It's futile to try to objectively analyze the dispute, sure, but it's both doable and reasonable to describe how one side feels when discussing their motivations.
It doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong (or even if anyone is right or wrong). What matters is that that experience disincentivises Singapore from signing contracts with Malaysia if they don't have to.
That's because rent of $1.5k is for the whole of a house, whereas the mortgage is only covering whichever part of the house you don't own.
My rent would be $3k, but I own one third of the house, so my mortgage is $2k.
The alternative would be paying $3k in rent and investing the $100k in equity. The cash-flow from the equity investment would off-set some of the cost of renting.
There is definitely non-linear pricing in the London housing market as one example.
When I was last looking -
Studio apartments and one bed room apartments rented for similar amounts, and so did two beds and three beds.
But the price jump from one bed to two bed was much larger than any of the other jumps.
You can speculate on many reasons why this might be the case (smallest size apartment for a family in the city, smallest size you can split with a friend, smallest size with space for an office).
There are exceptions and I'm sure that more research time could help you find them.
But one of the points made convincingly in the artle is that if you are poor you don't have a lot of energy, time or gas-money to do that kind of research.
I mean, we can talk about price jumps between bedroom counts if you want but I'm not sure it's very relevant to the article, which is saying there's only "stabbyville" and "safe" places given other fixed requirements. If you need a studio in London, they exist all through the price spectrum, area spectrum, and other dimensions. I suspect the 'jump' you see from one bed to two is that, on average, two beds are in nicer areas, or they are houses rather than flats, freehold rather than lease, etc. Bedroom count is correlated with other features that also increase the average price. But that doesn't mean there aren't two beds in cheaper areas too.
The typical tradeoff in London is price vs proximity to work/transport. For most people. Safety comes in at the very bottom end, but still you can live far out and commute. I'm not saying that's a pleasant experience, or that being poor is a pleasant experience in general, but the tradeoff and choice exists. If you have a job in central London that you'd commute to though, fact is you are already probably well off compared to most of the country. It's a bit like how student debt mostly affects the middle class. Same with expensive season tickets for the train.
> But the price jump from one bed to two bed was much larger than any of the other jumps.
The jump between sharing and a one-bed flat is certainly larger. A two-bed on two incomes is a pretty decent arrangement in London (if you're a couple for example); a one-bed on a single income is much much steeper.
> But the price jump from one bed to two bed was much larger than any of the other jumps.
That price jump isn't particularly surprising given London's one bed flats are competing against a vast number of individual rooms in shared properties rented out (which is regarded as a normal living arrangement in London, including for professionals, somewhat older people and to an extent couples). Obviously people who need an extra bedroom aren't really in that market, and the second bedroom is also easily [sub]let out separately.
It's a maximum of two unrelated households (a household can consist of couple or single person) in a property unless the landlord has an HMO (Housing of Multiple Occupation license).
So a 3+ bedroom property still houses a maximum of 2 couples.
Aluminium or Titanium frames make the best travel bikes.
- Unlike steel, they don't rust.
- Unlike carbon, they can cope with rough treatment (for example when loaded into the hold on a plane). They are less likely to be damaged, and the damage is more likely to lead to a gradual failure.
Titanium is reputed to be better but modern Aluminium frames are pretty light, pretty comfortable, and vastly cheaper.
I have an aluminium bike that I use whenever my trip involves a train ride or a flight.
I currently ride a titanium hardtail MTB. It's an amazing ride. I vastly prefer it over aluminium. Titanium has a reputation for being expensive, but that's only true because the famous brands have such high margin on them (no doubt to preserve that premium reputation).
Frame rust isn't a big deal on bicycle. Even in the 80's high-alloy steel like 4130 "Chromo" has been popular with bicycles.
I've abused my 70's mtb bicycle with thousands of km of rustbelt winter riding and my frame shows no worrying corrosion, just surface discoloration where the paint has been scratched.
Carbon fiber is more durable than people give it credit for too, though because it's a brittle material that fails suddenly, larger safety factors should be used.
When it was removed the study "calculated that average trip times eastbound increased from 5min 39sec to 8min 14sec, with those westbound rising from 5min 48sec to 6min 27sec."
Trip times, but how many trips were taken? Make the roads painful/expensive enough and the one car still using them will have a very quick journey. Conversely, filling up the bike lakes with lots of bikes will increase bike trip times. I prefer to measure the efficiency of a road by the number of people it carries across all types of vehicles. Bus lanes over bicycle lanes imho as buses can more more people per hour down a single lane than anything else.
When a wealthy driver from Kensington or Chelsea sees a person on a bicycle, their face turns red, their heart rate increases, and their body starts to twitch. In extreme situations, they may imagine the letters they'd like to write to the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph complaining about the abomination -- this is most common when they're driving a vehicle designed for off-road expeditions through central London.
There was a similar issue with articulated buses. These were removed by their leader, Boris Johnson, at colossal expense. Some drivers in Chelsea are still suffering the after-effects of seeing these vehicles on the road.
That seems like a pretty good rule of thumb. I tend to eat a bit less than that. If I'm planning for a group doing some activity like strenuous hiking, I'll plan for a bit more. But 4-5 people to a box/pound sounds about right.
- Too complicated to assign blame to one party
- Futile to rehash in HN comments