The middle class is already dead (or at least is terminal)

Facts:

Below is a MODEST budget:

rent/house-payment........................800.00
car payment....................................250.00
car insurance...................................100.00
food................................................300.00
gasoline...........................................200.00
electric.............................................100.00
water.................................................30.00
phone................................................50.00
gas....................................................100.00
total.................................................1,930.00

optionals (usually included in middle class living)

cable...................................................40.00
internet service....................................30.00
meals out.............................................60.00
entertainment/gifts/etc.........................50.00


Lifestyle like this would require AT least $15 an hour for a 40 hr week WITH health insurance provided..

and notice that there's very little in the way of "shopping" as a recreation.

there are no fees for kids' activities or lessons, there's no "savings for a rainy day", no money given to help elderly parents, no college tuition, no car repairs, no eye glasses, no dental visits, no co-pays for medicine or doctor....

$15 x 40 = 600.00 ..80% takehome (unless you wanted to cut it close and hope you did not owe taxes come April).. using this scenario, you might expect a refund in April, which could finance a vacation or a catch-up on bills

a couple would need TWO lesser jobs, BUT then you have to add in extra gasoline, car insurance, registration fees,repairs, meals eaten out, childcare..and you're back in the hole again..

My partner and I both make a little over $18 an hour each. We just bought a new home and the taxes, mortgage, and insurance come to $1,150 a month. I figure everything from tanning to haircuts to credit card bills into my budget and still have about $500 a month to do whatever I want with. I dont think the problem is the $18/hr. I think the problem is that too many people put themselves in too much credit card debt, drive gas guzzlers and most importantly, all the good jobs are being outsourced. We have no problem living on the $18 an hour though.

**also we have no children which is a BIG money relief.

only $72K total. What kind of a freak are you, being able to live on such a paltry amount? Why, everyone from Justice Scalia to that woman who left her kid outside Nieman Marcus - to many DUers even - assure us that it is just about impossible to live on anything less than $100K a year! Who are you to question the wise pronouncements of the great and the good? You're a closet richist, that's what you are! You just a hater! :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

regime. I think it's supposed to be 4 adults in a 2-bedroom shitty apartment.

for their water service....$50 sounds like a bargain to me.

studio (NO bedroom) apartments can run $900 around here.. and in the summer the electric bill can be $400 (if you want the AC running)

I just did our budget for a family of 3, no car payment, chronic medical issues, four pets for the next three months; I'm getting a 3% pay increase in Feb but the increase in the company medical just offset the increase :( - it will be like no increase at all. I figure we take home after taxes and "benefits" about $3200 a month. A good, middle class family, no?

And here's the breakdown for the average middle class.
Monthly -
Rent - average 2 bdrm, 1 bath apartment (800 sq ft) is $1237. Average house, 2 bdrm, 1 bath (1k sq ft) rents for $1500. Average mortgage for same house or apartment masquerading as a "condo", financed or refinanced over the past 4 years, is $3K a month.
Garbage service - city provides, county averages $30 a month ($90 every three months
Electric/Gas (SDGE) - $70 - $100.00 a month, depending on type of AC or whether or not you have some gas appliances. We pay $70 in the Fall, Spring, Winter, $110 in the summer. Hubby needs AC or he passes out.
Water/Sewage - $70

Somewhat healthy food for three, not including "out to eat" and going to 99 cent stores, produce markets, "Food For Less", Costco, etc - $350
Household sundries (TP, cleaning gear, shampoo, OTC products, etc) - $80.
Kid stuff - no matter what age, the kids always cost more with school supplies, clothes that they destroy, etc - $60
Medical payments post-tax not covered by insurance (co-pays, outstanding dental, prescriptions, lab work) - $20 on average for a family of 3 with no problems - if there is just one chronic condition, bounce that baby up to $100 a month. There are three chronic conditions conditions in our family - $300.

