When I was a 21 year old living in San Francisco (still do), the state government said they were going to build a speed rail train...similar to the ones in Japan! And that it would take probably 8 years to build. I was so happy to hear because I had family in Los Angeles which you could only reach by plane, bus or car. Guess what? I am f%&king 61 years old and the state government (also local) are STILL just talking about speed rail trains! 😢😡
Last I checked they said it is projected to be done by 2030. 😰I don't know why they didn't do a phased approach like with caltrain/BART, expanding the line progressively.
Chapters - 4:50 timeshares and Disney - 17:45 tiktok hustlers - 29:04 ad skip/car culture - 37:52 gritesque social media displays (kitchen restocks, new outfit everyday, thirst traps) - 45:50 cost of living squeeze
As someone who had a nasty and gross infestation of flour moths in her pantry a few years ago, I am all for separate containers for pantry items such as rice, flour, granola, oatmeal, etc. They keep the bugs away or at least contained. But you only need to buy them once and they last for years.
I loveeeee the episode on car culture and I just rewatched it the other day. Such a gem. I recently went to Germany for study abroad for 2 weeks and it was amazing seeing how walkable everything in the area was or how easy it was to get around via train/bus and we were located in a more suburban area
Yes!! Europe is so foot traffic friendly and mass transportation centric it makes it so easy to travel without needing a vehicle. I lived in Boston for a few years before we had kids and we sold our car because it was too expensive to park and we used the subway or busses or walked to get to work/grad school/etc. Was amazing! Love Boston for that reason. Very walkable city.
My MIL had SEVEN timeshares for the Shenandoah Valley, which took us years to abandon after she passed away. One of these she bought after being diagnosed with dementia. Sigh.
I'm a social worker and a lot of my work now is helping people find resources like transportation to doctor'sappointments. It often sucks for people in the suburbs and rural areas when they can't drive, can't afford or use ride shares, and dont have family/friends to take them. These spaces are built with the assumption of car ownership or access. There's minimal public transit and limited paratransit. There are volunteer programs but they're hit or miss. So people aren't able to get to appointments. Not to mention these large homes which aren't safe or accessible for people with mobility issues. A lot of these spaces aren't made to accommodate illness or aging in place
it's absolutely true and you are seeing the worst of it. Honestly, I even wonder how much our terrible city design literally CAUSES disability. (diabetes and obesity and subsequent mobility issues caused partly by car centric infrastructure, mental health problems due to lack of community/lack of friends/not having ability to socialize.) all these problems are extremely related to one another. There is seriously no other country in the world where it is so possible and easy to be lonely.
The haul and over organization content has started to drive me insane. All these fancy gadgets from Amazon and bins/labels/drawers etc just to put things like animal crackers and soap in is so excessive lol. Like they have a bin for their bins and all these so called tools that make it easier for the home but actually looks like more work and money to maintain
I used to work at a store that sold many of those kinds of special gadgets or containers and I told customers that the first step toward real organization was to get rid of half your stuff. Bosses didn't like that so much.
The only sure way to beat scammers at their games is to NOT engage with them at all. I haven't answered my phone in over a decade to callers that I don't recognize; I know it was someone I had no interest in speaking to if no message was left.😊
Same here. I'm actually kind of baffled by the people who answer calls from numbers they don't know. I always figure if it's actually important, the caller will leave me a voicemail.
i also live in the city centre of one of the most densely populated cities in the world and i love it. i grew up in the surburbs and it was quiet but man now i have the luxury to walk to work, walk to the gym, walk to the shops and friend hangouts happen in my neighbourhood. i dont have to lift a finger
So I live in a rural “city” in a rural state that has possibly the strictest zoning laws in the country (if you know you know). It’s not a wealthy city so the last 30 years of urban development has largely passed it by. I visited an upscale middle class suburb in MA for a friends wedding recently and it was a real culture shock. First of all, you can’t walk anywhere. We debated how to get to the bar that was less than a mile away, because walking involved crossing a 6-lane highway with no crosswalks… And even though it was May it was sweltering outside, sidewalks were an afterthought that had no shade cover anywhere. So basically my one option for navigating this town was driving, traveling from one air conditioned building to the next in my air conditioned metal box, spending as little time as possible outside in the asphalt desert. And every development in every town looked the same, so even after being in the area for three days I had to rely on my phone’s GPS to find my way around all the sameness. And every possible destination is a place where spending money is required under threat of accusations of “loitering”. The effect was numbing, maybe hypnotizing is the best word. Being outside was so uncomfortable that I needed to find a shelter, and any shelter to find has a few attatched, as though every town was designed to extract has much money from me as possible. Maybe they are designed that way? My takeaway is that Boston suburbs are a dystopian nightmare and I’m lucky to live in an “underdeveloped” rust belt town. I can’t imagine growing up in a suburb like Littleton and having that be my “normal”.
As someone with ADHD and who gets very easily overstimulated…a trip to Disney with my husband 3 boys sounds like my literal nightmare lol. Never did it never want to. Happy about my choice lololol
I've lived in fl 8 years and only an hour from Disney. The first thing everyone does after moving here is go to the parks, but just the thought of parking, number of parks, and everything to do is very overwhelming so I haven't gone yet lol!
@@haleymist09 haha - you should go! with the local rates it is cheaper and you can go multiple times in a year so don't 'need to optimize' to 'make the most out of this rare life time opportunity'
Yeah we went to Disney as a family in 2022 and I just left feeling like I needed an actual vacation to recover from the amount of organizing planning and strategizing needed to actually have a semi good time at Disney. Fortunately my kids were just very happy to enjoy their time of Disney and then go back and hang out at the pool after about 2 so we did that almost every single day
I worked for a newly built fancy hotel who sold " lifetime "vacation packages" where you get so much time per year in an ocean view room. Then the owners went bankrupt and those packages ( 20,000$ +) were void under new ownership! Sketchy
The moment my husband and I realized we were a different breed is when we agreed to go for a Disney Vacation pitch because I wanted the $50 Disney bucks and we just kept saying we were not interest until they let us go with our $50. But honestly, they were really good, I think if my husband had not been in his post-doc and we both were stable in our careers… we would have fallen for the sales pitch.
