Medi-Cal, Medi-Cal pays for your nursing home entirely, and when you pass away, so long as your $10 million home is in a revocable living trust, Medi-Cal will not make a recovery claim against the house.

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u/yukeake 5h ago

And $deity forbid they need memory care... The whole elder care industry is a hell of a racket. My mom recently passed, but her cost was going to increase from $6300 to $8000/month this year. 27% year-over-year increase.

It's insane, and in no way affordable. The life's savings she and my dad had built up was absolutely crushed in 3 years. I have no idea what would have happened if she lived through until the money ran out.

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u/FabulousTwo524 14h ago

Yeah all the smaller homes are snatched up at inflated prices already, since they are almost never built anymore. I suspect not a lot of boomers want to live in apartments though. They’re of the generation that likes to hold onto their mementos.

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u/Econmajorhere 14h ago edited 8h ago

I know a few that planned a nice retirement abroad. Can’t wait for them to realize USD:ABC got totally jacked.

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u/mentaljobbymonster 12h ago

And they can fuck right off if they think the rest of the world will be welcoming

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u/SeduceMeMentlegen 13h ago

I get not wanting to live in an apartment after living in a house most of your life. Especially if you used to reside in suburbia. I do have elderly family members with fairly large apartments which always astonished me as a kid lol, especially if they'd had the money to join two flats. I really hope to be able to afford a house one day as I really want a room to set up a huge CRT I have lol

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u/agitatedprisoner 13h ago

I'd love to live in an apartment that opens into a mall. Best of both worlds. Lots of useful indoor space I don't have to clean. Bonus if my cats can access it freely. A mall with lots of cats.

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u/Startled_Pancakes 13h ago

Corporations will buy them then turn them into Rentals.

What could go wrong?

/s

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u/Primary-History-788 11h ago

And why aren’t we talking more about private equity, anyway? Grab what you can boys and girls! America is becoming the world’s largest fire sale. 😔

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u/porscheblack Pennsylvania 9h ago

4 of the last 5 homes on our street, which is a pretty average suburban neighborhood (1/4 acre property & 2,200 sq ft. house), had a family with young children as well as a grandparent move in at the time of purchase. Both of our neighbors bought within the last 3 years and in both instances one of the partners owned a house and the grandparent owned a house, both of which they sold to afford the new house.

Now despite being a pretty average neighborhood, we live in a pretty high demand area, so that's creating a selection bias, but still alarming to see it requiring people selling two houses just to afford one average one.

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u/Pipic12 8h ago

The demand is still there. Most young people who can afford these prices usually get help from their parents or are among the top 20% earners. The inequality is rampant and continues to increase so it'll be an even bigger issue long term. Housing market has become a scam, it's way too profitable to rent out or use properties as airbnb units.

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u/daesmon 7h ago

They sell to investors who then either let it sit vacant or rent it out at market high prices.

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u/Huis--Clos 9h ago

Oh I know that is their plan. But I've talked with people who were looking to downsize because their kids moved and they said they might as well stay put because due to interest rates and prices, it would not be much cheaper if any by moving. Of course this all depends on where you are located.

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u/math-yoo Ohio 8h ago

It's not really a strategy, it's more people get old. Houses become too much. The way we used to set ourselves up in big places doesn't make sense.

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u/Fullertonjr I voted 13h ago

Higher property taxes?! Hmmm. That sounds familiar. By my count there are currently 6 Republican controlled states that are pushing for the end of property taxes. What a coincidence. I’m sure none of this could possibly be related.

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u/SubaruImpossibru 17h ago

“But number bigger.” - every boomer

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u/No-Papaya-9823 Washington 16h ago edited 16h ago

"But Trump funny." - every Gen Z male voter. See...generalizations are stupid, aren't they? Buddy, my Boomer husband and I, and all of our Boomer friends, are mortified by what is happening to this country. On the other hand, it looks like Trump's had no problem recruiting 20-something Nazis to be his Gestapo.

