I been living in my van for 3 weeks now. I lived in the same apartment in Calgary for 16 years. The first 13 years my rent went from $735-875/month. After Covid hit, my apartment went from 875-2200/ month. I’ve had it with working and give 60% of my income to rent. My apartment building is 40% empty but the new tenants are from all over the world. If Canadians can’t afford to pay they’ll find someone in the world who will. That’s what’s happening all throughout the western world.
Immigrants rent expensive apartments but they often share even the bedrooms so a 1 bedroom can have 2 in the bedroom and 2 in the living room. A 2 bedroom can have 6 that way. And in REALLY expensive areas like NYC they pack 4 or more to a room, dormitory style. That's how you deal with high rent.
I’ve been doing van life for 8 years now. I’m in the last years of the baby boomers generation and back as far as I can remember the economy was never great. The can just kept getting kicked down the road instead of the real issues being addressed. We’ve run out of road and here we are today in a terrible situation. Middle class is no longer affordable and the household debt is out of control. The worst is yet to come so van/rv life is becoming the norm. ( until it becomes illegal).
@@SS-kg8qw sure, there are houses you could get cheap, but would you want to live somewhere with high cost of living, no decent jobs and shitty or no infrastructure? There are similar deals in, say, Belarus, but you will have to spend a lot more time, money and energy to carve out a normal life for yourself in these areas. There are some remote Northern cities in Russia where people are desperately trying to move out and have driven the prices very low.
❤ so called leaders of countries are destroying the world and the "innocent people, nature and animals in it unfortunately 😔. I can imagine you would love to get out of there... stay safe and a hug from the Netherlands
As a Full time Vanlifer myself I went from seeing people in groups I'm in go from people starting van live every couple weeks and I now see someone starting almost everyday. People have the wrong idea of VL Its pretty much a full time DIY project that never end. it can be so freeing and wonderful and the next day its just hell with one problem after another.
Yup. I lived in a van for 2 yrs with my dog. I built it out myself and traveled across the USA yearly, wintered in AZ along the border. It gets to be a grind. I had no water tanks, no toilet. I did have a PF membership. I put 800 watts of solar on top. People have no idea what life is really like day after day. Your needs move way down the Maslow's Hierarchy to water, food, bathroom, heat/AC and safety. And seeing signs of 'No Overnight Parking' everywhere got old. I slept in my clothes in case I got the DREADED KNOCK in the middle of the night. Bought a gun and learned to shoot. YT gives people the idea it's all scenic drives, wonderful people, cheap living, and visiting everything there is to see. I found it depressing. Van life was very isolating.
A couple of years should be enough to buy a starter home 🏡 outright, not to be able to afford a down payment. This is what is wrong now. Before you could stay with your parents for 2 to 5 years and buy something fully in cash.
Im building my van (In UK). The reason is it looks cool. I dont have any dependencies, i dont need much space, just a computer, double bed, kitchen shower toilet. It can all go in a van. No rent means I'll have a lot of extra money. I can drive to my work and commute to the car park and sleep there stealth. I can travel to friends and have a place to stay. Im excited but I have a lot of hard work left to do
He said "nucular", haha. So funny when people mispronounce it. Probably has something to do with the anglophone manner of simplifying or slurring words. There are also some mistakes that mostly the native speakers are prone to as well. This one and "could of".
I went to one of my favorite campsites and a man started talking to me. He seemed harmless but I did not camp close to him. He walked by later and was friendly but next thing he was telling me his life story and just kept on talking. Obviously some people use van life to combat loneliness.
I began life as a nomad to get away from people. Desert Storm vet, don't like people anymore, but I understand. But I was lonelier in my marriage, than I am alone in a jeep.
How terrible, should have told him to unalive him self, to save the next poor person from enduring a terrible story. So sorry you had to go through that.
@sokingssddk yeah, loneliness is a reason to tell someone to unalive themselves. Sounds like he probably would have, if he was that lonely, but even though he just wanted to talk, I guess that's enough reason to tell him to End it. You sound like you'd be fine with causing someone's unaliving... but I would never tell you to do that. Fucked up
I'm a Xennial. Didn't have kids, got ill for a decade and missed out on the Gen X safety nets, ended up more in common with the millenials. It is rough seeing house prices rise in the UK to 9x or more of income and borrowing remain at 4.5x maximum. So much housing stock taken by older generations with buy to let houses and airbnb homes to supplement their incomes and invest their life savings. This has tied up that money, meaning the younger generations are paying the rents. Billions were handed out in Quantitive Easing and loans by governments during the pandemic. Where did that money go? It's not gone back into circulation, it went up to the top 10% and invested again. House prices will continue to rise and we'll all end up in a society where the middle class' wealth is wiped out. That top 10% don't work, they earn from investments and pay very little tax. We think that a tax increase on earnings will claw back from the rich, but it'll only hit the middle class hardest. The rich don't work or earn that way. Look at Mumbai if you want to see where we're heading. Wage slavery so the likes of Bezos can make rockets with the $3.3bn a month profit they're making. It's madness.
The mere fact that the capital gains tax rate is lower than the max income tax rate just about everywhere is all you need to know to realize that money, and the people who control large amounts of it, are far more important than people at government level. The fact corporation tax is even lower, and it's 100% legal for corporations to decide to funnel all their income through whichever country gives them the best offer instead of putting it through the countries they make the income from is an even bigger travesty. A very sobering number is to look up the profit figure for any large corporation and divide it by the number of employees - in most cases they're making more than 100k profit per employee and still fighting to pay everyone the bare minimum and cut benefits any chance they get.
Cost of living has definitely increased, but so did the spending of many consumers. Seems like most still make poor financial decisions. The ridiculous level of credit card debt is part of the proof that there are tons of financially illiterate people.
i agree with what you are saying,one reason house prices are high and people are forced to consider van life is that foreign investors are buying all the property as well as buy to let landlords here in the UK!House prices are crazy here in the UK,i see more and more vans parked up,alot of people living on boats also!House prices are cheaper in other area's of Europe but there is little work,ok if you want to retire only!There needs to be more investment to build cheaper housing that cannot be sold to investors.
The cost of living is insane, if you are in the city it's nearly impossible to exist! I work 2 jobs, and I have been working 7 days a week for 7 years - I am fortunate now that my employer for my 2nd job has consolidated my work week so I can have the weekends off so now I am off from both jobs on the weekends! It doesn't surprise me that so many are living in Vans or RV's, heck I have thought about it a lot myself. I was fortunate to have bought a nice home at a great price at 2.5% and my mortgage is less than most people's rent! I have 2 sons, and they still live with me, I don't blame them - I'm trying to give them a financial head start in life. I don't see this getting any better, actually, I see it get much worse!
: ) SADLY the COST of Living is MAKING ALTERNATIVE Van Life may be an ONLY Option for many of us : ( THANKS for sharing the reality of this issue, ALL the BEST and Cheers : )
What starts as an edge to help you save more, faster, becomes expected and considered normal when too many people do it. Happened with two income families, more than a job, overtime, mortgage even to buy starter rundown homes at undesirable areas, roommates when you are already a full adult, college degrees associated with underemployment. Where I live people are more frugal and houses are smaller. That becomes the new standard and your income reflects it because it's normalized. That is why essentials keep rising in price while discretionary items and services suffer deflation. Meanwhile we keep lowering our standards while working more for longer.
