Sounds to me like a way to get out of poverty. If my rent is 1/2 to 1/4th what it would be otherwise then I can save that difference and get out of poverty faster than if I paid full rent.
Buying an old beater car as your first car has been the norm forever. But that’s because young people still have no wealth, ie they are poor, not because they don’t want a shiny Audi.
My three daughters are grown and have moved out and now I live alone in a four bedroom house.
Between work (in office mon-thurs, wfh fridays), my volunteer (fire department and watershed steward), fitness (yoga and lifting), and social club (amateur radio, astronomy, and makerspace) commitments, and my girlfriend (smart and beautiful)-- the 1-3 nights per week I get to come home and sit alone, in the dark, in my underwear, listening to the worst 90s techno ever produced at full volume are the only times I have to relax.
As an added bonus when you live alone you can accomplish many things that would be difficult and/or very costly with roommates. Very few people want to live in chaos for months as you methodically open up each wall in your 70-year-old house to run CAT6/HDMI/speaker wires in every room by working an hour or so during your precious few free nights and weekends.
(in my underwear, while listening to the worst 90s techno ever at full volume)
You could argue everything, but I’m pretty sure 99% of those sharing a flat are doing so because they can’t afford a flat for themselves, not because they enjoy the company.
It can also be a matter of preference. I lived alone after moving away from my family for a few years. For someone working long hours, far from home, with a demanding job, there is a particular kind of loneliness at coming home after dark to a cold, quiet home.
I ended up cohabitating with close friends after that for a solid decade, during which I met my wife who also joined us. It can be a wonderful arrangement if you have the right people and everyone is working to look after themselves and each other.
Sounds to me like a way to get out of poverty. If my rent is 1/2 to 1/4th what it would be otherwise then I can save that difference and get out of poverty faster than if I paid full rent.
Having roommates (aka sharing a home) when you leave your family home has been the norm forever. Roommates are not poverty
>Having roommates (aka sharing a home) when you leave your family home has been the norm forever. Roommates are not poverty
Poverty has been the norm forever. The idea of economic progress for the common person is barely 3 generations old.
Buying an old beater car as your first car has been the norm forever. But that’s because young people still have no wealth, ie they are poor, not because they don’t want a shiny Audi.
One could argue that for many people, isolation is a form of poverty.
Living alone is not living in isolation.
My three daughters are grown and have moved out and now I live alone in a four bedroom house.
Between work (in office mon-thurs, wfh fridays), my volunteer (fire department and watershed steward), fitness (yoga and lifting), and social club (amateur radio, astronomy, and makerspace) commitments, and my girlfriend (smart and beautiful)-- the 1-3 nights per week I get to come home and sit alone, in the dark, in my underwear, listening to the worst 90s techno ever produced at full volume are the only times I have to relax.
As an added bonus when you live alone you can accomplish many things that would be difficult and/or very costly with roommates. Very few people want to live in chaos for months as you methodically open up each wall in your 70-year-old house to run CAT6/HDMI/speaker wires in every room by working an hour or so during your precious few free nights and weekends.
(in my underwear, while listening to the worst 90s techno ever at full volume)
You could argue everything, but I’m pretty sure 99% of those sharing a flat are doing so because they can’t afford a flat for themselves, not because they enjoy the company.
It can also be a matter of preference. I lived alone after moving away from my family for a few years. For someone working long hours, far from home, with a demanding job, there is a particular kind of loneliness at coming home after dark to a cold, quiet home.
I ended up cohabitating with close friends after that for a solid decade, during which I met my wife who also joined us. It can be a wonderful arrangement if you have the right people and everyone is working to look after themselves and each other.
How about "the case for acknowledging the reality that actually exists, rather than trying to pretend it will go away if we ignore it"?