Working for minimum slave.
Poverty is one of the biggest problems facing our country today. But our government’s definition of poverty is too skewed to show how really bad it can be. Based on today’s minimum wage (which hasn’t been raised in over 8 years) a person working full time is making $10,712 that’s $912 more than if you were in poverty. Cheer up! You can afford a new sofa.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/povdef.html
http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/06poverty.shtml
I live in an area where minimum wage is not standard, and most people will be started out making at least $6-7. Unfortunately, this is still too little compared to living expenses for a single person living alone.
Let’s assume you are making $7 an hour. Working full time this is $14,560, minus living expenses for the cheapest apartments (about $500 a month) leaves one with $8,560. Now a reasonable amount to spend on food is about $80-100 a week. $4680 is the middle of those two figures leaving you with $3880. Assuming you can afford a car on this little amount of pay, you can expect to spend more than the remainder on insurance. Paying for gas and upkeep much less enough to pay for your electrical and heating bills in the studio apartment you might be able to furnish with a couch from a dumpster is nearly impossable without a second job.
So you work the second job, say 15 hours a week, still making the $7 an hour like your other job, $5460 will go a long way to help you be able to cover those bills, but, you are spending less time at home and spending more on gas going too and from your two jobs. You are spending close to $2000 on gas alone, then you realize the car that has been reliable for the past two years not has a transmission problem that will cost you more than you paid for the car.
Nevermind not being able to afford new shoes to walk to work, because your car was costing so much for upkeep. You were working 55 hours a week to live in a small hole that has by now been broken into because you can’t afford a nice apartment in a good neighborhood. All your DVD’s and the DVD player, and games are gone. Your father’s watch, you grandmother’s ring, whatever you held dear is being melted down, and it had so much sentamental value to you beyond what the thief can pawn it for.
Don’t worry if the door will not close properly, the maintanence crew will get to it, after a week of the most bitter cold for three winters and most of the heating you are paying for is going out the door. You don’t have to worry about that, because you are now sick and spending all your free time under a pile of blankets. Then you over sleep for your full time job because a neighbor was kind enough to give you a few Ny-Qyl to help you over come the insomnia that comes from a hacking cough. But you couldn’t go see a doctor or go to the hospital because you don’t have insurance. You are now fired for missing work and have only $105 a week on this crumby part-time job you took just to cover your expenses on a car you no longer have. With a total of $20,020 at the end of the year in wages, after the taxes are taken out would equal $1738.03 not including state and local taxes if there are any.
How can someone make a living or live a full life in this kind of situation?
Imagine making minimum wage and having the same situation.
Some of the richer of us say, you should save some of the money you are making. Alan Greenspan said before he left, Americans aren’t saving enough money. How can we when there is so little being made?
Two things have to go on in this country for us to be able to continue (or in my opinion become stronger) as a country. ONE-Minimum wage must be raised to at least $7 an hour and grow with inflation, like many of our government’s employees. TWO-We must have universal healthcare for all citizens.
My first point was made in the above argument, but healthcare will take much more…
Stay tuned…