Its interesting that young adults will buy a 50k+ depreciating asset instead of using that same 50k as a down payment on an appreciating asset. Once they have their vehicle, they will spend each day dealing with minor (and sometimes major) inconveniences that come along with it (where to park, lack of community, accidents etc). Van life is definitely alluring, but isnt that what vacations are for? Its nice to go on vacations, but it feels soooo good to get back home.
Having the down-payment isn't the problem; it's not being willing to saddle themselves with the outlay of hundreds of thousands from the mortgage/taxes/fees/utilities/maintenance of buying a home these days. The price of a home in the US relative to the income of the average American is edging up on 8:1, higher than it's been in (at least) 70 years. Further compounding that disparity is both the fact that income inequality has grown steadily since the late 70's/80's, and interest rates aren't exactly favorable right now. I can't blame people for bucking the systems, and I would argue investors hoarding and treating residential property like an asset instead of a home are a big part of the problem.
No one wants to come back from vacation… Also, when you OWN the asset you live in, you’re permanently saving money and it’s an immediate way to eliminate a “rent” bill. Most people don’t finance rigs to start van life. Give your life some freedom and hit the road.
You know the moment you buy a house, 18% of the equity is gone instantly - sales tax + commission. You have a monthly mortgage of between 2,800 to 5,000 depending on the size and location of the apartment, of which half of that is pure interest expense, a monthly management fee of 500-800 that increases over time, followed by 1% property tax and 2-3% annual interior furnishing and fixes. This is excluding accidental expenses such as an early elevator failure that spike up management expenses. To put it into perspective, to afford an one bedroom apartment in Toronto (assuming an off location apartment of ~500k) with only a 50k down payment, you need to pay 4,550 per month (excluding accidental costs) for the next 25 years. If you make 100k per year (which used to be good, but now seems too low), you can probably afford this monthly payment if you make your own food and have no other expenses. For the next 25 years, you will have no savings, no enjoyment of life, nada. Just you and your apartment. You might think oh you are building equity. But once you start retirement planning, you will realize you have no savings. You will have to choose between selling your apartment or possibly never retire. People forget that buildings are also depreciating assets as well. We simply pay more maintenance fee over time and have higher chance of accidental fees as the building ages.
"home". someone nagging. kids and termites destroying the place. a bill that also never ends. only to be sold when you're 80 and everything you own is in a shoebox
I did van life for years before social media in a VW Westfalia. It never occurred to me that I was doing something special. I also lived on a sailboat. Honestly, neither were lifestyles I'd recommend to anyone, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I think people over-romanticize these things. The reality isn't always that romantic. These were things I did out of necessity. Maybe that's the difference.
Yep, exactly. I'm from one and living in another right now. It fucking sucks that a van is unaffordable here while it's seen as a fallback cheaper option further West. Means one fewer option for me to escape the renting trap. It's similar with many other things, such as blue collar work. It's seen as such a solid option for someone who didn't get a degree in the West. Your body gets worn down more than with an office plankton job, but you are also paid peanuts. We get the worst of both worlds.
I lived in a tiny Citreon Berlingo van for six years to the end of 2023, when I moved into my even smaller Citreon C1 car. All purely out of choice. Wouldn't change it for the world. I still hang out in my home town of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight a lot. I am well-known there and have loads of friends there. I'm currently in Cornwall, in the south-west of England, where vanlife is more popular. I'm sure you're right that many people are effectively forced into vehicle living. I wasn't. I need only ear a fraction of what I had to earn when house-dwelling. So I have far more time each week to do what I want to do. Because I don't spend much day to day I'm able to build up my TH-cam channel and build up my book-writing venture. So I'll be financially secure living on the road as a location-independent content creator. You should try it some time....
How much does one person need? When the whirlwind ride of "fun" and "raising a family" is over and you have to sell all your possessions and move into your cubicle in the old age home, what's the difference?
dude this video is so brave, u discussed many different controversial topics and didn't hesitate, bravo. you're probably right. i think its a combination of things. a perfect storm if you will. 1) cost of living/rent 2) low paying jobs/people hate traditional work especially young people. 3) every1 wants to be an influencer 4) the thrill of traveling and seeing the world (especially while you're "young" and still can) 5) bad bosses 6) the lie of college (go to school and be successful) has many young people and middle aged very frustrated. its not a guaranty anymore especially w/ the huge tuition costs and lots of useless degrees. 7) less marriage and kids as you stated. freedom to travel essentially.
I would say that decreasing birth rates are a good thing. As a kid, my parents took my brother and me to Expo ‘67 in Montreal. They had a world population counter in the big sphere there, and there were less than 4 billion people….now there are ~8 billion. I decided not to have kids and one main reason was remembering that counter. How big a population can this earth sustain, without dire effects on our environment? I would say global warming, water issues, pollution, etc., indicate we’ve already passed an optimal population size, which has to include quality of life, imo. I just started researching van conversions to campers just recently, since I had a VW camper in the 70’s and really enjoyed the ability to go to beautiful tent camping areas without having to set up a tent. I don’t like being near RV’s, with the omnipresent generator noise. Since VW doesn’t sell campers in the US anymore, it looks like the best choice for me is to get a Ford Transit and get a camper conversion done. I’m debating whether or not I can afford it in retirement. The one thing it would definitely cut down on is hotel and restaurant costs, as well as allow travel to cool places far from big cities, but you can stay in quite a few hotels with the 80-90,000 USD the converted van would cost, especially if you include the interest that would accrue until you used the money. In any case, the homeless situation is bad, but most homeless people can’t plop down 10’s of thousands of dollars, which seems to be what I have seen from van lifers on TH-cam. That’s how I perceive the situation, but I may be off base, depending on your definition. I wouldn’t say living out of your car constitutes “van life”, as much as being homeless, and I wouldn’t consider those forced to do it by circumstances as living the “van life”, as it seems to be more of a lifestyle choice. Sorry this is so long, cheers!
We actually just hit 8.1 billion a couple of days ago... To put this into perspective, that's anywhere between 6 and 8% of people who've ever lived! Enough's enough. Currently saving up to get sterilized. I hope that when the population shrinks, the individual would be valued more, especially on the job market. Right now, it's a shitshow, especially for those who graduated into 'rona times. I just got a job notification, it was posted what, 5 minutes ago? 300-something applicants already. Inflated demands, very low pay.
The world can support a hell of a lot more people than it currently does, but the suffering of a huge percentage of them is baked in to the capitalist regimes running the world economy. In terms of environmental impact, removing just the 350 millionish people in the USA's pollution from the world total would literally half world CO2 emissions. Population is not the problem, fair distribution of resources is.
@@peglor it is still a problem. Even if the entirety of human population lived and emitted at the same level as the rural Chinese do, we would still need >1 Earth's worth of resources to live. Moreover, most of the overpopulated countries are developing ones, key word "developing". They increase their emissions and quality of life little by little and can't afford or can't implement any climate-saving measures due to corruption. And if the Global north tries to donate to them, the resources would just get stolen by the local oligarchs and warlords. Refugees and migrants also adopt the lifestyle of the natives. Population is a problem no matter how you tried to spin it.
@@vladimus9749 because free places don’t let you stay for a week, and safe places that let you stay are expensive. BLM land lets you stay 14 days but most areas a pretty remote, sketchy, and packed with fellow campers.