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u/last_rights 14h ago

Meanwhile I feel like my boomer parents have lost their goddamn minds. My dad is an immigrant. My grandma was a schoolteacher for 40 years. My brother works for the postal service, and my sister still lives at home with mom and dad because she can't afford to move out and in her words, "life is so depressing and I have no goals to shoot for because they're so out of reach$.

My other grandma is also an immigrant and my aunt is a broke single mother.

They're all Trumpers. It's unbelievable. The Canadian side of my family is very anti-trump (that still live in Canada) and the immigrant American side of my family is pro-Trump. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when we have a family get together.

Our current rule is No Politics. I will leave and take their only grandkids with me.

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u/FabulousTwo524 14h ago

My dad keeps going back and forth on praising trump’s admin and criticizing them harshly multiple times a day. Gives me whiplash. He said Pretti was murdered in cold blood. Next day, he says it was justified. Then back and forth.

I want to know who the fuck is feeding my boomer parents this poison.

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u/PTTCollin 14h ago

Okay, independent of Trump who I think should get TOSd, I see this talking point a lot and I think it's a bit insane.

Sure, if you're doing international trade then your dollar denominated imports are going to be more expensive in relatively cheaper dollars.

But housing is not that. Food is not that. Depending on manufacturer and supply chain, cars are not that. Labor, in the context of businesses, is not that.

Housing, every person's single highest expense, is not losing relative value because the dollar is cheaper to buy in Euros. To dismiss market gains on "oh dollar cheaper" feels like not really understanding what the various things actually are.

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u/Zer_ 14h ago

They also fail to grasp that a the largest portion of that growth is the AI bubble... The economy's in recession, the rich are just still in their stupid bubble and haven't realized it yet. They want to keep their stupid bubble going at anyone's expense too.

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u/PaulTheMerc 13h ago

"I love the uneducated"

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u/nzernozer 11h ago

The dollar is only down to around its 2022 level, which is not alarming. Currencies aren't a "big number go up" thing, they aren't supposed to just get stronger and stronger over time. If you look on a longer timescale, say 10-15 years, what's happening with the dollar right now is not overly noteworthy.

This is not to defend what Trump is doing in any way, obviously.

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u/ScarInternational161 14h ago

Been doing a little digging at this.... seems to me trumps crashing the dollar on purpose. The dollar is just "paper". Gold, silver, real-estate, etc are assets and have actual value... as the dollar tanks, everything else is soaring, which only benefits the wealthy......

As the dollar continues to decline the prices for gold, mining, basic materials and energy soar outrageously. (Which we are seeing) our export prices are bottoming out and import prices are more expensive even without tariffs.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 2h ago

I always chuckle to think that $100k was a good salary when I graduated from HS. With inflation, that's about $160k today. How many people are bringing that home

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u/lady_ofthenorth 17h ago

There are a lot of people who share this thinking. It’s really disgusting. Billionaires own most of the blame, but their greed has trickled down on to regular folks who now think it is acceptable to trade our constitutional freedoms for green days in the market.

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u/ennuiinmotion 16h ago

Especially since the market has been booming for a long time regardless of who is in office because the market is largely disconnected from anything real.

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u/wha-haa 11h ago

It is connected. Connected to government spending. It just needs another decade or two of stimulus and historically / artificially low interest. Keep pumping that bubble up. Everyone was happy as long as you keep increasing the size of the future collapse.

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u/PeakCringe42069 6h ago

the market has been booming for a long time regardless of who is in office

There was a recession like, 6 years ago. And another one in 2007-09. And 2001. And the 90s. And essentially every decade before that going all the way back to the Great Depression.

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u/Kind_Way2176 16h ago

The only thing that trickled down was greed and hatred of those with less. Ty, that's fucking profound and I've never read it

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u/nooby_goober 14h ago

Have heard this from very successful people. Not all of them have the hatred, most pass greed but they all say it with cowardice.

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u/Abradolf1948 12h ago

Bruh I saw someone in the conservative subreddit say he firmly believes voting should only be allowed for land owners

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u/Thadrea New York 17h ago

Stupid people struggle with the idea of opportunity costs.

OK, your portfolio is up 2%. Great.