My brother did something similar like 10 years ago. Kept saying he’s just a low ranking military dude so the pitch went from $5.5G to $1G. “If it’s so valuable why are you giving it to me 80% off? Free bourbon and casino chips, thank you”
Well this old woman watches you on RUclips and am having a wonderful parasocial relationship with you both and love listening to you. You're both so smart and sharp as can be. That is all.😊
We moved several times growing up in locations where my father found niche work in higher education. We often felt and acted very different than the towns where we lived. Vacation was the only escape we had from them - what a nightmare to see everyone you know on your vacation, too. Never have a single independent thought or experience again.
I can't even image the vulture-like tactics Disney must be pushing on parents today. When I was around 10 we got a Disney vacation planning/promoting package in the mail that included a DVD hyping up the potential vacation your parents might plan to Disney World. After watching this video I desperately wanted to go to Disney world, and of course having no concept of money nor the economic circumstance my family was in, I start begging my parents. Eventually this fantasy was put to bed by my parents having to explain to me that we'll never be able to afford going to Disney. It was my first awakening to our economic circumstances.
39:26 I saw someone driving a really old Ford recently, and had the shocking realization: they used to just be normal car-sized. It really drives home how absurdly oversized modern trucks are to see a perfectly functional pickup from, I don't know, probably the 90's, that was roughly the size of my (itself older) Forester.
Me and my best friends went through a whole timeshare presentation to get a discount on snorkeling in hawaii and LET ME TELL YOU. They got SO rude at the end when we said - not even no- that we had to think about it. Not pushy, like actually rude. I have worked in sales for years and was honestly disgusted by their tactics.
Years ago, my dad took us to Orlando, Fl and it was to listen to a timeshare spiel. We had to sit through it in order to get tickets to go to Disney. My dad never got the timeshare, but Disney was fun!
so excited to hear someone anti haul organization products!!! tiktok "restock" videos unsettle me so much... like i did merchandising and stocking as a job im not doing that for free!! also technically my career is professional organizer (archivist) i don't need my fridge to be colour coded
This is honestly some of the smartest and most insightful commentary on the absurdity of our society on the internet today. KUDOS!!!! Both of you! Chef's kiss!
I could withstand a timeshare sales pitch, at least up to the point where they start holding you hostage and denying food/water/bathroom breaks until you sign up. In addition to being stubborn and knowing it's a scam, I also have little interest in that type of vacation. I'd probably start making fun of the destinations to pass the time. Also, I know rich people who spend like $500/hour for the VIP Disney experience where they get to cut lines and stuff. At some point, money just stops meaning anything to you.
That is because on it’s own it is valueless. The less money you have, the more you want to have “value for money” and you are willing to sacrifice time and a good experience. The more money you have the more you value the novelty, experience and story behind the product. All consumers feel they are smart and getting something they want and they are for the most part. However, we are all on a hamster wheel of consumerism and it’s snobbish to point the finger at others while still consuming (especially in comparison to third world countries who we enslave to benefit from good prices).
And four adds (maybe more I only got to the middle) with ridiculous claims (oh, this product helped our Jenny with her hair-loss!) TFD exposed capitalism so much and eventually became its product (or was from the very beginning but masked too well)
I love this podcast and this episode had such great info. And... It's also really East Coast/Liberal/NYC centric. The idea that everyone wants to live in 15 minute cities is wild and doesn't account for people who don't want to live in highly populated areas or the fact there are great communities happening all over the U.S. in small towns and, YES, suburbia. Plus - there are plenty of lonely people in NYC and other cities. City life isn't the answer to isolation. It's one model not made to fit all. Also, midtown NYC is not all of NYC. I've lived here for over a decade. I couldn't afford living there when I moved here and I definitely still can't now. In fact most of the people who would be impacted by the scams you both are outlining here could never dream of affording an apartment in midtown. There are definitely rat infested areas of the city, where there are real problems and that most likely neither of these hosts frequent. Finally, city life doesn't equal community. The amount of individuals who move into areas of NYC that are communities of color, themselves are not part of those communities, and in no way interact with the people in their neighborhood (never mind have any interest in building community) is real. Saying the quiet part out loud is that many gentrifiers think they are good people and have #BLM all over their social media but don't want anything to do with the people of color they live near. There's a lot of nuance on these topics. It would be great if episodes like this incorporated more of it.
You make great points, but the high housing costs show that more people would live in certain places (cities) if they could. Also the pandemic showed that some people would not live in cities if they didn't have to do so for work.
really interesting point. But also, the "15 minute city", walkability, and good public transit, does not necessarily mean big and highly dense cities. Honestly, I hate NYC. I visit often. I live in a small city that is walkable and of medium-density. Walkability, community, etc. does not need high density to exist. And your comment on community is so real. Visiting my friend who lives in Sunset Park is pretty eye opening.
I totally get your point. One of my frustrations with suburban living is the absurd zoning laws that basically force you to have to use a car to take care of everyday tasks such as visiting the doctor or going to then grocery store. Also the lack of public transportation keeps more suburban areas from being 15-minutes cities. Living in a less populated area shouldn’t make walkable cities prohibitive.
I’m interested in this channel having a conversation with BIPOC individuals who have roots and upbringing in the inner city and low socioeconomic neighborhoods but now live in maybe a suburb or rural America and have moved classes. Interested because I only hear the conversation around suburbia and it’s absurdities with white people but not BIPOC. I also find it interesting the connection between the amount of white people who maybe move from suburbia and rural America to a larger city and BIPOCs who move from a larger city to a smaller town or suburban city. . . Just curious about what that conversation and connection looks like
To add, many cities going through gentrification push out BIPOC and poor citizens to suburbs that are now empty because those folks are moving to fancier apartments in the city
Also, the over gamification of the real estate market as just a means to gain "passive income" has sent rents skyrocketing because the people investing just want to make more money, not provide realistic housing. They have little incentive to upkeep the property, which dips into their profits. They will use any excuse to raise rents to make more profit. Housing isn't a fair thing to use for profit, because it's something people absolutely NEED and therefor cannot simply opt out when it's overpriced. It's like imagine if your local source of water was privately owned. You would be paying 10x as much for it for no reason other than profit.
