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Showing posts with label minium wage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minium wage. Show all posts

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No. 19

From September 30, 2016

Knowing the Value of Money

 

I was in New York City a few weeks ago during a truly unbearable hot spell. I had no idea how hot the city gets in the summer. I know now and won't repeat my mistake. I made my way to China Town for Dim Sum then walked around in Little Italy wishing I had gone there instead. Later I found my way over near the Flatirons Building when I passed the ancient ATM machine pictured above.  It looked like a cousin of R2D2 or some patron of the STAR WARS bar. And that reminded me of a dinner in I had in Key West a year earlier. 

In February 2015 I  had dinner with a couple of New Yorkers who were friends of a friend before the four of us went to see NEXT FALL at the Waterfront Theater. I had not met this gay couple before that night, but after listening to them speak for a short time I assumed they are among the 1%. If they aren't, they are pretty close. One is a writer and the other is a really Big Shot at one of the big three television networks. I remember asking the TV executive about the cost of living in the city. I referenced BRAVO's Million Dollar Listing New York and asked what regular people had to pay for housing. He said a million dollars minimum. I tried to clarify my question by referring to busboys, bartenders, sales clerks at Macy's, and people that work for tips or an hourly wage. He restated his answer:  a million dollars. I said that can't be right. He insisted it was.

Now I know busboys and shoe salesmen at Macy's can't afford to pay a million dollars for a place to live. I am sure they rent - I just don't know where or how much they pay. But that's not the point. I wondered what kind of reality must these two men live in to not understand that real people can't afford to live in a million dollar universe.

I have had the same feeling about most of those yo-yos in congress and candidates who think there is no need to raise the minimum wage. I haven't been paid an hourly wage since my third year in college - that was a very long time ago. I still remember making decisions on what I could afford to buy to eat based on how long I had to work to pay for it.  I can't imagine how difficult it is for people who work for $7 or $8 per hour to pay for a place to live and feed their children.  In Key West you'll have to pay $3.99 for a loaf of bread and about $4.50 for a gallon of milk. That's more than a sales clerk on Duval Street makes after W2 deductions. I just don't get how people who have so much can have so little understanding of people who have have so little. It's as if the 1% live in an alternate reality not unlike the patrons of the STAR WARS bar.

If you are thinking of buying a place in Key West, please consider working with me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. I am grounded in reality and know the value and limitations of money.

 

Update Marcy 25, 2021. I met with a couple I sold a fixer house to a few years ago. The place is finally done. It looks great. It cost more than they planned. I warned them. But it worked out. They told me they laughed at something I kept telling them "It's only money!"  I realize money really is a big deal. Not to the rich. They piss it away. Money means a whole lot to people who have to work for it to take care of themselves and their kids. 

I wish I could go back to New York, heat and all. I miss the theater, restaurants, looking up, looking down, fearing subways, getting annoyed by just about everybody.

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