Ray From Cleveland
Diamond Member
- Aug 16, 2015
- 97,215
- 37,440
- 2,290
This stuff has been true for a long timeThese statistics are claimed to be true:
1. 50% of American wage earners earn less than $30k.
2. 63% of Americans can’t afford a $1,000 emergency.
3. 80% of American workers live pay check to pay check.
4. Since 1973 American productivity has increased by 77%, yet hourly pay has grown by 12%. If the minimum wage was tracked to productivity, it would be over $20 an hour today.
5. 41% of American workers earn less than $12 per hour, with most without employer provided HC.
6. Since 2008 the federal government and the Fed created $26 trillion out of nothing. Was any of this enormous sum spent on infrastructure, public education, universal HC, bail out 5.1 million people who lost their homes?
Not a pretty picture for the poor and middle class. Hopefully things are improving or we are headed for big trouble.
Americans do not save
Do not like to save
Not much to save at times.
When I think back to being a teen in the 70's, what did we have? We had a television set, a landline telephone, a stereo with an 8-track player. Most of us were one-car families and ate out about three of four times a year. Maybe went to the movies about eight or ten times a year.
What do we spend our money on today that we didn't have back then? Family cell phone plans with smart phones for every member of the family. Cable or satellite television with 400 stations. Three video game systems complete with game cartridges. Pay-per-view movie channels. Netflix. The internet. Big screen televisions. A car for every adult member in the family. Fast food restaurants a half-dozen times a week or more.
Do people realize how much money we would all have if we lived like we did in the 70's?
I give your post an agree. On the other hand, a lot of the items we have now are real lifesavers and they do put people to work.
I don't see how. We did without them before, and we could do without them now. Perhaps the only exception is cell phones because pay phones are no longer in existence. But even then, you don't need unlimited text, you don't need data time. These are all expenses of entertainment like everything else.