30k poor

30k POOR

Half of all US workers make less than $30k a year.  And that number is probably massaged like all other statistics.  But let’s just assume that if you are one of the lower half you never went to college and you are working part time at the low end or on the job training management to get to the high end.  Because you can’t afford any of the trappings of normal supposedly middle class working stiffs, you can actually live pretty well on chump change ( technically, “chump change” is the wages you get working, which are barely over welfare wages-hence, you are a chump for working.  But, like all ghetto lingo, it has been appropriated ).

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On $15k a year I was putting half towards preps ( not even including the books I was buying ).  At $10k a year I was pissing and moaning to the boss that I needed LESS hours so I didn’t have to pay the ObammyCare Tax.  And I had enough to pay half to the NOL for rent and the other half went to preps ( not just End-O-D-World preps but economic collapse preps, such as stockpiling day to day groceries and pumping up the savings.  I still treated myself to the occasional case of rimfire or 303 ammo, or boxes of wool clothing, or whatever, but that was minor ).

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But for OVER $30k a year, I make the safe assumption that almost nobody makes that kind of scratch without a college degree.  And if you went to college, you probably want a professional job.  Which means you have adopted a middle class lifestyle.  With all its pitfalls, pratfalls and punishing financial obligations.  Tuition loans, a car loan, rent, medical insurance.  What you consider the bare minimum.  Me, I think food and shelter are minimums, and I don’t delude myself how minimum that gets in both quantity and quality, but most folks have no clue because they were raised in an atmosphere of White People Problems.

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Let’s break down the finances.  And I’m not even going to approach the higher end of the scale.  Just what a relatively frugal middle class worker can afford.  That means HALF of the average expense for most things.  Not the average cost of a car ( $35k ) but a $16k used vehicle.  Not renting a house, but getting a roommate.  Half the average cost nationally.  $30k a year is $2500 a month.  States without income tax are 20% total taxes, but those are few and far between so let’s call withholding taxes a more realistic 25%.  After taxes you bring home $1900. 

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Half the average rent for an apartment is $500.  If you are poor making under $30k, you get an apartment with more rooms or rent a trailer to save money, but here you are “rich” and feel entitled so you only must sacrifice and take in a single roommate.  Half the utility bill, nothing fancy, nothing is an energy pig, Netflix rather than cable and a slow speed Internet connection ( each pays half ) is a minimum of $150.  So subtract $650 from $1900 for $1250.  Your college loans will probably be at least $200.  Down to $1050.  Your car payment, seven years at zero interest on $16k is $190.  Say you get a great deal on insurance for “only” $110.  Now you are down to $750.

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We’ll assume you were smart and bought a rice burner and it never needs repairs and is really good on gas.  But like everyone else you must commute a good ways.  It isn’t unreasonable to assume $100 in gas a month.  Now you are at $650.  The cheapest medical insurance is probably $300-$400, but let’s be optimistic and call it “only” $200.  $450 left in your paycheck.  Even if you never go out to eat, which you will as you must socialize to have friends or get laid, you are still struggling to have much of anything left over of your remaining cash once you go grocery shopping.

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But what if you smoke?  That job is pretty darn stressful.  That definitely eats up a good chunk of your grocery money.  But what the hell, right?  Smoking suppresses apatite.  Yet even if you don’t have any vices, the pocket change you have left is needed for car tires, a small credit card balance, clothing and shoes.  How about a darn hobby?  You can’t even afford that.  Really, nobody can afford to live, not normally, on an amount HALF the workers don’t even make.

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This is how quickly the failing banks have gamed the system to debt-enslave most of the population making any decent wages at all.  In one single decade, the national debt doubled.  The prices of rent has doubled.  Health insurance WAY more than doubled.  Car prices have doubled ( for crappier cars ).  College degrees doubled if they didn’t increase even more ( for far worse standards of education ).  Taxes have doubled.  And that was ONLY double the “normal” inflation.  In good economic times the inflation rate was a paltry 3-4%.  The last decade saw 7-10% and look at the mess THAT got us in.  Nobody can afford a rather bleak and dismal LOWER middle class lifestyle.

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What happens when inflation goes even higher?  Obviously, folks can make it on far lower wages.  But if the upper half of earners cannot carry the 70% of the economy which is consumption, what do the lower half of workers do to keep the economy running?  They don’t.  We have obviously lowered wages and raised prices enough that economic contraction is built into the cake, and that is without adding any other emergencies to the equation.  You know, like the petrodollar collapse.  Or another oil price spike.  Or a stock market crash, when the 50% of companies not making a profit now go bankrupt.  Who can claim the Good Times ( relatively ) will stay with us forever more?  Best to try to insulate yourself from the worst parts of the rising prices and Go Redneck.  The middle class is already dead, a zombie.  Don’t cling to the illusion.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2Fpzaio )

 

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