The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Outpost Cafe => Topic started by: Psycho Bass Guy on July 16, 2013, 03:41:18 PM
-
Here's some advice on living from folks who know what it's like to have to work for one:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/07/15/mcdonalds_budget_no_food_no_heat.html
...because marketing executives at McDonald's and Visa are experts at low wages, giving them that is. Running percentage numbers and scaling them down with total income doesn't work and this chart is a stunning testament as to why.
-
Those numbers aren't far off my living conditions right now. I'm not putting $100 in savings, though. It's closer to $400. If you watch it, and listen to Dave Ramsey, you can live pretty comfortably with those numbers. I'm living on 55% of my gross, and putting 11% in my 401K. I still have room to move, and recently gave my daughter $2000 for her wedding without blinking.
-
$20 a month for health insurance, $90 electrical, no EATING, clothing, or gasoline at all? Seriously?
Horseshit!
-
$20 a month for health insurance, $90 electrical, no EATING, clothing, or gasoline at all? Seriously?
Horseshit!
My electric is about $35/mo. Yes, I do run the A/C. I seldom eat out, and I make tea by the gallon. I still get to indulge with fresh ground coffee, and my crock pot (plugged into an outlet timer) is my preferred cooking method. I don't think I'd have a fighting chance if I had a family to support.
-
Their "budget" doesn't cover food AT ALL. You buy groceries? Not on their budget.
Our utility started price-gouging about ten years ago and our costs have quadrupled even as their cost to buy power from TVA has been consistent and runs $250 for a small house. It was $60-80 when we first moved in with an older, less efficient heat pump and a slightly smaller water heater. I just can't fathom reasonable rates any more.
Health insurance is the about the same and coverage is lousy, so out-of-pocket costs with my issues about double that.
I can appreciate the idea of thrift, but the fact that corporations actually pretend that their employees can LIVE like this shows just how heartless they really are. The sons of bitches ought to have to live the way they think their employees should.
-
For a single guy, it can work, but it takes discipline. It also means that I need to rent. Owning a home would likely change a lot.
"Then your $27 dollars a day needs to cover your gasoline, and minor details like food and clothing along with entertainment.*"
My grocery budget is $150/mo. and gasoline is $200/mo. There is so much I really don't need, and I have room to wiggle a little. I buy clothes only on sale, or even (gasp) at the thrift stores. I just picked up 3 decent shirts (one is pretty nice and almost new) for $15. Just staying out of fast food joints and coffee shops is a huge savings.
-
It's widely circulated that Walmart advises part time employees how to take advantage of food stamps and other subsidies. Not piling on Wallyworld but even full time employees can't afford the health insurance that they offer - one of my wife's staffs spouse works for them and it is obscenely expensive.
It's always been much cheaper, on a spreadsheet anyway, to hire two part timers instead of one full time employee - which is really like stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime. Heaven forbid that a company develop a loyal employee with a sense of pride and responsibility >:(
-
my health insurance is 636 dollars a month. feel better now. :sad:
-
Health insurance is obscenely expensive, period. The only question is how much the employer subsidized it.
NOT meaning to get political here, but when the Affordable Care Act hits full force, from every indication, it will be much more expensive than now. That's why some parts were delayed until after the next congressional elections. Also, full-time jobs in the service industries will become almost non-existent; it will be too expensive for employers. There has already been a big move toward part-time, the general public hasn't been paying attention. Just wait -- you'll think today's costs are a bargain.
-
Health care costs will likely put the burden on the young and healthy, in order to fund the elderly and the sick.
-
My daughter has friend going to college for culinary training. The kid's had some tough luck but things were looking good for her last year. She got a part time job at an upscale fast food place and got bumped up to the point that she was working full time-ish. 2013 rolls around and she, and most everyone else, is bumped back to 28 hours a week.
Nofi - my insurance is about $450 BUT - it is now just catastrophic coverage. I get a physical for free and very basic generic meds as well - everything else is full cost until I hit a my deductible, $2500, and then I get coverage at 80% >:( Last year I had a farily decent PPO for less. We are scared shitless about what we'll get wacked with next year.
-
My health insurance doubled last year ($480 a month for family of 3) and we have to spend at least $3000 in med expenses before they cover more than the bare minimum. I can't wait for it to get even better when the "affordable" healthcare kicks in. :rolleyes:
-
Health care costs will likely put the burden on the young and healthy, in order to fund the elderly and the sick.
That's not likely, it's a baseline requirement. In order for the new system to lower rates, it is an absolute requirement that young, healthy people start carrying health insurance. Their premiums will subsidize the costs for older people who have higher health care costs.
NONE of the following is intended as political commentary, just my observations and thoughts........
I personally would have preferred a government-run health care plan because the companies are necessarily going to manage their plans to make considerable profits. The one advantage that a government-run plan would have had is eliminating the profit aspect, but that might have been negated by the size of the bureaucracy required to run it. OTOH, there's going to be a big new oversight bureaucracy anyway, so maybe that's a wash.