Although I'm fortunate and have a roof over my head I know heaps of what we call "grey nomads" here in New Zealand. They are older adults and retirees that often decide living in mobile homes, campervans and cars is more affordable. Who knows where they'll end up when they can no longer drive or maintain their vehicles. Like other countries we too have a housing crisis with no end in sight.
I live in the UK and house prices here are constantly rising mainly, like many countries, supply and demand as well as higher interest rates. Our lovely government is now starting to target people who live in their vans with taxing them for it and restricting places to stop for the night. No affordable housing, so people's only option is living in a van, so governments now realises thst and will tax them so much, they can no longer even afford to live in a van, then end up on the street, so next, they will be threatening them with fines and prison. They will fook us up every way they can to destroy us. The rich get richer and the poor will be fighing for the few scraps available.
I'm Japanese, I grew up in the US during the 90s, came back in 2001 and been in Tokyo, the american way of life seems to have changed so much in just 20 years, I don't know what to think of it really, just people living out of a van seems like a life style thats not for the majority of people, at least if they had a choice.
I’ve been fascinated by this topic for some time especially having been a canoeing guide who lived in a tent for nearly an entire year but in the northwoods of your country which I refer to as Canuckiana, or the abode of the deported Tories of yore after the English Civil War Part II, American version. The mobile homelessness phenomenon is largely the result of idiotic and shortsighted government policies which are too numerous and tedious to enumerate and describe in detail. But basically in a hyper-capitalist system labor is considered a resource to be exploited and the average non-union employee will not be paid a living wage in a free trade global economy. Then also building codes and zoning have created artificial housing shortages which inflate prices unreasonably. For people to begin settling down again and breeding you’d have to be able to get a prefab reasonably priced home for maybe $500 per month. This is clearly out of reach unless you’re into living in ancient single wides out in the hinterlands or rehabbing tiny industrial properties in the inner city kind of like Charlton Heston in his dystopian movie about the bleak future was it Soylent Green perhaps? Or Omega Man. I’m not sure.
I've slept in my van before. I've laid out my sleeping bag in a field beside the highway when I didn't have a car. I've also lived in a 3 bedroom 2 bath house and I was paying the mortgage. And I've been homeless; at the time, I was also volunteering at a church that provided a meal and other services to the homeless. Currently, I've been living in the same apartment for almost 4 years in Mexico. I've seen homelessness here too. The breakdown of the family seems to be the root cause of a lot of this. But another component that you have alluded to is something we have all been warned about in one form or another: The love of money is the root of all evil. Most of the problems we are having world wide is a result of placing a high priority on money instead of people. I don't have a lot myself, but I do what I can to help others, especially by teaching them what I can. This is my way of investing in humanity. Help your fellow human beings and it will make the whole world a better place.
The rise in vanlife is coming from all walks of life, not just the people who can't afford homes. Since the pandemic many companies switched to work-from-home and haven't gone back to the office. If you can work from home, you can work from a van thanks to Starlink making decent connectivity available everywhere. So why work from home with a static never-changing view of your city, when you can work from a van surrounded by nature where you can go on amazing hikes every weekend? This group of people exists, and is growing, but you might not notice as they're working 9 to 5 so aren't producing lots of social media content.
The weather in Canada is much harder to deal with (living in a Van), that on the US. I think I would be able to do it for some years on the US, but there is no way I would try it in Canada (because of winter). 🥶
It's really not that bad in most of Canada all you need is proper insulation and your vans good to go heater runs of diesel I was toasty in -20c with my poorly insulated van. I would think Texas heat is worse than most of Canada's winter
@@Turbo0666 For some reason in my mind Canada is all covered with snow during winter!😄 I should had written "The weather in Canada is PROBABLY much harder to deal with (living in a Van), that on the US"
You can thank Greedy Giant Corporations. The decline of the worker started in about 1980. They buy a segment of the economy ,gut it of quality,raise prices. Your homes neighborhood is now on the menu. Soon you cannot buy a home. you must rent from a corporation.
Bang on my man! 💯 A friend of mine and I had a theory about this a while ago, that at some point Corporations will be renting homes TO their employee's. Now you're really trapped, lose your job - lose your company provided home. How's that for more control over our lives?! Thanks for watching!
@@Generation.Q.E This is how it was at the start of the industrial revolution. The idea of a factory town came from that era - literally the factory and the town were all built together, your housing depended on keeping your job, and the factory controlled everything you and your family were allowed to do. Wedgewood pottery even had a song the employees had to sing about how great the factory owner was. Hilariously, given their long history of caring even less about people than corporations, the church were the only power that could compete with these factories, and they pushed the idea of Sundays being a day off work when they realised that if workers were working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week they wouldn't have time to donate money and resources to keep the church profitable. The number of people who were murdered (Usually 'legally' by the police) after going on strike to fight for decent work conditions is something that has been forgotten by many. Channels on here such as 'More Perfect Union' are a great source of information on what's currently going on in the US fight for worker's rights. Things are so bad in the US that even hardcore Republican voters are starting to realize they might actually have some quality of life if they unionized. The worst thing is that the main reason they keep voting that way seems to be the belief that some day they'll be billionaires, so they want to be able to abuse their power just as much as current billionaires, either that or removing women's rights... 😞
Better than being tied to a mortgage or rent every month. your money will stretch for sure when you live out on the road in your van, and you will have more freedom to go anywhere you want in this vast land called USA.
I'm living in a van in Alaska watching this and I agree also I'm a trans woman whenever the concept of the nuclear family gets brought up I have to say I really wish I could find myself a husband and have kids but the thing is I don't want to adopt kids it's just kinda a weird situation also prediction markets put the odds of a trans woman birthing a child by 2100 at like 30% which I just saw it was funny
I watch quite a few vanlifers, usually the ones where they breakdown their monthly costs. I own my home and am debt free, and haven't seen one vanlifer who does this, and pays less monthly than I do (I'm sure there are people who were forced into the situation that pay less, are living hand to mouth, and praying the vehicle doesn't die, but they're not usually on YT breaking down their budget). Eventually, people will get tired of most vanlife channel's on YT, because of the over saturation of people who think they can make a living off it, but aren't interesting at all. Another sad realization that many of the young vanlife people are going to face, is the lack of experience in any field, and work history, when they eventually do have to look for a regular job. Unfortunately, they will find out that most YT creator's do not become long time, or big time channel's, and patreon revenue can dry up at any time. It's like when TV show's are cancelled, because the content just becomes so repetetive, that people stop watching.
I'm homeless in an old Toyota Sienna minivan in Los Angeles, after losing my housing twice during the pandemic, and couldn't afford the skyrocketing rents.
Essentially, governments let corporate executives take more than their fair share, leaving very little for the rest of us. There is only so much profit widget A can produce. History of the American tax rate 940: 81% 1950: 84% 1960: 91% 1970: 72% 1980: 70% 1990: 28% 2000: 40% 2010: 35%. the average CEO was paid about 20 times the typical worker's pay in the 1950s, with that multiple rising to 42-to-1 in 1980 and 120-to-1 in 2000. Today, it is nearly 200x the worker's wage. It has been a double win for executives--they are being overly compensated regardless of performance and aren't taxed at a fair rate. Our economies are imploding because of this simple problem. It's not capitalism- it's unchecked greed. But people get distracted and fight over stupid issues and idolize the rich. People buy into the rich deserving extreme wealth, and that leads to them creating jobs. Jobs are created based on need. I have never heard of a rich person saying, "Hmm, I am rich--need to create more jobs.
