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  1. #1
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    It's amazing how times have changed

    I make a little of $50k a year. After taxes and such, I take home ~$2300 a month.

    That's well more than my father ever made. Yet he was able to support my Mom and I. We were your standard middle-class family. We afforded all the necessities and the occasional nicety.Yet I can't support my family with what I make alone.

    I don't think I've mentioned this here or not but my wife got fired at the beginning of February and has had zero luck finding a job. She made about $30k a year. It was roughly an extra $1600 a month after taxes. We had no real debt and a nice saving account.

    Well, over half the saving are gone now. I wasn't expecting her to be out of a job so long. We have taken some steps to not spend so much money on food. We aren't going out unless there's no choice (work related, etc) and no movies or anything. Even with that, it's not enough because the record heat in GA is sending the power bill through the roof! It was $236 last month for us at that was with the thermostat on 79!

    Another month or so and I may have to cut out cable TV altogether and just have internet. We can't get out of rent, car payments, insurance, utilities and meds. There aren't any cheaper phone plans than what we have.

    I was hoping to get some starter morphs this year to breed or maybe a boa. That doesn't seem likely now.

    I know we're gonna make it through this someway. I am glad I have faith to lean on or I would have already been panicking by now.

    Anyways, if you're the praying type please keep us in yours. Ask for God to bless us and see us through this storm.
    Last edited by MasonC2K; 06-15-2011 at 03:14 PM.

  2. #2
    BPnet Veteran Ham's Avatar
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    Re: It's amazing how times have changed

    Hey man! I totally understand your situation, unfortunately inflation nowadays is destroying the American dollar, this is in part caused by our terrible national debt, when a country owes so much money a common tactic is to artificially create inflation through various methods such as printing large amounts of cash, they do this so they can pay back their debt with money that is worth less than what they were leant in the first place. Example, the U.S. borrows 1 trillion dollars from China, the country experiences inflation and pays back the 1 trillion with money that is worth significantly less than it did when they borrowed the money originally, bingo they just ripped off their debtor and screwed you all in the same process because your money is not worth what it was in your Dads day and age... This is an ongoing process nowadays! Thank you Federal Government!

    But I have an actually helpful bit of advice as well, you can cut your power bill in big ways by keeping your computer plugged into a surge protector and switching the surge protector itself off when your computer is shut down, you should do this because your computers power supply draws electricity even when the computer is off, this eats power 24 hours a day! Pretty much any appliance that steps up the wattage of your wall outlets does the same thing...
    In other words unplugging your microwave oven, computers, and any video game systems (Xbox, PS3, etc...) when they are not in use will save you $$$.
    Other helpful tidbits like weatherstripping doors and windows will save you the pain of having your air conditioning cool the great outdoors, this can be a big saver as well.

    I don't know what else to say but I was recently laid off as well and it truly sucks, I wish you and your family luck!

    PS Having proper insulation will save you craploads on the utilities as well...
    Last edited by Ham; 06-15-2011 at 03:44 PM.

  3. #3
    BPnet Lifer Skittles1101's Avatar
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    I truely hope things start to look brighter for you and your family. I'm a single mom and make really good money for a young female without a college degree and still struggle. Just keep your head up, I have to remind myself on a regular basis that things will look better, and there's a lot more people in a lot worse ways than me.
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  4. #4
    Registered User sgath92's Avatar
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    Re: It's amazing how times have changed

    Quote Originally Posted by Ham View Post
    Hey man! I totally understand your situation, unfortunately inflation nowadays is destroying the American dollar, this is in part caused by our terrible national debt, when a country owes so much money a common tactic is to artificially create inflation through various methods such as printing large amounts of cash, they do this so they can pay back their debt with money that is worth less than what they were leant in the first place. Example, the U.S. borrows 1 trillion dollars from China, the country experiences inflation and pays back the 1 trillion with money that is worth significantly less than it did when they borrowed the money originally, bingo they just ripped off their debtor and screwed you all in the same process because your money is not worth what it was in your Dads day and age... This is an ongoing process nowadays! Thank you Federal Government!
    The middle class has been in a steady nose dive for decades, mostly of its own making. Going back to 'nam our population has somehow decided that in order to be successful in life their kids must be white collar office employees of some kind and college education has become compulsory. Because of this mass hysteria it is widely believed among parents and educators that the "smart kids" go on to college [and then on to masters after that] while the "dumb kids who don't do well" go on to vocational community colleges because they "can't do any better."