Disney world is a mess. It costed like $290 to visit Epcot for ONE day for just two people me and my boyfriend. Wicked overpriced and the ridiculous lines makes it not worth it at all. I absolutely agree with over consumption. I budget my money every week and super intentional about purchasing goods. I have donated so many clothes that don’t fit me, don’t suit my taste anymore and just keeping my shit to a minimum and wearing what I have. I have a sibling who shops CONSTANTLY and there is packages almost every other day from some store and they have sooo much shit it’s crazy.
My grandparents had a timeshare in Myrtle Beach SC. They had it for about 25 years and used it 4-6 times a year. Back then it worked for our family. Now, heck no. I would never do it. Grandparents took us to Disney twice growing up, my main memory is of the front of the train coming off the track. I remember climbing down the ladder with my Grandma to get off. I was nine. We never went again. I would rather go to Disney overseas with my son than Disney in Florida.
How does Chelsea feel about being a internet personality that offers financial courses? It's been something she's repeatively spoken negatively about in relation to others.
Living in L.A. Disneyland is blasé for me. I can visit anytime I like. When we get foreign family vacationing here they all want to go to Disneyland. But when we go we gotta do it big. Everyone gets dole whip, everyone gets a Mickey Hat, everyone gets funnel cake. Everyone gets a picture with the Stormtroopers. It's supposed to be a core memory. Saving money on not needing a hotel room and transportation is an enormous help in this regard.
So my parents did not buy a Disney timeshare but they did buy not one but two time share is with another big hotel chain. In the 90s it worked extremely well for us to be able to travel where we wanted to go now it's almost impossible to use the miles and point even though my parents are on like diamond gold medallion plus level or whatever they entice people to buy more points and not only do my sister and I want nothing to do with it and do not want to inherit this boondoggle but it's almost impossible to sell it.
Having lived in Central Fl, having a car is imperative. Ft Lauderdale for example is 3-4 hrs away from Disney. Downtown Disney is an hr away from Universal. But to also live there, most places are 30 min via car! Fl is very un walkable. But trains would help a lot
I was over 30 when I went to Disneyland for the first time. (Non-American, no Disneyland in my country). It was exciting and very expensive. Totally get what you're saying.
I went to Disneyland for the first time with my family two months ago, and I'm still struggling to get my finances back to where they were before going. We're a family of 7 and ended spending more than $200 on food in the park alone. Everything is so crazy expensive and my sister and I had to literally beg our dad to not spend his money on wasteful things like balloons and souvenir toys and knickknacks (to no avail). The youngest in our family is 10 years-old and he doesn't even like to play with toys anymore, but our dad would keep insisting that the money didn't matter and that it was the "memories" that were more important. It was so frustrating, because literally two weeks later my sister and I had no choice but to loan our dad money to help him pay for repairs on his truck, dental, medical, and other bills. Our dad paid for the hotel when we went to Disney, so we'd taken it upon ourselves to pay for everything else in the park, but I didn't think I'd end up using up all of my savings in the process... It's already June and I'm still super stressed over my finances. If you guys are planning to go to Disney, don't be like my dad and randomly decide to go to Disney with only 2 weeks to prepare. I had VERY LITTLE TIME to save money on such short notice, and I'm still dealing with the negative impacts of it. Plan MONTHS or even YEARS in advance. Your future self will thank you.
Making money from a side hustle is great in theory. In practice all it takes is a little bit of accounting to tell you the truth. I started a business as a professional organizer for the middle class. I wrote my business plan and started a few sheets to have a real way to tell how much profit and costs I was incurring. I worked for a year, at some points I felt I was on the way to make a lot of money. At the end of the year I figured out that I was making under the minimum wage. Ops. Turns out my business plan didn't work and I don't have the social network with the higher class people I would need to turn a profit.
I love it when other adults share that they have never been to a Disney theme park. My family never went to Disney either, I never cared to spend the money as an adult. I feel like I'm in the minority but I like it.
I’m also an adult who hasn’t been to a Disney park. I Grew up in the US, but somehow only ever saw five or fewer Disney movies (2 were school field trips. It never occurred to me to even want to go, or that I was “missing out” on some sort of basic American culture with my lack of engagement with that brand, but as an adult some people think it’s very odd.
I'd be interested in re-reading Asimov's Caves of Steel trilogy in light of all these urbanism conversations. I read them as a teen and I found the sociology of them interesting but pretty distant and not noticeably more relevant to my world than any of the other SF I was reading at the time. But now every time I read descriptions of suburbia in an urbanism context my brain just keeps going "Hey hey it's just like those guys on Aurora or Solaria or whichever it was in the second/third book". Like... I read those before smartphones - sorry, before *cellphones*. And now we have COVID, zoom calls, a new wave of "are they as smart as us?" AI (they're not)... I wonder how they'd feel to read now.
I thought the same about the exaggerations of safety but I live in a small urban area with people walking around and families watching children and churches, etc and there have been multiple daytime open air shootings in the year I've been here within a 10 mile radius of me. One over the weekend at a large family barbecue by a complete stranger that injured dozens. Let's not downplay it
I was going to buy a cool house in the suburbs within walking distance from the school district equipped with a White Picket Fence but let me watch this first.
love your point also about the loneliness epidemic. but i think it is a vicious cycle? Especially some territorial angry men. They deliberately want to be in the middle of nowhere but then when they are there they are lonely and angry and their social skills get worse. plus noam chomsky dug up some policy documents from the 50s about how that was a deliberate political strategy. people to live far apart from one another with a large space to take care of and lots of debt to service, and competitive about their space, to keep them too isolated and busy to be politically engaged.
