SpokenTruth said:
I just calculated $252 per month health insurance is the average for a single person aged 21. And it ranges by state from a low of $180 in Utah to $366 in Wyoming ($426 in Alaska but that's to be expected). What? You thought we've been joking about health care and insurance costs in those other threads? Want to cover your family of 4? Close to $900 per month depending on age and state. Oh, and my initial example wasn't minimum wage now was it? It was $10 per hour. So my example shows them already going up that ladder. I only showed minimum age because that's what happens when you move from a city to a rural area. Wages drop. They don't stay the same. And yes, there are social benefits but the right wants to gut them...many want to completely get rid of them. But social welfare doesn't always cover enough. Roommates are more common in the urban cores of the bigger cities in the US. It's rare in smaller cities, suburbs and rural regions. Our houses, apartments and leasing laws/contracts are simply not often designed with that in mind. It's all built around the way things were decades ago when a single income allowed you to easily own your home, cars, health car, etc.... Basically, our buying power today is a fraction of what it used to be. |
I would argue poor people now are living more lavish lifestyles than ever before.
There is a reason the average house size used to be like half the size it is now. Entire families used to own 1 car. People didn't have computers, phones, tvs, etc.
Buying power isn't the problem, it is people believing they are entitled (despite being poor) to a much much better lifestyle than the poor ever used to have.
Money can't buy happiness. Just video games, which make me happy.