The US Politics |OT|

[Bofferbrauer2]

Baalzamon said:

Bofferbrauer2 said:

$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.

While it is livable, it seriously limits options. You can't put any money on the side, and considering retirement funds are not included into that calculation (but again, already included into mine from Luxembourg), it means absolutely nothing may go awry and children are out of question. If something happens, the troubles get immediately apparent. As such, I do support a higher minimum wage, as while you can live with the mentioned amount, you're out of options if something happens.

The raise doesn't have to be big, especially if a healthcare and college tuition overhaul would also come, which should give the people more money in the end. Take away the student debt and slash a third off the healthcare and that's already about $350 more per month with the given example, which might get lowered a tiny bit with a small tax raise to cover the costs (most tax increases would be on the richer people and especially to top 20%), so let's say in that example we would then be at $3400 after taxes, so still a $250 raise. Not too much, but gives at least some flexibility. A modest raise to $12.50 per hour instead of the $12 in the described model would already be enough to give those people enough flexibility ans assurance in case something happens or if they want some more special spendings once in a while, like a holiday trip.

That being said, I also support a mechanism that would check and revise those numbers on a regular basis. In Luxembourg for instance, we have a market basket on which the prices are monitored and indexed, and all wages and benefits are tied to that index. If the median price in the index has risen by over 2.5%, then all wages in the country get a raise of 2.5%, too, and the health insurance and retirement deductions of the monthly wage also go up by 2.5%. As such, Luxembourgish wages essentially keep up with the inflation without the need to be a master negotiator to get a raise every year or so. This is especially helpful for the weaker populations without a good position to negotiate a raise to begin with otherwise.