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I think it would have been helpful to control for cost of living when determining what is middle income.
Do you live in a cheap area? I do. Here is what my monthly expenses would look like for me if I were single.
Assuming that is gross your take home would be about $20,500/yr Or $1,708/month
Rent: $500
Food: $250
Health Insurance: $45
Car: $150
Car Insurance: $65
Gas: $50
Utilities: $150
Cell Phone: $50
Total: $1,260
Left: $448
Seems middle income to me if you are able to take care of basic expenses and still have 25-30% of your take home left at the end of each month. Definitely not hand to mouth.
Edit: That's honestly what my expenses look like right now if you considered my wife and I roommates and we split all of our costs right down the middle.
I live in an affluent suburb of Indianapolis, so it's not exactly cheap. That said, the city proper and outlying towns are much cheaper. Still, finding anything in the city for $500/month is going to be tough, even in bad neighborhoods. You can find a place for $500/month in the outlying areas, but they don't have much in the way of employment, leading you to have to drive back to Indy for work, so transportation costs go up.
I don't know where you get that low figure for health insurance.
This is scrounging by, even in a cheap area. Not middle class.
on what planet did you find health ins for $45/month??
$21.20/pay check, get paid bi-weekly. My wife's is only $17.85
Quote:
Originally Posted by ocnjgirl
I think it depends where you live. There are no $500 apartments in NJ outside of a ghetto. Your car insurance and loan prices are also too low, that is about what I pay with liability only for an 18 year old car. When I bought my car, used, it was $13,000 and my loan for 5 years was $256 a month. My insurance for full coverage was $150 a month. Also your utilities do not seem to include internet or cable. My gas bill alone in winter is over $150 in a one-bedroom apt, in summer the electric is that high.
I am middle class, but I make much more than $24,000 a year, however I feel you are not being fair or accurate in your numbers for most people who make low wages.
I'm not sure what you mean by "low" it obviously differs by state. I pay $94 right now for 2 cars, one 2 years old and one 11 years old. Edit: This is for full coverage $500 deductible.
You bout a 13k car. What if that was a 6-8k car? I guess I wasn't aware that someone at the bottom of the "middle income" level should be able to buy a nice gently used car. If that's the case add $100 to my list above and that leaves 20% of take home left.
My utilities did not include cable, just internet. My utilities in my 2.2sq ft house including gas, electricity, water, and trash come out to average $150-175/month. I would assume it would be less than that in a 1 bedroom apartment and internet can be had for $29.99/month.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious Conversation
I live in an affluent suburb of Indianapolis, so it's not exactly cheap. That said, the city proper and outlying towns are much cheaper. Still, finding anything in the city for $500/month is going to be tough, even in bad neighborhoods. You can find a place for $500/month in the outlying areas, but they don't have much in the way of employment, leading you to have to drive back to Indy for work, so transportation costs go up.
I don't know where you get that low figure for health insurance.
This is scrounging by, even in a cheap area. Not middle class.
You are the one calling it middle class. The pew was referring to it as the bottom of the threshold for middle income. Obviously it's not in all areas, but it seems to qualify in a lot and certainly does where I live. Considering your original statement was it's not middle income even in cheap areas, I think I provided evidence contrary to your claim. I also find it rather funny that someone that admittedly lives in an affluent area is using that as a referent for what the threshold for middle income for 1 person should be considered.....
Last edited by mizzourah2006; 12-10-2015 at 11:22 AM..
Oh yeah. I had almost forgot they had passed theft as a "law".
The ACA, (aka-theft) will destroy anything thats left of the middle class.
It's theft to give working class people health insurance? Prior to ACA, wealthy folks had it and poor people had it, it was the middle class and working class people who did not. You think it is doable for people making $10-15 an hour to spend $1400 a month for health care for their families? There were millions of people who WORK HARD and yet were unable to get insurance prior to the ACA.
You think it's cheaper to have people bring their kids to the ER instead of a GP?
The percentage of people in upper class is growing faster than number of people in lower class. Should it be easy to tell if someones glass half empty or half full based on their comments after reading that article?
It's called assortative mating. what's happening is that upper-income people are pairing up.
this process lifts into the top tier many couples who individually would not quite make the top tier.
e.g. A and B each make $75k - both are middle class - when they marry, they join the upper income tier.
e.g. C and D each earn $20K - both are lower income. 50 years ago, they would have married, lifting them to middle class. today, they don't marry, and stay lower income.