I personally think that (on a practical basis, not a political one) the health care industry had too much influence on the way the plan shaped up. No surprise there, as a government-run plan probably would have destroyed a substantial part of their industry. I like the concept behind the law, but I am far from convinced that the dollars and cents aspect will work. I fully expect the law to be modified significantly in its first few years.
As a university employee, I'm probably in as good a position as anyone relative to my health care plans, but I'm not far from retirement and I will be watching to see how this thing works out.
-
I can't wait for it to get even better when the "affordable" healthcare kicks in. :rolleyes:
It'll be interesting to see what it does to my costs/coverage. Betcha my employeer (and many others) will drop the spouse and kids when that hits - since they can go get their own "affordable" healthcare.
I'll take the Big Mac HMO for $20/mo, please! :)
-
my insurance of 636/mo is just for me. i have it with kaiser permanente. i have been with them over twenty years because i did not want to be at the mercy of my employer(s). it is very high but i can't really complain because the care i get is very good and it more than paid for itself when i got sick and medical costs ran way over 100k. still though...
-
Medicare for me. Any premium increases come out of SS COLA increases but can't be more than that.
-
Their "budget" doesn't cover food AT ALL. You buy groceries? Not on their budget.
Our utility started price-gouging about ten years ago and our costs have quadrupled even as their cost to buy power from TVA has been consistent and runs $250 for a small house. It was $60-80 when we first moved in with an older, less efficient heat pump and a slightly smaller water heater. I just can't fathom reasonable rates any more.
Health insurance is the about the same and coverage is lousy, so out-of-pocket costs with my issues about double that.
I can appreciate the idea of thrift, but the fact that corporations actually pretend that their employees can LIVE like this shows just how heartless they really are. The sons of bitches ought to have to live the way they think their employees should.
Since the budget for heating is $0 per month, I suppose someone could take his date to somewhere that had heating if they really wanted to splurge. Maybe I am misreading this, but I didn't find myself dazzled by their so-called budget, either.
-
My point, which has been somewhat obscured, is that this country has officially posted a major recognized decline in standard of living. The very idea of something like this coming from a bottom-tier employer and a usuary bank used to be a joke or metaphor. Now, it's acceptable business practice and woe to anyone who suggests that government intervene or the workers themselves organize to try and better their situation. The Supreme Court has ensured that these same people who put out 'suggested living conditions' have a louder legislative voice as a corporation than the workers do as voters thanks "freedom of corporate speech" and suspension of federal investigations into state elections. The US Congress is basically a rubber stamp for whomever has the money to buy the votes and the legal teams to write the legislation for Congress to pretend to debate while the executive branch has busied itself expanding a separate complete shadow government accountable to no one. Meanwhile, corporate stocks and profits have never, not even in the robber baron days, been more valuable, until they stumble in business, at which point, their actions are subsidized from the treasury. Murderers are paroled in seven years or less while people busted for using pot are serving life sentences and the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment to the Constitution might as well not exist, but you can always get a job at f***ing McDonald's.
-
My point, which has been somewhat obscured, is that this country has officially posted a major recognized decline in standard of living. The very idea of something like this coming from a bottom-tier employer and a usuary bank used to be a joke or metaphor. Now, it's acceptable business practice and woe to anyone who suggests that government intervene or the workers themselves organize to try and better their situation. The Supreme Court has ensured that these same people who put out 'suggested living conditions' have a louder legislative voice as a corporation than the workers do as voters thanks "freedom of corporate speech" and suspension of federal investigations into state elections. The US Congress is basically a rubber stamp for whomever has the money to buy the votes and the legal teams to write the legislation for Congress to pretend to debate while the executive branch has busied itself expanding a separate complete shadow government accountable to no one. Meanwhile, corporate stocks and profits have never, not even in the robber baron days, been more valuable, until they stumble in business, at which point, their actions are subsidized from the treasury. Murderers are paroled in seven years or less while people busted for using pot are serving life sentences and the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment to the Constitution might as well not exist, but you can always get a job at f***ing McDonald's.
Your point is crystal-clear to me and I agree with it.
-
$600 for monthly rent/mortgage? Who are they kidding (only in Montreal/some small town ). You can't get anything in Toronto (even the burbs) for less thean $800 (and I am being generous - my Brother was just looking for a place) unless you're willing to live in a frathouse with 10 random douchebags.
I'm totally with Psycho (though the health insurance thing doesn't apply up here.... at least not in the same way - we're still out of pocket for meds, optical and dental unless workplace benefits cover it, but they never cover it 100%).
Also I think they meant for food and clothes (as well as all the other stuff Psycho mentioned) to be included in the $100 'other' catagory - again, lol ($100 is a single week's grocery shop for an average couple at best).
Anyway, what about the current estimate of inflation at 1.x% - that's side-splittingly hilarious.
-
Your point is crystal-clear to me and I agree with it.
Acute clarity here too.
-
We get "free" healthcare here but I pay out about £300/€350/$460 a month in what is called "National Insurance", which also covers the pittance my pension will become, and benefits if I became unemployed...
Every working person here pays about 10% to 12% of their earnings to this scheme, which is not voluntary...