I was thinking about the airport monitor that shows only your flight info because it can detect you and id you. And how many stores now have digital price tags on the shelves they can change remotely. Combine the 2 and you can have custom pricing per individual irl. 2 people standing next to each other in walmart be looking at the same thing and seeing different prices on the same display.
good parent.
walmart rolled this out and call it “dynamic pricing” I have known for half a decade that a VPN can yield me discounts and you get different prices by region for the same product, like an ISP. For the most part it seems simply being unknown provides the desired outcome. I don’t think any part of dynamic or surveillance pricing is designed to ever bring a price down over learning about someone.
I moved to Detroit from a HCOL city I was established in. I was renting and the options I had to buy were not hopeful. The taxes alone would have kept me working for more money year over year for the foreseeable future.
I took what would have been a down payment and bought a place outright. I bought a project and it was cheap, only half my down payment fund.
Now I am all set up. I have no mortgage to pay. My house costs me taxes ($1700/yr) and insurance ($1500/yr) plus utilities ($50 internet, $150 gas&electric, $60 water) That is about $550/month.
In michigan, taxable value increases are capped at 5%.
I figure I can work any job and stay ahead of the bills. Yesterday I did a brake job for a friend of a friend for $200 and didn’t even need to leave the house. I can do things like this here and there and get by without even having a job.
I have never known this amount of stability in housing as an adult before. It is wild. I own this whole damn house and everything in it. I also made a bunch of equity right out the gate by fixing up an abandoned trap house.
Not trying to lay out a plan for others, just wanted to share how my plan has been a success and that Detroit is a place where home ownership is attainable.
Oh, couple other things. I have no kids and the schools were not a problem for me. Although the neighborhood kids are all wonderful.
I am not interested in living in “the country”. I am a city person, I want my resources close. I can walk to a hardware, grocery, and auto parts store from my place. No thanks on 30min drives to dollar general and TSC on the fancy days.
We need to open source the whole government. Decentralized communism.