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How much Americans make in wages

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Re: How much Americans make in wages

#81

Post by tfigment »

jurassic wrote: post #52
kough wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, do you subsidize your siblings? I'm going to be in the same situation and I'm not sure what I'm going to end up doing but I think I'm going to end up doing it.

Yeah, moderately. This year I gave about $7k to each sibling which is life-changing for them and not really a hardship for me other than slightly delaying my home-ownership goal. For one sibling, I'm the safety net when crises happen that they can't afford. E.g. can't come up with their car insurance deductible, water heater broke, etc. They don't ask but I always offer when it's clear that a small outlay would spare…

You are a good person. Money is really good to keep separate though at least for many people I think. I've done similar things like loaned my older brother enough to get through nursing school as he was stocking at Target at 33 and I thought this was a better path. I was better off then but not well off and this cause some strains. When he was doing better it was hard to get him to pay back anything even at 0% interest (I eventually gave up and made it a a gift though wasn't the original intent).

I also loaned my dad basically my life savings to bail out his company which the great recession ended bankrupting him anyway. This caused a strain with our relationship mostly because he felt and continues to feel extremely guilty about it even though I was able to rebuild my savings since then. Now I pay half his rent and try to avoid tying my finances too closely to him to try and avoid his creditors and possible future medicaid clawbacks. Money and family can be tricky.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#82

Post by tossaccount123 »

walrus01 wrote: post #49
jurassic wrote: post #32

I feel this a lot in my own family. I’m in tech at a fairly privileged BigCo. Siblings work retail gigs for a small fraction of what I bring home. I’ve had raises and bonuses equal to what one of my siblings makes in a year.

"The authors write that "the incomes of the top 1% collectively made up 11% of national income in 1980, but now constitute above 20% of national income, while the 20% of US national income that was attributable to the bottom 50% in 1980 has fallen to just 12% today. Further, "while average pre-tax income for the bottom 50% has stagnated at around $16,000 since 1980, the top 1% has experienced 300% growth in their inc…

globalization only benefits the rich. They can arbitrage labor and then keep the difference in profit. The supposed lowering of cost to make up for job loss and wage reduction didn't happen

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#83

Post by jnbiche »

christophilus wrote: post #60
gshsk wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Helping your siblings is communism?

This is what Fox news and the modern GOP have done to my country.

Note: I'm an ardent capitalist, not particularly partisan by nature, and probably would be a Republican at this point if my life had the Republican party remained what they were 50 years ago. Nonetheless, I'm often stunned at what we've become thanks to modern GOP-inspired propaganda. What would my dear (and communism-hating, btw) grandparents think of such comments, when it was a dear sibling's help that allowed the family to survive the depression?

Propaganda sucks.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#84

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

tfigment wrote: post #81
jurassic wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, moderately. This year I gave about $7k to each sibling which is life-changing for them and not really a hardship for me other than slightly delaying my home-ownership goal. For one sibling, I'm the safety net when crises happen that they can't afford. E.g. can't come up with their car insurance deductible, water heater broke, etc. They don't ask but I always offer when it's clear that a small outlay would spare…

You are a good person. Money is really good to keep separate though at least for many people I think. I've done similar things like loaned my older brother enough to get through nursing school as he was stocking at Target at 33 and I thought this was a better path. I was better off then but not well off and this cause some strains. When he was doing better it was hard to get him to pay back anything even at 0% intere…

> Money and family can be tricky.

Maybe, but on your death bed which one do you think you are going to have the most regrets about?

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#85

Post by rainsil »

skilled wrote: post #65

I honestly wonder are people that delusional that they overlook the ridiculous debt that the country is in? Don't get me wrong, I am not from America myself but I have a lot of friends from there, and I generally don't hear anything good about the 'American dream'. If you take a hard step back, like way back. And take a moment to look at the "situation" with an outside perspective, don't you think it's a little ridic…

The national debt problem is somewhat overblown in popular opinion. Sovereign debt, in a country that pays it in its own currency, is bounded by inflation, not tax receipts. In practice this means that the US can reduce its debt to more manageable levels by permitting mild inflation (something I can see the Fed doing) and instituting greater fiscal responsibility at the federal level (perhaps less likely).

Also, it's important to note that strictly speaking, growing debt doesn't matter as long as the GDP grows by the same amount. Of course, that's not happening, so there is a problem. But as long as there is some leeway for inflation to increase (which there currently is), the debt is ultimately manageable.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#86

Post by JDiculous »

skilled wrote: post #65

I honestly wonder are people that delusional that they overlook the ridiculous debt that the country is in? Don't get me wrong, I am not from America myself but I have a lot of friends from there, and I generally don't hear anything good about the 'American dream'. If you take a hard step back, like way back. And take a moment to look at the "situation" with an outside perspective, don't you think it's a little ridic…

Government debt denominated in one's own currency is not really a serious issue because governments can print their own currency to pay it off. Yes this can result in inflation, but the inflationary effects are vastly overstated. Most of the inflation happens at the point of spending.

I recommend reading up on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)

http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/01/diagrams-dollars-...

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#87

Post by natalyarostova »

aaomidi wrote: post #58
mc32 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t you think they migh become codependent? I’d lead them in the right direction, give them advice, etc., but not subsidize, unless they are truly out in the streets. I can see if it’s your little brother or little sister and helping out with some tuition though. Also hand-me-downs are okay.

With the current situation in America, there's really no other thing to do. Yes they might become codependent, but if you look at the situation realistically there's not a lot they can do to change the situation. Being there as a safety net can take a lot of mental pressure off of them.

On the other hand, having family take care each other is a more robust and decentralized system than us all being atomized and being cared for by the state.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#88

Post by anoncoward111 »

hueving wrote: post #70
anoncoward111 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, do you want a specific number? Because if you go to the Wikipedia page for "List of US Metropolitan Statistical Areas", you'll see the following Amarillo TX population: 265,000 NY, LA, CHI, DAL, HOU, DC, MIA: 70,000,000

It's easy to find decent living on $60k in DAL, HOU, CHI, and MIA if you're willing to go out to the suburbs where, guess what, tons of people live.

Even if there are millions of people (out of the 7m in Dallas) who are supposedly prospering on Texas' favorable housing/gas/income tax situation, this statistically is not the case in higher tax locations, such as the entire Northeast USA, Chicago, and all of California.

Believe me, I want all of us to be like Texas.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#89

Post by [deleted] »

tfigment wrote: post #81
jurassic wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, moderately. This year I gave about $7k to each sibling which is life-changing for them and not really a hardship for me other than slightly delaying my home-ownership goal. For one sibling, I'm the safety net when crises happen that they can't afford. E.g. can't come up with their car insurance deductible, water heater broke, etc. They don't ask but I always offer when it's clear that a small outlay would spare…

You are a good person. Money is really good to keep separate though at least for many people I think. I've done similar things like loaned my older brother enough to get through nursing school as he was stocking at Target at 33 and I thought this was a better path. I was better off then but not well off and this cause some strains. When he was doing better it was hard to get him to pay back anything even at 0% intere…

[deleted]

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#90

Post by natalyarostova »

save_ferris wrote: post #30
natalyarostova wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 1% aren't some clandestine group who trick people. Reality is just a highly complex set of different distributions of people interacting with each other, economic structure, government, and culture. Treat and solve it as a systems issue. Attributing maligned motives to small discretized sets of people doesn't solve problems.

Agreed. What is the solution to this systems issue, in your opinion?

Gather all the best ideas, and run lots of small decentralized experiments. Evaluate and iterate. I don't trust anyone who claims to see the solution as clearly as day.
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