Posted on 08/31/2017 7:30:43 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
Middle class benefits are being revoked in the name of affordability. Because of several factors including stagnant wages, rising costs, and politics, being a member of the American middle class is quickly losing what little prestige it has remaining.
Are you middle class? In its discussion of historical middle class societies, The Economist reports, “Their members are neither rich nor poor but somewhere in-between…’Middle-class’ describes an income category but also a set of attitudes … An essential characteristic is the possession of a reasonable amount of discretionary income. Middle-class people do not live from hand to mouth, job to job, season to season, as the poor do.”
Some argue that the most sensible income amount to attach to the middle class would be the median household income, around $54,000. Perhaps, anyone who earns between the 25th percentile and 75th percentile is a member of the middle class.
Diana Farrell, once Deputy Director of America’s National Economic Council, told The Economist she thinks a middle class income begins at the point where a person (or family) has one-third of their income left over for discretionary purposes after they’ve provided themselves with food and shelter. In other words, someone who earns $3,000 per month would have $1,000 left after they’ve paid their mortgage or rent, utilities, and grocery bills.
Discretionary income is not so easy to find. We’ve created a list of ten things the middle class can no longer really afford. We’re not talking about lavish luxuries, like private jets and yachts. The items on this list are a bit more basic, and some are even necessities.
(Excerpt) Read more at cheatsheet.com ...
Where I live in IL, if you buy a house with conventional financing today, the tax portion of your monthly payment will be larger that the mortgage portion... and the tax is going up next year.
The "middle class" is now an ATM for the gov't.
This —> If they can’t afford them, they are no longer middle class. They are poor.
Vacation is one. We take very few vacations anymore it has grown so expensive.
My daughter lives near DC and her rent is $1350 a month for a 1 bedroom, 600 sq ft apartment. So....no.
Insane prices of B’way shows, concerts, ballets and opera. We used to do it with a season ticket. Now we simply do it at Xmastime. So, no wonder people are getting dumber and dumber.
My parents were not college educated and for them most part one income and their standard of living was way higher than mine with a BS in EE and 25 years experience. I am not alone.
Hence Trump.
#10 is irrelevant. There is NOTHING worth paying the money to see at a movie theater. Plus, having to deal with all the a-holes who go there too.
In many areas of the country, if you want to live cheap you can live cheap. There are $100K places in the “best” school district here but they’re nothing to brag about, and I’m sure it’s hard on the kids, being made fun of in school since the average house in that district is more like $500K.
Ok you have a 10 year old car that blue books for $4K. So is it smart to put $2K-3K in it for a new trans? Really?
No I’m living in planet actually understanding what things cost and what a middle class income is. Also living in planet understanding a budget. Most of the reason people “can’t afford” something is because they already blew the money on something else. Folks go out to eat all the time, upgrade their cellphone and tablet and laptop every 18 months, then complain they’re broke. Part of being middle class means knowing how to budget, middle class has enough money to live, but not extravagantly, when they start living extravagantly they start running out of money before they’re supposed to. Any truly middle class person who can only get 3 of these things a year has been blowing a lot of money on other stuff.
Depends on the car and the condition of the rest of the drivetrain. Of course, if it’s a desirable car with excellent reliability and longevity, the blue book would be higher than that and the likelihood of needing to put a new transmission in would be much lower.
>>>My daughter lives near DC and her rent is $1350 a month for a 1 bedroom, 600 sq ft apartment. So....no.<<<
It’s a shame the powers that be don’t view this as a problem. At least not a problem that is the fault of excessive permit fees and restrictive zoning laws. Zone more area to have higher density. Slash the cost to builders for fees on new construction. As we’ve seen with the dramatic drop in oil prices, it only takes a relatively small increase/decrease in supply to have a huge impact on prices.
But I fear that will never happen because at any moment in time, 90% of homeowners like high prices. They think it’s a good thing for them. It’s only new buyers or homeowners looking to relocate that care about affordable housing.
Ask John Q. Public and they think their house is this great asset. Some crap asset if you ask me. A home sucks money for maintenance, utilities, insurance and sky high taxes. And that’s not including the bank note.
“My wife is looking at houses in the next county and one of the houses on her list is selling for $63k. “
That is amazing. I pay that for a doublewide of 1500 square feet on an acre, plus I’ll do repairs. If an equivalent house is that price, I would expect few available jobs, bad schools, a high crime rate and some other issue, like flooding or a Hell’s Angles house across the street.
You can click on a link can't you?
Have you priced a new pickup truck lately? How about a bass boat?
>>>Ok you have a 10 year old car that blue books for $4K. So is it smart to put $2K-3K in it for a new trans? Really?<<<
You gotta take the circumstances as they come. If you need a new trans at $120k miles, then do it. When the repair is half the current worth, you’d have to do the math. What’s the value as-is vs. repaired.
I worked a decent job at my last place, ALL of the janitors who came in at night had much better cars than mine. Same thing with the folks across the street (renters, the owner and I are old buddies and HE has an old car, also)- their cars are way tricked out; I’m driving a 2003 Silverado.
Doesn’t change the math. Most of the people who hear complaining they can’t afford a movie are doing so on a new laptop with the previous one less than two years old. The middle class has always had to budget, problem is we’ve got 3 generations in this country now who all believe that’s a 4 letter word and won’t have anything to do with it.
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