It's always a combination of factors. The minimum wage is not a living wage, a factor. Cost of housing a factor. Cost of gas and food a factor. Billionaires pay 1% tax a factor. Working class pay 40% tax a factor. Many factors. Politicians need to take a basic math class, a factor.
I know Canada has a huge house building problem--as in you ain't. Also true of the UK. And the results are obvious to any student of Econ 101: Huge demand, no supply, poorer people get the squeeze. Hang tough, Canada, and vote differently. I've been across the Hockey Stick curtain almost a dozen times. Love that place.
SO conservatives are going to save us....your an idiot!..............that's how we got here in the first place....no taxes on the Rich, bidding up the price of assets and it all ends up in Real Estate speculation, doing everything in their political power to KILL Unions and keep wages for the poor low......the Conservative's is how we got here ! But keep blaming the unions!
First the US is not capitalism, capitalist pay their bills the US does not. I do think collpase will get worse but one major factor is the control regimes placed on everyone. Today getting a socially acceptable postion takes much more in being allowed than before, like the pandemic crack down they do the same in many spheres of life. Van people are outcaste unable to comply with the demands not just broke. The problem could get so bad that it becomes non functional and basically the power is turned off on everyone, being off grid so to speak is a better life once the hardships of the oppressive regimes are neutralized. Dont be fooled money doesnt do as much as it once did not only value but acceptance , for instance anyone living this way would have to hide the fact to get back into society at another level.
One word. Union! Union provides a comprehensive living wage. Pensions and medical and dental benefits as well as sick and accident benefits, overtime pay and paid holidays. This was a good indicator for the middle class of the 50s 60s and 70s. I joined a Union in 1988 and I retired at 60 years of age with a pension, benefits, and a nest egg to enjoy the rest of my day's. Join a Union and consider the trades instead of a university degree.
Great theory, only union's suck or are completely corrupt these days more often than not. I'm in a union and let me tell you, I won't be retiring at 60 from this one
I paid a uniun in new zealand for years in the health care industry and they betrayed me when I was laid off from the hospital due to not getting the vaccine. I don't trust uniuns today and pay them nothing no more
@@davi-un7ku The whole point of striking is that it's a last resort for when the corporation refuses to negotiate in good faith. Striking is basically the only way workers can actually hold corporations to account by affecting the only thing they actually care about, which is money. If a company is willing to let their employees go to the point where they're striking it thinks it can wait out the strike, figuring starving employees will eventually have to go back to work. This is a lot of what the money paid to unions ends up doing - keeping striking union members from actually starving. The 40 hour work week, paid time off, healthcare and pensions were all the result of over a century of similar fights. Look up the history of unions and workers rights before you decide it doesn't work - keep in mind that the owners of all the big media companies are heavily incentivized to push the line that unions don't work because they are literally the same corporations that would lose money from their employees striking. Asking corporations nicely to not treat human beings like slaves has literally never worked. And before you say something stupid like 'If you don't like your job get a better one' - this isn't an option for most people because the better jobs no longer exist in any kind of a meaningful way. If a job is important enough that a company needs someone there to do it, it's important enough that they should be paid a livable wage.
The reason why is because during the last crash, the investment groups that didn't lose their money in the crash (Most of them saw it coming because they caused it) bought up massive amounts of family homes and apartments at fire sale prices because they knew they could get better returns from that than the stock market was giving. Once they controlled enough of the property, they could choose to leave houses empty (Which they do - turns out an empty house will increase in value on the balance sheet just as quickly as an occupied one provided the housing supply is kept limited, so more imaginary share value for them, allowing them to borrow more real money to buy more property from under the noses of the people who should be buying it to live in it themselves) and further crank up the price of the ones they were still renting. Rental income is basically free money for the landlord (Especially given how little most corporate landlords do for tenants), and once the corporations controlled enough of the property and started jacking prices renters had no choice in paying, everyone else did the same because they didn't want to lose out on even more free money either. We're nearing the end point now where many people can't afford rent or property in many urban areas, even with high paying jobs, so something will have to give, but I'm guessing losses for big property owners, or taxing the heck out of empty properties to encourage owners to sell or rent the property, will be well down the list. The end game is that nobody will be able to afford to buy anywhere to live, so they'll be forced to work at whatever conditions the companies decide just to keep a roof over their heads or drop off the grid altogether.
For the same reasons too they're all run by people with so much money they literally couldn't spend it all in multiple lifetimes bribing governments to change their rules so they can turn their astronomical amounts of money into even more money.
Its a click for views life style for the majority on new van lifers Same as off-grid living also Home steading The list goes on and on If they can make money off it... its the new trend Just like this video talking about it will generate clicks and money
I been living in my van for 3 weeks now. I lived in the same apartment in Calgary for 16 years. The first 13 years my rent went from $735-875/month. After Covid hit, my apartment went from 875-2200/ month. I’ve had it with working and give 60% of my income to rent. My apartment building is 40% empty but the new tenants are from all over the world. If Canadians can’t afford to pay they’ll find someone in the world who will. That’s what’s happening all throughout the western world.
Immigrants rent expensive apartments but they often share even the bedrooms so a 1 bedroom can have 2 in the bedroom and 2 in the living room. A 2 bedroom can have 6 that way. And in REALLY expensive areas like NYC they pack 4 or more to a room, dormitory style. That's how you deal with high rent.
I’ve been doing van life for 8 years now. I’m in the last years of the baby boomers generation and back as far as I can remember the economy was never great. The can just kept getting kicked down the road instead of the real issues being addressed. We’ve run out of road and here we are today in a terrible situation. Middle class is no longer affordable and the household debt is out of control. The worst is yet to come so van/rv life is becoming the norm. ( until it becomes illegal).
I am Russian and it's the same here + dictatorship, militarism. I'd prefer living in a van in Canada and not being scared constantly.
How much is a house in Kamchatka?
@@SS-kg8qw sure, there are houses you could get cheap, but would you want to live somewhere with high cost of living, no decent jobs and shitty or no infrastructure? There are similar deals in, say, Belarus, but you will have to spend a lot more time, money and energy to carve out a normal life for yourself in these areas. There are some remote Northern cities in Russia where people are desperately trying to move out and have driven the prices very low.
❤ so called leaders of countries are destroying the world and the "innocent people, nature and animals in it unfortunately 😔. I can imagine you would love to get out of there... stay safe and a hug from the Netherlands
As a Full time Vanlifer myself I went from seeing people in groups I'm in go from people starting van live every couple weeks and I now see someone starting almost everyday. People have the wrong idea of VL Its pretty much a full time DIY project that never end. it can be so freeing and wonderful and the next day its just hell with one problem after another.
Wishing you the best!
sounds just like "home ownership". the illusion is just over. in every aspect of this "civilization".
@@Darkness-ie2yl Not really but think what you want.
@@Turbo0666 you too
Yup. I lived in a van for 2 yrs with my dog. I built it out myself and traveled across the USA yearly, wintered in AZ along the border. It gets to be a grind. I had no water tanks, no toilet. I did have a PF membership. I put 800 watts of solar on top. People have no idea what life is really like day after day. Your needs move way down the Maslow's Hierarchy to water, food, bathroom, heat/AC and safety. And seeing signs of 'No Overnight Parking' everywhere got old. I slept in my clothes in case I got the DREADED KNOCK in the middle of the night. Bought a gun and learned to shoot. YT gives people the idea it's all scenic drives, wonderful people, cheap living, and visiting everything there is to see. I found it depressing. Van life was very isolating.
