right, 3 years ago i lived with 3 other dudes. the one dude bought the house for probably $125k in a quiet and pretty okay area near the local university (uc riverside), we paid around $350 including utilities, rent, cable, whatever and that was a damn good deal. mind you, this was before the huge housing spike my area has seen. that house is probably worth triple what he paid for it and he could charge $600 per room if he wanted.
minimum wage hasn't gone up in 5 years, it's still at $6.75 / hour. you simply CANNOT FUNCTION on such piss wages, and a lot of people don't have the advantages of education, skill, or flat out brainpower for anything but fast food and retail jobs.
btw, i pay $900 a month for my apartment, which isn't considered too steep anymore. that includes water, everything else (trash, electricity, gas, etc.) is up to me. oh but not cable, i refuse to pay for television so i don't have that shit.
i hit post quick reply at least 8372580724985724985692478679 TIMNES NOW