wages are slipping :-(

[Christ_empowered]

blah.

On Those Questionable US Wage Stats…Again - CounterPunch.org

In recent months, various independent business and research sources have been raising questions about the accuracy of US official job and wage statistics. Several more sources have joined the discussion, questioning the oft-cited official—and widespread mainstream press reported–3.1% annual rise...

www.counterpunch.org

 

[for_his_glory]

On January 1st minimum wage is to increase to $12 an hour which is good, but IMO I think if minimum goes up then the wages of every blue collar worker should go up the same amount.

 

[jasonc]

blah.

On Those Questionable US Wage Stats…Again - CounterPunch.org

In recent months, various independent business and research sources have been raising questions about the accuracy of US official job and wage statistics. Several more sources have joined the discussion, questioning the oft-cited official—and widespread mainstream press reported–3.1% annual rise...

www.counterpunch.org

Oddly I make more this last year .

It depends on akot of things .min wage ,I,don't buy it .the state exacerbates issues rather then solves it.
Two unwinnable wars,poverty and the drug wars.

 

[jasonc]

And the costs of fixing a car ,plumbing etc and taxes to pay for the higher wage earners will go up.

There are jobs were ,not my city,where my,job pays only 12 per hour .to fund them utilities rates go up.higher taxes or utilities rates ,which hurt more?

 

[Luminous_Rose]

With increased wages comes increased costs of goods and services, so it doesn't feel like much of a difference...

 

[Corn Pop]

The min wage here is 17.70 so that's 11.92 in USD, and people still complain.

That's over 600 a week after tax. You can rent a room in a house with all the facilities and bills except food for about 200 a week. Room and power included, and the house has everything you need. Why do people complain they broke.

If I was on min wage.

600 a week

200 rent a room in a house.
100 gas for the week
100 food for the week (include other things like need new toothbrush, soap, whatever if needed)

Probably don't even need 100 gas, maybe even 50 for the week.

I have everything I need to work, eat good lots of food, and live comfortably and have 200 left. 100 savings that's 5k a year. In 10 years there is 50k saved. Can put a deposit on a house or start a small business.

50 away for emergency bills that's 2500 a year. Car rego, need parts, new tyres, and unexpected whatever might come up. Doctors, dentist check up, insurance.


50 left spending whatever play money each week. Buy a new t-shirt and go the movies, do whatever, top up phone credit. Or chill out and spend it the next week you got a hundy.

Money management for a single individual on min wage. And it's harder being a single than a couple.

I could not cry poor and poverty on a min wage job.

 

[Michael74]

We need an honest dollar, then people won't have to endless argue over what the wage should be raised to.

 

[Corn Pop]

We need an honest dollar, then people won't have to endless argue over what the wage should be raised to.

An honest dollar is true free trade without rules and regulations that prevent people from making an honest dollar.

 

[Luminous_Rose]

The min wage here is 17.70 so that's 11.92 in USD, and people still complain.

That's over 600 a week after tax. You can rent a room in a house with all the facilities and bills except food for about 200 a week. Room and power included, and the house has everything you need. Why do people complain they broke.

If I was on min wage.

600 a week

200 rent a room in a house.
100 gas for the week
100 food for the week (include other things like need new toothbrush, soap, whatever if needed)

Probably don't even need 100 gas, maybe even 50 for the week.

I have everything I need to work, eat good lots of food, and live comfortably and have 200 left. 100 savings that's 5k a year. In 10 years there is 50k saved. Can put a deposit on a house or start a small business.

50 away for emergency bills that's 2500 a year. Car rego, need parts, new tyres, and unexpected whatever might come up. Doctors, dentist check up, insurance.


50 left spending whatever play money each week. Buy a new t-shirt and go the movies, do whatever, top up phone credit. Or chill out and spend it the next week you got a hundy.

Money management for a single individual on min wage. And it's harder being a single than a couple.

I could not cry poor and poverty on a min wage job.

There are many situations in which even a $12 minimum wage doesn't feel like enough. Debts and insurance for everything (house/renters, car(s), medical, life, identity theft, the list goes on...) can make money not stretch far.

Families relying on 1 income. Yes, our family of four lives off of $1.25 above minimum wage at the moment and we barely scrape by when there are bills, debts, and insurance to pay. Let me tell you, food assistance here does NOT count your debts or your insurance costs so they assume you have plenty of money for food.

Pretty much the breakdown is $1,800/mo after taxes. Bills (house payments, insurances, utilities, etc.) are roughly $1,200/mo, diapers are like $120/mo, Gas for vehicles is about $120/mo, Food/Water/Personal Care Items/Other eat the rest. We do okay and have what we need, but if we didn't own our home it would be much worse because we are required by law to have a 2 bedroom apartment, which is easily over $600/mo. Apartment living would hurt is terribly on one income, I am glad we don't have to do it anymore. Renting a room isn't that doable with kids and barely doable with being married.

