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Gee - someone here has never been laid off at 57 and had to take a min wage job to live because employers think they're "too old"; someone here has never had their retirement fund wiped out in a "recession" & needed to go back to work; someone here never graduated from college with an engineering degree and spent a couple of years unable to get their foot in the door but needed to pay those student loans; someone here was never widowed at 28 with 2 kids and giant health bills & had to stock shelves 11-7am.
The world has changed. Minimum wage jobs have replaced many of the "middle class" jobs once available. For many, the only economy with entre into some kinda' job is the service economy, ie anything that can't be outsourced, ie hands on. Anyone who thinks Min wage jobs are just your 15yr old's movie money needs to wake up from 2000.
If this is your deal, you need to do some soul searching.
1. How is someone 57 yr old and have no savings? Poor planning.
2. How can your retirement fund be wiped out? Market is at all time high. Poor planning.
3. How can you have an engineering degree and not find work? Don't understand this, engineers have the lowest unemployment numbers of just about any job.
4. How does someone with a wife and children not have health insurance? Poor decisions. Health insurance is priority 1 for a family with children.
I'm sorry, but crappy things happen to everyone. But you need to be prepared. You reap what you sow. What do you expect to happen if you don't have health insurance and someone gets sick? You go broke! So why let yourself get in that position. Eventually, everyone gets sick, it's bound to happen. How do you not plan for that?
My brother and sister in-laws had a great business most of their lives. They lived it up, lived on the water in Florida, had Mercedes convertibles, vacationed every year, etc. A few years ago, their business went down the tubes. They didn't plan for the future, now they have nothing. No house. No cars. No jobs, except for bartending a few nights a week, and cooking for the American Legion on weekends. WTF. How can these people have led such a great life, all of a sudden have nothing? Poor planning.
Life is not easy, people have to be smart and tough to survive. This is something that worries me about the current generation that grew up having everything. They are neither smart or tough, they've been babied their whole lives and everyone has done everything for them. They are in for a rude awakening in the future.
If this is your deal, you need to do some soul searching.
1. How is someone 57 yr old and have no savings? Poor planning.
2. How can your retirement fund be wiped out? Market is at all time high. Poor planning.
3. How can you have an engineering degree and not find work? Don't understand this, engineers have the lowest unemployment numbers of just about any job.
4. How does someone with a wife and children not have health insurance? Poor decisions. Health insurance is priority 1 for a family with children.
I'm sorry, but crappy things happen to everyone. But you need to be prepared. You reap what you sow. What do you expect to happen if you don't have health insurance and someone gets sick? You go broke! So why let yourself get in that position. Eventually, everyone gets sick, it's bound to happen. How do you not plan for that?
My brother and sister in-laws had a great business most of their lives. They lived it up, lived on the water in Florida, had Mercedes convertibles, vacationed every year, etc. A few years ago, their business went down the tubes. They didn't plan for the future, now they have nothing. No house. No cars. No jobs, except for bartending a few nights a week, and cooking for the American Legion on weekends. WTF. How can these people have led such a great life, all of a sudden have nothing? Poor planning.
Life is not easy, people have to be smart and tough to survive. This is something that worries me about the current generation that grew up having everything. They are neither smart or tough, they've been babied their whole lives and everyone has done everything for them. They are in for a rude awakening in the future.
So this! REALITY, folks. The bird doesn't complain that he has to dig up earthworms. He just does it because survival requires it. How is that dumb animals act in their own interest better than stupid left wing collectivists who want the other birds to provide worms because they are too unfortunate and too lazy to take care of business.
If this is your deal, you need to do some soul searching.
1. How is someone 57 yr old and have no savings? Poor planning.
2. How can your retirement fund be wiped out? Market is at all time high. Poor planning.
3. How can you have an engineering degree and not find work? Don't understand this, engineers have the lowest unemployment numbers of just about any job.
4. How does someone with a wife and children not have health insurance? Poor decisions. Health insurance is priority 1 for a family with children.
I'm sorry, but crappy things happen to everyone. But you need to be prepared. You reap what you sow. What do you expect to happen if you don't have health insurance and someone gets sick? You go broke! So why let yourself get in that position. Eventually, everyone gets sick, it's bound to happen. How do you not plan for that?
My brother and sister in-laws had a great business most of their lives. They lived it up, lived on the water in Florida, had Mercedes convertibles, vacationed every year, etc. A few years ago, their business went down the tubes. They didn't plan for the future, now they have nothing. No house. No cars. No jobs, except for bartending a few nights a week, and cooking for the American Legion on weekends. WTF. How can these people have led such a great life, all of a sudden have nothing? Poor planning.
Life is not easy, people have to be smart and tough to survive. This is something that worries me about the current generation that grew up having everything. They are neither smart or tough, they've been babied their whole lives and everyone has done everything for them. They are in for a rude awakening in the future.
I know people that planned for the future and still almost lost everything. They all went through h@ll and back, but all survived. But, they had to go through their savings to do it.