When I was still living in Canada I didn't own a vehicle, and as much as they are useful, I was able to do whatever I needed to using public transport. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it worked just fine. Since moving to the US, that's been one of my gripes, is the lack of useable public transport. Another thing I've struggled with immensely is the lack of third spaces. I didn't even know that was the term for it, but I have complained many times about how little there is to do. In the area I'm in currently, you have the options of getting drunk and going to the beach, and that's really it. Anything else is either inaccessible or exorbitantly priced. I miss even just having public parks, there's surprisingly few here.
too good to be true is an amazing podcast. I love it. I listen to every episode and DRINK IT UP! Full disclosure, I've fallen for a few of the scams they have had episodes about. oops.
i love that you brought up the weird ridiculous suburban space thing. KARDASHIANS. obviously it's not realistic that Kim has a closet the size of 3 bedrooms but even like you say, their pantry > khloe's pantry has 10 million wicker baskets each containing an emptied out costco box of, like rice krispie squares? and Kris Jenner has a fridge just dedicated to lettuce with a see through door (to admire the lettuce) and see through lazy susans that the lettuce live in??? these inventions are so stupid I can't even. those 2 reno jobs probably cost 15K USD. that is like 5 amazing vacations! I just cannot.
I understand the point Ryan was making, but to compare Las Vegas public infrastructure as an alternative to car centric cities is very funny. To his point, the strip does have a tram that allows you to go from one end of the strip to the other, but that is about all the infrastructure we have here for moving groups of people other than the city bus system, which is very unreliable. Vegas is so unwalkable it’s insane. (Except for, to Ryan’s point, on the strip). P.S if you come to Vegas, leave the strip for lower prices & other types of activities. If you choose to stay on the strip, cool, but don’t be surprised when everything is expensive. (Seeing people complain on socials about how expensive this city is when they refused to leave the strip is a pet peeve of mine. Cities are always most expensive in the tourist areas. lol sorry for the tangent).
I lived in Buena Park right around the corner from Disneyland and I never went. At first, I thought I had missed out, but I'm realizing more and more that I'm much better off having never been.
Okay, as a life long Disney fan I've found a lot of value in being a DVC member. That being said, I joined over a decade ago. With the price hikes in recent years it's going to be virtually impossible for me to give my future family the Disney experience I grew up with. They might get to stay in a fancy "villa", but to get everyone into the parks is thousands of dollars alone. JUST TO GET IN. Not including flights, food, or special experiences like character meals or getting to skip the line (which shouldn't be a special experience but I digress...) Point is, while I would have raved about DVC in the past and encouraged everyone who can afford it to drink the Kool aid, it's just not worth it when you'll be paying dues every year but you're unable to use the points because you can't afford anything else. 😔
The conversation needs to be had with parents when considering vacation decisions and value, there are actually very few vacation locations that actually are appropriate and cater to children. Everything is so mature these days and I never want to feel like I am dragging my kids on an adult vacation. So we do Disney, but we do it our way, no resorts and bring snacks and bubble wands etc.
i wish there was a church for non-religious people a place to go and make friends with other people of all kinds of trades, life styles, backgrounds, and interests
23:03 it’s not male oriented. It’s desperation. Americans in particular are damned to a poor quality of life without a significant amount of money. The number of years you will have in life statistically depend on your tax bracket - that’s America. People want to have families, to live in safe neighborhoods, to get healthcare - these basic things are no longer basic, they are luxury goods. If anyone seems to be enjoying these things, of course it’s intriguing. Even if you’re in my shoes aka you are housed, you have transportation, you are able physically, and your are earning a decent amount - you go to bed knowing that you are a single accident or unexpected cost away from abject poverty and you won’t qualify for assistance, even shitty assistance. That to say, I don’t like the implication that is men who are just obsessed with doing and it’s all bro-beating content because it’s absolutely not.
Watching this as a Disney Annual passholder who’s literally heading there with my son in 2 days.😂😂😂 we save with discount airfare, AP discounts, and discount Giftcards to pay for EVERYTHING!
You guys villainize those of us who live in the suburbs just like you say your families do to your homes. My 3 bedroom ranch cost me $106,000. Surely that is more financially responsible than renting for four times my mortgage payment in a big city. My son will walk to his elementary and ride the bus for middle and high school. We are twenty minutes away from big city sports and entertainment, but can go to local parks, churches, and restaurants for "third spaces." We are not the boogie man you make us out to be.
I'd love to see a collaboration with some of the bigger urban development / urban planning youtubers like @notjustbikes or @citynerd. @citynerd has a whole video on the financials of owning a car and car dependancy
The lack of third places in the US absolutely fascinates me. I’d love to see a dedicated TFD episode just about 3rd places!
Same!
Agreed
Some great people to have on for this would be @notjustbikes or @citynerd
@@AnachronimAgreed!
Yes! Yes!
When I was a 21 year old living in San Francisco (still do), the state government said they were going to build a speed rail train...similar to the ones in Japan! And that it would take probably 8 years to build. I was so happy to hear because I had family in Los Angeles which you could only reach by plane, bus or car. Guess what? I am f%&king 61 years old and the state government (also local) are STILL just talking about speed rail trains! 😢😡
*sigh* what a shame
Jesus! I’m 34 and I guarantee it won’t happen when I get to my damn 60’s. Only the next century that will maybe happen
Last I checked they said it is projected to be done by 2030. 😰I don't know why they didn't do a phased approach like with caltrain/BART, expanding the line progressively.
Sounds like our HS2 train in the UK… we can go to France faster than go to north.
I'm also a Bay Area transplant w/ LA family and I'm so sad that this is taking so long. It would be lifechanging.
Chapters
- 4:50 timeshares and Disney
- 17:45 tiktok hustlers
- 29:04 ad skip/car culture
- 37:52 gritesque social media displays (kitchen restocks, new outfit everyday, thirst traps)
- 45:50 cost of living squeeze
As someone who had a nasty and gross infestation of flour moths in her pantry a few years ago, I am all for separate containers for pantry items such as rice, flour, granola, oatmeal, etc. They keep the bugs away or at least contained. But you only need to buy them once and they last for years.
I loveeeee the episode on car culture and I just rewatched it the other day. Such a gem. I recently went to Germany for study abroad for 2 weeks and it was amazing seeing how walkable everything in the area was or how easy it was to get around via train/bus and we were located in a more suburban area
Yes!! Europe is so foot traffic friendly and mass transportation centric it makes it so easy to travel without needing a vehicle. I lived in Boston for a few years before we had kids and we sold our car because it was too expensive to park and we used the subway or busses or walked to get to work/grad school/etc. Was amazing! Love Boston for that reason. Very walkable city.