My buddy lived out of his car for a couple of years in order to save up for a down payment on a house. It's straight F**ked up
A couple of years should be enough to buy a starter home 🏡 outright, not to be able to afford a down payment. This is what is wrong now. Before you could stay with your parents for 2 to 5 years and buy something fully in cash.
Im building my van (In UK). The reason is it looks cool. I dont have any dependencies, i dont need much space, just a computer, double bed, kitchen shower toilet. It can all go in a van. No rent means I'll have a lot of extra money. I can drive to my work and commute to the car park and sleep there stealth. I can travel to friends and have a place to stay. Im excited but I have a lot of hard work left to do
Nuclear. Please. Not Nukewler.
Newkleaerrrrrr
little things like this truly baffle me. the second half of the word is literally clear 😂 why some insist on cue lar is beyond comprehension
He said "nucular", haha. So funny when people mispronounce it. Probably has something to do with the anglophone manner of simplifying or slurring words. There are also some mistakes that mostly the native speakers are prone to as well. This one and "could of".
@@Alex-mc5ynwhat is anglophone?
@@larrybrinley8222 it's a native English speaker.
I went to one of my favorite campsites and a man started talking to me. He seemed harmless but I did not camp close to him. He walked by later and was friendly but next thing he was telling me his life story and just kept on talking. Obviously some people use van life to combat loneliness.
evidence of how unhealthy each person is psychologically
I began life as a nomad to get away from people. Desert Storm vet, don't like people anymore, but I understand. But I was lonelier in my marriage, than I am alone in a jeep.
How terrible, should have told him to unalive him self, to save the next poor person from enduring a terrible story. So sorry you had to go through that.
@sokingssddk yeah, loneliness is a reason to tell someone to unalive themselves. Sounds like he probably would have, if he was that lonely, but even though he just wanted to talk, I guess that's enough reason to tell him to End it. You sound like you'd be fine with causing someone's unaliving... but I would never tell you to do that. Fucked up
I'm a Xennial. Didn't have kids, got ill for a decade and missed out on the Gen X safety nets, ended up more in common with the millenials. It is rough seeing house prices rise in the UK to 9x or more of income and borrowing remain at 4.5x maximum. So much housing stock taken by older generations with buy to let houses and airbnb homes to supplement their incomes and invest their life savings. This has tied up that money, meaning the younger generations are paying the rents. Billions were handed out in Quantitive Easing and loans by governments during the pandemic. Where did that money go? It's not gone back into circulation, it went up to the top 10% and invested again. House prices will continue to rise and we'll all end up in a society where the middle class' wealth is wiped out. That top 10% don't work, they earn from investments and pay very little tax. We think that a tax increase on earnings will claw back from the rich, but it'll only hit the middle class hardest. The rich don't work or earn that way. Look at Mumbai if you want to see where we're heading. Wage slavery so the likes of Bezos can make rockets with the $3.3bn a month profit they're making. It's madness.
The mere fact that the capital gains tax rate is lower than the max income tax rate just about everywhere is all you need to know to realize that money, and the people who control large amounts of it, are far more important than people at government level. The fact corporation tax is even lower, and it's 100% legal for corporations to decide to funnel all their income through whichever country gives them the best offer instead of putting it through the countries they make the income from is an even bigger travesty. A very sobering number is to look up the profit figure for any large corporation and divide it by the number of employees - in most cases they're making more than 100k profit per employee and still fighting to pay everyone the bare minimum and cut benefits any chance they get.
I agree investors from the UK and abroad are buying up all the smaller cheaper properties,there is no control of the housing situation!
I’m GenX and didn’t have kids because of the cost. Sitting here retired early. If kids were in the mix, I’d be broke with no retirement.
But you are lonely
Cost of living has definitely increased, but so did the spending of many consumers. Seems like most still make poor financial decisions. The ridiculous level of credit card debt is part of the proof that there are tons of financially illiterate people.
the advertising industry has a lot to answer
i agree with what you are saying,one reason house prices are high and people are forced to consider van life is that foreign investors are buying all the property as well as buy to let landlords here in the UK!House prices are crazy here in the UK,i see more and more vans parked up,alot of people living on boats also!House prices are cheaper in other area's of Europe but there is little work,ok if you want to retire only!There needs to be more investment to build cheaper housing that cannot be sold to investors.
This statement needs to be heard and not hidden in the comments. It will take everyone's voice for change to begin.
We need to stop importing tens of millions of incompatibles. They all take places to live too. Gotta guy them votes.
The cost of living is insane, if you are in the city it's nearly impossible to exist! I work 2 jobs, and I have been working 7 days a week for 7 years - I am fortunate now that my employer for my 2nd job has consolidated my work week so I can have the weekends off so now I am off from both jobs on the weekends! It doesn't surprise me that so many are living in Vans or RV's, heck I have thought about it a lot myself. I was fortunate to have bought a nice home at a great price at 2.5% and my mortgage is less than most people's rent! I have 2 sons, and they still live with me, I don't blame them - I'm trying to give them a financial head start in life. I don't see this getting any better, actually, I see it get much worse!
The number of people living on boats is increasing too, yes, it's housing prices/the economy
: ) SADLY the COST of Living is MAKING ALTERNATIVE Van Life may be an ONLY Option for many of us : ( THANKS for sharing the reality of this issue, ALL the BEST and Cheers : )
What starts as an edge to help you save more, faster, becomes expected and considered normal when too many people do it. Happened with two income families, more than a job, overtime, mortgage even to buy starter rundown homes at undesirable areas, roommates when you are already a full adult, college degrees associated with underemployment.
Where I live people are more frugal and houses are smaller. That becomes the new standard and your income reflects it because it's normalized.
That is why essentials keep rising in price while discretionary items and services suffer deflation. Meanwhile we keep lowering our standards while working more for longer.
You're always bang on my man! Excellent comment! 👍
Your post is nonsense. You cannot support this premise.
i agree!
Its interesting that young adults will buy a 50k+ depreciating asset instead of using that same 50k as a down payment on an appreciating asset. Once they have their vehicle, they will spend each day dealing with minor (and sometimes major) inconveniences that come along with it (where to park, lack of community, accidents etc). Van life is definitely alluring, but isnt that what vacations are for? Its nice to go on vacations, but it feels soooo good to get back home.
Having the down-payment isn't the problem; it's not being willing to saddle themselves with the outlay of hundreds of thousands from the mortgage/taxes/fees/utilities/maintenance of buying a home these days.
The price of a home in the US relative to the income of the average American is edging up on 8:1, higher than it's been in (at least) 70 years. Further compounding that disparity is both the fact that income inequality has grown steadily since the late 70's/80's, and interest rates aren't exactly favorable right now.
I can't blame people for bucking the systems, and I would argue investors hoarding and treating residential property like an asset instead of a home are a big part of the problem.
No one wants to come back from vacation…
Also, when you OWN the asset you live in, you’re permanently saving money and it’s an immediate way to eliminate a “rent” bill. Most people don’t finance rigs to start van life.
Give your life some freedom and hit the road.