Money management is a good thing to learn, and there are times when life will catch you unexpectedly and you may not have anything left in the emergency fund.

I do not understand why financially being single is more difficult than being a couple. That doesn't make sense from my life experience unless both people were then working, which may make things easier if debt isn't dragged into marriage.

I am afraid a lot of people today are not educated with money. I mean, I am still learning and have learned much the hard way.

 

[Corn Pop]

I payed my bills this week and had 70 left over and was speaking to a friend who was stressing she can't afford to travel and pick up her daughter who was at the dads house for the holidays in another city, and I asked how much it would cost and she said coincidentally "about 70" so I gave her my last 70 so she could pick up her daughter. Now im broke as a joke till next week but I got everything I need for the week, I have paid for my bed and the house facilities, I have gas in the car, and I have food for the week, and most important my morning coffee.

 

[jasonc]

There are many situations in which even a $12 minimum wage doesn't feel like enough. Debts and insurance for everything (house/renters, car(s), medical, life, identity theft, the list goes on...) can make money not stretch far.

Families relying on 1 income. Yes, our family of four lives off of $1.25 above minimum wage at the moment and we barely scrape by when there are bills, debts, and insurance to pay. Let me tell you, food assistance here does NOT count your debts or your insurance costs so they assume you have plenty of money for food.

Pretty much the breakdown is $1,800/mo after taxes. Bills (house payments, insurances, utilities, etc.) are roughly $1,200/mo, diapers are like $120/mo, Gas for vehicles is about $120/mo, Food/Water/Personal Care Items/Other eat the rest. We do okay and have what we need, but if we didn't own our home it would be much worse because we are required by law to have a 2 bedroom apartment, which is easily over $600/mo. Apartment living would hurt is terribly on one income, I am glad we don't have to do it anymore. Renting a room isn't that doable with kids and barely doable with being married.

Money management is a good thing to learn, and there are times when life will catch you unexpectedly and you may not have anything left in the emergency fund.

I do not understand why financially being single is more difficult than being a couple. That doesn't make sense from my life experience unless both people were then working, which may make things easier if debt isn't dragged into marriage.

I am afraid a lot of people today are not educated with money. I mean, I am still learning and have learned much the hard way.

That's a problem I have with Dave Ramsey ,its can cost 1000 bucks to put tires on,a car .my Toyota Tacoma would be 500.,never mind simple repairs if alternators with 3 to 4 hour labor .500 to 600.buying a 2000 grand car and have tires replaced and an alternator ,you about bought another one.

 

[WIP]

We need an honest dollar, then people won't have to endless argue over what the wage should be raised to.

What is an honest dollar? A product or service's value is in the eye of the beholder. I can mow lawns for hire in exchange for cash. How much cash? Well, it comes down to two things. How much is my customer willing to pay and how much do I feel my labor, equipment costs, advertising costs, insurance costs, etc. are worth. If we are both at the same price then whalla! we have an agreement.

 

[WIP]

That's over 600 a week after tax. You can rent a room in a house with all the facilities and bills except food for about 200 a week. Room and power included, and the house has everything you need. Why do people complain they broke.

Because they think they are entitled to a rich person's lifestyle even though they don't have the money to pay for it. They are in debt up to their ears living beyond their means.

 

[stovebolts]

Because they think they are entitled to a rich person's lifestyle even though they don't have the money to pay for it. They are in debt up to their ears living beyond their means.

And big bankers take advantage of this (actually, i think they created it) and exploit them.

 

[jasonc]

And big bankers take advantage of this (actually, i think they created it) and exploit them.

Local bankers .local bankers were giving mortgages and credit too
Not many of those left ,sea coast,marine bank here and space coast credit union .

 

[WIP]

And big bankers take advantage of this (actually, i think they created it) and exploit them.

They didn't strongarm any of them into putting their name on the dotted line. We are still responsible for making that final decision.

 

[jasonc]

They didn't strongarm any of them into putting their name on the dotted line. We are still responsible for making that final decision.

Studet loans giveb out by the state and bankers.I,could add gasp how the military uses bonuses to get numbers up in the ranks then once used ,they discard the vet and the vs shafting begins.

Not much different there .I,have warned any potential enlistee about that .I'm hardly,anti military service but i despise the double standard by,the higher echelon

 

[WIP]

I don't agree with the bankers exploiting customers. There is nothing to gain by helping someone go into debt beyond their means only to have to reposes later.

Credit cards are by far a worse evil because in my opinion they are legal loan sharks, charging extremely high interest and making it too easy to borrow the money. They bank on the premise that those who pay the interest will out pace those that do not. But in our greed, we are still willing to sign on that dotted line and accept their terms. We are the idiots.

