101–110 of 210 posts
There is a linguistic problem here - extending the term 'middle class' to hide prevailing poverty in the US. You are not middle class if: - you will lose home, car if you are out of job for 6-10 months; - you don't take 30 days vacation a year; - you cannot afford health services without going to debt; - you cannot send your kids to university; - your diet is mostly junk food because you can't afford fresh stuff. If…
That's insane.
LA really needs to work on providing restrooms. The RV convoys aren't really that much of a problem themselves (some individuals are, but so can be those with homes). Instead what they leave behind is a problem - feces, urine and trash. I'm sure most people would rather not do this on a sidewalk or under an overpass, but if they have no other option it's hard to blame them. To add insult to injury, city has proven un…
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/health/sd-me-hepati...
There is a linguistic problem here - extending the term 'middle class' to hide prevailing poverty in the US. You are not middle class if: - you will lose home, car if you are out of job for 6-10 months; - you don't take 30 days vacation a year; - you cannot afford health services without going to debt; - you cannot send your kids to university; - your diet is mostly junk food because you can't afford fresh stuff. If…
It's cheaper to buy fresh food than junk food. If you're buying junk food it's because you don't have a place to cook or you're too lazy to cook.
The conclusion to save you a click: Food in the UK has never been more affordable and healthy food is generally cheaper than unhealthy food. A day’s diet that meets the requirements of the Eatwell Guide can be purchased for less than the price of two cheap supermarket ready-meals and for much less than a single meal at a fast food chain. Switching to healthier versions of many staple products can be achieved at no extra cost, and a wide range of fruit, vegetables and carbohydrates can be bought in supermarkets for less than £1 per kilogram. Five portions of fruit and vegetables can be purchased for as little as 30p.
Some studies that have come to the opposite conclusion have used a cost-per-calorie measure of food pricing which makes high-energy food appear expensive regardless of the cost of a meal. Others have compared a small selection of food products which are classified as ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’ on the basis of relatively minor differences. By looking at the cost by edible weight and studying the price of typical food portions, this report has been able to make better comparisons between the cost of healthy and unhealthy diets in Britain today.
We conclude that the real question is not why unhealthy food is so cheap but why people consume unhealthy food despite it being more expensive. The answer, we suggest, is that taste and convenience often play a larger role in people’s food choices than price or nutritional quality.
I can’t help but think of Snow Crash where Hiro Protagonist (and many others) lived in the U-Store-It former storage facility. This is the the real cost of allowing (particularly foreign) capital to be parked in real estate in the developed world. In NYC for example most new developments are ultra-luxury not because building affordable apartments is uneconomic, it’s just that the ultra-luxury end is way more profitab…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's cheaper to buy fresh food than junk food. If you're buying junk food it's because you don't have a place to cook or you're too lazy to cook.
My metric for food price is calories per penny. For example, the 760 calorie slice of pizza for $1.99 at Costco works out to about 3.8 calories per penny, while the 500 calorie Caesar salad for $3.99 works out to about 1.3 calories per penny. In my worked example, the fresh food is more expensive than the junk food from the point of view of 'How much money do I need to spend to keep myself alive today?' Could you pos…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Serious question: why are you having children in such a financially precarious situation when it’s only going to increase your living costs? EDIT: by “financially precarious” I mean that above you said you were a new grad having difficulty finding work. I assume it is your intent to work after the baby is born (rather than being the primary caregiver) or it wouldn’t matter so much about finding work. If your wife ret…
Not everyone "decides" to have kids. Sometimes it just happens.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't need to cook in order to eat well. Salads are a thing.
You need to do the dishes when done. I am familiar with people who are saving money in order to have the sewer lateral fixed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think you're facing what they're facing. Sounds like you make quite a bit more than the people profiled in this article.
His anecdote is more powerful because of his income. You'd expect someone with low income to have trouble finding housing... that's a problem, but the situation makes sense. When someone struggles to find housing while making multiples of middle income, something is deeply fucked. That says a lot about how bad it is for everyone else.
I... disagree that upper middle income immigrants having a hard time says anything definitive about the situation of the local poor, at least in the bay area. There are lots of laws and rules made to benefit the poor long term residents at the expense of those upper-middle income newer immigrants.
My least-employed little brother works in a hardware store in San Francisco. He's got a beautiful rent-controlled apartment with an ocean view. Sure I have a lot more freedom than he does, in that I could get into a apartment around here, but... paying market rate for his apartment would be difficult even on my income. I mean, I could do it, but it would necessitate lifestyle changes.
California mostly charges you property tax based on what you paid originally for your house, which means that of the lower income people I know around here? more of them own or live with friends/family who own than rent.
I mean, I'm not saying that the poor don't have it hard... I am just pointing out that we have laws that help people who have been here for a long time, laws that seem to make things easier for the lower income, and laws that actively make life difficult for the new arrivals.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with you, though in the replies you are seeing the difference between how OECD countries define "poor" and how Americans defines "poor". The vast majority of people in Canada, Australia, Western Europe, etc. would be disgusted by how much "middle class" Americans work, how little vacation they get and how much they get for their tax dollars. In the eyes of virtually every Developed Country, "middle class" Ame…
You seem to have left out the fact that Americans make much more than their Canadian, Western European, or Australian counterparts?
But how much of that gap is left if you factor in things like health care, access to education and infrastructure?
I'll be facing this soon as well, at least they've got RV's. After getting back from my third open house for the week, with double digit atendees, I think the bay area just isn't for me. A perfect credit score and a job making double the median wage is not enough to land a 1 bedroom apartment apparently. I'll probably end up sleeping on someones couch for a few months to finish my work contract, and get out of this h…
If you are doing consulting that can be done remotely, live in Nevada and fly to California when you need. Flights are cheap and plentiful. If you're running or starting a web-based business, then you can run that from pretty much anywhere, and you'd be insane to do it in California with such a punitive tax system. There's just no point to living in California these days.