Lately, I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic. Therefore, I decided to look up places where I used to live on Google Maps’ streetview. Then, out of curiosity, I decided to look up an apartment community that I used to live at.

As I did, I was hit with the community’s rent, which nearly doubled since my time there, just over a decade ago.

It was unbelievable. So, I looked up rent for other places in the area, and the trend was consistent.

It’s only been a few years since I last checked. And just within the last few years, rent has skyrocketed to the point of nearly doubling.

I can tell you why this so deeply affects me. Back when I last lived in that community, I worked a full-time retail job, but somehow lived on what little I made. On most months, I barely scraped by. Most of the time, I was concerned about my finances, because there was nothing I could do to save a significant amount. If anything went even slightly wrong, my financial situation would have been a disaster.

Right now, I’m much better off. But I couldn’t try living the same way I did in the same place, if I were to make the same money. If anyone tried now, what are they supposed to do?

I’ll throw some numbers your way: On the typical month, I took home about $1100 per month. Rent got to be about $800 per month. Of the rest, most went towards other expenses like bills, leaving me with about $30 to spend on stuff to eat. For the time being, I’ll leave you to imagine the kind of food that I ate.

But if the rent were to instead be $1500 per month? Just forget about it, unless you were to share the one-bedroom apartment with one or two other guys.

Lately, I’ve been entertaining the thought of moving back near my hometown. But now? That doesn’t seem reasonable.

Thinking on what could have happened in the last few years that might have resulted in this, there’s one thing that springs readily to mind: an explosion in unchecked immigration has caused demand to soar. Companies like BlackRock have profited huge off of shitty policy that has fucked Americans over, and the current dogwater administration has done jack-all outside of enabling it.

If you’re poor and just getting by, leave a comment and let me know how you’re getting it to work out.