klehner wrote:
eye3md wrote:
klehner wrote:
eye3md wrote:
A lot of our society is play now and figure out how to pay for it later.
Again: more of our society doesn't have the kind of jobs you describe, and are "survive now and hope s*** doesn't happen later."
That's crap. In the workforce, you will see people from all walks of life, and income/education levels. To imply a lot of these people "can't help it" or "they are just surviving" is BS. Yes, there are some like that but the majority of these people live above their means, don't wanna work 40 hours a week, and are not surviving but living a life they can't afford.
According to a quick Google, and from the Federal Reserve, about 50% of households make between $20,000 and $30,000/year. Do you think they are "surviving" or "living a life they can't afford?"
According to the IRS data, the median household income is closer to $53,000/year.
Regardless of what numbers you want to play with, I've been on both ends of the spectrum regarding income. If my car had over 200,000 miles on it, and it still worked, I drove it. I didn't even have a cell phone until I was 31.....because I knew I needed to use that money for necessities. Everyone seems to think they deserve the best right here, right now. Yes there are people "surviving" but I think some people just make bad decisions. It's part of our "no consequences for our actions society".
I had a conversation with a 38 year old a few days ago talking about turning her car in because she wants a Forerunner. I said "that's expensive" and she said "yeah, I'll be about $10,000 underwater but I really want it!!!" I mean, there is so much non-sense.
Another employee has six kids, he's constantly asking other employees for money, and he just purchased a brand new F-150 pickup. One of those really nice ones. Brand new!!! It makes no sense. They see something they want, and they buy it, with no regard of "how am I going to afford this down the road".
A friend, who is a single mom with two kids, has always chosen to work only 2-3 days per week so she can stay home with her kids (her mother lives with her and could watch the kids). She admits this is why she does not work more. She lives paycheck to paycheck. I've even offered to help pay for her to go back to school so she could become a nurse but she has turned me down because "that's too much work". Every year, she gets a big fat tax return (child tax credit is how she gets it because she pays zero taxes). Instead of using that tax return for a "rainy day" fund, she blows every bit of it on goofy stuff. A month later and she's telling my wife "I hope they don't come repossess my car". We've tried teaching her to save that money, or pay down debt, but she refuses. As soon as she gets the money, it's gone. It's crazy.