Can't Afford a One Bedroom On Minimum Wage - Anywhere in America

a reply to: and14263

If you can afford to travel 25 miles to go to work, then you do not have money problems worth mentioning!

You are smarter than this and14363. If you could afford a train season pass for the journey, or a month pass for that matter, or, God forbid, pay daily, then you must have been LOADED by comparison to the sort of poverty that I have experienced in my life, and the sort of circumstances affecting families up and down the country, right now. Good greif, this is the real world we are talking about, not cloud cuckoo land where people waft about with nothing to do for a laugh.

People ARE stuck in cycles they cannot escape from, for reasons OUTSIDE their control, or any hope of their control, and any failure to accept and understand that is born not of honest appraisal of the situation, but of a stern disdain for those less fortunate than you are. YOU have been fortunate. For you, your hard work has paid dividends. For many, who have put in the same effort, and even more in some cases, that is not the case, and I find your unwillingness to understand that very disturbing indeed.

I love working. I love working hard. I love having a job which taxes my body and mind. But there are people out there working harder than I am, and getting less, and I do not even get properly paid for the work I do. I take a pay cut so our business can still run, a sacrifice I choose to make for the good of the business and our ability to keep a roof over our head.

However, I understand that there are people out there kicking all the arse they can and getting NOTHING like what they need in return, and I know that it is wrong for them to be in that situation, that these people deserve and should be getting sympathy and action on their behalf from their fellow countrymen, not vilification and abuse. Attitudes like yours, Dickensian as they are, do not help matters one whit.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: and14263
If you can afford to travel 25 miles to go to work, then you do not have money problems worth mentioning!...
...
...

People ARE stuck in cycles they cannot escape from, for reasons OUTSIDE their control, or any hope of their control, and any failure to accept and understand that is born not of honest appraisal of the situation, but of a stern disdain for those less fortunate than you are. YOU have been fortunate. For you, your hard work has paid dividends.

I knew you'd pick up the 25 mile travel.

Change it to jobs within 5 miles - Most can walk 5 miles in a couple of hours. That's not a bad journey to work, a 5 mile walk, and it's free.

To be honest, I did bike 16 miles to and from work everyday on a borrowed bike - It's little things like this - I made my own fortunate circumstances, I got myself out of the rut.

There probably are a few who are stuck beyond their control, but very very few. Most just need to open their eyes and get off their arses.

a reply to: TrueBrit

In order to help I will offer a free CV writing service.

a reply to: and14263

Those spectacles you wear must have some trippy tints in them.

I think you have entirely failed to grasp the severity of the situation, and the nature of it, and I think that failure to do so on the part of many in society, is only deepening the problem, and has nothing to offer to it as a solution.

a reply to: and14263

At the end of the day though, here's the problem.

Do you spend more than 30% of ALL your income on housing? If you do, is that by choice or necessity?

It doesn't matter how long it takes me to get to and from work, if a 40 hour work week isn't enough to pay my bills, put food on the table and pay my rent, then it's all for nothing pretty much.

Until the wage disparity is taken care of, this will only get worse.

~Tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower

When could you?

When was the last time a person could afford a 1 bedroom apartment on minimum wage?

Was it last year?

Ten years ago?

Twenty?

Forty years ago?

originally posted by: beezzer
a reply to: tothetenthpower

When could you?

When was the last time a person could afford a 1 bedroom apartment on minimum wage?

Was it last year?

Ten years ago?

Twenty?

Forty years ago?

The 70's (later years) is the last time that people got paid for an honest days works. Since then it's been a steady increase in productivity and profit, yet a stagnation, even decline in proper working wages.

~tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower

So it's been 40 years.

But it's only an issue now because all the focus is on minimum wage jobs (the only jobs available) and not on all the high paying jobs that have been lost due to;
Government over-regulation
Unions
Corporate greed
High taxes

Seems we're focusing on the wrong issue, personally.

a reply to: beezzer

But it's only an issue now because all the focus is on minimum wage jobs (the only jobs available) and not on all the high paying jobs that have been lost due to;

Well no, it's been an issue all along, just one that's never been addressed.

Government over-regulation

Yup, that's part of it.

Unions

That I will agree.

Corporate greed

These two go hand in hand.

High taxes

Had the taxes been left where they were, and not changed so violently by Reagan, then this would not be a problem either.

Seems we're focusing on the wrong issue, personally.

Focusing on these issues you listed, individually has not helped. Perhaps having a larger discussion about the wealth gap and the wage gap specifically would help address more than one of them. Since they mostly all carry a significant percentage of why things are why they are.

~Tenth

Subject already being discussed here. Please direct further comments to the extant thread. Thanks!

Thread closed.