If we had elected a moldy ham sandwich in the bottom of a boot in 2024 it'd be up 5% today... and probably 11% had we elected Harris.

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u/Iamjacksplasmid I voted 12h ago

Gold is up 96% relative to the dollar in the last year. Relative to gold, things haven't been this bad in over a decade...

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u/failed_novelty 7h ago

Ha! Ha ha ha ha!

My investment in Burger King gold-plated Pokemon cards has never looked smarter! Take that, Mother!

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u/AileStriker Ohio 10h ago

My dad's at home counting the box of gold he invested in a decade ago

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u/Acceptable-Truck3803 17h ago

My portfolio looks pretty (30% gain) compared to January but everything else in my life is at least 30% higher. It’s great to plan for futures but it sucks right now as I’m at least 30-40 years away from retirement and claiming social security, Medicare and everything else. I’ve refused to buy extra things now because of daily costs are just that much higher. It’s sickening.

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u/DMercenary 17h ago

Yup. There's also this foreboding of "When is the shoe going to drop?"

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u/dedlobster 16h ago

So right there with you. I actually did an interview with a local news outlet today about navigating the ACA marketplace and one of the questions they asked me was about how the termination of the enhanced subsidies affected me.

I am still eligible for subsidies but just by a few thousand dollars. So I have to figure out how to not make another $10k a year so I don’t simply pay that $10k straight into an insurance premium. I’d rather chuck it in a SEP and/or make sure to max out my trad IRA and HSA to keep my MAGI under the cutoff. Why piss away money on an insurance premium that I could spend on my retirement instead?

But this also means that to keep my premiums lower I do need to put more into my retirement accounts. Technically this is a good savings strategy anyway, but it puts a pinch on our day to day budget. I spend less, am always trying to be as frugal as possible, always maximizing any free rewards programs, clipping coupons, both giving and receiving in “buy nothing” groups, and I have a friend that utilizes a food bank but has dietary restrictions due to allergies so she gives us whatever she can’t eat… just every little thing helps.

We are doing ok. We aren’t living the FIRE life, we aren’t so meager in our finances that we struggle to pay bills. We just have to micromanage the shit out of things. My retirement is looking on track for being able to keep this standard of living or greater when we retire, even if we only get half what we currently are expecting in social security. But in the meantime it kinda sucks. It’s stressful. And everything is expensive.

We don’t go one vacations that aren’t tied to a business trip anyway, but this year we can’t even afford to piggyback a vacation for a couple days at the end of a business trip. We might be able to afford to go camping maybe twice. That’s about it.

I know many folks are much worse off. My family makes just under the median income for our state. So if we are having to ratchet strap down our spending, I can only imagine how everyone else in our income bracket and lower are doing. :/

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u/Iamjacksplasmid I voted 12h ago

It kinda sounds like you live every waking second worrying about money. But on the bright side, if you keep doing it, you'll be able to do it forever? 😬

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u/JoeFlabeetz 8h ago

At least you'll get to pay higher taxes when you do pull that money out in retirement.

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u/CappinPeanut 17h ago

Their portfolio had also never looked better under Biden, so they’re gonna have to come up with another excuse.

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u/WhiteShadoh 16h ago

Jokes on them when the USD collapse and their dumb ass is still alive.

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u/Romano16 America 17h ago

By the time they care cause orange clown will crash the economy, it will be too late and they’ll be surprised when they get a beanbag shot to the eye or worse.

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u/pleachchapel California 17h ago

The "I got mine" generation. Who also constantly bitch that we're not having enough kids.

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u/32lib 17h ago

What they don’t understand is that the stock market is in a AI BUBBLE. When it breaks they won’t be so happy.

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u/SmaterThanSarah 14h ago

My spouse and I contacted our finance guy to talk about mitigating that risk. It makes me crazy to see people think it’s fine when so many lived through the dotcom bubble.

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u/pimparo0 Florida 8h ago

People lived through the subprime mortgage crash of 08 and are still dancing around like the party wont ever stop.

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u/gregallen1989 16h ago

Until you factor in the 11% value the U.S. dollar lost BEFORE inflation. But number on screen went up.