You know the moment you buy a house, 18% of the equity is gone instantly - sales tax + commission. You have a monthly mortgage of between 2,800 to 5,000 depending on the size and location of the apartment, of which half of that is pure interest expense, a monthly management fee of 500-800 that increases over time, followed by 1% property tax and 2-3% annual interior furnishing and fixes. This is excluding accidental expenses such as an early elevator failure that spike up management expenses. To put it into perspective, to afford an one bedroom apartment in Toronto (assuming an off location apartment of ~500k) with only a 50k down payment, you need to pay 4,550 per month (excluding accidental costs) for the next 25 years. If you make 100k per year (which used to be good, but now seems too low), you can probably afford this monthly payment if you make your own food and have no other expenses. For the next 25 years, you will have no savings, no enjoyment of life, nada. Just you and your apartment. You might think oh you are building equity. But once you start retirement planning, you will realize you have no savings. You will have to choose between selling your apartment or possibly never retire.
People forget that buildings are also depreciating assets as well. We simply pay more maintenance fee over time and have higher chance of accidental fees as the building ages.
Bro an used van is like 3k 🙄
"home". someone nagging. kids and termites destroying the place. a bill that also never ends. only to be sold when you're 80 and everything you own is in a shoebox
All comes down to GREED! AT THE TOP
I did van life for years before social media in a VW Westfalia. It never occurred to me that I was doing something special. I also lived on a sailboat. Honestly, neither were lifestyles I'd recommend to anyone, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I think people over-romanticize these things. The reality isn't always that romantic. These were things I did out of necessity. Maybe that's the difference.
Eastern block Authoritarian countries are worse off. The people there can't afford vans.
Yep, exactly. I'm from one and living in another right now. It fucking sucks that a van is unaffordable here while it's seen as a fallback cheaper option further West. Means one fewer option for me to escape the renting trap.
It's similar with many other things, such as blue collar work. It's seen as such a solid option for someone who didn't get a degree in the West. Your body gets worn down more than with an office plankton job, but you are also paid peanuts. We get the worst of both worlds.
@@Alex-mc5yn I agree,there are alot of blue collar jobs but they pay peanuts so you have to work lots of overtime!The system is rotten!
Coming soon to a country near you. Look what's happening in the UK, Germany. People getting locked up for reposting on social media.
I lived in a tiny Citreon Berlingo van for six years to the end of 2023, when I moved into my even smaller Citreon C1 car. All purely out of choice. Wouldn't change it for the world. I still hang out in my home town of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight a lot. I am well-known there and have loads of friends there. I'm currently in Cornwall, in the south-west of England, where vanlife is more popular. I'm sure you're right that many people are effectively forced into vehicle living. I wasn't. I need only ear a fraction of what I had to earn when house-dwelling. So I have far more time each week to do what I want to do. Because I don't spend much day to day I'm able to build up my TH-cam channel and build up my book-writing venture. So I'll be financially secure living on the road as a location-independent content creator. You should try it some time....
How much does one person need? When the whirlwind ride of "fun" and "raising a family" is over and you have to sell all your possessions and move into your cubicle in the old age home, what's the difference?
dude this video is so brave, u discussed many different controversial topics and didn't hesitate, bravo. you're probably right. i think its a combination of things. a perfect storm if you will.
1) cost of living/rent
2) low paying jobs/people hate traditional work especially young people.
3) every1 wants to be an influencer
4) the thrill of traveling and seeing the world (especially while you're "young" and still can)
5) bad bosses
6) the lie of college (go to school and be successful) has many young people and middle aged very frustrated. its not a guaranty anymore especially w/ the huge tuition costs and lots of useless degrees.
7) less marriage and kids as you stated. freedom to travel essentially.
Well said Iam in New Zealand and the rents food prices other costs are going through the roof here . many people are getting into van life
I would say that decreasing birth rates are a good thing. As a kid, my parents took my brother and me to Expo ‘67 in Montreal. They had a world population counter in the big sphere there, and there were less than 4 billion people….now there are ~8 billion. I decided not to have kids and one main reason was remembering that counter. How big a population can this earth sustain, without dire effects on our environment? I would say global warming, water issues, pollution, etc., indicate we’ve already passed an optimal population size, which has to include quality of life, imo.
I just started researching van conversions to campers just recently, since I had a VW camper in the 70’s and really enjoyed the ability to go to beautiful tent camping areas without having to set up a tent. I don’t like being near RV’s, with the omnipresent generator noise. Since VW doesn’t sell campers in the US anymore, it looks like the best choice for me is to get a Ford Transit and get a camper conversion done. I’m debating whether or not I can afford it in retirement. The one thing it would definitely cut down on is hotel and restaurant costs, as well as allow travel to cool places far from big cities, but you can stay in quite a few hotels with the 80-90,000 USD the converted van would cost, especially if you include the interest that would accrue until you used the money.
In any case, the homeless situation is bad, but most homeless people can’t plop down 10’s of thousands of dollars, which seems to be what I have seen from van lifers on TH-cam.
That’s how I perceive the situation, but I may be off base, depending on your definition. I wouldn’t say living out of your car constitutes “van life”, as much as being homeless, and I wouldn’t consider those forced to do it by circumstances as living the “van life”, as it seems to be more of a lifestyle choice. Sorry this is so long, cheers!
We actually just hit 8.1 billion a couple of days ago... To put this into perspective, that's anywhere between 6 and 8% of people who've ever lived! Enough's enough. Currently saving up to get sterilized.
I hope that when the population shrinks, the individual would be valued more, especially on the job market. Right now, it's a shitshow, especially for those who graduated into 'rona times. I just got a job notification, it was posted what, 5 minutes ago? 300-something applicants already. Inflated demands, very low pay.
The world can support a hell of a lot more people than it currently does, but the suffering of a huge percentage of them is baked in to the capitalist regimes running the world economy. In terms of environmental impact, removing just the 350 millionish people in the USA's pollution from the world total would literally half world CO2 emissions. Population is not the problem, fair distribution of resources is.
@@peglor it is still a problem. Even if the entirety of human population lived and emitted at the same level as the rural Chinese do, we would still need >1 Earth's worth of resources to live.
Moreover, most of the overpopulated countries are developing ones, key word "developing". They increase their emissions and quality of life little by little and can't afford or can't implement any climate-saving measures due to corruption. And if the Global north tries to donate to them, the resources would just get stolen by the local oligarchs and warlords.
Refugees and migrants also adopt the lifestyle of the natives. Population is a problem no matter how you tried to spin it.
People think it will be freeing, cheaper, and easier. They’re finding it’s expensive, constant work, and a nightly search for parking.
Why would you move around every day? It only makes sense if you park for weeks at a time.
@@vladimus9749 because free places don’t let you stay for a week, and safe places that let you stay are expensive. BLM land lets you stay 14 days but most areas a pretty remote, sketchy, and packed with fellow campers.
Although I'm fortunate and have a roof over my head I know heaps of what we call "grey nomads" here in New Zealand. They are older adults and retirees that often decide living in mobile homes, campervans and cars is more affordable. Who knows where they'll end up when they can no longer drive or maintain their vehicles. Like other countries we too have a housing crisis with no end in sight.
