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Very interesting article and yet so many in the politics section on this board continue to argue for more power to the wealthy more tax cuts fewer regulations. Its almost as if the natural state of lightly regulated capitalism is a return to feudalism.
I drive around Colorado Springs and see white flight to the Briargate and Black Forest area where they can drive up I-25 to the DTC to their jobs so they can afford their mcMansions back home.
The rest of Colorado Springs is decaying filth and scary crime.
1. Finish HS
2. Get a job
3. Don't have kids until you're married
You won't be rich, but you won't be looking for handouts either.
Check check and check unless my dogs count. I do consider them my children but I got them because the people did not want them anymore and I buy their food maybe every other month or three because I buy it in bulk. I'm still on Section 8. What does that mean?
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Originally Posted by miu
And anyone struggling to pay their bills needs to honestly look at how they are spending their money and what their life goals are. For instance, stop buying the latest in smartphones and getting those unlimited data plans. Women struggling financially should reevaluate their beauty regimes. Enough with the fake nails and expensive weaves! And makeup is stupid expensive. And use birth control!!! Stop getting pregnant as a way to keep a connection to men who have no interest in marriage!!!
Stop buying or leasing brand new cars. Learn how a car functions and instead buy a good used Japanese car. Young men have to stop with the stupid mods and paint jobs on their cars. They don't make the car go faster. They don't help get prettier girlfriends.
Yes. I also struggle with keeping up with the property tax payments on my house, but at least I drive a $1500 older Civic and I am willing to work extra jobs on the side. I usually work 6-7 days a week.
And to get a better job. First develop good work habits. Employers want employees who dress and style themselves appropriately and professionally for their job. Show up to work 5 minutes early and be ready for work. Speak clearly and using proper English. Keep the slang to the bare minimum. Have a smile on your face and stand up straight. Don't bring home drama into work. Stay off your smartphone. Don't call out sick unless absolutely necessary. If you have to call out sick, then go to work sick and tell the manager to their face so that they see that you are sick. Don't use sick days on Mothers Day or any good beach days. Be a team player and do what your manager tells you to do promptly and without any argument. Be proactive and volunteer to help when it's busy and offer to learn new job skills.
It's not rocket science to impress a boss and get ahead.
And if someone feels stuck in a dead end fast food job, then seek out opportunities in order to gain better culinary skills. I keep hearing that restaurants are always in need of good line cooks. And with culinary skills, one can always do some catering work on the side. Working in the food industry can also mean daily free meals. So another way to save money.
So many of my friends learned to become real mechanics while owning an older Civic or Corolla. They are very easy to work on. Being a mechanic pays well and there is plenty of side work. Plus saving money on never having to own a newer car.
And for minorities (not Asians) and women, learn how to code!!! Your public libraries offer free internet and computers, plus books. Use your libraries!!!!
Life goals..my only goal right now is to pay off my mom's car and it proves to be impossible if I have other bills I need to pay. My other goals are more expensive but they're very important so they can't be renegotiated. However they shouldn't be too much to ask it's not like I need to be insanely wealthy to do it. Also I deserve it after the life that I have had. I can't settle for a mediocre life. I want it all to be worth it and while that doesn't mean I want million dollar yachts (I don't get the point of yachts) it does mean I want to be able to live life to the fullest and unfortunately that costs more than just "stuff" like a big screen TV or what have you.
I have an Iphone 5 which I got on Amazon in 2013 and was refurbished. I actually refuse to get another one. This might sound disgusting but my "beauty regime" is take a shower every other day (depends on the weather..it wastes water to do it every day and drys your skin out) and wash my hair every 3 or 4 lately with whatever cheap shampoo my mom had leftover from probably 1964 or maybe even earlier. It does the job. One of the very few ways I'm lucky. I won the genetic lottery when it comes to my hair.
Don't have a car. Tried to get my license but have had no luck doing so.
Way ahead of you been looking for jobs under the table. Problem is I'm not good at a lot. I'm severely limited since I don't drive.
All that is well and good if you had managers that actually cared or gave you a raise. I'm in a bottom feeder job so it doesn't really matter what I do. I work too hard and I care more about certain things than my boss does. I'm not even sure why..for instance she doesn't care about recycling or wasting things. I don't even know why because it's not even my problem but it's just part of who I am. However I wish I didn't because it's not like I get extra money for that.
