How to live on $432 a month in America

Post by wredcoll » Fri, May 23, 2025, 11:12 PM UTC

K0balt wrote: post #117

silisili wrote: post #103

Higher income employees would pay way more than that in taxes alone. This is why properties in low and no income tax states skyrocketed. Assuming it's not high income but a real scrounger, this is leaving out way too much. Out of pocket health insurance will easily quadruple that number. Utilities could too, depending.

Out of pocket health insurance 1400 a month? Really? It that’s true, that is criminally ridiculous. Why do people accept that, when even in developing nations basic health care is free, and there are plenty of private choices. Decent health insurance costs about 150-300 a month the world over, except in the USA where it is ten times that for no reason whatsoever besides greed and the fact that healthcare is a basic n…

Post by coolcase » Fri, May 23, 2025, 11:13 PM UTC

xp84 wrote: post #241

skyyler wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of a budget for heating in an article that uses the term "American Siberia" is so hilariously out of touch that it makes the rest of the article farcical.

Literally mentioned in the article. Their electricity is literally less than 0.1x what I pay in California.

Post by [deleted] » Fri, May 23, 2025, 11:14 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #163

999900000999 wrote: post #87

>Though I and my wife do not presently live in Massena, we live nearby, and we’re doing exactly this — we do not have an automobile, nor do we want one. We use the rural county transit bus, which we have found to be extremely cheap and quite reliable; and it has certainly saved us thousands and thousands of dollars by liberating us from the onerous expense of keeping a car. This part has me screaming shenanigans. Unl…

That’s obviously not true, if you change what you “have” to go to. There are thousands of American towns that are about 10k population - large enough to have a Walmart and other stores, small enough to walk across in an hour or so.

Post by 8bitsrule » Fri, May 23, 2025, 11:14 PM UTC

fullStackOasis wrote: post #199

TrackerFF wrote: post #134

I looked through those numbers, and immediately thought to myself - hope you don't need to see a doctor for anything serious, or go to a dentist for that mater. FWIW, I grew up in rural nowhere (population 150, nearest town 45 miles away) - and I honestly don't know how anyone can live out in the boonies without a car. Taking the bus that goes 3 times a day is one thing, needing to move stuff is another thing. I mean…

> hope you don't need to see a doctor for anything serious, or go to a dentist for that mater. That's the first thing I thought about. His budget of $432/mo doesn't include health insurance. But $5K/y probably gets him Medicaid eligibility. Let's assume he's on Medicaid, then. In NY state, that covers quite a lot of dental care, if you believe this: https://www.health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/program/denta... Not…

Post by prmoustache » Fri, May 23, 2025, 11:17 PM UTC

xp84 wrote: post #245

II2II wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Granted, this was 20 years ago, but I remember taking the Greyhound and people were getting on or off the bus in the middle of nowhere. By nowhere, I mean the nowhere in the literal sense: at the intersection of two highways in the northern Ontario with no other development in sight. Of course, they also serviced the other types of nowhere: the lone gas station or the tiny village. The author is being somewhat mislea…

I agree that the bus in the scenario is implausible for most. But in real life, most rural people would simply own a car. The author describes car ownership's costs hyperbolically, but unless you're doing long-distance commuting, driving a $5000 car wouldn't add more than $200 to his monthly budget, which wouldn't change the math dramatically, while I'd argue it would improve quality of life tremendously, especially…