Author Topic: Was searching for 1 article but stumbled across this gem from the NY Times...  (Read 7988 times)


greenmimama

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What exactly does a Coop Maintenance fee get you, it is the same as the house payment?

Obviously it costs a lot more to live an impressive lifestyle in NYC, but to claim we can't lower the salary of banks that get gov't help is ludicrous

ash7962

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Whaaaaaatttttt??  This might be the most ridiculous article I have ever read!!  I wish there was a comments section on it!  If I started making 500k right now, I'd retire in 2 years with a house paid in cash.  Maaaaybe 3 years if I wanted a fancy ass house (ahhh lifestyle inflation already creeping in).

RFAAOATB

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All this proves is that the rich can be as bad with money as the poor.

I want to be rich, but being ok with little means less worry about losing everything, and being smart when you have more means being baller longer.

neo von retorch

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I don't know where you can find a good dress for under $20,000!

gimp

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This is an old article. It was published in 2009, right when the recession hit hardest. Think. Why would it be published exactly then? To get people nice and riled up. "Fucking rich fucking bankers, and their fucking money, talking about how they can't live on 500k, those assholes, I live on 10x less than that, if I was earning like they do I wouldn't have any more problems in my life, fuck them, they all need to be lynched."

Congratulations, you fell for it. This is a strawman, meant to inspire populist hatred.

burly

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Hmm,

The only one I think was closer to normal was the $1000 suits... That's actually incredibly cheap for wall street... At that level, bankers typically don't wear suits off a rack... Silly journalist.

EricL

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This is an old article. It was published in 2009, right when the recession hit hardest. Think. Why would it be published exactly then? To get people nice and riled up. "Fucking rich fucking bankers, and their fucking money, talking about how they can't live on 500k, those assholes, I live on 10x less than that, if I was earning like they do I wouldn't have any more problems in my life, fuck them, they all need to be lynched."

Congratulations, you fell for it. This is a strawman, meant to inspire populist hatred.

Hmmm...
Is it a straw man because it was in 2009 when the government bailed out the banks after their fiscal stupidity?
Or is it a straw man because it's a NYT article?
If the facts are true, it definitely belongs here where we mock people who piss their money away then claim it's somebody else's fault. 

By my thumbnail calculations a banker who applied Mustachian discipline enough to live on $140,000 a year in NYC and investing the rest over a decade could retire with a $200,000 annual paycheck.  Indeed, if banking is their thing they could stop investing then and cut into their 'stache to the tune of $120,000 a year (basically give themselves a $480,000 raise) and still have over $8 million a decade later.  I've no problem if a banker gets a record salary if he or she led the bank to record profits.  But this was definitely not the case.  These clowns are not John Gault.

sheepstache

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What exactly does a Coop Maintenance fee get you, it is the same as the house payment?

Maintenance usually covers water, heat, and cooking gas.  It also covers utilities and maintenance for common areas like stairwells, lobby, elevator, facade, etc.  Sprinkler system, security cameras, tax filings, etc.  Also covers salaries of porters or supers or doormen (if any).  Often covers perks like in-building gym.  Covers underlying mortgage on the building (if any) and property tax (if any).  Covers fines from the city, e.g., cracked sidewalk repair, mis-bagged recycling, etc.

"Fucking rich fucking bankers, and their fucking money, talking about how they can't live on 500k, those assholes, I live on 10x less than that, if I was earning like they do I wouldn't have any more problems in my life, fuck them, they all need to be lynched."

It's like were right there reading my facebook feed.

MrsPete

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Aren't y'all reading properly? 
The article says these costs are inescapable!  Inescapable! 
These people have no choice but to pay! 
Where is your sympathy? 

Oh, wait -- that's stupid. 


CaliToCayman

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Re: Was searching for 1 article but stumbled across this gem from the NY Times...
« Reply #11 on: September 08, 2014, 08:47:37 AM »
Maybe I'm warped, but that article made me feel good. I laughed at all of these "necessary" expenses and then realized I'm in the wrong profession, I should be selling something (literally anything) to these people. They'll buy it at any mark up out of convenience/trying to fit in.

I don't think I would be happy with their life at all. Going to galas? Acting like you're having fun at some art gallery in the Hamptons? No thanks. Not to mention how stressful their job is. Then again they would probably think my life is terrible haha. So I guess to each his own.

dragoncar

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Re: Was searching for 1 article but stumbled across this gem from the NY Times...
« Reply #12 on: September 08, 2014, 11:40:19 AM »
What exactly does a Coop Maintenance fee get you, it is the same as the house payment?

Maintenance usually covers water, heat, and cooking gas.  It also covers utilities and maintenance for common areas like stairwells, lobby, elevator, facade, etc.  Sprinkler system, security cameras, tax filings, etc.  Also covers salaries of porters or supers or doormen (if any).  Often covers perks like in-building gym.  Covers underlying mortgage on the building (if any) and property tax (if any).  Covers fines from the city, e.g., cracked sidewalk repair, mis-bagged recycling, etc.



It covers the inordinate costs of keeping that 80+ year old building from falling down. 

gimp

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Re: Was searching for 1 article but stumbled across this gem from the NY Times...
« Reply #13 on: September 08, 2014, 12:35:46 PM »
Hmmm...
Is it a straw man because it was in 2009 when the government bailed out the banks after their fiscal stupidity?
Or is it a straw man because it's a NYT article?
If the facts are true, it definitely belongs here where we mock people who piss their money away then claim it's somebody else's fault. 

It's a strawman because people like this hardly exist, and they're hardly the ones responsible for the recession, and the ones much more responsible for the recession hardly live like this. The article seeks to connect, if not by directly stating but by heavily implying, that the guy who laid you off is now complaining about being unable to survive on 500k. It's meant to inspire hatred with a populist appeal, something the new york times is good at.

Better (worse?) yet, by being published in the new york times, now the onus is on everyone else - me, for example - to say "that's bullshit." By implying instead of stating the direct connection, they seek to create truth without facts. It becomes the new normal, everyone "knows" that "those responsible" live fat off the hog and whine about barely surviving on 500k. Fear something that everyone knows yet nobody has proven.

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It's like were right there reading my facebook feed.

They weren't reading it. They were writing it.

Dr. A

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Re: Was searching for 1 article but stumbled across this gem from the NY Times...
« Reply #14 on: September 08, 2014, 01:16:41 PM »
What exactly does a Coop Maintenance fee get you, it is the same as the house payment?

Maintenance usually covers water, heat, and cooking gas.  It also covers utilities and maintenance for common areas like stairwells, lobby, elevator, facade, etc.  Sprinkler system, security cameras, tax filings, etc.  Also covers salaries of porters or supers or doormen (if any).  Often covers perks like in-building gym.  Covers underlying mortgage on the building (if any) and property tax (if any).  Covers fines from the city, e.g., cracked sidewalk repair, mis-bagged recycling, etc.

For a fancy building in Manhattan, the majority of it is going to pay building staff. For instance, this is from a luxury co-op I just pulled up at random ($7,000 per month co-op fees on top of $2M asking price, catheter service available upon request):
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The Beekman is a white glove co-op with a full-time doorman, concierge, fitness center, porters, on-site building manager, and full-time superintendent. Maintenance includes housekeeping (5x/week) and electricity.
http://www.elliman.com/new-york-city/the-beekman-575-park-avenue-802-manhattan-rxayuqm

Other large line items are property taxes (you don't pay property tax directly if you own a co-op because you technically don't own the property), mortgage on the building (most major capital improvements are done with debt for various reasons), maintenance expenses and heat.