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How much Americans make in wages

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Re: How much Americans make in wages

#201

Post by tyler_dunkel »

ryanmercer wrote: post #187
rayiner wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not disagreeing that there is a "lower class" of Americans that face these circumstances. What I'm disagreeing with is the article's implication that the median American somehow shares this plight. The article ignores a crucial fact: that the "median income" does not represent the "median American." The "median American" makes over $50,000 at age 35+. The "median income" reflects everyone just starting out in the…

> The "median American" makes over $50,000 at age 35+ TIL I should start magically making an extra 17k a year in 14 months, yay! I guess the 100ish people in my office (and the fact that no one at my level, anywhere in the country, for my employer makes anywhere near 50k) over that age, not making that much, are anomalies. The 'median American' doesn't make over 50k$, the median household income in my state is only 5…

Do you have statistics to back that up? OP is providing you with stats showing people over 35+ have that median income so I dont see how your gonna argue data with anecdotes..

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#202

Post by refurb »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #158
refurb wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Houston is a place where $60k is enough to buy a house.

Is it enough, or just barely enough? I'm seeing a median home price of 300k per Zillow. In addition to coming up with the 15-60k needed to put a downpayment on the house, you are hit with $2,000 a month in mortgage/insurance. This hardly sounds like a steal to me because it is exactly what I am paying in NY. I make $2200 post tax per month, which is bang on the median income in this area. Half of my money goes to ren…

Zillows says median home price of $187,000.[1] Where did you get $300K?

You could put $30K down and have a monthly payment of under $1,000 per month for mortgage, insurance and taxes.

[1]https://www.zillow.com/houston-tx/home-values/

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#203

Post by g9yuayon »

Yet many parents still think that nerds are boring. Many students still bully those who focus on academic excellence. Teachers still think that students should learn easy peasy stuff because, well, "everyone is fking unique", or let's leave no child behind.

The end result? The people in the middle ground, aka most children, will be left behind.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#204

Post by iron0013 »

scarface74 wrote: post #195
iron0013 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

I wish that were a safe assumption, but many, many--perhaps most--low-wage workers have jobs that keep them just below the full-time threshold so that the employers do not have to provide insurance.

One good way to find our about why it's so difficult to get by on ~$30k is to talk to someone (or multiple people) who make that little. You'll find that the vast majority of the time the fantasy that they blow their money on iphones and drugs evaporates, and the reality that healthcare, housing, childcare, student loan payments, etc are all much more expensive than you've estimated shines through.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#205

Post by fzeroracer »

opo wrote: post #184
fzeroracer wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you haven't had to deal with family members in abject poverty before? My parents can't work, for example. They're both disabled and rely on food stamps plus medicare just to survive. This puts a rather large financial burden on me at times to say the least, because I would rather not see my parents starve to death. If only we had a government that took better care of people in poverty. Imagine that.

>...If only we had a government that took better care of people in poverty. Have they tried getting SSDI? No one gets rich off of that, but it is one of the major government programs to help support those with disabilities.

Unfortunately they've tried and were denied.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#206

Post by scarface74 »

iron0013 wrote: post #204
scarface74 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wish that were a safe assumption, but many, many--perhaps most--low-wage workers have jobs that keep them just below the full-time threshold so that the employers do not have to provide insurance. One good way to find our about why it's so difficult to get by on ~$30k is to talk to someone (or multiple people) who make that little. You'll find that the vast majority of the time the fantasy that they blow their mone…

$30K a year would be $15/hour full time. What single part time job that would have to pay more than 15/hr would get someone to $30K?

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#207

Post by peterwwillis »

zozbot123 wrote: post #180
peterwwillis wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> But there is a trend that they are trying to point out, which is an inherent bias of the majority population who receive a 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,…

I just said the same thing.

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#208

Post by peterwwillis »

badpun wrote: post #192
peterwwillis wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 m…

> given that Asians are doing better as a group than white people

They're not. They have higher median household income. Median household income does not determine whether one ethnic group does better than another ethnic group. It only determines if their median household income is doing better.

And if you think money is the end-all-be-all, white people are the tops. "96.1 percent of the 1.2 million households in the top one percent by income were white, a total of about 1,150,000 households. In addition, these families were found to have a median net asset worth of $8.3 million dollars."

One thing, the median amount of money that a household has, is different than another thing, which is aggregate political, social, and economic power.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/antonio-moore/americas-financ...

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#209

Post by ryanmercer »

tyler_dunkel wrote: post #201
ryanmercer wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The "median American" makes over $50,000 at age 35+ TIL I should start magically making an extra 17k a year in 14 months, yay! I guess the 100ish people in my office (and the fact that no one at my level, anywhere in the country, for my employer makes anywhere near 50k) over that age, not making that much, are anomalies. The 'median American' doesn't make over 50k$, the median household income in my state is only 5…

Do you have statistics to back that up? OP is providing you with stats showing people over 35+ have that median income so I dont see how your gonna argue data with anecdotes..

OP provided a direct link to a random image on a wordpress blog with no context whatsoever...

Re: How much Americans make in wages

#210

Post by sumedh »

tossaccount123 wrote: post #82
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…

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

> globalization only benefits the rich.

What about jobs people get in developing countries and get them out of poverty?

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