40% of Americans don’t have $400 in the bank for emergency expenses (retirements, million)
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Kudos to the places going for $15 an hour - that, compared to the $10, does make a difference. Someone working 45 hours a week makes $225 more, enough to actually make a vast difference.
Two thoughts. First, O'bumbles and his unaffordable care act guarantees these worker's schedules cut off at 30 hours … or 1.5 - 2.0 hours below whatever the powers that be deem "full time" … so the business don't have to provide health care.
Second, this assumes the fictitious character isn't the one in three who gets "let go" because with a razor-think profit margin, the business can't afford to pay the new salary. Or all three are "let go" when the owner says "eff it" and closes down. Or the character's hours are cut from a 6 hour shift to a 3.5 or 4 hour shift and ends up making even less now that (s)he is making more.
This thread didn't start about being about "the poor," although I know that liberals zoom in on them since they see them are more deserving of defense than middle earners. The point is that a middle earner with a full time job earning $60,000 or $70,000 should NOT go on a cruise, buy a designer pet, or throw out $1000 on an iPhone when they need to borrow $400 for an emergency since they don't have any money saved.
Why are lefties so unwilling to acknowledge that people without savings can be in that position through their own poor choices? Does EVERYTHING have to be other people's fault?
Of course you can be in that situation for that reason. Maybe people wonder how you are going to support the claims you make about the $1000 iPhones that all such people supposedly have. I know people who are tight with money, and none have $1000 iPhones. They have cheapest phones they can find and eating at Morton's probably never even crossed their mind. They can barely afford their meds, food, insurance, HOA and other basic expenses. There are obviously many reasons why people are tight with money and to suggest it's always the result of being irresponsible is arrogant as hell.
A study shows that by far the #1 reason for people not saving is.......EXPENSES. Cost for housing, college, childcare, health care etc has gone through the roof. Middle class life is 30% more expensive today than it was 20 years ago.
Younger people tend to blow is all into the wind, and that has always been the case in every corner of the planet.
Last edited by Finn_Jarber; 01-28-2020 at 12:58 PM..
"Give me a budget working full time on the minimum wage in any state of your choice."
I could do it and did....... raised three boys on two part-time jobs (to be fair, slightly above min wage ,but not more than $10/hr). Strict budgeting, no credit cards, no fancy car/payment, but always made it a priority to save. It only takes $34/month to save $400/year and I always saved that much if not more. (ps I also did not receive any public aid)
However, I don't believe anything I tell you would change your preconceived notions that do not fit your narrative.
But they can buy a new $1000 iPhone.... Priorities is not a sign of an economy... Typical liberals misleading people... You think that nobody has $400 then it means, nobody buying anything over $400... Yet people are still buying TV's, cars, houses, appliances, going out to restaurants, going to Disney, cable TV + internet... Blah blah blah.. liberals LIE too much.
I am a liberal and do not appreciate being called a liar.
"Give me a budget working full time on the minimum wage in any state of your choice."
I could do it and did....... raised three boys on two part-time jobs (to be fair, slightly above min wage ,but not more than $10/hr). Strict budgeting, no credit cards, no fancy car/payment, but always made it a priority to save. It only takes $34/month to save $400/year and I always saved that much if not more. (ps I also did not receive any public aid)
However, I don't believe anything I tell you would change your preconceived notions that do not fit your narrative.
Thanks for reading my opinion/experience.
Of course it could be done as an exercise. This reminds me of a Boss I once had in construction. We'd be working hard all day and he'd come into the crew and go double-time for 10 minutes to show us how it was done. Then he would move on......
I lived on a dollar a day for 3 years in the 1970's. I'm super-liberal BTW.
What you and many others do not address is this. If people did the same - either min. wage or lived on 50 Lb bags of Pinto Beans, EVERYTHING we look at as progress and the USA would fall apart. A virus like the one coming would decimate us. There would be no interstates and almost no airports. We'd live in a manufactured or self-built home...if even that.
We are born into a time and place where many many institutions are in place. Unless you want to do 95% away with the Military, the CDC, our industries and most everything else which is part of modern life, it's just not realistic to live on a few bucks a day.
It's not the fault of the min. wage worker that the Military costs their family many thousands or tens of thousand per year.
So any calculations we do have to be within the economic situation that exists...unless we want to simply demolish everything and establish tent cities.
Maybe this is the conservative wish for this nation? The old Somalia thing.....make America 3rd world again!
10s of Millions of people had better lives long before smart-phones existed.
You don't need a smart-phone, but you have been conditioned in classic Pavlovian-style to think you do.
You can apply for jobs on-line for free at your local library and all libraries are on bus-lines, so it's not like they can't get there.
There are free federal, State, county and municipal offices that provide assistance in getting a job, and they're all on bus-lines, too. They will write your resume for you, you can apply online for jobs there, they coach you on interview techniques, etc etc etc.
All you're doing is making an excuses.
I can go into any household in the US and within 6 months, they'll have $400 sitting in the bank for an emergency.
Even if their household income is only $1,000/month, they'll have $400 in the bank within 6 months.
How long will it last?
Not long.
That $400 will be burning a hole in their pocket so badly they'll run right out and blow it all.
These people don't have $400 in the bank for an emergency, yet they have $800 in butt-ugly tattoos.
It's a matter of priority. If you want to save $400, you will, and if you don't or don't know how, you won't.
LOL, at the $800 dollar is ugly tattoos. I agree, it's about priorities. I used to be bad with money in my 20s, I straightened that up by the time I was 28 or so. Started saving by paying myself first. Never make any impulse purchases, anything I want I put off buying for a decent amount of time, I really think about if I truly do I want it. I give myself that cooling off period to help mitigate buying stuff that I might not really want or need.
I know I probably sound like my dad now, but sometimes your parents were right.
People are full of it if they can't save some money. It's a spending problem first, then it's a savings problem after that.
Of course you can be in that situation for that reason. Maybe people wonder how you are going to support the claims you make about the $1000 iPhones that all such people supposedly have. I know people who are tight with money, and none have $1000 iPhones. They have cheapest phones they can find and eating at Morton's probably never even crossed their mind. They can barely afford their meds, food, insurance, HOA and other basic expenses. There are obviously many reasons why people are tight with money and to suggest it's always the result of being irresponsible is arrogant as hell.
Ever since the Reagan admin found the "Welfare Queen" (who didn't really exist, but still) the Right has championed this idea that if they find someone...somewhere.....that fits a certain image, then it obviously MUST be true for everyone!
This is a truly fantastic idea.
Using that "logic" everyone on the Right is heavily tattooed with white supremacist symbols and attend meetings of the local KKK. I know this because is is FACT that some do. I can show you pictures, videos and interviews with those who admit it fully.......
Therefore, it stands to reason that everyone on the right MUST be just like this and that's why they like minorities to sweat in service jobs for very low wages.
I wonder if I am getting close...being as Florida and Texas actually look at low min. wages as being a "feature", not a bug.
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