It's theft to give working class people health insurance? Prior to ACA, wealthy folks had it and poor people had it, it was the middle class and working class people who did not. You think it is doable for people making $10-15 an hour to spend $1400 a month for health care for their families? There were millions of people who WORK HARD and yet were unable to get insurance prior to the ACA.
You think it's cheaper to have people bring their kids to the ER instead of a GP?
taking my money out of my pocket is the definition of theft, yes. im not wealthy, i had decent ins. before ACA...now the cost for anything compareable is more than 2x what I was paying. And that is just for the premium, nevermind the $6k deductable id have to come out of pocket before anything would be "covered". Absolute insanity.
taking my money out of my pocket is the definition of theft, yes. im not wealthy, i had decent ins. before ACA...now the cost for anything compareable is more than 2x what I was paying. And that is just for the premium, nevermind the $6k deductable id have to come out of pocket before anything would be "covered". Absolute insanity.
Your policy you had before is no longer sold, same thing happened to mine, because it wasn't ACA compliant. Mine went from $399 a month to $617 a month (but it is a better policy, NOT the same one, neither is yours) and I get no subsidy whatsoever. There are all kinds of rules and laws that may negatively affect some people in order to help the majority, and that is the case here. I do not have a deductible btw, there are many policies that do not have a deducible and you are as free as I am to purchase one.
Money was being taken out of your pocket before, to have people go to the ER for every illness. This is temporary pain for you for long term good. I can see that and I accept it, including the extra money I have to pay. It is a crime for a country as rich as ours to have so many millions without health insurance and we all have to do our part to be the kind of country we want to be...I want to belong to one where hard-working people can access doctors when they need them.
...I do not have a deductible btw, there are many policies that do not have a deducible and you are as free as I am to purchase one.
.
please post a link to this unicorn type policy.
The arguement that 'working class' people couldnt afford a basic health ins policy is absolute horses***. I had a pretty basic health ins policy offered to me working at Ace Hardware when I was in high school and beyond. i was making like $9/hr.
And I fully understand that those of you that somehow think that ACA is a good idea would also try to tell me the sky is not blue on a sunny summer day.
It's theft to give working class people health insurance? Prior to ACA, wealthy folks had it and poor people had it, it was the middle class and working class people who did not. You think it is doable for people making $10-15 an hour to spend $1400 a month for health care for their families? There were millions of people who WORK HARD and yet were unable to get insurance prior to the ACA.
You think it's cheaper to have people bring their kids to the ER instead of a GP?
If it's cheaper to bring their kids/themselves to the ER instead of a GP, then that's stealing from my pocket. That's why healthcare costs are so high!
For everyone else with insurance, it's the Republican-led ER abuse and overpaid salaries in the health profession making health care high. It used to be that administrators and managers made around $100,000, now everyone expects to at least be paid $75,000/year and $60,000 starting out. Talk about Entitlement Mentality--people demanding upper middle class salaries instead of the middle class salary they deserve and then bully poor people for having an "entitlement" mentality. Pure hypocrisy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fueler
I had a pretty basic health ins policy offered to me working at Ace Hardware when I was in high school and beyond. i was making like $9/hr
When a dollar was actually worth a dollar. $1.68 in 1968 is $10.74 in 2013 due to inflation. I'm all for deflation, which is sorely needed. Too many dollars are in circulation, diluting purchasing power. Most of those inflated dollars landed in the hands of the 1%ers. If taxation cannot vacuum out those excess dollars out of circulation, deflation is the option left. It may hurt the indebted in the short-run, but it's good for everyone in the long-run.
With these jobs gone no wonder middle class is down the toilet.
Back then education was simple and cheap, you could get a factory job easily and make a decent living with it.
Today this is next to impossible.
Even you graduate you'll be in big debt which will cripple your prospects for a couple of years.
Add to all that stagnant wages and you have it.
Buh bye middle class.
It's a brave new world out there, too bad they got to go
Manufacturing jobs now pay less than median income, for the first time in forever. A sign that the U.S. can not compete, and cannot afford even a mediocre standard of living for it's work class. How pathetic.
Fire every congressman and women, and start over. They have poisoned this nation with malicious/predatory trade deals that have "trickled down" poverty to all. And at the expense of our self sufficiency and very dignity. Shame on our elected idiots for corrupting this nation to it's core.
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