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Well, duh, if I could rent a nice one bedroom apartment for $25/month to $50/month, I could live on $300/month as well. But it's a lot harder when one bedroom apartments rent for $800/month.
Those 6 Billion people "have no problem at all" because they are not burdened with inflationary building, housing, and zoning codes that inflate costs. It's not unlawful for three of them unrelated to live together in a house as it is in some parts of Lubbock TX, and nobody's going to fine them if they house one more warm body in the basement.
Middle class Americans decided all Americans should be housed to middle class standard, whether they can afford it or not.
Well -- what Americans decided at one time isn't the way it can continue to be. Remember when Bill Clinton was pushing through the NAFTA deal? He came right out and said that Americans had to start competing with the third world. So now we are.
And we cannot compete with the third world by thinking we have to have 2000 sq ft of living space. The third world does just fine in a 200 sq ft of living space and with a whole lot more people sharing that space.
With fewer and fewer taxpayers, the whole thing will soon collapse.
But the illegals are doing just fine on those low wage jobs. Remittances to Mexico were way up in 2011, and are even higher yet in 2012.
Illegals can show Americans how it's easy to live on very low wages. 3 or 4 families in a one family residence. Each parent or parents with small children in a bedroom, teenagers and other adults sleep in the living room, everyone shares the kitchen. Or a small one room apartment can easily be shared by 14 or 15 men each chipping in for their portion of the rent.
They're pouring over the border to get in on what Americans view as low wages -- again, remittances to Mexico are way up in 2012. 8% higher than in 2011 and 2011 was way up over 2010. They take the low wage jobs and have plenty money left after living expenses to send home, and of course the welfare handouts that come with having children here help out a lot.
Going by the migrant worker's quarters on farms I can tell you a few things that you are missing.
1. They are probably living for free.
2. The place that they do live for free is small, maybe 10' x 15' tops.
3. There are a lot of people living in one "room."
4. The hours that they work are much longer than 40 hours a week.
5. They get paid either minimum wage or less than that.
This is 2012, not 1812, we have standards and labor laws. Let's also not overlook how unhealthy it is to have so many people so close together no matter how legal it gets.
Going by the migrant worker's quarters on farms I can tell you a few things that you are missing.
1. They are probably living for free.
2. The place that they do live for free is small, maybe 10' x 15' tops.
3. There are a lot of people living in one "room."
4. The hours that they work are much longer than 40 hours a week.
5. They get paid either minimum wage or less than that.
This is 2012, not 1812, we have standards and labor laws. Let's also not overlook how unhealthy it is to have so many people so close together no matter how legal it gets.
There are also fewer than 800,000 jobs in agriculture, so that accounts for only a few of them. Many live in urban areas in similar conditions. They don't lack for jobs, that's one thing you won't see them complain about.
Often you'll see one getting housing vouchers for giving birth here, and others can live there for free. Or they can chip in $50 a month or buy the beer.
People do not receive Food Stamps. They are issued solely to qualifying head of household.
You forgot to mention the part about there being about 110 Million households, and 46.7 Million receive Food Stamp benefits while 99 Million have cable/satellite.
So, for all you working tax-paying Americans, how do you feel about the fact that you are paying the cable/satellite/internet bills for 46.7 Million households?
Well, ~50% don't pay taxes, so why should they lower themselves to pay their cable/satellite/internet bill?
You might as well pay their rent for them too. Oh, wait, you're already doing that.
Amused...
Mircea
what in the hell are you talking about? just stop it already.
Who cares? As long as they are not taking up space and wasting resources in the US.
Put your welfare offices at airports.
When people come in, you just give them a brown bag lunch, a $10 bill, and a parachute, they go out the back door and board a C-130, and when it fills, it takes off and dumps them over Somalia. Or Afghanistan or Myanmar or some other hell-hole.
Same with your criminals. You can load up a bus, drive them out to an airport, and off they go.
If they don't like it, then my suggestion would be not to commit any crime.
And the welfare pukes, I guess either they'll learn how to save money, live frugally, share living accommodations and make sound financial decisions--- or they won't.
