[COtoOC]

Originally Posted by laniroj

To quantify how much the world has changed since then, and to point out the naivety of older generations as to the struggles of younger generations (particularly housing), I will point out the following:

You can no longer move to Aspen after you graduate from college. You couldn't even buy a trailer and park it to camp within 20 miles of Aspen. You couldn't even afford to rent a room in Aspen unless you and 6 of your friends built a bunk in a studio apartment/condo. If you're lucky, you might win a housing lottery (which is so vast you might as well buy a lottery ticket) in Basalt, or Carbondale, or Glenwood Springs, but chances are you're commuting to Aspen from Dotsero or Rifle. If you're really lucky you'd have a prosperous restaurant or the ski company with some housing for you in Glenwood. This is what older folks don't understand - young people do not have the same opportunity that old folks did. If you suggested to a college student that they move to Aspen, unless their folks are 0.5%'ers, that's completely laughable. It's the first time in 500 years that the previous generation of Americans didn't leave the next generation a more prosperous life - I'm a die hard libertarian, and federal nannyism on this topic would ABSOLUTELY promote smaller government and result in the government (as a concept in totality) having much less involvement and say with local matters because local government currently has way too much say. Just an opinion, but federal intervention would absolutely help in this case.

Out of curiosity, I did a quick real estate search on Aspen. Holy crap! I think Aspen might make San Francisco look affordable!