Huey, I know in your world everyone gets a free lunch, but in some of those cases, that is why we have welfare. That doesn’t excuse the person from trying to make better decisions. I work with many families that do quite well for themselves not working or working minimum wage jobs and all of their kids have cell phones, nice clothes, etc. People cheat the system and will always do so.
Report: A minimum-wage worker can't afford a 2-bedroom apartment anywhere in the U.S.
- Thread starter cigaretteman
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The real fantasy Huey is to expect other people to foot the bill for those that do not take responsibility for their own actions. Once "somebody else" is paying the freight, there is no incentive for someone to behave responsibly. There is no amount of taxation that will solve that problem.
What happened to the people that had kids in high school? That's a one way ticket to Poorville.
People need to look also into small communities near by.
I had a buddy from HS who works at McDonald’s (never liked school). Anyways he lives in a small town about 10miles from work. He bought a 3 bedroom 2 bath in this small town for 27,000!! I couldn’t believe it when he sent us pictures. There is literally nothing in the small town, but he got a house for less than a mini van!
He also works part time at some yard company as well. So he has two jobs but he only works 1 weekend a month. Sounds like he is doing okay for himself. I give him credit for working his tail off and owning a house.
I had a buddy from HS who works at McDonald’s (never liked school). Anyways he lives in a small town about 10miles from work. He bought a 3 bedroom 2 bath in this small town for 27,000!! I couldn’t believe it when he sent us pictures. There is literally nothing in the small town, but he got a house for less than a mini van!
He also works part time at some yard company as well. So he has two jobs but he only works 1 weekend a month. Sounds like he is doing okay for himself. I give him credit for working his tail off and owning a house.
This is what I found after one google search:
http://pregnantoncampus.studentsforlife.org/research/
Here are some highlights:
Did You Know?
- Over 2 million college-aged women (ages 18-24) become pregnant each year.
- Unintended pregnancy rates are highest among poor and low-income women, women aged 18–24, cohabiting women and minority women.
- About 26% of undergraduate students are parents.
- 4.8 million undergraduate students are raising dependent children.
- Of the total student parent population: 71% Women (3.4 million), 29% Men (1.4 million).
- 43% parenting students are single mothers (2 million); 11% are single fathers (533,000).
- 32% of college women are raising dependent children.
- 13% of students are single parents.
- Almost 5% of students have a child under the age of 1.
- 12% of students have at least 1 child under the age of 5.
- Less than 1 in 10 students with children complete a bachelor’s degree within 6 years of college entry.
- 61% of women who have children after enrolling in community college fail to finish their degree, which is 65% higher than the rate for those who don’t have children.
- Unplanned births account for nearly 1 in 10 dropouts among female students at community colleges, and 7% of dropouts among community college students overall.
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I remember when I went out on my own, late teens early 20's - roughly around 1981.
We were in the depths of ridiculous inflation. Jobs were friggin' really hard to find for an uneducated person like myself. I was a busboy in a restaurant in town full time nights and also worked part time days at a pizza chain. I effectively made minimum wage or barely above it for both jobs.
I remember I'd see construction workers and factory workers who got laid off that were taking restaurant jobs when they couldn't find work. Times were BAD.
I still couldn't afford my own place. I'm pretty sure I never lived in my own apartment until 1987 when I was 25, and it was a single room efficiency at that. I always had roommates otherwise - hell at one point my buddy and I shared a one bedroom apartment...sleeping bags on the floor type stuff.
NONE of us were stupid enough to knock a chick up. Yet we were smart enough to not live beyond our means and not waste money needlessly to ensure we always had roofs over our heads.
Hell, we wouldn't even turn on the air, didn't have cable. Couldn't afford it. I didn't have cable TV until I was 28 years old in 1990.
So...I saved my money, paid cash to go to college, got better jobs. I never, ever took government assistance. I busted my ass to get out of the proverbial poor house while not compounding the problem with stupid decisions that I alone controlled.
