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Big screen TV's and eating out would be my picks. You can see some really poor looking homes, but there's one thing in common. They ALL have a big screen TV in the living room, and perhaps in other rooms we can't see from the windows.
Big screen TV's and eating out would be my picks. You can see some really poor looking homes, but there's one thing in common. They ALL have a big screen TV in the living room, and perhaps in other rooms we can't see from the windows.
They're so affordable these days ... apparently even for the welfare crowd.
I remember years ago a family was on Dr. Phil talking about their horrible financial situation. They were buying fancy bottled water and the lizard was eating live crickets that they drove for quite a distance to get, and they were other similar things. Dr. Phil pointed out that maybe they could filter the tap water and asked the boy if there were alternatives to feeding the lizard live crickets, and he said dry ones. I mean, they looked so offended at these suggestions.
We have the welfare poor, who have no concern about what happens when the welfare check and SNAP benefits run out, and they are getting subsidized other goodies, and then we have the working poor who are not as irresponsible with their finances.
Eating out is not affordable for most people. The neighbors get delivery on all of their meals. I also saw the sheriff bringing paperwork to their door, but they don't answer.
A life without a college degree isn't forcing anyone into a lifetime of minimum wage jobs. I'm certainly an example of that. I'm 43 and have made a 6 figure income for over a decade without a college degree. When I met my girlfriend who I'm now married to, I was making 3x what she was and she had a college degree. The difference was that a job in Information Technology pays better then a teacher. Fortunately for her, she got a full ride so didn't take on any school debt. With no debt she was able to afford to buy a house on her own while other colleagues struggled to get on the property ladder.
Pfffft. Is this why my cousin had to have a BS from college so she could work at a ticket job, which even she admits has absolutely nothing to do with her degree? Is this why so many job openings require a college degree of some sort, even jobs that shouldn't? Are you aware that nearly a quarter of American workers need a license to show up to work and that a college degree is now required for many jobs that were once performed by high school graduates?
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Being a former landlord, you want a tenant that can comfortably pay rent and still meet their other obligations. The common rule of thumb is you don't want to pay more then 30-35% of your income income on housing. It's not trying to hold back low income people, it's maths and statistics. In the apartments I've stayed, there are also programs to help low income with qualifying with a larger percentage range but they limit it to X units per complex.
But understand, the next time you complain about all those tents on the sidewalks, that asking for 3x the rent is what's contributing to homelessness. There's what is desirable and then there's reality. Of course, you should only pay 30% of your pay for rent. But here's the reality: Let's look at someone receiving $15 an hour for full time work. That's $28,000 a year, maybe $24,000 take home, $2000 a month. If income needs to be 3x the rent, that would limit someone making $15 an hour (a wage many businesses are still screaming about paying) to paying for an apartment that's only $666 a month. Let's see you find one for that amount of rent. You see the problem here?
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I'm not a Hernandez but have a Hispanic name. I've even had people try to speak to me in person in Spanish when I'm not Hispanic. That hasn't stopped me from living the American dream as an immigrant. I've been on hiring boards before and have had to filter out resumes. Even the ones that make the cut for phone interviews get culled further once you realize the resume was embellished. I remember one guy I had no idea how to pronounce his name, but the phone interview was a shock when he woke perfect English. He was an Indian guy who was born in the States. In IT there is a lot of diversified talent and it would be idiotic to limit your prospect to Smiths and Jones.
Sounds like your making excuses for lower income. You don't have to play dirty to win the game and there isn't an award to living like a pauper either.
I'm not making excuses. I'm telling you how it is. You seem to be living in a bubble world where people can afford to work their way through college, no one over the age of 50 is denied a job, and living in a slum while going to an inner city school gives a kid the same advantage of someone raised in the suburbs who has caring, well-off parents.
See, it's like teaching kids to swim. We have all these older people who think that if we just throw the kids in the deep end, they'll learn to swim on their own with no effort from anyone. If they can't swim, they drown instead. And people keep saying, well, look, I learned how to swim that way, so everybody should be able to, so it's no loss if they drown.