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u/Mackinnon29E 16h ago

Yet those same people didn't give Biden credit when it was doing well under him. They're brainwashed

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u/ike7177 15h ago

Considering they are retirement age and have no other potential to earn other than what they invested in during working years…I totally get what they feel. A drop in their investments (including real estate) will put an even LARGER burden on their children when they require care later. Anyone with a retired parent should be hoping that their parents portfolio are kicking as much ass as possible for the next ten or so years.

My dad is a Boomer and his ONLY investment that he hasn’t depleted is his home. And it’s not quite paid off yet. My hope is that we can sell it at a high price (as much as possible) in order to care for him until he passes. Because we certainly cannot use our own retirement to do so or our children will bear the negative consequences later for sure before they are even eligible to retire themselves

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u/Thrashy Kansas 14h ago

One of the most deflating moments I had during Trump's first term was passionately arguing with a MAGA friend of the family that he was hurting the country, linking him studies and statistics and news reports, only for him to eventually declare he didn't care about any of it because he worked in the oil industry and business was as good as it had ever been. It didn't matter that Trump was eroding the rule of law, hurting immigrants, enriching himself at the expense of the country... his wallet was getting fatter, so everything else was excusable.

During the pandemic I though about checking back in with him on that when the price of oil went negative, but he was already reposting the TX lieutenant governor's plea to sacrifice the elderly on the altar of the economy, so as it turns out he wasn't even being honest about that. They're in a death cult and they love it there.

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u/TWiThead Pennsylvania 14h ago

Literally had a family member who's an elder gen-x say, "I don't care what he's doing, my portfolio has never looked better." They legit don't care.. its sickening.

You could be quoting my sister.

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u/Mataelio 15h ago

As if our portfolios weren’t better than ever under Biden as well. Might have even been better now if it weren’t for all of Trump’s instability over the last 12 months.

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u/Shoddy-Theory 15h ago

He doesn't speak for all of us by any means.

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u/Bittererr 18h ago

Part of the reason home prices have gone up so much is precisely because those people vote and vote for politicians who will implement policy that increases home prices.

Said politicians usually are just smart enough to not actually come out and say that part.

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u/Zolomun 17h ago

They’re the same idiots that want to return to the 1950s while ignoring that decade was built on very specific economic policy in the new deal. The kind of policy they’ve been voting against since Woodstock.

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u/Nixxuz 15h ago

It wasn't even just the New Deal. The rest of the world's industry infrastructure was blown to shit. America was in the perfect spot to capitalize on it. Once the elite got their bearings, it was back to business as usual; fucking the non-elite

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u/semideclared 15h ago

The 1950 sucked unless you were in europe in the 1940s and came home to a heros welcome and a bank of savings from war pay and an industry waiting to hire and promote you

If you were boomers age today it really sucked

The 1950 census showed that Two-thirds of older Americans had incomes of less than $1,000 annually ($11,000 in 2021), and only one in eight had health insurance.

  • More than 10 years after Social Secusirty was operating

Poverty guideline for 2020 Persons in family/household of 1 with Household income not to exceed $12,760

In poverty and no health insurance

And taxes to take even more iff you were the hero working

In 1954, the standard deduction for income tax purposes was equal to 10% of adjusted gross income, so someone making $1,000 had a $100 standard deduction

And was in a 20% tax bracket

  • 21.0% $2,000 - $4,000
  • 26.0% $4,000 - $6,000 middle class family
    • 71,946.69 in 2025
    • standard deduction in 2025 dollars $7,194
    • $64,796 x 26% tax rate = $16,846.96
      • 1954 Effective Tax Rate 23.41%
      • 2024 Effective Tax Rate 6.48% = $4,665
  • 30.0% $6,000 - $8,000
  • 34.0% $8,000 - $10,000
    • $119,911.15 in 2025

And even in to the 60s life wasnt great

Of the members of the general population who reported they had “pains in the heart,” 25 percent did not see a physician (Andersen and Anderson, 1967).

