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How much Americans make in wages

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Re: How much Americans make in wages

#91

Post by jacobolus »

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…

General advice: treat any “loans” to family or close friends like gifts. Once you hand the money over, imagine it is gone forever.

Then if the loan is paid back, you will be happily surprised. But if it’s not you won’t be bitter about it, and it won’t ruin your relationship.

Corollary: don’t lend your family members an amount of money that would cause you hardship if it’s not paid back. (Obviously extreme circumstances call for careful consideration of the particulars. This is not blanket advice)

YMMV.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#92

Post by lovich »

kough wrote: post #37
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.

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.

I'm in a current situation and I subsidize emergencies for my immediate family whether it's medical, cars breaking down, or something else.

In context though, they did the same for me when I was poorer than all of them and I do it in return now that I am doing well. I also have an open offer to family to help their first month or two of rent in an expensive area if they are looking for a job there, so that they become part of this safety net.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#93

Post by lovich »

jdlyga wrote: post #4

30k is very low. If your company offers 6 holidays per year, that equals out to $14.71 per hour. That's below minimum wage in New York City right now.

Commenting here since I can't t reply to the dead comment.

How many people live in Wichita vs New York or a similarly expensive city? If half the country lives in metro areas then 14.71 is a low median wage

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#94

Post by bitdeveloper »

darpa_escapee wrote: post #72
mc32 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a member as described. Extra money and effort are wasted on them. Some people do have a good head on their shoulders and just need _some_ help, but not a “subsidy”. Like I said, younger sibling needs some help? Sure. Need some money to tide over rent this one time, ok. No recurring stream though.

Statistically, there are far more earnest people who are hard on their luck than there are people who are pathological grifters.

How would that even be statistically quantified?

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#95

Post by seibelj »

JDiculous wrote: post #86
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-...

MMT says that printing money has no effect if you give it to certain people. I’ve yet to hear of a real-world example where a major economy doubles or triples their monetary supply with no negative effect, which is what MMT will have you believe (“don’t give it to the banks - give it to poor people in Idaho!”).

If it sounds too good to be true then it is.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#96

Post by extra88 »

darpa_escapee wrote: post #72
mc32 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a member as described. Extra money and effort are wasted on them. Some people do have a good head on their shoulders and just need _some_ help, but not a “subsidy”. Like I said, younger sibling needs some help? Sure. Need some money to tide over rent this one time, ok. No recurring stream though.

Statistically, there are far more earnest people who are hard on their luck than there are people who are pathological grifters.

There are lots of other reasons to not give someone money besides them being a grifter. There’s not feeding their addiction, not enabling them to continue postponing taking action that will improve themselves or their situation beyond the short term. People can be simultaneously earnest and delusional or fearful.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#97

Post by mirimir »

octorian wrote: post #71
mirimir wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably you're not doubling the hours. Because decades ago, women worked at home, but weren't paid.

And then you should also factor in the value of the work women did at home, and weren't paid for. Because they're now having to pay someone else to do that work, which reduces the effective income gain of them working.

Yes, very true. And that makes it worse.

I do think that the US middle class is shrinking. But there's a lot more involved than TFA addresses.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#98

Post by extra88 »

bitdeveloper wrote: post #94
darpa_escapee wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Statistically, there are far more earnest people who are hard on their luck than there are people who are pathological grifters.

How would that even be statistically quantified?

I took “statistically” to be just a figure of speech to bolster what was simply their view of the world.

However, you probably could interview a few hundred people a label some “earnest,” others “grifters,” and find there are many more of the former.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#99

Post by extra88 »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #53
ausbah wrote: post #5

>There is one important caveat to keep in mind when thinking about our dataset. The SSA numbers include any wage earners whatsoever, even part-time workers like students and teenagers. not leading with this feels like poor reporting

When you look at the salary data for full-time-employed white men of prime working age the statistics aren't much rosier: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LEU0253204200A Median salary: USD 34270.

Did you mean to link to something else? That y axis is the quantity of persons who are white men and working full time, not their median salaries.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#100

Post by tjr225 »

jnbiche wrote: post #83
christophilus wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Agreed.
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