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How much Americans make in wages

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Re: How much Americans make in wages

#191

Post by fzeroracer »

scarface74 wrote: post #140
fzeroracer wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is remarkably ignorant of the actual circumstances that lower-class Americans have to deal with, especially when you share almost improbable statistics that are completely out of touch with reality. 30,000 is far from a decent income considering people get gouged on health insurance, which effectively functions as another tax on their post-tax income. When you start adding in the costs of food, internet, phone,…

According to paycheckcity.com, 30K a year is a net income of $2000 a month in GA. Rent - 800 Food - 400 Power/Water/Gas - 300 Internet - $50 Cell - $50 These are all reasonable numbers for Atlanta. It would be a stretch and you should probably have a room mate to give you some breathing room but it can be done. Also if you have roommates, you could afford a car and insurance. My son is living on his own in Atlanta so…

Which speaking of that, I sincerely hope your son doesn't end up needing insulin, or else he might end up running into trouble once he ages out of your insurance [1]

[1] https://truthout.org/articles/i-had-to-bury-my-26-year-old-s...

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#192

Post by badpun »

peterwwillis wrote: post #176
toasterlovin wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being downvoted, but if you look at a ranking of household income by ethnicity in the U.S., it's pretty clear that you're right. The highest earning ethnic group is Indian Americans. You can make the (terribly convoluted) argument that East Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) are somehow white, but there's no getting around the fact that Indians are brown . At least as brown as Mexicans and probably browner (Me…

Hooooo boy. First off, it's not in any way accurate to refer to groups of people by skin color. I know "white" Mexicans and "brown" Caucasians. Second, the parent comment is misguided for a number of reasons. Anyone suggesting "all white people do " are misguided because they're trading in racist stereotypes. But there is a trend that they are trying to point out, which is an inherent bias of the majority population…

> greater share of opportunities than any other group in this nation, which is shown by things like overall increased income, increased job opportunities, increased representation in government, increased representation on corporate boards, increased representation in the media and entertainment, etc.

Money, i.e. resources, is the ultimate score. Ultimately, power (politics, corporate management) is primarily about managing resources (money) within companies, and within society at large. So, given that Asians are doing better as a group than white people, it's really nonsensical to say that they're opressed by them. It looks more like that are actually thriving. You could maybe make a convoluted claim that they are opressed and would be doing even better if they weren't, but that's stretching it.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#193

Post by dpark »

Larrikin wrote: post #142
dpark wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also use the term “earn” but the numbers they are throwing around are entirely after-tax. That’s not even poor reporting. That’s intentionally misleading. No one thinks that money paid to the government in the form for tax is unearned by the individual.

The money that it says I make in my contract has basically been a meaningless number to me most of my life other than a hard number I don't need to calculate when comparing jobs. It is only now that I have a "true" job after graduate where I make enough money to be able to set aside some money before tax.

The money your employer pays you is what you actually earn. The fact that you pay taxes on your earnings does not reduce them. If your tax rate doubles next year, your earnings don't go down as a result (though your take-home will).

The IRS specifically defines earned income as what your employer pays you.

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-in...

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#194

Post by mac01021 »

masonic wrote: post #129
jnbiche wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

had the Republican party remained what they were 50 years ago Meaning, powerless and irrelevant at the Federal level and in 60% of the statehouses?

The sitting president 50 years (minus 10 days) ago was a Republican.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#195

Post by scarface74 »

iron0013 wrote: post #178
scarface74 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to paycheckcity.com, 30K a year is a net income of $2000 a month in GA. Rent - 800 Food - 400 Power/Water/Gas - 300 Internet - $50 Cell - $50 These are all reasonable numbers for Atlanta. It would be a stretch and you should probably have a room mate to give you some breathing room but it can be done. Also if you have roommates, you could afford a car and insurance. My son is living on his own in Atlanta so…

"We keep him on our family insurance and we can until he is 26." You really buried the lede. Will you also pay the health insurance for all the other hypothetical Atlanteans that you're claiming can get by on 30k?

Worse case, insurance on the exchange is $440 a month but I would assume someone making $30K has a full time job with group insurance. If not, and since it would be pretax - add $5280 a year.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#196

Post by mac01021 »

maxxxxx wrote: post #107
walrus01 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

These numbers are all I need to know to realize that something is going wrong with our economy. It's fine that some people make more than others but it's bad that the balance shifts more and more to the top.

You're saying you care nothing for the absolutes and only consider relative wealth.

Granted, it's not the case in reality, but all the numbers in the the post you're responding to are compatible with a world where the wealth of the poorest members of society has doubled (or even increased tenfold) over the same time period.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#197

Post by mac01021 »

notfromhere wrote: post #173
seibelj wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

MMT is economics for morons

What is the less moronic theory that I should read up on instead?

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#198

Post by tyler_dunkel »

jacobolus wrote: post #79
briandear wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However the top 20% pay over 80% of the taxes.

“You might be so broke you need to work two jobs and still can’t afford healthcare, education, or rent. But look on the bright side: you pay less taxes than the guys who have all the money!”

How are you working 2 jobs but cant afford rent...? Even at minimum wage you should easily be able to cover it. Unless your trying to support a whole family on that wage, in which case its a whole different discussion about the irresponsibility of starting a family before being ready.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#199

Post by maxxxxx »

mac01021 wrote: post #196
maxxxxx wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These numbers are all I need to know to realize that something is going wrong with our economy. It's fine that some people make more than others but it's bad that the balance shifts more and more to the top.

You're saying you care nothing for the absolutes and only consider relative wealth. Granted, it's not the case in reality, but all the numbers in the the post you're responding to are compatible with a world where the wealth of the poorest members of society has doubled (or even increased tenfold) over the same time period.

So we have an economy that produces a lot of wealth but if most of it goes to the top it's not really helpful for the rest. In my opinion it's much healthier for an economy if gains are more widely distributed so relative wealth is very important in the long run. Otherwise we are building up a new aristocracy.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#200

Post by [deleted] »

briandear wrote: post #77
walrus01 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

However the top 20% pay over 80% of the taxes.

[deleted]
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