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This video is something I already knew. In my opinion if you work extremely hard and make the right choices you can make it out there. This kid Adam Shepard picked a city (South Carolina) and went there with only $25 in his pocket. Within 1 year he had his own apartment, car, and 5k in the bank. He did all of this with no help from family or friends. He did however make many sacrifices.
The lady in the video was very different. She wanted to complain about how impossible it was to make it out there. She made many poor choices and suffered because of them.
I would recommend this book by Adam Shepard to anyone having a hard time out there. Better yet, it would be a perfect read for one of your kids who is in high school and not far from getting out on his or her own.
As a single younger guy years ago, I did the same thing a couple of times. Left with what I could carry and re-established myself. Once in San Diego and once in Western KY. When I hit KY in my mid 20's the area was recessed and I was told I would get a job. Well, I did in a day and in no time I had a trailer, a used truck, used furniture, some savings and was living.
I wouldn't want to do that today given I have children and have worked hard to establish my company in my native state of NH, but I still live by the same rules. I still drive a used truck and we watch our shows on an older tube type tv not a big fancy flat screen. We cook at home and rarely eat out. We have no debt, save for what we need and if SHTF we could survive for a few years with our emergency fund. Our kids are not deprived of extracurricular activities but we don't condone excessive tv time or video games or computer usage. They tend to their chores, take care of their animals and play outside everyday. They also ski, play school sports, attend 4H, youth group, Sunday school, Girl Scouts, etc. We achieve all this on blue collor wages with no hand outs.
I really feel bad for those folks that need so much "stuff" to make them happy.
Of course he could make it in SOUTH CAROLINA with it's super-cheap cost of living. Being young, attractive and energetic doesn't hurt either. A good friend of mine who was struggling in heavily Government dominated Miami had enough of roommates in overpriced tiny apartments, and fighing Government every step of the way and moved to rural Alambama with 200.00 in his pocket, some of which was spent in gas to get there. In 5 years he had a home (with a real 3 acre yard, not the garbage you get in Miami) and a business providing parts for heavy equipment. The same guy who got nowhere in the wasteland of Latin America did just fine in the poor rural south. The secret is to cut housing expenses. That is what causes most failures. Then second is the needless expenses that add up, like consumables. Government is the only cause of failure that we cannot control other than working under the table.
I don't see the middle class going away. being that I was riased in the 50"s and 60" ;I see that middle class has just been redefined. Most people that were middle class then would be lower middle class now. Teh middle class then rarely had more than one car;eatout at restaurants only on special occasions;saved alot of their moneyfor a downpayment on a house;first house was usaully at least 20 yeras old,their kids most had parttie jobs to save for college rather they went or not;budgetted so that they could take the kids on vaction i summer;most had never flown on a airline because it was too expensive; the only creit they had was at banks and on furniture stores etc by set payments;never had a credirt card because american expresss charged to much and had income requirements.It was just a different world . But we thouhgt we had it made with so many going hungary around the world.As a Cuna refuge once told me ;evrybody in america is middle class and if they work hard can have more than tehy can evr really use to spend on what they like.
I don't see the middle class going away. being that I was riased in the 50"s and 60" ;I see that middle class has just been redefined. Most people that were middle class then would be lower middle class now. Teh middle class then rarely had more than one car;eatout at restaurants only on special occasions;saved alot of their moneyfor a downpayment on a house;first house was usaully at least 20 yeras old,their kids most had parttie jobs to save for college rather they went or not;budgetted so that they could take the kids on vaction i summer;most had never flown on a airline because it was too expensive; the only creit they had was at banks and on furniture stores etc by set payments;never had a credirt card because american expresss charged to much and had income requirements.It was just a different world . But we thouhgt we had it made with so many going hungary around the world.As a Cuna refuge once told me ;evrybody in america is middle class and if they work hard can have more than tehy can evr really use to spend on what they like.
I agree. The middle class, because of the current economy, will now be forced into living / acting like middle class. Depending on how easily they adapt to this crisis depends on where they will fall. Those of us that have always lived below our means will have no problem adapting to the change that is taking place.
it depends on where in SC you live.. he moved to Charleston, which is not cheap at all. SC also has the 3rd highest unemployment rate in the nation.
I have to agree with this. There are some places in this country where you likely are not going to go very far with $25 and nothing else. Try living in Manhattan on a McJob.
Also, how would one get to the city they "picked", with no money to start? Even if you take a greyhound one way, thats cash.
Then, you obviously cant pick "anywhere" if you dont have a car, you have to pick a place that has a good public transportation system, or is small enough to navigate around on foot or bicycle unless, you are depending on finding a car pool.
Yeah, if you pick a very, very small town, likely in the deep south (for the lower cost of living), where you can walk/bike, to your place of employment, and you can afford a place to live on the lowest prevailing wage of the area (just in case you end up stuck in that job), then you can make it.
Indexing the middle class to an era like the 50's and 60's is badly flawed. This requires a complete freeze on innovation and makes as much sense as comparing a middle class to ancient Egypt. Rule of thumb, static economic analysis is not fit for flushing sewer lines.
As in any society and in this case we will need to compare output to consumption and at the Chinese-American Chimerican system.
If for example a small tribe were in a state of subsistence one could look at the output consumption metric. If a person ate what he grew and hunted it would be a healthy middle class. On the other hand a sweatshop worker may consume very little of their output depending upon the capital being used even though they are technically richer.
A pilot flying a Boeing aircraft is certainly creating a lot of output but largely because of the large ratio of capital equipment. If a 10,000 man hours goes into the aircraft, it would represent 5 years of flying, thus a small percentage of output payable to labor is equitable.
If on the other hand I have someone at a $100 sewing machine consuming about 5% of their output its an unhealthy middle class or labor pool. If for example the sewing machine took 100 man hours to create(locally convertibility from say 2 man hours from the source industrial society) then if it takes more than a few months for a worker to save up for their own then the worker clearly has no working surplus, they subsist like a slave. If it takes them several years to save up for it then most of the output goes to the 100 man hours it took to create the capital.
Slaves are defined at merely subsistences having no surplus. available to them.
Combining especially China and American economies we can see the shift has been towards an eroding middle class since less of the output is available to labor than to capital.
So the metric is what are the percentages of the consumption of output created by the society? If 90% of the output goes to 1% its not a society with a middle class
I say good riddance to the "middle class". You are either a KING/Upper class or a pauper (middle/lower) class. I choose to be a KING, simple as that. If people don't have the ambition or intelligence to raise above mediocrity (hence "middle") class, then they should be ground under the heel of those of us that are their betters.
Marv OUT
You might wanna tone down with the "king of the universe" BS... People like that are going to be the targets of large angry mobs very soon
Read thru his posts, people "like him" (or that he is emulating) don't have the time to post on forums like City-Data. In other words, he's a fake, let it go .
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