We were in the depths of ridiculous inflation. Jobs were friggin' really hard to find for an uneducated person like myself. I was a busboy in a restaurant in town full time nights and also worked part time days at a pizza chain. I effectively made minimum wage or barely above it for both jobs.
I remember I'd see construction workers and factory workers who got laid off that were taking restaurant jobs when they couldn't find work. Times were BAD.
I still couldn't afford my own place. I'm pretty sure I never lived in my own apartment until 1987 when I was 25, and it was a single room efficiency at that. I always had roommates otherwise - hell at one point my buddy and I shared a one bedroom apartment...sleeping bags on the floor type stuff.
NONE of us were stupid enough to knock a chick up. Yet we were smart enough to not live beyond our means and not waste money needlessly to ensure we always had roofs over our heads.
Hell, we wouldn't even turn on the air, didn't have cable. Couldn't afford it. I didn't have cable TV until I was 28 years old in 1990.
So...I saved my money, paid cash to go to college, got better jobs. I never, ever took government assistance. I busted my ass to get out of the proverbial poor house while not compounding the problem with stupid decisions that I alone controlled.
Why is everyone acting like you SHOULDNT have sex until you consider the consequences. Many have asked "so you just shouldnt have sex then?" And my answer is absolutely!! Until you've considered all your options that's exactly what I would suggest
Oh my god responsibility!?!?! No way we could ask this of people...
I think you are saying you shouldn't have sex until you are ready for the consequences and I say good for you. That is the ideal situation, but not the reality for most people. I doubt it is the reality for most honest people who post on this board.
I know people who got pregnant while on birth control. Jeff Goldblum is right. Nature finds a way.
At times you have to step out of your gravy minimum wage job and get a real job or work two jobs. Life’s a bitch if you didn’t prepare yourself for it or you can have a bunch of kids and go section 8. Can’t hold everyone’s hand through life.
How is a single mother supposed to work 2 jobs and take care of her child? It might be possible with support from her extended family, but otherwise it's not going to work.
I've brought up divorce several times in this thread. Or what about getting laid off from an industry with skills not translatable like coal mining? These people may have started out with two incomes or a good paying job, but their circumstances changed. Preparation is nice but often life doesn't care about plans.
People get roommates. People go on welfare. People get child support. For the love of God, do you live in a bubble that you do not see how well people do in Iowa working minimum wage? Working at McDonalds should not be a career and society should not have to pay for one who chooses to make it a career. For those with disabilities, they get a nice govt check to subsidize there income. You want to think of all of the reasons why people should make more money, but don’t spend anytime thinking about the decisions one should make to make ends meet.
As Judge Smails said in Caddyshack, “The world needs ditch diggers too.”
I get this type of thing...but I also would state, what did you do to prepare if the job or chosen career disappears. Here's my personal example, I've posted this before.
In 2004, I had a great job, not making big money but more money I had ever made in my life. I was single, and cash positive. Unfortunately, two different jobs, I lost 100% of my retirement that was company stock in nature...both companies went belly up, therefore the retirement they gave us disappeared damn near overnight and we couldn't convert it to something else. I wasn't in big debt, but I had a massive truck payment at the time.
I was apartment living at the time, and wanted to get my own place for the first time in my life. I knew I could get a loan to buy a lot of house...but at that time, it didn't seem right to as a single income, to go into what the banks wanted me to do. I had to completely start over with my retirement in my 40's to catch up with. No bank wanted to loan me $50k. I couldn't get a loan for a cheap place. But $200k, hell yeah sign here, house or condo is yours.
I wound up borrowing money from my mother and buying a mobile home, a cheap one at that.
Why? Because I knew at some point, chances are at some point, the business I was in (telecom) was going to dry up into wireless. Which a decade later is EXACTLY what happened.
What I'm saying is...that decision right there saved my ass the last 3 years cause I've been mostly unemployed, and suffered various ailments to where I couldn't work if I wanted to most the entire time.