My MIL had SEVEN timeshares for the Shenandoah Valley, which took us years to abandon after she passed away. One of these she bought after being diagnosed with dementia. Sigh.
Oh man :(
That is so awful!
Omg 🙀
I'm a social worker and a lot of my work now is helping people find resources like transportation to doctor'sappointments. It often sucks for people in the suburbs and rural areas when they can't drive, can't afford or use ride shares, and dont have family/friends to take them. These spaces are built with the assumption of car ownership or access. There's minimal public transit and limited paratransit. There are volunteer programs but they're hit or miss. So people aren't able to get to appointments. Not to mention these large homes which aren't safe or accessible for people with mobility issues. A lot of these spaces aren't made to accommodate illness or aging in place
it's absolutely true and you are seeing the worst of it. Honestly, I even wonder how much our terrible city design literally CAUSES disability. (diabetes and obesity and subsequent mobility issues caused partly by car centric infrastructure, mental health problems due to lack of community/lack of friends/not having ability to socialize.) all these problems are extremely related to one another. There is seriously no other country in the world where it is so possible and easy to be lonely.
👏🏻
The haul and over organization content has started to drive me insane. All these fancy gadgets from Amazon and bins/labels/drawers etc just to put things like animal crackers and soap in is so excessive lol. Like they have a bin for their bins and all these so called tools that make it easier for the home but actually looks like more work and money to maintain
I used to work at a store that sold many of those kinds of special gadgets or containers and I told customers that the first step toward real organization was to get rid of half your stuff. Bosses didn't like that so much.
The only sure way to beat scammers at their games is to NOT engage with them at all. I haven't answered my phone in over a decade to callers that I don't recognize; I know it was someone I had no interest in speaking to if no message was left.😊
Same! If I don't recognize the number, I let it go to voice-mail.
Same here. I'm actually kind of baffled by the people who answer calls from numbers they don't know. I always figure if it's actually important, the caller will leave me a voicemail.
i also live in the city centre of one of the most densely populated cities in the world and i love it. i grew up in the surburbs and it was quiet but man now i have the luxury to walk to work, walk to the gym, walk to the shops and friend hangouts happen in my neighbourhood. i dont have to lift a finger
So I live in a rural “city” in a rural state that has possibly the strictest zoning laws in the country (if you know you know). It’s not a wealthy city so the last 30 years of urban development has largely passed it by. I visited an upscale middle class suburb in MA for a friends wedding recently and it was a real culture shock. First of all, you can’t walk anywhere. We debated how to get to the bar that was less than a mile away, because walking involved crossing a 6-lane highway with no crosswalks… And even though it was May it was sweltering outside, sidewalks were an afterthought that had no shade cover anywhere. So basically my one option for navigating this town was driving, traveling from one air conditioned building to the next in my air conditioned metal box, spending as little time as possible outside in the asphalt desert. And every development in every town looked the same, so even after being in the area for three days I had to rely on my phone’s GPS to find my way around all the sameness. And every possible destination is a place where spending money is required under threat of accusations of “loitering”. The effect was numbing, maybe hypnotizing is the best word. Being outside was so uncomfortable that I needed to find a shelter, and any shelter to find has a few attatched, as though every town was designed to extract has much money from me as possible. Maybe they are designed that way?
My takeaway is that Boston suburbs are a dystopian nightmare and I’m lucky to live in an “underdeveloped” rust belt town. I can’t imagine growing up in a suburb like Littleton and having that be my “normal”.
The "Streetcar Suburbs" in Boston are nice and super walkable - Cambridge, Somerville, etc. but places like Dedham, Norwood, etc are such a nightmare!
Going to Disney feels like a full time job figuring out how to actually enjoy the visit and not spend the whole time in crowds and lines
As someone with ADHD and who gets very easily overstimulated…a trip to Disney with my husband 3 boys sounds like my literal nightmare lol. Never did it never want to. Happy about my choice lololol
I've lived in fl 8 years and only an hour from Disney. The first thing everyone does after moving here is go to the parks, but just the thought of parking, number of parks, and everything to do is very overwhelming so I haven't gone yet lol!
@@haleymist09 haha - you should go! with the local rates it is cheaper and you can go multiple times in a year so don't 'need to optimize' to 'make the most out of this rare life time opportunity'
@@bee42Sad very true! I know, in the end, I'll enjoy it! I just gotta take the time (and money) and gooooooooo
Yeah we went to Disney as a family in 2022 and I just left feeling like I needed an actual vacation to recover from the amount of organizing planning and strategizing needed to actually have a semi good time at Disney. Fortunately my kids were just very happy to enjoy their time of Disney and then go back and hang out at the pool after about 2 so we did that almost every single day
I worked for a newly built fancy hotel who sold " lifetime "vacation packages" where you get so much time per year in an ocean view room. Then the owners went bankrupt and those packages ( 20,000$ +) were void under new ownership! Sketchy
The moment my husband and I realized we were a different breed is when we agreed to go for a Disney Vacation pitch because I wanted the $50 Disney bucks and we just kept saying we were not interest until they let us go with our $50. But honestly, they were really good, I think if my husband had not been in his post-doc and we both were stable in our careers… we would have fallen for the sales pitch.
My brother did something similar like 10 years ago. Kept saying he’s just a low ranking military dude so the pitch went from $5.5G to $1G. “If it’s so valuable why are you giving it to me 80% off? Free bourbon and casino chips, thank you”
Well this old woman watches you on RUclips and am having a wonderful parasocial relationship with you both and love listening to you. You're both so smart and sharp as can be. That is all.😊
We moved several times growing up in locations where my father found niche work in higher education. We often felt and acted very different than the towns where we lived. Vacation was the only escape we had from them - what a nightmare to see everyone you know on your vacation, too. Never have a single independent thought or experience again.
I can't even image the vulture-like tactics Disney must be pushing on parents today. When I was around 10 we got a Disney vacation planning/promoting package in the mail that included a DVD hyping up the potential vacation your parents might plan to Disney World. After watching this video I desperately wanted to go to Disney world, and of course having no concept of money nor the economic circumstance my family was in, I start begging my parents. Eventually this fantasy was put to bed by my parents having to explain to me that we'll never be able to afford going to Disney. It was my first awakening to our economic circumstances.