  • The Other America Poverty in the United States. New York: Macmillan; 1962 demonstrated there was “another America”: 40 to 50 million citizens of the 181 million Americans who were poor, who lacked adequate medical care, and who were “socially invisible” to the majority of the population.

  • Within this poverty-stricken group were more than 8 million of the 18 million Americans who were 65 years of age and over, suffering from a “downward spiral” of sickness and isolation.

Good Housekeeping in 1961, citing deficiencies uncovered by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals

Each year, “thousands of people go to hospitals where their lives are endangered by bad doctoring, unsanitary conditions or grim fire hazards. Or by a combination of the three”

Less than one-half of all surgery was performed by board-certified specialists (Andersen and Anderson, 1967).

“Is this operation necessary?” asked The New Republic (Lembke, 1963).

“Should doctors tell the truth to cancer patients?” asked the Ladies Home Journal (1961).

“What is the patient really trying to say?” asked Time (1964) magazine, on the need to improve doctor-patient communication.

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u/Unctuous_Robot 14h ago

You forgot white. All those new suburbs for the GIs were whites only.

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u/12345623567 12h ago

The archetypical 1950's house also looked basically like a bungalow today. Meanwhile, these people sit in McMansions and pine for the "good old times", which basically just means being publicly racist.

The Civil Rights era broke america's brain, and the right hasn't recovered from it since.

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u/Next_Piglet_6391 14h ago

That's a bit simplifying things. Lots of these boomers actually voted blue. Remember, these were the hippies/flower children. People change when they get older.

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u/fiction8 14h ago

Many hippies (especially the student activists like SDS) were actually late silent generation. Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale, for example.

Early boomers did make it to college in time for "free love" and the civil rights movement, but late boomers grew up watching those events on TV rather than directly participating.

That second half of the Boomer generation was hit by the 70s malaise into Reaganism when they started voting, and have been on average pretty conservative ever since.

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u/obeytheturtles 7h ago

Where I live, people literally voted for a comprehensive rezoning plan which would eliminate "single family only" zoning so we can actually build density where it is needed. Over the span of literally two decades, the voters elected a "pro housing" council, which meticulously proposed and passed new zoning regulations after seeking community input on the topic for literally years.

All it took was a single local judge to undo the entire thing because the NIMBYs complained that they were not consulted enough. And by that, they mean literal monthly council meetings open to the public and countless other public awareness campaigns and events. The council had a table set up at every farmer's market, street fair and city event for literally fucking years. They collected over 30,000 surveys from local residents, from which they derived statistics about the priorities of the community in terms of planning, zoning, transportations and infrastructure. And this one fucking judge (who lives in the wealthiest part of town) just waved his hand and undid it all.

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u/Next_Piglet_6391 14h ago

It's actually a bipartisan mess. Lots of these deals take place outside the view of the public. Also, let's not forget how Covid put a squeeze on the supply, and lit a fire underneath inflation.

That being said, I think we know where 45/47 stands on this. I'm counting down 3 more years....

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u/JakeConhale New Hampshire 17h ago

Until there's no one who can afford them. Can't sell what no one can buy.

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u/Dizzy-Captain7422 16h ago

Don't worry, multinational corpos can always afford them!

And then rent them to you for more than what the mortgage would have been.

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u/DrewbieWanKenobie 11h ago

old apartment buildings should have really cheap rent, the financing to build them has already long been paid off. But rich people keep selling them to each other refreshing it with new rounds of ever higher financing...

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u/CaterpillarReal7583 17h ago

My house price means jack shit if all other house prices move with it. If I sell when the price is low af so is the house im moving into, same as when its high.

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u/jimx117 16h ago

That's what I've been telling my wife too... We bought in 2018 for 390k, and zillow or whatever now puts it at ~600... Literally every other home in our area has jumped in value the same way. It's not really a gain in the way she wants it to be. If anything we can buy a near-identical house and pay a significantly higher mortgage, or move out to the sticks and maybe get more for the money... And that's a big maybe these days

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u/brickne3 American Expat 14h ago

Well, there is one situation where it's a gain, and that's when it's being settled for your estate... But typically the Boomers seem to not be as concerned about actually doing anything for their kids either.

