Explains a lot of US citizens' financial woes

[eliza61]

I graduated HS in '87. Kids didn't get a car for graduation, because they *already had cars* from their 16th birthdays. I grew up in a really wealthy area (though I was one of the poor kids) and was surrounded by things like that. I got to drive the Pinto while learning to drive. ooooh. Then, when my mom needed it b/c she worked further away, I went back and forth to school in her bought-dirt-cheap (and restored at home by my then-stepdad) '55 Chevy. This did NOT compare to the Camaros and IROCs and Fieros and all the other insane vehicles in the school parking lot (though I actually thought it was cooler).

This is NOTHING new. Except that now parents are making kids delay getting that new car, since, as I mentioned, at my HS in '87 they already had them.

That line says it all, you grew up in a wealthy area. What is new today is that people on the POVERTY line or low middle class areas are now expected to buy cars. When you don't have a 1000 bucks in the bank yet you are trying to buy a car for a kid simply for graduating that's an issue. It also points to what the op said about screwed up priorities. Now I'm a bit older than you. In my day, you were expected to do your best and graduate without a ticker tape parade It wasn't a national day of celebration. we did not make holidays out of doing the bare minumun. Luckily we did not celebrate mediocracy in the 60's. A kid did not get a medal for coming in the 49th place out of 49 contestants. we called that last place. A team did not come in last and still get trophies. A kid did not graduate with barely a 2.0 and get a car just for finishing.

 

[Pigeon]

Utilities are included in the rent for lots of people. So they would most likely be responding that they spend nothing on utitilites, when it's really a percentage of their rent.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

Well our cell bill is just over $200 a month & groceries are $1400. I'd rather fall in the op's catagory & pay less then $200 for food. All of my ultilites each cost more then my cell except for tv & internet b

 

[DawnM]

Too many variables to really make statements like that across the board.

For us:

We pay around $800/mo for a family of 5 in groceries.

We pay $75/mo for cell phones.

 

[Mirax]

My husband's work pays for 75% of the cell phone bill and we have three phones on the bill. We do not have a house phone one of the cell phones sits plugged into the wall and is used as the house phone. No cable - didn't watch enough TV to make it work, we do have netflicks-@$9.00 a month we watch it all the time, and we have wireless internet. I would say that our wireless and when we had cable bill was larger then our cell phone bill.

 

[leahjade]

I only see this as a problem if people are paying the money they should for necessities like food on these toys and then begging for help for the things they need. If you're on government assistance or taking handouts from a food pantry then no you should not have expensive luxuries

That's not how it works in this country, buy all the toys and stuff you WANT, then if you don't have anything leftover, apply for assistance.
Maybe it also explains that the average credit card debt per household in America is $15,956*
(Source: "The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January 2010)

 

[Colleen27]

I graduated HS in '87. Kids didn't get a car for graduation, because they *already had cars* from their 16th birthdays. I grew up in a really wealthy area (though I was one of the poor kids) and was surrounded by things like that. I got to drive the Pinto while learning to drive. ooooh. Then, when my mom needed it b/c she worked further away, I went back and forth to school in her bought-dirt-cheap (and restored at home by my then-stepdad) '55 Chevy. This did NOT compare to the Camaros and IROCs and Fieros and all the other insane vehicles in the school parking lot (though I actually thought it was cooler).

This is NOTHING new. Except that now parents are making kids delay getting that new car, since, as I mentioned, at my HS in '87 they already had them.

I graduated in '97 and it was the same way. I got teased quite a lot because when I turned 16, I got (inherited) my grandfather's 1979 Aspen. It was built in the year I and my classmates were born, had <70K miles, and an AM only radio. Virtually all of my friends and classmates got either new or late-model used cars, and they were rockin' their in-dash CD players in the school parking lot while I changed the tape in the boombox I had belted in to the middle of the front bench seat. I loved that car!

I think the "car for graduation" thing came about not because parents didn't used to buy their kids cars but because now there's not much point in buying a 16yo a car because of restricted/graduated licensing rules. 18 is when they can really start driving, alone or with friends and without a slew of rules, so it makes sense to delay that purchase a little longer than our parents' generation did.

 

[StephMK]

That line says it all, you grew up in a wealthy area. What is new today is that people on the POVERTY line or low middle class areas are now expected to buy cars. When you don't have a 1000 bucks in the bank yet you are trying to buy a car for a kid simply for graduating that's an issue. It also points to what the op said about screwed up priorities. Now I'm a bit older than you. In my day, you were expected to do your best and graduate without a ticker tape parade It wasn't a national day of celebration. we did not make holidays out of doing the bare minumun. Luckily we did not celebrate mediocracy in the 60's. A kid did not get a medal for coming in the 49th place out of 49 contestants. we called that last place. A team did not come in last and still get trophies. A kid did not graduate with barely a 2.0 and get a car just for finishing.

Love it!

I agree, I know people who were going to be foreclosed on but bought their kid a car since their credit wouldn't be good afterwards. That's just messed up.

DD has her grandpa's hand me down car - it's 2 years younger than she is and runs great *knock on wood* And she really only got that because 1) he was getting a new car anyway 2) buses are pay service for HS and with my work schedule, she didn't have easy rides for all of her activities

We have tracfones and probably spend $30 each every few months. I can't see the point in internet access on my phone since I'm close to home and DH has internet at work. We're never out or away long enough to need that convenience.

 

[pixiewings71]

We have 4 phones, we pay less monthly on them then we do most of the items on that list, the only thing that comes in less is our cable/internet bill and that's ONLY because we don't have a home phone.