39:26 I saw someone driving a really old Ford recently, and had the shocking realization: they used to just be normal car-sized. It really drives home how absurdly oversized modern trucks are to see a perfectly functional pickup from, I don't know, probably the 90's, that was roughly the size of my (itself older) Forester.
Me and my best friends went through a whole timeshare presentation to get a discount on snorkeling in hawaii and LET ME TELL YOU. They got SO rude at the end when we said - not even no- that we had to think about it. Not pushy, like actually rude. I have worked in sales for years and was honestly disgusted by their tactics.
Starts at 4:50. Before that there's ads, and then them talking about their own show.
Years ago, my dad took us to Orlando, Fl and it was to listen to a timeshare spiel. We had to sit through it in order to get tickets to go to Disney. My dad never got the timeshare, but Disney was fun!
so excited to hear someone anti haul organization products!!! tiktok "restock" videos unsettle me so much... like i did merchandising and stocking as a job im not doing that for free!! also technically my career is professional organizer (archivist) i don't need my fridge to be colour coded
This is honestly some of the smartest and most insightful commentary on the absurdity of our society on the internet today. KUDOS!!!! Both of you! Chef's kiss!
I could withstand a timeshare sales pitch, at least up to the point where they start holding you hostage and denying food/water/bathroom breaks until you sign up. In addition to being stubborn and knowing it's a scam, I also have little interest in that type of vacation. I'd probably start making fun of the destinations to pass the time.
Also, I know rich people who spend like $500/hour for the VIP Disney experience where they get to cut lines and stuff. At some point, money just stops meaning anything to you.
That is because on it’s own it is valueless. The less money you have, the more you want to have “value for money” and you are willing to sacrifice time and a good experience. The more money you have the more you value the novelty, experience and story behind the product. All consumers feel they are smart and getting something they want and they are for the most part. However, we are all on a hamster wheel of consumerism and it’s snobbish to point the finger at others while still consuming (especially in comparison to third world countries who we enslave to benefit from good prices).
Please add chapters 😢
Hi, did you forget to link Ryan's socials in the description? I'm not seeing them.
Great conversation! Really refreshing to hear some anti consumerist perspectives amongst all the other content put out nowadays.
And four adds (maybe more I only got to the middle) with ridiculous claims (oh, this product helped our Jenny with her hair-loss!) TFD exposed capitalism so much and eventually became its product (or was from the very beginning but masked too well)
I love this podcast and this episode had such great info. And...
It's also really East Coast/Liberal/NYC centric. The idea that everyone wants to live in 15 minute cities is wild and doesn't account for people who don't want to live in highly populated areas or the fact there are great communities happening all over the U.S. in small towns and, YES, suburbia. Plus - there are plenty of lonely people in NYC and other cities. City life isn't the answer to isolation. It's one model not made to fit all.
Also, midtown NYC is not all of NYC. I've lived here for over a decade. I couldn't afford living there when I moved here and I definitely still can't now. In fact most of the people who would be impacted by the scams you both are outlining here could never dream of affording an apartment in midtown. There are definitely rat infested areas of the city, where there are real problems and that most likely neither of these hosts frequent.
Finally, city life doesn't equal community. The amount of individuals who move into areas of NYC that are communities of color, themselves are not part of those communities, and in no way interact with the people in their neighborhood (never mind have any interest in building community) is real. Saying the quiet part out loud is that many gentrifiers think they are good people and have #BLM all over their social media but don't want anything to do with the people of color they live near.
There's a lot of nuance on these topics. It would be great if episodes like this incorporated more of it.
You make great points, but the high housing costs show that more people would live in certain places (cities) if they could. Also the pandemic showed that some people would not live in cities if they didn't have to do so for work.
really interesting point. But also, the "15 minute city", walkability, and good public transit, does not necessarily mean big and highly dense cities. Honestly, I hate NYC. I visit often. I live in a small city that is walkable and of medium-density. Walkability, community, etc. does not need high density to exist. And your comment on community is so real. Visiting my friend who lives in Sunset Park is pretty eye opening.
I totally get your point. One of my frustrations with suburban living is the absurd zoning laws that basically force you to have to use a car to take care of everyday tasks such as visiting the doctor or going to then grocery store. Also the lack of public transportation keeps more suburban areas from being 15-minutes cities. Living in a less populated area shouldn’t make walkable cities prohibitive.
I’m interested in this channel having a conversation with BIPOC individuals who have roots and upbringing in the inner city and low socioeconomic neighborhoods but now live in maybe a suburb or rural America and have moved classes. Interested because I only hear the conversation around suburbia and it’s absurdities with white people but not BIPOC.
I also find it interesting the connection between the amount of white people who maybe move from suburbia and rural America to a larger city and BIPOCs who move from a larger city to a smaller town or suburban city. . .
Just curious about what that conversation and connection looks like
To add, many cities going through gentrification push out BIPOC and poor citizens to suburbs that are now empty because those folks are moving to fancier apartments in the city
I would love to see this conversation as well. Growing up in So Cal, I was aware of ethnoburbs (POC suburbs like Monterey Park and El Sereno).
Also, the over gamification of the real estate market as just a means to gain "passive income" has sent rents skyrocketing because the people investing just want to make more money, not provide realistic housing. They have little incentive to upkeep the property, which dips into their profits. They will use any excuse to raise rents to make more profit. Housing isn't a fair thing to use for profit, because it's something people absolutely NEED and therefor cannot simply opt out when it's overpriced. It's like imagine if your local source of water was privately owned. You would be paying 10x as much for it for no reason other than profit.
Been loving the content with Ryan!! Like always, thoughtful commentary. Keep up the amazing work!
Disney world is a mess. It costed like $290 to visit Epcot for ONE day for just two people me and my boyfriend. Wicked overpriced and the ridiculous lines makes it not worth it at all.
I absolutely agree with over consumption. I budget my money every week and super intentional about purchasing goods. I have donated so many clothes that don’t fit me, don’t suit my taste anymore and just keeping my shit to a minimum and wearing what I have. I have a sibling who shops CONSTANTLY and there is packages almost every other day from some store and they have sooo much shit it’s crazy.
Chelsea and Dave Ramsey working together to bring awareness to timeshare issues.