Case in point. My wife has a problem with credit card debt. After the first time I pulled nearly all of our funds out of our savings account to pay it off, I told her I would no longer take responsibility for her CC debt. Well, I gave int two more times and then I finally got the courage to stand up to her. This past year my wife once again got into debt trouble and asked if she could borrow $15,000.00 against the equity in our home in order to consolidate some of her debt and reduce her monthly obligation. I agreed but she should never ask me again because the answer will be, "No!"

I couldn't believe the hoops we had to jump through to get that loan. Our home is paid off. I am retired with a decent retirement account and we both have credit ratings over 800. I also had enough cash savings at the bank to cover the loan. The bank was far from trying to exploit us.

 

[Luminous_Rose]

That's a problem I have with Dave Ramsey ,its can cost 1000 bucks to put tires on,a car .my Toyota Tacoma would be 500.,never mind simple repairs if alternators with 3 to 4 hour labor .500 to 600.buying a 2000 grand car and have tires replaced and an alternator ,you about bought another one.

Well, I didn't mention Dave Ramsey, but every financial situation is different. Vehicles are stressful upkeep, it always seems like they need oil, a replacement part, gas to run, etc etc etc. Although, the cars we have now are better than the ones our in laws would give to us...they always seemed to give us lemons, we would repair them, then they would want their car back and gave us another broken one. It wasn't right. I was sure they sabotaged the cars, too, but we can't prove it. That hurt us badly for years and was soooo expensive. One car was a tiny foreign car that they paid $3,000 to repair before giving us due to a broken timing chain. Within the year, a mechanic told us if we hit a bump just right the metal in the car would go through the hood...not sure what was wrong with it, but even a second opinion agreed. We weren't gonna fix that...a few thousand dollars. We had a truck for a while from them, it ended up with $4,000 of repairs. We paid for new tires...not cheap. I read the list of repairs to my in-laws, who are not rich people, and they were not surprised. They said they had no money to help. My husband and I sold it to someone who wanted the truck because it was in our name and we put that money towards a new car. My in-laws cried that we sold their truck...funny, they signed it over to us. The next day they went and paid $3,000 IN CASH for their broken truck and got it back.

I am thinking back now if we realized we were being manipulated sooner then maybe we could avoided all of that together. I am also thinking if we would have been wise and saved up our money and saved for a car that we would never have been in thay situation of borrowing sabotaged lemons and losing all of our savings each time repairs were needed.

Before considering a car these days, we try to look at the average maintenance costs. We paid what felt like an arm and a leg for a dae woo because they were foreign and don't just make parts anymore. Expensive car. The truck we had for a while, we didn't know was a "specialty" year and many parts from the same makes and models of different years were not always compatible and thus more expensive. Don't even get me started on the cost or brake pads for that truck...they were not cheap! We could have paid for these cars probably 2 or 3 times over. If we also had done our research on maintenance costs, we could have saved plenty of money, too.

 

[jasonc]

Well, I didn't mention Dave Ramsey, but every financial situation is different. Vehicles are stressful upkeep, it always seems like they need oil, a replacement part, gas to run, etc etc etc. Although, the cars we have now are better than the ones our in laws would give to us...they always seemed to give us lemons, we would repair them, then they would want their car back and gave us another broken one. It wasn't right. I was sure they sabotaged the cars, too, but we can't prove it. That hurt us badly for years and was soooo expensive. One car was a tiny foreign car that they paid $3,000 to repair before giving us due to a broken timing chain. Within the year, a mechanic told us if we hit a bump just right the metal in the car would go through the hood...not sure what was wrong with it, but even a second opinion agreed. We weren't gonna fix that...a few thousand dollars. We had a truck for a while from them, it ended up with $4,000 of repairs. We paid for new tires...not cheap. I read the list of repairs to my in-laws, who are not rich people, and they were not surprised. They said they had no money to help. My husband and I sold it to someone who wanted the truck because it was in our name and we put that money towards a new car. My in-laws cried that we sold their truck...funny, they signed it over to us. The next day they went and paid $3,000 IN CASH for their broken truck and got it back.

I am thinking back now if we realized we were being manipulated sooner then maybe we could avoided all of that together. I am also thinking if we would have been wise and saved up our money and saved for a car that we would never have been in thay situation of borrowing sabotaged lemons and losing all of our savings each time repairs were needed.

Before considering a car these days, we try to look at the average maintenance costs. We paid what felt like an arm and a leg for a dae woo because they were foreign and don't just make parts anymore. Expensive car. The truck we had for a while, we didn't know was a "specialty" year and many parts from the same makes and models of different years were not always compatible and thus more expensive. Don't even get me started on the cost or brake pads for that truck...they were not cheap! We could have paid for these cars probably 2 or 3 times over. If we also had done our research on maintenance costs, we could have saved plenty of money, too.

I,do my,own work.on my,Nissan alone.

A.c. numerous times,fuel injectors ,valve cover ,exhaust manifold ,alternator,radiator ,belts houses,thermostat,clutch .brakes,ball joints ,tie rods.