I live in the UK and house prices here are constantly rising mainly, like many countries, supply and demand as well as higher interest rates. Our lovely government is now starting to target people who live in their vans with taxing them for it and restricting places to stop for the night. No affordable housing, so people's only option is living in a van, so governments now realises thst and will tax them so much, they can no longer even afford to live in a van, then end up on the street, so next, they will be threatening them with fines and prison. They will fook us up every way they can to destroy us. The rich get richer and the poor will be fighing for the few scraps available.
I'm Japanese, I grew up in the US during the 90s, came back in 2001 and been in Tokyo, the american way of life seems to have changed so much in just 20 years, I don't know what to think of it really, just people living out of a van seems like a life style thats not for the majority of people, at least if they had a choice.
Keynsian economics and the great replacement are going exactly according to plan.
I am a Canadian Vanlife here on TH-cam!
I’ve been fascinated by this topic for some time especially having been a canoeing guide who lived in a tent for nearly an entire year but in the northwoods of your country which I refer to as Canuckiana, or the abode of the deported Tories of yore after the English Civil War Part II, American version. The mobile homelessness phenomenon is largely the result of idiotic and shortsighted government policies which are too numerous and tedious to enumerate and describe in detail.
But basically in a hyper-capitalist system labor is considered a resource to be exploited and the average non-union employee will not be paid a living wage in a free trade global economy. Then also building codes and zoning have created artificial housing shortages which inflate prices unreasonably. For people to begin settling down again and breeding you’d have to be able to get a prefab reasonably priced home for maybe $500 per month. This is clearly out of reach unless you’re into living in ancient single wides out in the hinterlands or rehabbing tiny industrial properties in the inner city kind of like Charlton Heston in his dystopian movie about the bleak future was it Soylent Green perhaps? Or Omega Man. I’m not sure.
Going to borrow a comment from someone in another video that describes van life as Expensive, exhausting and dangerous.
Yes cost of living it’s so high rents are expensive so it’s cheaper to live in a van
I've slept in my van before. I've laid out my sleeping bag in a field beside the highway when I didn't have a car. I've also lived in a 3 bedroom 2 bath house and I was paying the mortgage. And I've been homeless; at the time, I was also volunteering at a church that provided a meal and other services to the homeless. Currently, I've been living in the same apartment for almost 4 years in Mexico. I've seen homelessness here too. The breakdown of the family seems to be the root cause of a lot of this. But another component that you have alluded to is something we have all been warned about in one form or another: The love of money is the root of all evil. Most of the problems we are having world wide is a result of placing a high priority on money instead of people. I don't have a lot myself, but I do what I can to help others, especially by teaching them what I can. This is my way of investing in humanity. Help your fellow human beings and it will make the whole world a better place.
The rise in vanlife is coming from all walks of life, not just the people who can't afford homes. Since the pandemic many companies switched to work-from-home and haven't gone back to the office. If you can work from home, you can work from a van thanks to Starlink making decent connectivity available everywhere. So why work from home with a static never-changing view of your city, when you can work from a van surrounded by nature where you can go on amazing hikes every weekend? This group of people exists, and is growing, but you might not notice as they're working 9 to 5 so aren't producing lots of social media content.
You make a good point! 👍
Thanks for watching!
The weather in Canada is much harder to deal with (living in a Van), that on the US.
I think I would be able to do it for some years on the US, but there is no way I would try it in Canada (because of winter). 🥶
It's really not that bad in most of Canada all you need is proper insulation and your vans good to go heater runs of diesel I was toasty in -20c with my poorly insulated van. I would think Texas heat is worse than most of Canada's winter
@@Turbo0666 For some reason in my mind Canada is all covered with snow during winter!😄
I should had written "The weather in Canada is PROBABLY much harder to deal with (living in a Van), that on the US"
You make great content!! Keep it up 👍
🙏thank you! Appreciate it 🙏
You can thank Greedy Giant Corporations. The decline of the worker started in about 1980. They buy a segment of the economy ,gut it of quality,raise prices. Your homes neighborhood is now on the menu. Soon you cannot buy a home. you must rent from a corporation.
Bang on my man! 💯
A friend of mine and I had a theory about this a while ago, that at some point Corporations will be renting homes TO their employee's.
Now you're really trapped, lose your job - lose your company provided home.
How's that for more control over our lives?!
Thanks for watching!
@@Generation.Q.E This is how it was at the start of the industrial revolution. The idea of a factory town came from that era - literally the factory and the town were all built together, your housing depended on keeping your job, and the factory controlled everything you and your family were allowed to do. Wedgewood pottery even had a song the employees had to sing about how great the factory owner was. Hilariously, given their long history of caring even less about people than corporations, the church were the only power that could compete with these factories, and they pushed the idea of Sundays being a day off work when they realised that if workers were working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week they wouldn't have time to donate money and resources to keep the church profitable.
The number of people who were murdered (Usually 'legally' by the police) after going on strike to fight for decent work conditions is something that has been forgotten by many. Channels on here such as 'More Perfect Union' are a great source of information on what's currently going on in the US fight for worker's rights. Things are so bad in the US that even hardcore Republican voters are starting to realize they might actually have some quality of life if they unionized. The worst thing is that the main reason they keep voting that way seems to be the belief that some day they'll be billionaires, so they want to be able to abuse their power just as much as current billionaires, either that or removing women's rights... 😞
And we have been voting for leftist since the 80's and the situation is worse now.
PLENTY of blame (most?) goes to printing trillions $$$ and grossly devaluing the dollar. Corps and Gov't go hand in hand.
63% increase in van life, Hmmmm. Could that be why electric vehicle's are coming into play. After all it's expensiveto "charge up" those cars?!
Makes you wonder doesn't it? 🤔 Electric vehicles would defiantly impact van lifers and people living in RVs.
Better than being tied to a mortgage or rent every month. your money will stretch for sure when you live out on the road in your van, and you will have more freedom to go anywhere you want in this vast land called USA.
I'm living in a van in Alaska watching this and I agree also I'm a trans woman whenever the concept of the nuclear family gets brought up I have to say I really wish I could find myself a husband and have kids but the thing is I don't want to adopt kids it's just kinda a weird situation also prediction markets put the odds of a trans woman birthing a child by 2100 at like 30% which I just saw it was funny
Van Life came up in 2018. It's been up for the better part of 6 years at this point
Trivial. It's nuclear not nucular.
Excellent and worrying analysis
I watch quite a few vanlifers, usually the ones where they breakdown their monthly costs. I own my home and am debt free, and haven't seen one vanlifer who does this, and pays less monthly than I do (I'm sure there are people who were forced into the situation that pay less, are living hand to mouth, and praying the vehicle doesn't die, but they're not usually on YT breaking down their budget). Eventually, people will get tired of most vanlife channel's on YT, because of the over saturation of people who think they can make a living off it, but aren't interesting at all. Another sad realization that many of the young vanlife people are going to face, is the lack of experience in any field, and work history, when they eventually do have to look for a regular job. Unfortunately, they will find out that most YT creator's do not become long time, or big time channel's, and patreon revenue can dry up at any time. It's like when TV show's are cancelled, because the content just becomes so repetetive, that people stop watching.
I'm homeless in an old Toyota Sienna minivan in Los Angeles, after losing my housing twice during the pandemic, and couldn't afford the skyrocketing rents.
Saw this coming in the 70's.
Wow, you’re basically Nostradamus! You can see 50 years into the future!
1979 is when Ronald Reagan unleashed corporations on citizens. It's been steadily downhill.