My grandparents had a timeshare in Myrtle Beach SC. They had it for about 25 years and used it 4-6 times a year. Back then it worked for our family. Now, heck no. I would never do it.
Grandparents took us to Disney twice growing up, my main memory is of the front of the train coming off the track. I remember climbing down the ladder with my Grandma to get off. I was nine. We never went again. I would rather go to Disney overseas with my son than Disney in Florida.
TBH I would love rent a smaller house, but I've got a dog and need a yard. I'd want 700sqft so I can actually keep it clean, but everything is 1700+.
This video explained to me why Bostonians love Aruba - so many have time shares there!
33:51 - "I have this crazy opportunity to purchase a bridge!" Brownie points for subtlety in that example @ryho! 😂
How does Chelsea feel about being a internet personality that offers financial courses? It's been something she's repeatively spoken negatively about in relation to others.
That’s a really good point and something I hadn’t thought about. I’d also be interested to hear her take.
You two put my feelings into words - great listen
Living in L.A. Disneyland is blasé for me. I can visit anytime I like. When we get foreign family vacationing here they all want to go to Disneyland. But when we go we gotta do it big. Everyone gets dole whip, everyone gets a Mickey Hat, everyone gets funnel cake. Everyone gets a picture with the Stormtroopers. It's supposed to be a core memory. Saving money on not needing a hotel room and transportation is an enormous help in this regard.
It wasn't until leaving the LA area that I realized how big of a deal Disney visits are for other Americans.
love you two vibing ! and of course the knowledge you bring
Financial Confessions is always better than too good to be true
So my parents did not buy a Disney timeshare but they did buy not one but two time share is with another big hotel chain. In the 90s it worked extremely well for us to be able to travel where we wanted to go now it's almost impossible to use the miles and point even though my parents are on like diamond gold medallion plus level or whatever they entice people to buy more points and not only do my sister and I want nothing to do with it and do not want to inherit this boondoggle but it's almost impossible to sell it.
Having lived in Central Fl, having a car is imperative. Ft Lauderdale for example is 3-4 hrs away from Disney. Downtown Disney is an hr away from Universal. But to also live there, most places are 30 min via car! Fl is very un walkable. But trains would help a lot
“All of my family thinks I live in a war zone…..”
:laughs in Chicagoan:
welcome to the party, NYC.
23:04 "It feels like you are always better off doing something, which is the exact opposite of how money works!"
.
.
.
Tell me more? 😮
I was over 30 when I went to Disneyland for the first time. (Non-American, no Disneyland in my country). It was exciting and very expensive. Totally get what you're saying.
most disney employees are called by the company "cast members". 🙄🙄 Very, very few of them could afford a vacation to disney themselves.
I think the word you're looking for instead of abundance is greed or gluttony.
I went to Disneyland for the first time with my family two months ago, and I'm still struggling to get my finances back to where they were before going. We're a family of 7 and ended spending more than $200 on food in the park alone. Everything is so crazy expensive and my sister and I had to literally beg our dad to not spend his money on wasteful things like balloons and souvenir toys and knickknacks (to no avail). The youngest in our family is 10 years-old and he doesn't even like to play with toys anymore, but our dad would keep insisting that the money didn't matter and that it was the "memories" that were more important. It was so frustrating, because literally two weeks later my sister and I had no choice but to loan our dad money to help him pay for repairs on his truck, dental, medical, and other bills. Our dad paid for the hotel when we went to Disney, so we'd taken it upon ourselves to pay for everything else in the park, but I didn't think I'd end up using up all of my savings in the process...
It's already June and I'm still super stressed over my finances. If you guys are planning to go to Disney, don't be like my dad and randomly decide to go to Disney with only 2 weeks to prepare. I had VERY LITTLE TIME to save money on such short notice, and I'm still dealing with the negative impacts of it. Plan MONTHS or even YEARS in advance. Your future self will thank you.
Making money from a side hustle is great in theory. In practice all it takes is a little bit of accounting to tell you the truth. I started a business as a professional organizer for the middle class. I wrote my business plan and started a few sheets to have a real way to tell how much profit and costs I was incurring. I worked for a year, at some points I felt I was on the way to make a lot of money. At the end of the year I figured out that I was making under the minimum wage. Ops. Turns out my business plan didn't work and I don't have the social network with the higher class people I would need to turn a profit.
I love it when other adults share that they have never been to a Disney theme park. My family never went to Disney either, I never cared to spend the money as an adult. I feel like I'm in the minority but I like it.
I’m also an adult who hasn’t been to a Disney park. I Grew up in the US, but somehow only ever saw five or fewer Disney movies (2 were school field trips. It never occurred to me to even want to go, or that I was “missing out” on some sort of basic American culture with my lack of engagement with that brand, but as an adult some people think it’s very odd.
I'd be interested in re-reading Asimov's Caves of Steel trilogy in light of all these urbanism conversations. I read them as a teen and I found the sociology of them interesting but pretty distant and not noticeably more relevant to my world than any of the other SF I was reading at the time. But now every time I read descriptions of suburbia in an urbanism context my brain just keeps going "Hey hey it's just like those guys on Aurora or Solaria or whichever it was in the second/third book". Like... I read those before smartphones - sorry, before *cellphones*. And now we have COVID, zoom calls, a new wave of "are they as smart as us?" AI (they're not)... I wonder how they'd feel to read now.
I thought the same about the exaggerations of safety but I live in a small urban area with people walking around and families watching children and churches, etc and there have been multiple daytime open air shootings in the year I've been here within a 10 mile radius of me. One over the weekend at a large family barbecue by a complete stranger that injured dozens. Let's not downplay it
Ryan brings excellent insights. Thank you.
i think the only way i'd be interested in going to Disney is if i didn't pay anything for it.
I was going to buy a cool house in the suburbs within walking distance from the school district equipped with a White Picket Fence but let me watch this first.
😂
love your point also about the loneliness epidemic. but i think it is a vicious cycle? Especially some territorial angry men. They deliberately want to be in the middle of nowhere but then when they are there they are lonely and angry and their social skills get worse. plus noam chomsky dug up some policy documents from the 50s about how that was a deliberate political strategy. people to live far apart from one another with a large space to take care of and lots of debt to service, and competitive about their space, to keep them too isolated and busy to be politically engaged.