Bus Pass (if no other transportation) - $30 for kid when school is in session
Car payment - generally averages 250.00. Luckly, we are paid off.
Car Insurance - generally $120, unless you have a clunker and go as cheaply as possible and pray you don't need it.
Gasoline (basic travel for just shopping and work, including a 20 mile round trip commute (no bus service near work, no co-workers or "vanpool" members live nearby) to work 5 days a week) - $180

Pet stuff - approximately $30 baseline for one, add $10 for additionals.
Phone Service, including caller i.d. and long distance - $50
Cable - basic runs around $70
Internet - basic can be found at around $50
(You can usually get a basic Cable/Internet/Phone package for around $150, saving a good $20.)

So with only cable and internet as "luxuries", we're looking at $2970 a month in bills. Because of the medical problems and an uncertain job market, we like to put $400 a month in savings for medical and employment emergencies, as well as the kidlet's "visitation" trips to her natural mom once a year - and our savings are only sitting at $500 right now. 3 Emergency Room visits, 2 Root canals, one $300 plane ticket and one $200 auto repair bill have drained over $3K in savings this year alone - and that's not unusual.
We ran through $5K in medical last year, $4K the year before, wiping out 3 years worth of savings, losing a house by short-selling before it could be foreclosed on, and going into a pattern of overdrafts, which we just finally got out of. Lord help us if I loose my job.
The gas and inflation costs are bad enough, but the medical bills are killing us.
We are left with a little over $130 a month to cover birthdays, little treats such as the occasional eat out, and other "special occasions". Not much to the kid, but better than most.
And we're considered "middle class" - I'm a mid-level project manager. 6 years ago at my current salary, we would have been well off enough to be dropping $200 - $300 in charities like homeless veteran's services, children's services, and food/medical for the disabled and elderly - which were the charities I used to give money to. And still be able to build up a decent Roth IRA/CD account for kid's college and retirement - and still have something left over to save for emergencies and the occasional family "treat" (enough that once or twice a year we could choose to indulge in, say a day trip to Knott's Berry Farm, one "big ticket" item that gives some poor salesman a nice commission, a visit to one of the parents out of state, or camp for the kidlet, etc).

Isn't that supposed"the middle class" lifestyle? Yeah, I know it sounds like whining, especially since most of my childhood we were generally poor - we lived in student housing or just off the barrios, only had one real meal a day, grew and canned most of our own produce, no TV, no eating out, thrift store and hand-me-down clothes, toys, autos, and furniture, most requiring some sort of repair before they were able to be used.
There are so many people that are still in that place - or are worse off.

But darn it, like my now retired parents, I've paid my dues and more in thrift, hard work and blood, and fought my way up to the middle class - just to find it being taken away from me by inflation and other situations beyond my choices and control. And now, 'pubbies like the shrub and the taliborn again freepers are saying "it's my fault for making the wrong choices" - like getting married to someone who developed a chronic, debilitating syndrome, and raising one kid. Or choosing "the wrong career" - even though ten years ago, it was a perfectly lucrative, desirable career path. Or not going to the right church, schmoozing the right people, belonging to the right clubs and political thought processes...

And in my experience, we aren't the only ones in my circle of supposedly middle class work acquaintances that have these sorts of problems. I've been seeing a lot of the "close to six figure" families - families in skilled labor jobs - with mortgages who are rapidly dropping luxuries to try to keep their houses. And not just those with brand new Mc-Mansions - some of these are people who just refinanced to re-furb an old 70's tract house or upgrade from a "manufactured" trailer home.

Thanks for letting me rant. The stresses of working hard while seeing savings and earnings just pass through the bank account as if I were nothing more than a conduit between my employer and any number of corporation billing departments is close to debilitating. Especially when I'm trying to support a family.


Haele

:kick:

Sending fine wine / caviar

and ono kine cat food for the kitties

Where I'm at, most places $800 a month and under are total crapholes. I got lucky and found one that has a lower price because they only allow certain people and there's some tax break involved... I don't know the details, all I know is I barely qualified so I'm only paying 680 a month for an apartment that anywhere else in this area would probably be about 900. And since I live in Florida, my electric bill is higher than that most of the year, but my gas bill is only about 30 a month since I only use it to heat water and cook with.
I do, however, have to have high-speed internet. (I make some of my money with my computer, hence the need rather than want.) So that's a little extra cost every month. Thankfully I split it with my roommate so it doesn't cost too much extra.

wages are often lower in those areas too :(

can't win:(

Ages ago, my husband had a great 2 bedroom apartment on a nice street..with parking and of course it was in Salina Kansas, so the rent was only $70 a month.. he did not make all that much, but always had plenty of money top live on. he also drove a new GTO (1968).. gas was about 30cents a gallon..you could buy 3 or 4 bags of groceries for about $40 ..So even when he was only making about $1000 a month, you can see how easy it was to get by,.. He went skiing in Aspen, took me on expensive dates, and still had money to save..

he was just out of college and was making about $5 an hour and had a parttime job a few nights a week at the pixxa hut..

