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Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
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While I don't disagree with most things already said, you also can't deny the fact that some people just can't manage money. You can take two identical families, mom/dad, 2 kids. The guys work the same job, making in the same hourly wage, same hours and their paychecks are identical. And the minute they come off the job (construction and the job is complete) one will be flat-butt broke and the other will have some savings to get them through till the start of the next job. We see this exact scenario at the end of every job. And in our industry a great deal of the families are one-income only due to the constant travel.......
Cost of living and inflation have surpassed middle class wages.
In the 1950s - 1960s my grandfather supported his wife and 7 kids with his middle class factory job at Pfizer. Today you can can hardly afford to support yourself with a similar job and salary adjusted for inflation.
It's a chicken and the egg type thing. Have prices risen because wives entered the workforce, thus allowing producers to raise their prices, or did women enter the workforce because producers raised their prices?
Costco, serving the same demographic of shoppers has managed to pay workers almost 25% more. Amazon doing the same manages to pay their workers 25% more.
And despite your claims about being constrained by profit margins, they've managed to increase executive compensation EVERY YEAR.
Costco charges an annual minimum $60/person (plus tax) membership fee. Perhaps if Walmart charged everyone $60/year to shop there, they could pay a higher starting salary, too.
Costco charges an annual minimum $60/person membership fee. Perhaps if Walmart charged everyone $60/year to shop there, they could pay a higher starting salary, too.
#1 - EVERYTHING is expensive and getting more so by the day.
#2 - Gluttony …. if one is good, two is better.
#3 - Greed, see #2
#4 - Expectations, every one wants the best of everything. The simple life is gone. Satisfaction with a full stomach and a warm dry place to sleep is just not enough. Everyone has to have technology and the latest flashy thing. Bigger is better. See #2 and #3.
I would think even more than that is that people want those things without having to work for it. American dream is to be wealthy and live a luxurious lifestyle without having to work for it. Hence un earned income, capital gains, etc. I look at my own 401(k) and that’s exactly the case. I am building my retirement on it. It’s not as if I will be living off of money that I saved from my work. I want to live off money that is valued by the work of other people. That kind of system is just not sustainable for all people. It can only work for a small percentage until it falls apart.
Let us not forget that many families desire for their children to attend college. Back in 1981, while attending Texas Tech Law School, my tuition was $5.00 per hour. So, for 90 hours over three years, I paid $450.00.
If you have a child today, you best be advised to start a dedicated savings plan for your toddler, and even then said toddler will be facing big school loans.
Let us not forget that many families desire for their children to attend college. Back in 1981, while attending Texas Tech Law School, my tuition was $5.00 per hour. So, for 90 hours over three years, I paid $450.00.
If you have a child today, you best be advised to start a dedicated savings plan for your toddler, and even then said toddler will be facing big school loans.
Grandparents used to live with family until they died. You more often than not had a 3 or even 4 generation household. Kids with their own room were an anomaly. The parents had 1 bedroom, the male children 1 bedroom and the female children 1 bedroom. That loser uncle had a bedroom or the attic.
Also, houses with more than 1 bathroom were an anomaly. Families had one landline telephone, usually in the kitchen, and it was almost always a party line shared with numerous neighbors. Families had 1 TV. Families had 1 car, if they even had a car at all. Etc.
Like I said... People who earn little have unrealistic lifestyle expectations, so it seems to them that they cannot support a family on one income. All they have to do is live within or slightly below their means like we used to in 1946 to 1980, for example.
...Interesting data point on party line phones... We had one well into the 1990s in Fontana, WI (town on the west end of Geneva Lake). It was all that was available. You couldn't get a private line.
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