klehner wrote:
You all have no idea what living paycheck-to-paycheck means for most people. These aren't the people who went to your high school, or with whom you work who don't have a clue how to manage their 100k+ household incomes. They exist, of course (my teacher wife knows them), but that's not the majority of this group.
These are the people who work three part-time jobs, 60-80 hours per week, at near-minimum wage jobs. Or those who work full-time jobs at $12.50/hour, and try to support a family. 401(k)? Yeah, instead of eating, maybe.
Being poor is very expensive. You can't afford a monthly metro pass to get to your shitty job(s), so you have to pay more for daily or weekly passes. You can't afford to buy a couple of months' supply of household basics, so you end up paying more for smaller amounts of TP, napkins, rice, etc. You don't have access to a line of credit, because you don't own a home or anything else of value on which to borrow. Your "line of credit" is the payday loan shark down the street (and whose regulation is being stripped by this administration).
Well, some of us do. I was raised in a family with 9 kids, a mom who didn't work outside the home (could you imagine the child care costs?), and a dad who worked construction, which meant many winters on unemployment.
My wife and I spent many years going to school and working 30 - 40 hours a week and choosing food service jobs because you could eat there too. I have delivered and eaten more pizza than any human should ever see. And that is part of why I would probably still say I live paycheck to paycheck because it is hard to forget that is how I lived for so long.
But your point is not lost at all. A few years ago, ok, it was probably 10, I was talking with people I worked with. At the time Franklin County, OH had a median household income right around $45k. They simply refused to believe it. Everyone they knew made so much more than that they assumed the numbers were faked because no one could live on that. And Everyone they grew up with made way more than that.
I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.