The market being at an all time high is great, if you didn't lose all the money you had in it when it bottomed out.
Do you know how many different types of engineers their are? Chemical, systems, aeronautical, electrical, etc. Maybe this person isn't the type of engineer businesses are looking to hire now.
I'm more worried about the "entitled" generation. They don't know how to do without to get ahead or to get what they want. Even after the housing problems we just went through, there are people that still want to buy a home with no down payment, no savings, and think the seller will be happy to pay for the closing costs.
On this we simply disagree. I don't believe that individuals have total control over their lives, are born with crystal balls, or are experts on all the things necessary to cover all possible eventualities. I won't digress by arguing case by case. I believe that crud happens to the best laid plans. "Doing everything right" is just not the guarantee some think it is.
The facts are that all kinds of people are working min wage jobs, for whatever the reasons. And my point was that minimum wage workers are not all 16 year olds working for gas money. Middle tier jobs have been hollowed out & many, even with a degree are just not gonna' step into a middle or lower middle class job.
When companies cut hours or cut positions because of this I'm guessing people won't be so happy.
people dont seem to put it all together. they are happy to see a higher number in the pay, but dont see the jobs lost. in my industry, there was a grouping of companies that had a special contract with the government and the union which got them compensation well above the industry standard. they generally had less work to offer, but the work was paid at a higher rate. today, they dont exist anymore because they became a program that was too expensive. but it is clear that nobody learned the lesson, they would do the same thing to another group in a heartbeat.
history seems to repeat itself because people desperately want to earn more/do better. that desire isnt always rational.
On this we simply disagree. I don't believe that individuals have total control over their lives, are born with crystal balls, or are experts on all the things necessary to cover all possible eventualities. I won't digress by arguing case by case. I believe that crud happens to the best laid plans. "Doing everything right" is just not the guarantee some think it is.
The facts are that all kinds of people are working min wage jobs, for whatever the reasons. And my point was that minimum wage workers are not all 16 year olds working for gas money. Middle tier jobs have been hollowed out & many, even with a degree are just not gonna' step into a middle or lower middle class job.
Regardless of what happens or how it happens or when it happens: In a free country, the government should have no business setting wages, or even discussing wages. This is a private decision and a private negotiation between he who offers a job and he who offers his time or talent. If the available jobs do not supply a high enough wage, it is up to the individual to get better. That is the only moral and ethical choice. For someone to demand that the police power of the state be utilized to force someone to pay someone else more than he is worth is morally wrong, and economically wrong.
The alternative is what we are becoming: A Western European style mediocracy destined to fail and destined to default. The same as them.
We don't need to look at these dysmorphic regimes. We need to look at our own Constitution and rediscover what made us the shining example in the first place. Freedom. And the minimum wage is a direct slap in the face to everything we should stand for. Disgracia!
The Constitution allows amendments. This is being done within that framework. So even if you and I disagree with this it is being done constitutionally.
The Constitution allows amendments. This is being done within that framework. So even if you and I disagree with this it is being done constitutionally.
Well, let's see how all this works out for everyone. I'm hoping for an amendment, if this fails. In conversation with friends, I'm told this will never happen.
The market being at an all time high is great, if you didn't lose all the money you had in it when it bottomed out.
the s&p was down 37% in 2008, so how did those people manage to lose all of their money when it bottomed out?
some people sold at the bottom which was a bad idea but i understand. i just want to know how you figure some people lost all of their money in the stock market.
or were you just exaggerating so that it would work better for your point? isnt that being deceptive?
So this! REALITY, folks. The bird doesn't complain that he has to dig up earthworms. He just does it because survival requires it. How is that dumb animals act in their own interest better than stupid left wing collectivists who want the other birds to provide worms because they are too unfortunate and too lazy to take care of business.
Let's do away with mortgage interest deductions. How dare the govt. favor homeowners over renters! We just can't afford it any longer. You with us, Marc??
Over the decades the mortgage interest deduction has become American folklore — buy a house and get a tax deduction for the interest you pay on your loan.
But now, amid tightening budget belts and questions about economic class fairness, that American-as-apple-pie notion is being debated.
Taxpayers who itemize their deductions — and are homeowners — can deduct the interest paid on their mortgage up to $1 million, plus up to $100,000 of home equity loans, a type of loan in which the borrower uses the equity in their home as collateral.
But as part of ongoing talks over U.S. tax reform and the closing of loopholes to help reduce the national debt, the mortgage interest deduction has a big target on its back for major changes if not total elimination...
...A key member of the lobby, The National Association of Realtors, strongly opposes eliminating the mortgage interest deduction, claiming in a statement that, "Housing is the engine that drives the economy, and to even mention reducing the tax benefits of home ownership could endanger property values. Home prices, particularly in high cost areas, could decline 15 percent if recommendations to convert the mortgage interest deduction to a tax credit are implemented."
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