 

[Colleen27]

That's not how it works in this country, buy all the toys and stuff you WANT, then if you don't have anything leftover, apply for assistance.
Maybe it also explains that the average credit card debt per household in America is $15,956*
(Source: "The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January 2010)

Per household *with credit card debt*. That's a pretty important qualifier, since 28% of American households don't have any credit cards at all and only 40% report carrying an unpaid balance from month to month (according to the same source). But the shock value of the average number is greatly diminished if you put it in context and realize it applies only to about 1/3 of American households.

 

[momof1princess]

well, our phone bill is about $240.00 per month, but that is home phone with unlimited long distance, DSL internet, and 3 cell phones, 2 of which are smartphones and have data plans. so, while it's a lot of money, it's not as outrageous as the cell phone bills of most people i know. our directv bill is $38 per month, power is about $120 per month in the summer, and water is about $20-$25 per month.

 

[SaraJayne]

Per household *with credit card debt*. That's a pretty important qualifier, since 28% of American households don't have any credit cards at all and only 40% report carrying an unpaid balance from month to month (according to the same source). But the shock value of the average number is greatly diminished if you put it in context and realize it applies only to about 1/3 of American households.

 

[crisi]

If I live in an apartment where utilities aree included as part of rent, I pay nothing for utilities. If I eat out a lot, I pay very little in groceries. I know plenty of young people who have nothing in the house in terms of groceries...they aren't home to eat.

 

[ellie05]

In a new study, one in five adults said they pay more for their cell phone monthly than they do for groceries.

Furthermore, 33% responded they pay more in carrier monthly charges than they pay for utilities like electric, gas and water, 57% pay more than for cable, and the huge 71% pay more in cell phone bill than their home Internet service costs

I watched true life "i live in poverty" or something like that yesterday and I was shocked that this people were barely making it but the had cable bills. Dh and I both have smart phones with data plans and we certainly do not pay more in cellphone that we pay in groceries, or electricity. Our water bill is only $25 a month so it will be impossible for us to pay less than that for 2 cellphones. Our internet/cable bill is a little higher than our cellphone bill but I guess if you put them separate then yes our cellphone bill will be more. We also don't have basic cable we do have DVR and a few movie channels, but we also don't have a basic cellphone plan so I guess it is a good comparison.

It always surprises me how much people don't shop around including for cellphone plans. Before we renew our contract I always call around it really can pay off.

 

[dcfromva]

I can remember when my landline phone bill was routinely over $100.00 a month and that was with limited Long distance talk time. This was before cell phones were available.
My cell phone does cost more than that, but I can talk to all my family members for no additional cost as long as I want.
We also have text messaging, so DH can send my a text when it is time to pick him up from the metro (just in time ride ).
We have smart phones. So, whenever anyone has any inkling of curiosity about a topic, it can be googled. I can remember back to when a family would purchase a set of encyclopedias for hundreds of dollars. Some of the information could be outdated by the time it was published. Now, we have a powerful tool that fits in the palm of your hand.
I'm not sure going back to the 60's would be any cheaper, you'd just be spending the $$ on different things...

 

[leahjade]

Approximately 50 percent of American households now receive some type of taxpayer-funded government assistance, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

It's just another sad fact that people want what they want in this country and will buy it whether they can afford it or not.

 

[Colleen27]

It's just another sad fact that people want what they want in this country and will buy it whether they can afford it or not.

And the fact that wages have been flat or falling for a generation doesn't make a difference, right? It isn't a reflection of the fact that more people are out of work or underemployed or earning sub-poverty level wages than in any time in recent history, it is all about the lazy hedonistic poor and their manicures and iPhones.

 

[leahjade]

Here are more surprising facts about Americans defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau, all taken from various government reports and included in my new paper from The Heritage Foundation called “Understanding Poverty in the United States”:

● Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

● Fully 92 percent of poor households have a microwave; two-thirds have at least one DVD player and 70 percent have a VCR.

● Nearly 75 percent have a car or truck; 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.

● Four out of five poor adults assert they were never hungry at any time in the prior year due to lack of money for food.

● Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite television.

● Half have a personal computer; one in seven have two or more computers.

● More than half of poor families with children have a video game system such as Xbox or PlayStation.

● Just under half — 43 percent — have Internet access.

● A third have a widescreen plasma or LCD TV.

● One in every four has a digital video recorder such as TiVo.

As noted, TV newscasts about poverty in America usually picture the poor as homeless or as a destitute family living in an overcrowded, rundown trailer. The actual facts are far different:

● At a single point in time, only one in 70 poor persons is homeless.

● The vast majority of the houses or apartments of the poor are in good repair; only 6 percent are over-crowded.

● The average poor American has more living space than the average non-poor individual living in Sweden, France, Germany or the United Kingdom.

● Only 10 percent of the poor live in mobile homes or trailers; half live in detached single-family houses or townhouses, while 40 percent live in apartments.

● Forty-two percent of all poor households own their home; on average, it’s a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

 

[luvsJack]

That's not how it works in this country, buy all the toys and stuff you WANT, then if you don't have anything leftover, apply for assistance.
Maybe it also explains that the average credit card debt per household in America is $15,956*
(Source: "The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January 2010)

How does that work? Assistance is based on the amount of your INCOME, not whether you have money left over at the end of the month.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

How it works is the double dipping into assistance programs. If a person qualifies for food stamps the qualify for all assistance so any cash they do receive is spent as the wish. Food stamps plus free breakfast and lunch at school is a example. Being assisted twice to feed your family. Them the people sell the excess food stamps for cash