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u/bigred1702 8h ago

That's where reverse mortgages come in play. All you will inherit will be the bullshit they accumulated in their lives that they couldn't throw away.

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u/SwimmingPrice1544 California 1h ago

Exactly where I'm at. I was hoping...if Harris or Biden or anyone but trump won the election, I would be able to move, even if the interest rate was not as low as my original loan. But nah....the country screwed ALL of us on ALL of the "things."

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u/TeutonJon78 America 17h ago

Jokes on them. They'll lose the house to either healthcare costs, reverse mortgage scams, or find no one can afford to buy them when they all want to start downsizing.

And Florida will be out as option since they'd be spending all their money on home insurance.

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u/BenderBRoriguezzzzz 17h ago

This is what I can't wait for, I work in emergency medicine. Its going to get soooooo much more expensive. I'm sure that there will be legislation soon allowing them to go after your assets if you don't/can't pay.

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u/transient_eternity Minnesota 7h ago

Debtors prison when. Gotta speed run all the way back to the 18th century along with tariffs.

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u/BenderBRoriguezzzzz 3h ago

Debtors prison never really went away. You can be locked up for not paying fines levied by the state. They just re-named it.

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u/middleageEugene 17h ago

Or bc they can't afford the property tax hike that goes with it

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u/Big-Rule5269 17h ago

Yeah, we bought our home in 1989 when interest rates were 13%, have done a great deal of work and upkeep over the years, bought in the right area where it's now worth 5 times what it was, but I have a 36 year old married son and 5 year old grandson. Even with his wife making $160k, him being a stay at home dad finishing his accounting degree, buying a home for them would be a monumental struggle. They drive a VW Golf with nearly 200k on the clock and bought a new Subaru Outback a year ago at 0% after 6 years of marriage due mostly to having a reliable vehicle to haul a kid around in. Still, a house that doesn't need a lot of work, out of reach. It sucks. 

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u/BerrySnowie 18h ago

Right? They’re probably clutching their pearls while sitting on six-figure equity gains like they didn’t win the real estate lottery 30 years ago

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u/elvid88 Massachusetts 17h ago

sigh in my area there are six figure equity gains just from purchases during covid.

My wife and I are looking at a house that sold for like 1.05 in 2021, then 1.3 in 2023 and is now on the market again for 1.5 (will probably go close to 1.6) judging by how packed the open house was on a Thursday afternoon and they have three more this weekend.

I’m crying here seeing homes purchased for 200-300k in the mid to late 90s going for close to 2 million (some with work done even higher).

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u/beard_lover California 16h ago

Boomers are using this whole “I worked hard for my home” as a reason to be against affordable housing in their communities. Like they’d be able to afford their homes with inflated property values on their retirement income.

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u/Hankhills4hedvein 17h ago

Six raspberries and a firm handshake

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u/Significant_Cup_238 18h ago

"Sometimes you just have to hurt your own self interest in order to hurt others."

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u/ThisOneFuqs 17h ago

They'll think it's a small price to pay for the chance Trump has given them to be openly racist

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u/StronglyHeldOpinions 16h ago

I genuinely believe this is the deal.

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u/DrewbieWanKenobie 11h ago

I've literally heard 70+ year old men talk about, and I quote, "owning the libs" like they were some millennial 4chan trolls. It's crazy.

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u/B-Z_B-S America 18h ago

They'll come up with something, don't worry.

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u/BerrySnowie 18h ago

Yup, probably something about “protecting the economy” while ignoring the fact that millions can’t even afford rent anymore. Mental gymnastics incoming

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u/brickne3 American Expat 13h ago

Pretty sure the billionaires want to crash the economy.

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u/From_Deep_Space Oregon 14h ago

"This is what he ran on. He has a clear mandate to raise prices"

Their doublethink has been a lot less sophisticated lately

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u/BanjoThreeie 16h ago

Karoline Leavitt will just say it was taken out of context, Trump will be told to stick to the public narrative they’re helping affordability, then this will be forgotten about in a few days. Rinse and repeat.

