Loose bolts

[DmonSlyr]

$20 an hour is different all over the country. $20 in Vegas is way better than $20 in Cali or Portland. These things cannot be set in stone. Zone economies are different all over the place, even in the same states. IMHO, most making $20 or less an hour aren't living by themselves. Shoot I didn't make $20 an hour until my 2nd Job out of college. Now I'm almost making double that due to moving and having to find new jobs, which paid me better as I gained more and more experience. I also was able to choose a career no one likes. Being young is tough, and you can either cry about it, or get to work and gain experience so you can move up. The majority of kids making $20 an hour are doing just fine. Its the ones who have no friends, no family, or anything to help them split rent. Most cars they have are purchased outright. Those in their 30-40s plus still making $20 an hour should probably look for another job tbh, there is potential to get something at 25.

Here's the truth. America is the land of opportunity. Opportunity doesn't mean sitting around begging someone else to do something. It means you have to go out there and get it, prove yourself, and eventually move up. Opportunity doesn't mean easy. But it does eventually help you find success if you go after it.

[Max]

$20/hr = $41,600 Annual, $3,466 Monthly

Monthly expenses

Decent apartment - $1200
Utilities - $200
Food - $400
Car - $250

Total monthly - $2050

Excess- $1400

Fed, state, local income tax? Sales tax? Insurance (home, renters, auto)? Medical exp? Entertainment? Dining? ............................. ..

You paint a very limited picture.

[AKIron]

Fed, state, local income tax? Sales tax? Insurance (home, renters, auto)? Medical exp? Entertainment? Dining? ............................. ..

You paint a very limited picture.

A person making a little over $40K isn't going to pay much in income tax. In Texas there is no state income tax, no sales tax on rent, no sales tax on groceries. Call it a grand a month left over after bills. That can buy a lot of entertainment. Of course people who have lived beyond their means driving up their credit card debt are probably going to struggle no matter how much their income.

Even $500 a month left over after bills and groceries allows for entertainment and marginal savings.

[Spikes]

A person making a little over $40K isn't going to pay much in income tax. In Texas there is no state income tax, no sales tax on rent, no sales tax on groceries. Call it a grand a month left over after bills. That can buy a lot of entertainment. Of course people who have lived beyond their means driving up their credit card debt are probably going to struggle no matter how much their income.

After income tax ($6k) and 401k contrib (6%), and health care ($6.5k) you're down to 27,500, or 2,250 a month.
Decent apartment - $1200
Utilities - $400
Food - $300
Car - $250
Car ins. - $120

$-20 a month leftover to cover any misc. activity expenses, gas, dining, travel. Woohoo!

[AKIron]

So get married, reduce your taxes, maybe add a second income. Don't vote for socialism....

[Spikes]

So get married, reduce your taxes, maybe add a second income. Don't vote for socialism....

Moving the goalposts fallacy.

[AKIron]

Moving the goalposts fallacy.

I'm not moving anything. Just being agreeable. I don't agree however that you need health insurance or a 401K. I certainly had neither in my early youth.

Maybe you/they need to get a better job. TI is opening a new plant here in Sherman TX next year. 5,000 new jobs. They say the average salary will be 50K. Other plants being built in support. Probably eight to ten thousand new plant jobs in a city of about 45,000. Of course those will bring other jobs too.

You want to live in an expensive and dying community not my problem.

[AKIron]

BTW, I'd bet a dollar that 7 out 10 unmarried people in their 20's do not pay for health insurance nor have a 401K.

[AKIron]

I get it that people are angry over the runaway inflation and unaffordable health care. Don't blame me though, I didn't vote for either. When I was young I understood it would take years to achieve the standard of living my parents earned, and it did.

[CptTrips]

#LearnToCode 

In Texas a young single person can get by on 40k.  It's just not a easy as the boomers would have you believe and not as easy as it would have been when they were 20. 

If the answer is just go without health insr, then I think the argument is disingenuous. 

And no one is blaming Iron for anything.  It's just large scale eco trends and aging demographics.  We're going to have too many old people living off of SS with too few young people supporting the system.  If I were them, I'd look up Soylent Green.

Other countries like Germany are going to be way worse off.  But young people are not going to have the same advantages that earlier generations had (post WWII).  And no, it has nothing to do with "socialism".  If anything, it has more to do with crony capitalism.  But really it's demographics.

Young people today just need to learn:

[Spikes]

I'm not moving anything. Just being agreeable. I don't agree however that you need health insurance or a 401K. I certainly had neither in my early youth.

You did, though:
You cherrypicked some costs and posted them.
I refuted and corrected some costs and added other typical costs that a person might run into.
You dismissed the response and said "so get married", thus moving the goalposts.

You want to live in an expensive and dying community not my problem.

I pulled average numbers from the state of Texas.

BTW, I'd bet a dollar that 7 out 10 unmarried people in their 20's do not pay for health insurance nor have a 401K.

Yeah, probably because they can't afford it.

I get it that people are angry over the runaway inflation and unaffordable health care. Don't blame me though, I didn't vote for either.

lol.

[AKIron]

My grandkids are getting by on their own. Everyone is pissed though. Mostly at those who voted for this. And yes, while health care has been growing it took a dramatic jump when morons voted in those who passed a 5,000 page bill that had to be "approved before knowing what was in it". If you are one of those you have no sympathy from me.

[CptTrips]

I can't believe no one has thrown down the "OK, Boomer." card yet.

[AKIron]

Astronomical health care, double digit inflation, etc.... Only more government can save us. It's almost like this was planned.

[DmonSlyr]

It use to be pretty easy to open a small business and work for yourself and gain traction and growth with that. Now they've made it extremely tough to start a business and keep it running. Then most schools and colleges don't even teach how to start a business or how to manage accounting properly. Now it's extremely tough to afford a home. Now its expensive for healthcare ect.Next it will be extremely tough to afford a car. You see, it's all about making things more and more expensive so that you are forced to rent and forced to work for a large company. This is the direction 'they' are pushing us towards. They want this so that A. Everyone lives exactly the same B. Everyone makes exactly the same. C. Everyone takes public transportation. D. No one can get ahead of anyone else. E. They can ration food to everyone the same. F. Large corporations run everything, you get a stipend to buy products only from that large corporation, and all the tax money goes to the government who maintain this level of obedience and control through totalitarian control.

At the end of it, you will be wishing you could have your $20 an hour salary and be able to take a vacation once in a while. Where you could drive where ever you wanted and explore.
.