If you want me to have more chance of smiling then pay me more and actually be understanding to my problems although really I'm reserved so I'm not a big smiler anyway. For instance I'm very quiet at concerts and never scream. I didn't even smile much when I went to swim with dolphins and I love dolphins. If you ask me what's wrong and then you have some variation of everyone has problems, why the heck would I have any reason to smile.
I guess this applies to "busy" jobs but when there's nothing to do I look at my smartphone for a minute mostly to look at the time but sometimes I need more than that. I've brought my spinner to work sometimes and that helps a bit but sometimes it gets so boring and when I get bored enough it can be very dangerous. Otherwise if someone needs my assistance I'm doing my job.
Are you talking about programming? I might be very computer savvy so computer related jobs is actually what I'd rather be doing but programming is the area where I struggle. I had to do a website for a college class. It wasn't like anything I've ever done and I've used computers all my life.
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Originally Posted by Volobjectitarian
It's a cultural lie based on pure myth that there are no jobs out there. There's lots of jobs out there, just fewer and fewer people who are willing to do them. I am of the old school where no job is beneath my dignity and a week has a lot more usable hours than 40. Between growing up poor and spending 10 years in the military, I tend to take a lot less stuff for granted than other people. Lots of successful people think like me, not that may poor people do. Not saying working harder than others is fun, but if that's what it takes, then that's what it takes. If you want a thing, go earn it, and that includes some vision of middle class life.
Yes I agree there are lots of jobs out there but lots of those jobs aren't easy to get. Yes I even agree that are plenty of people that aren't willing to do the rest of the ones that are. It has nothing to do with being beneath your dignity..well sometimes it does but sometimes it doesn't. The bottom line is you need to get a job where you feel you have value as an employee. I did fast food while I was in high school. If I haven't got fired due to my personal issue I would have gotten fired later because of performance.
I can technically do my current job but do I have as much value as an employee? They could take me or leave me. The only reason they hired me is because I was the only one that showed up that day. If my boss can get plenty of other people to do the harder jobs she will keep me with the easy ones because she knows I'm not as efficient with it.
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Originally Posted by dysgenic
Ok. But I'm sure that we can agree that you are in a very small minority. Most people that work that much do it because they have to, not because they want to.
I completely agree and even then if you work because you want to it's because you enjoy your job. If you for example only could get a job at a pet store and hated snakes but the requirement was you were to care for snakes you would not be working there because you wanted to.
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Originally Posted by BornintheSprings
I don't think anyone here is saying that there are no lazy poor people just that they aren't the majority in fact I think its fair to say the poor do the bulk of the work. Of course painting them as lazy is a great way to dehumanize and serve the interests of the wealthy who want to pay as little as possible and crush organized labor movements.
I work way harder than these Trump supporters. I can almost guarantee it. I work way harder than a lot of people yet somehow I'm stuck only slightly over minimum wage at a job again I only got because they were desperate and waited 6 years to get it.
The problem is many of us poor people probably don't work smart. That's not to say we should be scolded for doing so but we are obviously doing something wrong. We need to be like Bill Gates and invent something as great as Windows was but sometimes you can't do that on your own. You need help. I've tried to work smart. I'm intelligent in a special way but I'm not intelligent in the way where it would help me succeed in society at least not that I've seen yet. I've been trying to think maybe too much..that's my problem I think too much and never put forth action but it's one of the most challenging things ever to try and not overthink. I then get myself in a circle of trying to think what to do then think I'm thinking too hard so I try to think how to not overthink and then I end up overthinking how to not overthink.
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Originally Posted by BornintheSprings
Free housing? I take it you don't know many poor people.
I would love to know those "poor people". Housing is way too expensive especially when you start to realize you have a slumlord landlord.
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Originally Posted by BornintheSprings
There are a FINITE amount of good jobs this lie that everyone can win big is absurd which is why programs need to be in place to prevent poverty from becoming to horrible. Most advanced countries have figured this out but the backwards United States drags its feet and slowly starts to get left behind.
There are plenty of good jobs but ay they usually go to purple squirrels. These people are delusional as they probably haven't had to look for a/another job in a long time. The game has completely changed.
I've looked constantly on Indeed google and get emails from another job site but womp womp significant list of requirements in the job description.