When I was still living in Canada I didn't own a vehicle, and as much as they are useful, I was able to do whatever I needed to using public transport. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it worked just fine. Since moving to the US, that's been one of my gripes, is the lack of useable public transport. Another thing I've struggled with immensely is the lack of third spaces. I didn't even know that was the term for it, but I have complained many times about how little there is to do. In the area I'm in currently, you have the options of getting drunk and going to the beach, and that's really it. Anything else is either inaccessible or exorbitantly priced. I miss even just having public parks, there's surprisingly few here.
too good to be true is an amazing podcast. I love it. I listen to every episode and DRINK IT UP! Full disclosure, I've fallen for a few of the scams they have had episodes about. oops.
i love that you brought up the weird ridiculous suburban space thing. KARDASHIANS. obviously it's not realistic that Kim has a closet the size of 3 bedrooms but even like you say, their pantry > khloe's pantry has 10 million wicker baskets each containing an emptied out costco box of, like rice krispie squares? and Kris Jenner has a fridge just dedicated to lettuce with a see through door (to admire the lettuce) and see through lazy susans that the lettuce live in??? these inventions are so stupid I can't even. those 2 reno jobs probably cost 15K USD. that is like 5 amazing vacations! I just cannot.
Shout out to Ryan at the end talking about how supplements probably don’t work when this episode is sponsored by nutrafol
I understand the point Ryan was making, but to compare Las Vegas public infrastructure as an alternative to car centric cities is very funny. To his point, the strip does have a tram that allows you to go from one end of the strip to the other, but that is about all the infrastructure we have here for moving groups of people other than the city bus system, which is very unreliable. Vegas is so unwalkable it’s insane. (Except for, to Ryan’s point, on the strip).
P.S if you come to Vegas, leave the strip for lower prices & other types of activities. If you choose to stay on the strip, cool, but don’t be surprised when everything is expensive. (Seeing people complain on socials about how expensive this city is when they refused to leave the strip is a pet peeve of mine. Cities are always most expensive in the tourist areas. lol sorry for the tangent).
So happy I found tfd especially to guard myself against that Disney industrial complex
Disney is so so expensive. I haven't ever been and my kids haven't gone either. I will stay home and just burn my money instead lol
I lived in Buena Park right around the corner from Disneyland and I never went. At first, I thought I had missed out, but I'm realizing more and more that I'm much better off having never been.
@@sparkymularkey6970 joy of missing out :)
Okay, as a life long Disney fan I've found a lot of value in being a DVC member. That being said, I joined over a decade ago. With the price hikes in recent years it's going to be virtually impossible for me to give my future family the Disney experience I grew up with. They might get to stay in a fancy "villa", but to get everyone into the parks is thousands of dollars alone. JUST TO GET IN. Not including flights, food, or special experiences like character meals or getting to skip the line (which shouldn't be a special experience but I digress...) Point is, while I would have raved about DVC in the past and encouraged everyone who can afford it to drink the Kool aid, it's just not worth it when you'll be paying dues every year but you're unable to use the points because you can't afford anything else. 😔
The conversation needs to be had with parents when considering vacation decisions and value, there are actually very few vacation locations that actually are appropriate and cater to children. Everything is so mature these days and I never want to feel like I am dragging my kids on an adult vacation.
So we do Disney, but we do it our way, no resorts and bring snacks and bubble wands etc.
One of my favorite episodes ever 👏🏿👏🏻👏🏾
Ran into a karaoke party at the mall. Had to physically pull my friend away when I noticed the Dianetics sign.
"I know you're a lizard person" killed me lmao
I am enjoying the hell out of Too Good To Be True!
I avoid TikTok, for a number of reasons.
Are you able to link to Ryan's channel??!!!!
i thought fitness and health became a trend during the pandemic
i wish there was a church for non-religious people
a place to go and make friends with other people of all kinds of trades, life styles, backgrounds, and interests
I am so sad that you all are going to ruin my daydreaming about buying DVC 😭 but also thank you!!!
YAY, always love a ryan and chelsea chat and thrilled to have subscribed to ryan's new channel!
microphone sometimes too loud
30:50❤. The truth will set you free.
Yes this resonated with me too. Totally mind blown just thinking about it
More Too Good to be True please!
So, they have Paris Hilton's closet as a pantry ?
23:03 it’s not male oriented. It’s desperation. Americans in particular are damned to a poor quality of life without a significant amount of money. The number of years you will have in life statistically depend on your tax bracket - that’s America.
People want to have families, to live in safe neighborhoods, to get healthcare - these basic things are no longer basic, they are luxury goods. If anyone seems to be enjoying these things, of course it’s intriguing. Even if you’re in my shoes aka you are housed, you have transportation, you are able physically, and your are earning a decent amount - you go to bed knowing that you are a single accident or unexpected cost away from abject poverty and you won’t qualify for assistance, even shitty assistance. That to say, I don’t like the implication that is men who are just obsessed with doing and it’s all bro-beating content because it’s absolutely not.
So many things, too many things. Keep the humor.
Watching this as a Disney Annual passholder who’s literally heading there with my son in 2 days.😂😂😂 we save with discount airfare, AP discounts, and discount Giftcards to pay for EVERYTHING!
So many imbedded commercials on Financial Diet.
You guys villainize those of us who live in the suburbs just like you say your families do to your homes. My 3 bedroom ranch cost me $106,000. Surely that is more financially responsible than renting for four times my mortgage payment in a big city. My son will walk to his elementary and ride the bus for middle and high school. We are twenty minutes away from big city sports and entertainment, but can go to local parks, churches, and restaurants for "third spaces." We are not the boogie man you make us out to be.
❤
"i know you're a lizard person" -- that is an antisemitic dogwhistle. don't say that kind of shit.
This guy wasted too much time stating well known situations and really added nothing to this conversation. Waste of time.
I'd love to see a collaboration with some of the bigger urban development / urban planning youtubers like @notjustbikes or @citynerd. @citynerd has a whole video on the financials of owning a car and car dependancy
citynerd rules! always teaches me something fascinating