Cargo-Bike Capitalists

A $2.1 million townhouse, a $9,000 electric cargo bike, and a structurally sophisticated critique of the system that produced both.

Reference marketFirst identified in Cambridge, Massachusetts (ZIP areas 02139, 02138, 02140, 02141, 02142).

Also found inBerkeley, California; Evanston, Illinois; Boulder, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Takoma Park, Maryland.

Thesis

The household holds a correct and detailed theory of rent extraction and derives 84 percent of its net worth from it.

Anti-capitalist analysis, capitalist balance sheet, no car.

Portrait

In their own words

Age42
Income$310K
Net worth$1.9M
Education100%
Home$2.1M
Ownership100%
HouseholdTwo earners, one child, one cargo bike
VehicleA $9,000 electric cargo bike and a 2013 Subaru driven eleven times
Debt$1.4M at 2.75%, described as luck

Vice: Public comment
Most likely to: Explain land value taxation at a meeting where he is objecting to a building
Signals: Cargo bike, co-op equity share, planning board agendas

Who they are

Two earners, 42 and 43, $310,000 combined, net worth $1.9 million, of which $1.6 million is a townhouse bought in 2016 and a mortgage at 2.75 percent they describe as luck. Both hold graduate degrees. One child, delivered to school on a $9,000 electric cargo bike with a rain canopy and two panniers. He can explain land value taxation, rent extraction, and the difference between profit and rent, correctly and at length. He has also filed written comment against a 40-unit building four blocks away, citing deficiencies in the shadow study. The Subaru was driven eleven times last year, a fact he introduces early. The house appreciated $340,000 during the eighteen months he spent opposing the building.

Our neighborhood

Pre-1930 stock — brick townhouses and triple-deckers subdivided in 1974 and reassembled in 2011 — on streets where a third of households keep no car and the ones that do keep it for the Cape. A co-op grocery with a $200 equity share, four bike shops, a bookstore, and a comment period that never closes. Nothing has been built on the block since 1961, and the block regards this as an achievement.

Shopping

The cargo bike cost $9,000 and is described as transportation infrastructure rather than a purchase. Groceries come from a co-op with a $200 equity share and a members' newsletter about supply chains. The 2013 Subaru is kept for the Cape. Purchases are researched, ethical, and expensive, in that order, and the research is the part he enjoys.

Spending

Income $310,000 against a $1.4 million balance at 2.75 percent, the single best financial decision the household has ever made and the one it takes the least credit for. Net worth $1.9 million, $1.6 million of it the house. Charitable giving runs $6,200 a year, the largest line of which goes to a housing organization.

Media

Two books on housing policy, one of them finished. A magazine subscription at $95 a year. The planning board agenda, read closely and in advance. He follows four economists and quotes the one who agrees with him about supply.

Interests

The public comment period, which is a hobby. A shadow study. Land value taxation, supported in principle and never once raised at a meeting concerning his own street. The child is on the back of the bike for all of it and has opinions of her own about the rain canopy.