Author Topic: People making up facts....  (Read 4866 times)

APowers

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People making up facts....
« on: May 13, 2015, 06:46:46 PM »
Seen as a shared post on my facebook news feed:

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Sad Facts:
To afford a two-bedroom rental at the fair market rate of $707/month, someone in [redacted--my hometown] earning minimum wage would have to work 65 hours per week. Rents continue to rise locally; wages have not kept up with these increases. No wounder there is like a 1000 homeless in town at this time...

Minimum wage here is $9.47/hr (yes, we live in WA). My response:

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Who makes these facts up?

If I made minimum wage, worked 65 hours per week, lived the lifestyle I do currently, lived in a two bedroom apt, and didn't take ANY food/housing assistance, I'd be making enough money to put about $700 in savings EVERY MONTH (not counting the months where I'd get an extra paycheck).

swick

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Re: People making up facts....
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2015, 07:07:45 PM »
maths are REALLY hard!!

APowers

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Re: People making up facts....
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2015, 07:15:14 PM »
Using her math, I calculated about 43 hours per week required. Which is still a lot, but it's not an unreasonable lot, and would be doable with a second job. Orrrr....maybe find a job that allows potential for a raise.

dividendman

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Re: People making up facts....
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2015, 07:16:51 PM »
It's easier to make the argument you want when you ignore or make up facts... wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Indexer

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Re: People making up facts....
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2015, 07:18:09 PM »
9.47 X 40 = $378.8
9.47X1.5X25= $355.13

Total= $733.925/week(38k/yr).  After tax probably around $500/week.

If their rent is 700/week that is a problem, but if it is per month they are ok.  After taxes they are probably bringing in 2k/month.  So they are spending 35% of their income on housing.  That is high... really high, but doable.  Even better.. it is a 2 bedroom, get a roommate.  Now it is only 17.5% of income.  :D

Honestly.... the minimum wage is very high compared to the price of housing where you live.  In many places it is going to be $7.25 VS $800 for a 2 bedroom in a rough area, 1100+ in a decent area.  Plus in most places minimum wage jobs are going to max out at 30hrs per week.  So to pull it off you need multiple jobs and no OT.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2015, 07:24:54 PM by Indexer »

APowers

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Re: People making up facts....
« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2015, 09:44:59 PM »
Person: "If you dont pay taxes or dont have any other expenses than rent then yes you could afford it on your own"

Me: "Assuming normal payroll taxes, but no federal income tax.
Assuming two heavily-driven cars, insured and maintained.
Assuming enough electricity to heat a house, rather than a small apt.
Assuming a family of four. With a toddler in diapers

$9.47/hr - taxes
~$8.52/hr x 65hrs
$553.80/wk x 4 weeks
$2215.20/mo

After you pay $707 for rent, that's an honest lot of money left for other expenses.

$2215/mo

-707 rent
-200 food
-120 electric
-125 gasoline
-75 personal care/diapers
-65 auto insurance
-50 household supplies
-30 clothing
-28 auto maintenance/licensing
-25 internet
-20 renters insurance
-20 phone
-20 fun money
-17 life insurance
-15 education/school supplies
________________________

$698 remaining."


Person: "in reality someone making minimum wage actually makes $6/hr at most after taxes, and $200 a month is food for one person not 4 unless you each the cheapest worst food available in which case your whole family will have fatigue and develop ibs and probably other healthcare costs. and please tell me what internet and phone cost 20 and 25 cause my mom says she's never heard those prices in her entire life

and 17 for life insurance is for someone with no dependants and my school supplies are 200/month after initial supplies

and i'm unfollowing this conversation. not going to listen to someone accuse others of making up numbers then make up so many obviously rediculous numbers of his own"


My wife: "He's assuming Olypen for internet and Republic Wireless for phone.

Also my cooking is very healthy and nutritious, thanks. :D

Most people would not want to dial down their lifestyle as is reflected by those numbers, and that's fine. Really, it's okay. But it IS possible to do if circumstances force it. You do what you gotta do when that's all you can do."


Me: "Living in [our town]:

When I was making only $0.10 more than minimum wage: Net pay was 91% of my Gross pay. So $9.47/hr = $8.67/hr.

$10-15 phone service: [Republic Wireless link] or $20 phone service: [Platinum Tel link]

$21.95 Basic Fixed-Point Internet Service: [Local ISP link]

Food:
[two snapshots of our healthy food expenditures, averaging $175/mo]
Between these two snapshots, there is a record of six months of what we *actually* bought for a family of four. Monthly average = $175."

Ricky

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Re: People making up facts....
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2015, 09:54:11 PM »
Ehhh....stay off Facebook? I get one maybe once a week for a few minutes and quickly realize why I don't spend more time on it. Same thing with any other mass media. Seriously, nothing good can come of arguing with anyone on FB, even if you're completely right, since changing people's minds takes more time than it would be worth for you.

APowers

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Re: People making up facts....
« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2015, 10:03:26 PM »
This is actually the first post like this that I've seen in quite a long while. It was a post shared by a friend, so I was more motivated to respond than I normally would be (well, that and it happened to be about MY hometown, and the cost of living there, which I have pretty exact figures on, so all my figures were right at hand...).

Ricky

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Re: People making up facts....
« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2015, 10:05:24 PM »
Yeah I've definitely had posts I've felt like disproving but would have felt awkward because I didn't really know them, lol.

Travis

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Re: People making up facts....
« Reply #9 on: May 13, 2015, 10:16:57 PM »
Would you mind posting those grocery snapshots here? I like those numbers.

APowers

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Re: People making up facts....
« Reply #10 on: May 13, 2015, 10:24:31 PM »
Would you mind posting those grocery snapshots here? I like those numbers.

Grocery expenditure snapshots? Coming right up!

MDM

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Re: People making up facts....
« Reply #11 on: May 13, 2015, 10:42:29 PM »
Me: "Assuming normal payroll taxes, but no federal income tax.
And that's not all!

Using the saver's, child tax, and earned income credits the family in question could get ~$500/mo from the IRS.  That's assuming the 65 hours are from 2 <40 hr/week jobs so no overtime.  If there are 25 hr/week of time and 1/2 (Indexer's post) then it's "only" ~$400/mo from the IRS.