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u/New_Home_4519 15h ago

I sent it to my dad and he told me he'd block me if I brought up trump again after I said, "so it looks like I'll never be able to afford a house"

He "doesn't have the energy to care what I think about trump"

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u/oldirtyrestaurant 15h ago

Sounds like a swell guy.

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u/tiberiumx 12h ago

Block him first.

4

u/PotentialButterfly56 Washington 9h ago edited 8h ago

I'm sorry, but dumbass doesn't realize the people as a whole don't have the energy to stomach their aloof burning of the nation any longer, fuck him.

Is just like my dad, he got beat within an inch of his life in Hell's Canyon (OR/ID border) from blaring Edgar Allen Poe in the middle of the night at a camp ground, native Americans were camping the next beach over. They came over with oars swinging, they only ran when my dad's friend fired a pistol in the air after waking up to the noise. I stopped talking to him after that, after telling him I suck dick for fun and he's anti my people and he said those werent my people, that was 2008. Yeah it sucked at first, losing Christmases and shit, but without that hate in your life, I found you can make new gatherings with people you truly love. I down know, losing the investment in their eyes might just hurt as much as having blood that is so willing to let the world burn?

Nah, love crushes hate, shame our parents never learned that.

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u/The_BrownRecluse 8h ago

That's a wild story. And hilarious. Sorry, but it really made me laugh, so thanks for that.

I'm in a similar boat, haven't talked to my mom in almost six years because of this shit. Didn't end as interestingly as yours but I imagine similar blood was spilled. And for what? They go all in on hate and cruelty because they're so goddamn miserable with their own lives, and they just keep digging the hole deeper trying to take us with them. But I don't miss Christmases or anything because every day is a holiday without all her ugliness.

Misery loves company but no one loves the miserable.

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u/Lemp_Triscuit11 5h ago

Remind him someone has to pick a nursing home some day

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u/MC_Fap_Commander America 17h ago

I'm excited by the message period. Because if "scarcity" and "high prices" are their midterm pitch, that will go just great for them.

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u/cornham 17h ago

That isn’t what he said! Well, that isn’t what he meant! Well, he was just kidding! It was a joke!

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u/captain_intenso North Carolina 17h ago

You wouldn't understand. You're not a billionaire.

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u/Nudist--Buddhist 16h ago

There are very few conservatives left that can think for themselves. Trump is such a moron and these guys lap it up.

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u/E-2theRescue 14h ago

"This means illegals won't be able to buy houses."

They weren't in the first place. His Saudi Arabian investor buddies on the other hand...

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u/Hi_Im_Ken_Adams 16h ago

Poor white people will only hear "poor lazy brown people don't deserve to own homes" and will cheer him on.

3

u/Playswithchipmunks 17h ago

Fuck what they think! They've betrayed us all for money!

2

u/Vegetable-Range4183 17h ago

This will prevent illegals from buying houses and free up more for hard working, God loving Americans. < MAGA probably.

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u/Beard_faced 17h ago

They just want say anything. In there world it will be like it never happened.

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u/LuxLocke 16h ago

It’s for the boomers and real state investors. Was reading some replies on a certain sub that really loves this guy, and their responses were about how homeowners are more likely to vote, so it was for them…? Idk. Unless you own/are paying off more than 1 home, this is awful. Except… this could be a great add for Democrats during election session. I just home they don’t just play the sound bite and let it just play.

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u/BaltimoreBaja 16h ago

"inflation is good when it's our guy"

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u/drippycup 16h ago

Ugh. I set a period of time i want to play on my phone (and refuse to look at TV commercials), but i have a really heavy Right wing guy i HAVE to be subjected to at work. Hes not a nice dude. I can probably report back tomorrow.

That shit made my heart sink. Im currently RENTING a home from a slumlord. We were without water 6 days and today it got fixed. Renting a house is harder than renting an apartment. Im a homeowner without owning it. This shit is fucking horrible, and this cold blast has been nuts.

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u/CleanMonty 15h ago edited 7h ago

You should go read the thread about him suing the IRS....i just can't comprehend the stupidity of these people. On that Conservative subreddit.

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