by Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds
Here is Part 2 of the guest essay by Zeus Y.
There no longer seems to be a rational alignment between economic cost and value. This means questioning so-called conventional wisdom and critically considering whether or not to own property or even to go to college.
Here are some examples:
• In my own life, I owned a Florida vacant lot that would normally (and did actually significantly appreciate) in value, but the property was taxed so much in just a few years to pay for a municipal road that the taxes ate up the entire value of the property and I had to unload it just to stop the bleeding.
Lesson: Get rid of property that cost more in maintenance and taxes than they are worth. Don’t let sentimental attachment prevent you from liberating yourself of economic burdens, whether it is real estate property or old furniture in a paid storage facility.
• College tuition is twelve times more expensive over the last generation and college debt has skyrocketed, yet the wages of college grads have actually gone down over the last fifteen years.