The problem is, is we lose so many good kids that way. A little teaching, a little help, and we could have a nation of people, way more than we do now, getting degrees, earning higher wages, paying more taxes, contributing more to our society. But no, we'd rather throw these kids and people out because by God, if you can't learn to swim on your own, you're not worth having in society.
The chances of someone working their way out of poverty and having a good life is pretty low, but we like to point to the ONE person who may have done that and use that ONE person as an example for everyone else. It doesn't work that way and if you really want to have more people succeed, then you have to put in the effort, at the city level, at the county level, at the state level, and at a level throughout the country.
A country without its citizens well-fed, well-educated, and healthy is not a country that will be successful. The US is going downhill. We are not the greatest country in the world. Think about that and what it will take to turn that around.
Last edited by rodentraiser; 09-28-2023 at 09:07 PM..
Big screen TV's and eating out would be my picks. You can see some really poor looking homes, but there's one thing in common. They ALL have a big screen TV in the living room, and perhaps in other rooms we can't see from the windows.
I don't think that's a terrible thing, though. You can get a big screen TV for a few hundred bucks. That few hundred bucks is a one-time expense and is not going to make a difference in their rent or their food in the long run.
Of course, that also means they have a monthly cable and/or Internet bill.
I remember years ago a family was on Dr. Phil talking about their horrible financial situation. They were buying fancy bottled water and the lizard was eating live crickets that they drove for quite a distance to get, and they were other similar things. Dr. Phil pointed out that maybe they could filter the tap water and asked the boy if there were alternatives to feeding the lizard live crickets, and he said dry ones. I mean, they looked so offended at these suggestions.
We have the welfare poor, who have no concern about what happens when the welfare check and SNAP benefits run out, and they are getting subsidized other goodies, and then we have the working poor who are not as irresponsible with their finances.
Eating out is not affordable for most people. The neighbors get delivery on all of their meals. I also saw the sheriff bringing paperwork to their door, but they don't answer.
I remember some years ago during a financial downturn someone was counseling a young married couple on their expenses. They both had gym memberships with monthly costs, and he told them to get rid of them. The guy was catching on, but when the financial guy told the wife she couldn't get her nails done every week, she threw a fit. That was not a luxury, it was a NECESSITY.
It's not true that you need a college education to make a good living; that's a lie we've been sold on for too long now. In fact, learning a trade affords you a BETTER living than most in just weeks or months; also certain two-year degrees. And society desperately needs people with those practical skills; now more than every.
Buying things to "reward yourself" or "make yourself feel better" is what keeps many in poverty. The "I deserve this now" mentality rather than practicing self-discipline and delayed gratification is a tender trap, but the way most kids have been raised lately, I'm not surprised it's endemic.
...Almost all of them smoke and that is a very expensive vice. Often, both persons in a couple are smokers so they are spending a small fortune every month on tobacco.. I suspect that they all use marijuana, and that is also a very expensive vice...
I smoked cigarettes for over 40 years, and tried marijuana two times when I was sixteen. There are probably hundreds of thousands of cigarette smokers who don't smoke pot.
Pfffft. Is this why my cousin had to have a BS from college so she could work at a ticket job, which even she admits has absolutely nothing to do with her degree? Is this why so many job openings require a college degree of some sort, even jobs that shouldn't? Are you aware that nearly a quarter of American workers need a license to show up to work and that a college degree is now required for many jobs that were once performed by high school graduates?
I'm sure there are jobs that require a college degree, as well as jobs that don't. No one is forcing you to get those jobs. It's supposed to be a very competitive job market with employers competing for workers. I'm telling my story where at 19 I got a job working at a mom and Pop computer shop with no experience other than working at a rental video store. I studied and got an A+ certification and I started applying at IT contractors. I kept leveraging my new credentials to eventually get better and better paying jobs. I have other friends who have similar histories. One started working menial jobs at an auto repair place, then became a service writer and eventually he's now the assistant manager at a Toyota dealership. Is a driver's license that difficult to attain? If a license is what it takes to do your dream, then you put in the time and effort to do it
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Originally Posted by rodentraiser
But understand, the next time you complain about all those tents on the sidewalks, that asking for 3x the rent is what's contributing to homelessness. There's what is desirable and then there's reality. Of course, you should only pay 30% of your pay for rent. But here's the reality: Let's look at someone receiving $15 an hour for full time work. That's $28,000 a year, maybe $24,000 take home, $2000 a month. If income needs to be 3x the rent, that would limit someone making $15 an hour (a wage many businesses are still screaming about paying) to paying for an apartment that's only $666 a month. Let's see you find one for that amount of rent. You see the problem here?