Do you have a few $TRILLION in cash sitting around that no one knows about? Because if you don't, then you're going to have to adjust your attitude toward crime and welfare, and even more so for standard of living.
People who do not have Time-Warner Cable are not "living in poverty."
Sensibly...
Mircea
Mircea
This isnt the 1700s we just can't send millions people off to another country.
That's amusing, because 6 Billion other people have no problem at all.
Like I was just telling someone else, the 2nd time I lived in Romania 10-12 years ago, the average Romanian made $300/month.
You can't live off of that? Romanians did. What, you thought everyone was homeless or lived in cardboard boxes? Nope. They rented apartments -- $25/month to $50/month for a nice one bedroom.
You can live on low wage jobs.....and you'll learn how to do that, because there is no alternative for you.
So what?
I never ate meat 3 meals a day seven days a week until I went into the Army. Nobody ate meat 7x a week in 1960s/1970s America except the wealthy. Even when we did eat meat, it was cow tongue, beef/pork liver, pork brains, hog maws, beef tripe and stuff like that.
You need to learn how to eat. And shop. You're all lazy. You don't buy grated cheese, you buy the cheaper block of cheese and grate it yourself. You don't buy orange juice, you buy the cheaper oranges and juice it yourself.
You don't buy chicken breast tenderloins. You buy a whole freaking chicken. It takes me a whole entire whopping minute to take a chicken and cut it up into two legs, two boneless thighs, two boneless breasts, two chicken wings and parts for soup stock.
So I pay $0.88/pound instead of $5.89/pound.
You people are so spoiled you don't even know how to live. You waste $1000s each year on disposable things and then throw a temper tantrum because you don't have any wealth. Well, how stupid is that?
You throw away $5.49 each week on Chlorox disposable orange-scented kitchen wipes, because paying $0.99 for 3 dish-clothes that you can wash and re-use over and over and over is beneath your dignity.
"It costs blah, blah, blah, blah Dollars to raise a child." Well, stop throwing away money on disposable diapers, and use cloth diapers instead. Stop buying Osh-Kosh and Nike and other name-brand expensive clothing for your infant.
You people are the least competent consumers on Earth.
And so what if rents have gone up. Do what everyone on Earth does and has done for centuries....share.
I thought you Liberals were all into sharing and stuff.
If I ran HUD there wouldn't be any HUD. It would be eHousing.com. You fill out a questionnaire, say how much you can afford for housing and how many people you are, and then you get matched up with another person or family and then landlords contact you and make the arrangements.
You can share living space. It's not illegal; it's not a crime.
You have people with college degrees working minimum wage jobs and living with mummy and daddy, while some 18 year old high school drop out with three kids who will never contribute anything to society ever gets her own personal private apartment at tax-payer expense.
Yeah, that makes a helluva lot of sense.
You take all them single unwed mothers 28 and under living in their own personal private housing at tax-payer expense and you stick them in a Quonset huts (they hold 40 people) --- problem solved -- and they even got free day-care.
If they don't like living in a Quonset hut, then here's a novel idea -- get a freaking job or emigrate from the US to somewhere else.
The bottom line is that the poor are going to have to take action so that they are not as much of a leech and a drain on society.
The poor can have food or Dish Network, but not both. That's just the way it is.
Realistically...
Mircea
Who cares? As long as they are not taking up space and wasting resources in the US.
Put your welfare offices at airports.
When people come in, you just give them a brown bag lunch, a $10 bill, and a parachute, they go out the back door and board a C-130, and when it fills, it takes off and dumps them over Somalia. Or Afghanistan or Myanmar or some other hell-hole.
Same with your criminals. You can load up a bus, drive them out to an airport, and off they go.
If they don't like it, then my suggestion would be not to commit any crime.
And the welfare pukes, I guess either they'll learn how to save money, live frugally, share living accommodations and make sound financial decisions--- or they won't.
Do you have a few $TRILLION in cash sitting around that no one knows about? Because if you don't, then you're going to have to adjust your attitude toward crime and welfare, and even more so for standard of living.
People who do not have Time-Warner Cable are not "living in poverty."
Sensibly...