I planned for something bad happening. I had savings, I was 100% debt free. I lived frugally those 10 years. I've been able to survive this miserable 3 years because I planned for shit happening way ahead of time.
I may be off the mark, but my bet is not many people do that.
You are right not many people do that. What would have happened if your mom hadn't loaned you the money to buy the mobile home?
Almost everyone needs a hand up at some time. For some people the only hand they can rely on is the government. A living wage might actually help many of those dependant on the government to improve their lives and be able to step away from welfare programs.
Don't tell me after spending billions of dollars on sex education in public schools, young adults still don't know how to protect themselves.
Coal mining isn’t a good example to support your position. It has lots of transferable skills: mechanics, heavy equipment operation, truck driving, and welding to name a few. The other transferable skill is hard work. I’ve known laid off coal miners that would bye a cheap lawn mower and start mowing yards to make it by.
Back to this.. As has been pointed out, as you earn more, these benefits are cut back. Probably around $12/ hr they disappear. You have to cross a higher threshold to have the same standard of living. Same thing with working more hours.
Make a valid point then. The world is a cruel place. You and I and 99% of the posters here won by being born in the USA. You’re just ignorant of what else exists in this world.
How many times do people have to bring up child support for those who get divorced or have a child out of wedlock?
Why does this thread show up every 6 months or so? It’s the exact same minimum wage can’t afford a two bedroom argument.
It also gets beat down every time, usually by lefties and righties.
You do not need a two bedroom apartment to live. End of story.
It also gets beat down every time, usually by lefties and righties.
You do not need a two bedroom apartment to live. End of story.
Plenty of people live hours from the nearest Target. In many of those places, people are providing total care for completely dependent individuals for that same $$.
Even though some doofus tried to pre-empt what I'm going to write, the fact remains:
MINIMUM WAGE IS NOT WHAT YOU ASPIRE TO, ITS WHAT YOU MAKE AT YOUR FIRST JOB - or your last one when you're retired and want out of the house 20 hours a week.
Phugging idiots.
If you find yourself in a SNF recovering from sepsis, broken femur, or cancer surgery, the most experienced person regularly lifting you out of bed, on to the commode or wheelchair will likely be making considerably less than $15 an hour.
With some hard work and c-cap, also known as child care assistance program.
Jfc. Who here is saying people don’t need a hand once in awhile? That’s not the problem or the point here at all. It’s the people that CONSTANTLY need the hand. It’s called enabling.
And probably considerably more than minimum wage. Also. Who cares? Don’t like it, go work butt off and make something better out of your life.
Good grief. The amount of enabling in this thread is ridiculous.
Kept squirreling money away. It would have just taken me a year or two longer until I had the cash. At the time I was saving roughly $500 a month. I borrowed $8k on a 5 year term (and paid 6% interest btw).
Paid her off within 2 years. I've also had to dump money into the place, probably $20k when it's all said and done. Roof, siding, windows, all new appliances. Everything I own inside it pretty much has been purchased since I moved in.
I will get none of it back as far as an investment is concerned...but it still gave me flexibility if shit really hit the fan. I'm debt free, not even a credit card balance.
Tomorrow is a big day health-wise. Hopefully things are looking up there, and I got a line this week on a good job finally. Hopefully both of them turn out for the best cause not throwing money into retirement the last 2.5 years has sucked.
Exited reality? LOL. Get a hold of yourself. I've not once said they poor people shouldn't have kids/divorced/etc. You throw out a solution I find to be terribly ineffective and also giving our govt more power to remain ineffective while slowly degrading normal citizens rights. There are plenty of solution other than big govt, get out of your lazy mindset of "lets tax more and let big brother handle this."
1) Where is a women "forced" to carry a child?
2) What is your definition of often? Do you have statistics that show how many mothers get no help from the father?
3) Oh no, no alcohol or tobacco for 9 months...the horror. Also LOL at you discussing how their body will be changed forever but how terrible it is they cant use substances that have shown to do way worse to their bodies.
Seriously man. Hoping for some great news for you the next couple days. Good luck.
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