Really? What were the signs? I'm not from there and I wasn't alive at the time, just curious.
It's pronounced "new-clear", not "New-kew-lurr".
Im just trying to build a camper. I def couldnt live in it, at least not long term....
Essentially, governments let corporate executives take more than their fair share, leaving very little for the rest of us. There is only so much profit widget A can produce. History of the American tax rate 940: 81% 1950: 84% 1960: 91% 1970: 72% 1980: 70% 1990: 28% 2000: 40% 2010: 35%. the average CEO was paid about 20 times the typical worker's pay in the 1950s, with that multiple rising to 42-to-1 in 1980 and 120-to-1 in 2000. Today, it is nearly 200x the worker's wage. It has been a double win for executives--they are being overly compensated regardless of performance and aren't taxed at a fair rate. Our economies are imploding because of this simple problem. It's not capitalism- it's unchecked greed. But people get distracted and fight over stupid issues and idolize the rich. People buy into the rich deserving extreme wealth, and that leads to them creating jobs. Jobs are created based on need. I have never heard of a rich person saying, "Hmm, I am rich--need to create more jobs.
It's always a combination of factors. The minimum wage is not a living wage, a factor. Cost of housing a factor. Cost of gas and food a factor. Billionaires pay 1% tax a factor. Working class pay 40% tax a factor. Many factors. Politicians need to take a basic math class, a factor.
This a big problem in China as well according to the China Observer. I doubt if it's just in western countries.
Yes agree
I know Canada has a huge house building problem--as in you ain't. Also true of the UK. And the results are obvious to any student of Econ 101: Huge demand, no supply, poorer people get the squeeze. Hang tough, Canada, and vote differently. I've been across the Hockey Stick curtain almost a dozen times. Love that place.
SO conservatives are going to save us....your an idiot!..............that's how we got here in the first place....no taxes on the Rich, bidding up the price of assets and it all ends up in Real Estate speculation, doing everything in their political power to KILL Unions and keep wages for the poor low......the Conservative's is how we got here !
But keep blaming the unions!
Don't kid your self , those BRIcs countries easily have their fair share of housing issues.... dig deeper....
It's because Americans love machines, they interact with & depend on them more reliably than with other people.. In a van you live Inside a machine!
Chain hotels are awful....my 2 cents
What will van-lifers do when they get old ?
First the US is not capitalism, capitalist pay their bills the US does not. I do think collpase will get worse but one major factor is the control regimes placed on everyone. Today getting a socially acceptable postion takes much more in being allowed than before, like the pandemic crack down they do the same in many spheres of life. Van people are outcaste unable to comply with the demands not just broke. The problem could get so bad that it becomes non functional and basically the power is turned off on everyone, being off grid so to speak is a better life once the hardships of the oppressive regimes are neutralized.
Dont be fooled money doesnt do as much as it once did not only value but acceptance , for instance anyone living this way would have to hide the fact to get back into society at another level.
One word. Union!
Union provides a comprehensive living wage. Pensions and medical and dental benefits as well as sick and accident benefits, overtime pay and paid holidays. This was a good indicator for the middle class of the 50s 60s and 70s. I joined a Union in 1988 and I retired at 60 years of age with a pension, benefits, and a nest egg to enjoy the rest of my day's.
Join a Union and consider the trades instead of a university degree.
Great theory, only union's suck or are completely corrupt these days more often than not. I'm in a union and let me tell you, I won't be retiring at 60 from this one
I paid a uniun in new zealand for years in the health care industry and they betrayed me when I was laid off from the hospital due to not getting the vaccine. I don't trust uniuns today and pay them nothing no more
Great points! 👍
Lol. Unions in Seattle are striking for unemployment money right now. And there’s no work for 14 months. Yeah union is just fantastic
@@davi-un7ku The whole point of striking is that it's a last resort for when the corporation refuses to negotiate in good faith. Striking is basically the only way workers can actually hold corporations to account by affecting the only thing they actually care about, which is money. If a company is willing to let their employees go to the point where they're striking it thinks it can wait out the strike, figuring starving employees will eventually have to go back to work. This is a lot of what the money paid to unions ends up doing - keeping striking union members from actually starving.
The 40 hour work week, paid time off, healthcare and pensions were all the result of over a century of similar fights. Look up the history of unions and workers rights before you decide it doesn't work - keep in mind that the owners of all the big media companies are heavily incentivized to push the line that unions don't work because they are literally the same corporations that would lose money from their employees striking.
Asking corporations nicely to not treat human beings like slaves has literally never worked. And before you say something stupid like 'If you don't like your job get a better one' - this isn't an option for most people because the better jobs no longer exist in any kind of a meaningful way. If a job is important enough that a company needs someone there to do it, it's important enough that they should be paid a livable wage.
Agree
Actually China has the same low both rate problem.
Dr E Michael Jones
"The ××× Revolutionary Spirit "
Sums up how we got here.
I could NEVER live in a van. Disgusting!!!
people do what they have to do
@@steverusso177 If my life depended on it, yes.
The price of land and houses might have something to do with it.
That's the symptom, not the causes.
@@aorg9793Well some one must have rich parents.
The reason why is because during the last crash, the investment groups that didn't lose their money in the crash (Most of them saw it coming because they caused it) bought up massive amounts of family homes and apartments at fire sale prices because they knew they could get better returns from that than the stock market was giving.
Once they controlled enough of the property, they could choose to leave houses empty (Which they do - turns out an empty house will increase in value on the balance sheet just as quickly as an occupied one provided the housing supply is kept limited, so more imaginary share value for them, allowing them to borrow more real money to buy more property from under the noses of the people who should be buying it to live in it themselves) and further crank up the price of the ones they were still renting. Rental income is basically free money for the landlord (Especially given how little most corporate landlords do for tenants), and once the corporations controlled enough of the property and started jacking prices renters had no choice in paying, everyone else did the same because they didn't want to lose out on even more free money either.
We're nearing the end point now where many people can't afford rent or property in many urban areas, even with high paying jobs, so something will have to give, but I'm guessing losses for big property owners, or taxing the heck out of empty properties to encourage owners to sell or rent the property, will be well down the list. The end game is that nobody will be able to afford to buy anywhere to live, so they'll be forced to work at whatever conditions the companies decide just to keep a roof over their heads or drop off the grid altogether.
Not in brics? m8 you should see unemployment among youth in those countries you are in for a shocker.
Not capitalism, but corporatism.
Nah. I just want a van to travel in. I have a house too.
Yup yup
Russia has the same social issues as the west, china too
For the same reasons too they're all run by people with so much money they literally couldn't spend it all in multiple lifetimes bribing governments to change their rules so they can turn their astronomical amounts of money into even more money.
2030 : You will own nothing and you'll still be happy .. WEF
yes
You will own nothing and be happy
Could it be a coincidence? Time will tell... 🤔
NUCULAR? What's that?
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Dude have you seen the favelas in Brazil and slums in India
Van life isn’t nothing new people have been living in vans since the 70’s hippie’s
Homeless
*nuclear
Stop yelling, please.
nuclear
Joe Biden
Its a click for views life style for the majority on new van lifers
Same as off-grid living
also Home steading
The list goes on and on
If they can make money off it... its the new trend
Just like this video talking about it will generate clicks and money
This is why we need a NEW PRESIDENT….DONSLD TRUMP🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