Mircea
I was flaming Liberal until I had to install cable TV in the "projects."
I worked for the damn cable company and couldn't even afford cable TV, and here these people are loafing around doing nothing, with free housing, free food, free medical insurance, free everything --- these were typically single unwed mothers -- and living with them was some guy with a decent job and of course since everything is free for him as well so he has a pocket full of money and can afford to buy a BMW or Mercedes or Cadillac and have the big screen TV and the big fancy stereo and nice clothes.
It didn't take me long to see that the Liberal view is Fantasy™ not Reality™.
Commiserating...
Mircea
No, there isn't and you cannot prove it.
The fact that someone who is "impoverished" (snicker) committed a crime is not proof that they committed the crime because they were impoverished. They would have committed the crime no matter what the circumstances.
Obviously you're clueless as to what constitutes a "crime of passion."
Delinquently...
Mircea
I take it you are not a Christian.
The great thing to know is that YOU will never run this Nation or hold any political office with more power than dog catcher, nor will anyone that thinks like you.
And so what if rents have gone up. Do what everyone on Earth does and has done for centuries....share.
I thought you Liberals were all into sharing and stuff.
If I ran HUD there wouldn't be any HUD. It would be eHousing.com. You fill out a questionnaire, say how much you can afford for housing and how many people you are, and then you get matched up with another person or family and then landlords contact you and make the arrangements.
You can share living space. It's not illegal; it's not a crime.
The bottom line is that the poor are going to have to take action so that they are not as much of a leech and a drain on society.
The poor can have food or Dish Network, but not both. That's just the way it is.
Realistically...
Mircea
Actually, it is unlawful in many communities for more than (depending on local ordinance) two or three unrelated individuals to share a dwelling. Just one of the tools governments use to keep out the unwanted riffraff. I once lived in a town where it was unlawful for more than two unrelated to share a dwelling; violations subject the landlord to fines and risk of losing their rental license, and were vigorously enforced. (Code enforcement vehicles patrolled daily, plus neighborhood homeowners were vigilant in reporting suspected overoccupancy and other violations.) I lived in a small unit attached to a 2BR unit which housed a family of six. That's right, a family of six is okay in a 2BR unit, but three unrelated are not allowed in an existing stately 8BR house in the same neighborhood.
At one time I paid 73 percent of my net income to rent a room in a house with nine other people. (The owner was trying to cram as many people as possible in the house to cover his subprime mortgage.) The owner had Dish Network in every room (genuine reliable high-speed internet - as opposed to the crap I have now - as well) in order to both keep all the rooms rented and to justify his high rents.
So yeah, I did have food AND Dish Network, but nothing else.
People do not begrudge poor people having anything as long as it is not the taxpayers being stiffed for the bill on luxuries for other people, be it the poor, the oligarchy, or our elected public servants.
Americans cannot live in the way they've become accustomed on low wage jobs. They can live but they have to recognize that there is a downward class shift occuring in the USA. People will have to adapt or overcome because the new normal is much, much worse than today.
Rent prices are a function of the market. As long as the market can bear higher rent prices because there are fewer eligible homebuyers, then prices will not only remain high but continue to rise. When the rental market can no longer support high rents it will adjust itself.
Considering that EBT cards make the bread lines of the 1930s invisible, I'd say that rhetoric is pretty low. Uncle Ben keeps quietly running the printing presses to keep Americans from rioting in the streets as are the people in Greece. We are in a Depression, it is just that most Americans are still in denial. When Americans stop being in denial it is going to get real bad real quick.
Denial also costs taxpayers money, as it contributes to the food stamp explosion.
There is a downward class shift occurring, but local housing regulation is increasing not decreasing, contributing to soaring rents. In many communities it is unlawful for unrelated adults to adapt by sharing housing with more people. Homeowners with middle class pretentions - and especially the downwardly mobile who are in denial - will never in the foreseeable future agree to allow those beneath them to adapt by sharing housing with more people.
Since food stamps are based on what's left of a person's income after paying housing and medical expenses, excessive housing regulation is costing taxpayers a lot of money in the form of bloated food stamps.
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