I was 20 years old making about 30k annually and paying 1k in rent. They probably don't look at take home because that can fluctuate because of several variables. If rent is too expensive on your own, you can split an apartment with someone or even rent a room.
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Originally Posted by rodentraiser
I'm not making excuses. I'm telling you how it is. You seem to be living in a bubble world where people can afford to work their way through college, no one over the age of 50 is denied a job, and living in a slum while going to an inner city school gives a kid the same advantage of someone raised in the suburbs who has caring, well-off parents.
See, it's like teaching kids to swim. We have all these older people who think that if we just throw the kids in the deep end, they'll learn to swim on their own with no effort from anyone. If they can't swim, they drown instead. And people keep saying, well, look, I learned how to swim that way, so everybody should be able to, so it's no loss if they drown.
The problem is, is we lose so many good kids that way. A little teaching, a little help, and we could have a nation of people, way more than we do now, getting degrees, earning higher wages, paying more taxes, contributing more to our society. But no, we'd rather throw these kids and people out because by God, if you can't learn to swim on your own, you're not worth having in society.
The chances of someone working their way out of poverty and having a good life is pretty low, but we like to point to the ONE person who may have done that and use that ONE person as an example for everyone else. It doesn't work that way and if you really want to have more people succeed, then you have to put in the effort, at the city level, at the county level, at the state level, and at a level throughout the country.
A country without its citizens well-fed, well-educated, and healthy is not a country that will be successful. The US is going downhill. We are not the greatest country in the world. Think about that and what it will take to turn that around.
I guess coming from an immigrant background I still think the American dream is alive. I literally was born in a bamboo hut in a 3rd world jungle. We LEGALLY immigrated to the States when I was 9. Even though my parents were both college educated, they took factory jobs. They managed to buy cars and houses when they had coworkers asking them how they could afford those things when they were still renting a trailer home. The first home they owned was townhome in the ghetto.
They grew up in post WW2 rebuilding and could remember fleeing into the mountains from the Japanese. They were resilient and knew how to stretch the money they had. There are countless immigrant stories such as mine and there's a reason people risk their lives coming illegally into the US.
I remember being in public school and many kids were goof balls. Just because you provide free education some people just don't care enough to put in the effort. People in the States have equal opportunity, but no guarantee for equal outcomes. There will always be those who struggle with basic concepts of common sense and hard work. I live in a pretty nice county where the median household income is over 100k, yet you still have the folks dealing drugs, breaking into houses and cars etc. The US provides a lot of programs to assist the poor. More so than many countries of the world yet people continue to squander the privilege of being born in the USA.
No excuses, it's just my reality to deal with. Having what is probably too much pride and integrity, coupled with an array of lifelong psychological problems and learning disabilities makes participating in modern society very difficult for me. I know my limitations and have learned to live with a lower income because of them.
I'm not sure on the modern definition of pauper, but traditionally it refers to a leech or an indigent. Not all poor or lower income people receive public relief services...I never have.
It's great you live within your limitations. Others believe life owes them more so they live beyond their reality.
The US provides safety nets for those who seek them. You pay your taxes and it's their for those that need it. Even private entities like churches or aid orgs are available. It's commendable to want to do it your own, but nothing wrong with asking for help. I was recently grumbling to my friend about having to get a plumber to come out and fix my leaking shower. He told me it's probably just the valve cartridge that needs replacing. I spent some time on YouTube and it didn't seem too difficult. I ordered the part and did the swap and sure enough it fixed the leak. $40 part saved me $300 plumber visit, all because I talked to someone.
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