The US Politics |OT|

[Baalzamon]

Bofferbrauer2 said:

SpokenTruth said:

I did a quick budget based on US averages.  This is the average for a 2 person household and I'm using your wage and tax data.

$3,508 per month after taxes.

Avg health insurance plus spouse - $600.

Avg 1 Br rent - $960.
Avg car payment - $300 x2.
Avg car insurance payment - $125 x2.
Avg gas/fuel for car - $100 x2
Avg Phone - $60 x2.
Avg student loan debt payment (AS degree) - $140 x2.
Avg CC debt payment - $189 x2.
Avg 1 Br electric payment - $120.
Avg 1 Br water payment - $50.
Avg Internet payment - $80.
Avg food spend - $385.

Remainder = -$525 per month. 

Remove CC and student loan debt (again, these are averages) = $143 per month....$37.75 per week for 2 people.

We're the richest country on Earth and these are average rates, debt free for 2 people at $12 per hour.  Yeah, that's frikkin broken.

$600 for health insurance??? WTF? In Luxembourg we would get deducted less than half that amount per month from our paycheck (calculated from a 3800€ per month, which after taxes and deductions would be about 3200€, so around $3500. But that is a single pay, as minimum monthly wage is over 2000€, too much to be comparable with the example at hand. And my wife and any children we'd have together would still get full protection) and still have vastly better healthcare. No wonder healthcare in the US is so rigged.

The rent is highly dependent on where one lives, but in cities, it's generally pretty high. And it ate most of my paycheck when I was living alone, too, so I can relate on that.

Also, phone, electricity and Internet seem to expensive to me. Phone and Internet certainly are points where one could go lower to cut costs. Doesn't have to be a new iPhone every year after all, right?

The car payment... why not get an used car instead or use your car for longer period before replacing it? Cuts costs quite a lot.

While I agree that there wouldn't be much left, it is livable if you can rein yourself in a bit.

Yea health insurance is not cheap here. Granted, with a $50k income the max you will pay for a Silver plan under Obama Care is $4700/year (total), or $400/mo (so we just generated an additional $200/mo). There are further potential subsidies for some states as well.

But the point of minimum wage is kind of what you mentioned. Not a ton left, but it is absolutely livable.