    In return tuition prices have skyrocketed. I went to the same college my mom did, with less then a fifteen year difference in time. My tuition was more then double hers. Inflation had NOTHING to do with that change in price. Then since everyone believes they need to go on to college, there is an oversupply of most four year degree holders. So employers who wanted applicants with a high school diploma thirty years ago now expect a four year college diploma for the same type of job. To get the edge in earning potential that a college degree gave thirty years ago, now the American worker needs a higher degree [like a masters] in addition to a BA/BS.

    Meanwhile the middle class, the most powerful group in the country politically, has spent the last thirty years supporting politicians who favor free trade policies. That's both parties, and every president going back to Reagan. Which has sent millions of middle class jobs overseas. Actually let me reword that: The only jobs that are being outsourced are middle class jobs. The poor in this country work jobs that cannot be outsourced because they're all hands on service jobs like retail sales, cleaning, etc. You can't outsource janitorial work to India. So all those college educated types I mentioned earlier? Not only are there too many of them, but the amount of jobs they are competing against each other to get hired at are less in number. Which gives employers zero incentives to provide better perks, raises, or health care plans. We were warned that supply-side trickle-down economics were voodoo economics that could not work for the American people in the 80s-early 90s. The voters didn't care, they continued to elect these people. When Ross Perot ran he said that free trade policies would create a great sucking noise as all our jobs & money bled out to the third world. No one seemed to react to that either. He was right mind you, but no one cared then and no one cares now [as evident by how many people continue to support these two parties].

    It was only after all that, was China able to become the financial powerhouse that our federal government runs to for loans.

    Further deregulation [free trade is a deregulatory concept] has given wallstreet a blank check to bomb our economy with repeated instances of run away speculation. Do you know why gas shot up so high this spring? Gas hit $4/gal while oil was trading at $100/barrel. The last time gas prices had gone to $4/gal oil was trading at $150/barrel. Why do you suppose that is? It's because the price of gas no longer has any bearing on supply or demand because runaway speculation has taken over. See now [you could not do this 40 years ago] you can buy a hundred dollars in gas futures for something like six bucks down. When you finally sell out they take the ~94 out of the profits and then cut you the check for whatever is left over. The tax cuts for capital gains have made this an easy way for traders on wallstreet to live the high life without actually working for aliving. This is what stalled out our economy again. We were seeing gains, but then gas shot up so high that the masses couldn't afford to drive anywhere other then to work. So consumer spending went down, taking the economy back down with it. This could be stopped immediately if we simply required all gas futures to be delivered and stored by the investor. Meaning if you buy a hundred in gas a hundred dollars in gas has to be shipped somewhere and stored somewhere. Or we could just require two-thirds down on commodities investments, or we could increase the capital gains just enough that it's not such easy money anymore. Opec isn't lying when they say gas prices in the US should be more like $2/gal right now. The oil supply is out there and in the US's case we produce more gas than we use [domestic demand is less then domestic production- we have to import oil but we make plenty gasoline using our combined oil sources]. Anything-goes drilling would not impact prices for probably no less than eight years but that's the option the right will bring up to keep the masses from seeing how they're being fooled.

    What we need is that consumer spending. Right now the employers know they have enough employees to meet the market's demands. So there is no point in hiring anyone right now. There are tons of good applicants out there with strong resumes. But to hire them these companies need the demand for goods to go back up and that can not happen in so long as peoples' incomes are stretched thin by things like gas prices. Until demands go up we're going to be stuck in 20-25% real-world unemployment.

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