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Originally Posted by glamatomic
Box TV sets can pretty much be had for free, second hand these days. Second hand flat screens can be found for less than $100. So this really proves nothing.
Fwiw, we only have 1 TV set.
We don't own one, but again, these can be purchased affordably second hand. If you said 48% of households had the most recent latest and greatest gaming system, that would be different. Even our local library has games for rent for free, I noticed on my last visit.
A study cited in Variety showed that pay TV subscription costs were outpacing "cord cutters"- with prices going up anywhere from 2-6% per anum.
Also there's this little thing called Amazon gift cards. I earn gift cards and that's how I got my first flat screen.
I've had some of mine for years. I still have my Super Nintendo and still works last I checked. I have tried selling any games I don't play anymore but I eventually gave up and sold them in bulk to the second hand store.
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Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer
ISPs are forced to offer reduced price services to poor.
You mean dial up? Yeah but you can't do anything with that nowadays. It was fine in the 90s.
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Originally Posted by Volobjectitarian
I ran this statement through my own cost of living, adjusting for what I could live without or make substantially cheaper, and if my wife and I both made ~$12-13 an hour, not much besides our vacations, choice of cars, cable TV/internet package, etc would change. As it stands, we both make substantially more than that, but we could enjoy a decent middle class lifestyle on far less.
And in my bills, I include one car payment, insurance for two cars, both our smart phones, basic cable, etc. Yeah, about $13 an hour would get us by. We'd eat out less, treat our friends/family less often, buy fewer gifts for our nieces/nephews, etc...but all the stuff United Way says we need to "participate" in the middle class life...we could do that on $13 an hour.
Wait no vacations at all? Or just spending less on souvenirs and things like that?
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Originally Posted by Volobjectitarian
Checking rentcafe and others, averaging for 2BR, the entire Phoenix metro area averages ~$1200 for 2BR apartments. Some neighborhoods average $850, others average $1400, but looking at all the neighborhoods listed, I come out around $1200 average for a 2BR apartment across about 80% of the entire Valley.
So 2 roommates split $1200 in rent and say another $400 in utilities. $800 each over a month, which is $181 per week, but we round up to $200. OK, that's $5 an hour. Since housing cost (and I am including utilities, which most advisor calcs say just the actual rent/mortgage/taxes/insurance MINUS utilities) should be 30% of gross income or less, that means minimum, each roommate needs to make 5/0.30 = $16.67 per hour, or $670 per week gross, to live as 2 wage earners in an average 2BR apartment in ~80% of the entire Phoenix metro area.
Now, let us say they cannot find jobs that pay that well. OK, there are more work hours in a week than 40, and we need a weekly income of $670. Add 20 more work hours to the week, and now $11.17 per hour covers that nut. Bump the work hours to 80, and minimum wage covers the bases. Does it suck working 80 hours per week? Sure, but perhaps long work hours and crappy pay will motivate the average person to get better skills that add more value and receive higher compensation. Or they get a 3rd roommate and lower cost, or etc. Lots of choices, and Phoenix really isn't that expensive.
Yeah the keyword is average person here so perhaps that wasn't geared towards people like me.
Good grief, people! There are so many ways to pull yourself up and out of poverty. I did and so have countless others.
Agreed. Jeff Bezos was born to a teenage mother still in high school. He went on to become highly educated, invent Amazon, and now he's the richest man in the world.
But even if he never invented Amazon he still would be filthy rich, due to his education and work ethic.
The poor in this country are literally bombarded with formerly poor people, but now rich, every single day. Pick up your bootstraps and go make something of yourself. You already won half the battle just by being born in America.
Agreed. Jeff Bezos was born to a teenage mother still in high school. He went on to become highly educated, invent Amazon, and now he's the richest man in the world.
But even if he never invented Amazon he still would be filthy rich, due to his education and work ethic.
The poor in this country are literally bombarded with formerly poor people, but now rich, every single day. Pick up your bootstraps and go make something of yourself. You already won half the battle just by being born in America.
It’s truly pathetic. I cannot imagine sitting around feeling victimized because I came from poverty as a child. It actually propelled me to strive for success.
It used to be that we looked up to successful people. Somehow in the last decade or two, it became PC to hate the wealthy and educated.
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