Try doing that today:( with no roommate or wife/husband..

Below is a MODEST budget:

Old car, purchased for 1000 dollars, serves as residence, insured only for collision,

car: 1000
insurance: -- don't crash
food: 200 (rice, vegetables, beans)
Showerplace: 50 places charge to let you take a shower, some universities and ymca's are pretty cheap when living in car.
Clothes: 100 (washing clothes and replacing worn out things)
Gasoline: 200
cellphone: 20
water: 30 - bulk water containers at costco

total: 1600, and the car is owned outright in 1 month like a true capitalist.. owning one's own home,
just as long as the house doesn't break down. If you already own a car, the cost is 600 a month, proving
that anyone can earn minimum wage and live in their car.

I have done it myself, on less money than that, but living in a car is hard going,
and where will all those people park for the night?

Depending on where you live, even just "collision" on a junker that is operational can be around $120 a month. The minimum state-required for our one paid off, year 1997 vehicle and two drivers, one with two accidents in the past 7 years - the cheapest I could find in our zip code was with Progressive online service, requireing direct deposit and an e-mail account - is $95 a month. The next cheapest was $105 a month.
If you don't have insurance, whenever the cops need to make up for municipal shortfalls and start writing tickets, having expired tags even when parked gets you one pretty much automatically.
Too many tickets for expired tags that go unpaid because you can't register, and you risk going to jail and/or getting your "home" car impounded.

California has also started a collections program where they go to court to have your tax refunds or benefit payments garnished if you don't register your vehicle within 6 months of the expiration date or can prove that your vehicle was abandoned, impounded or given/sold to someone and the title inadvertently not transferred. (I found this out when I waited to pay my registration due to issues getting it to pass smog and neglected to inform the DMV...)

As for parking the car or RV/Van you might have to live in - you have to keep moving every three days or you again risk a ticket. Most people I see park along shoulder/easements or at the outskirts of malls, mega-stores, and large fast food parking lots. A few people I know(usually single day laborers or lower paid blue-collar types) have been known to make arrangements with small businesses such as repair shop compounds or car washes to hang around as "night security".
The four or five working homeless that I knew who did that sort of thing managed to become trusted enough to be able to park a modified van or RV on site and use the business utilities (mail drop access, outdoor electric outlets, the dumpster for waste disposal, outdoor water and greywater drainage facilities and perhaps a key to an outdoor customer restroom) after hours if they "kept an eye on things" and ran off the drunks and druggies, bored hooligans, and other transients that might trash the place.

A lot of those arrangements depend on the willingness of the business to risk the insurance costs should something happen to these under the table "night security" people on the premises. And no business I know of would do that if there's more than one person (with, at most, pets) living in the vehicle; the risks rise the more people involved.

If you are with another person or have a family, it's a lot harder. Most of the people in those situations end up either living in some co-worker, friend or relative's driveway or having to keep moving setting up temporary camps in canyons, remote fields, back of malls, or wooded areas to keep from getting hassled by "authorities" and having the kids taken away by social services.

Haele

Where "luxury buildings" are going up faster than you can say Donald Trump in every neighborhood all over the city. They're tearing down whole blocks of decades-old businesses to accommodate more and more and more of these "luxury buildings" and if you just want a decent studio for the low, low rent of $1800/month, landlords are sitting back like feudal lords and demanding that you be a saint with the credit ratiing of Suzie Orman before you can even step a toe over the threshold.

We will sit home naked & watch tv.

American Idol..Survivor..Deal or NO Deal?.

That's what the new middle class is.. lonely, tired, broke people sitting around , vicariously "living" through the tee-vee folks :(