interesting article.

[dish rag]

I know quite a few Vietnamese who floated on rafts in the South China Sea, a few dozen Cubans that came with nothing after the communist government took it all. I also know 30 or so illegal Mexicans who show up everyday for work and are doing well for themselves . None of these people spoke English. The Mexicans still don’t. One thing they have in common is that they are not afraid of working and work everyday if needed. The Cubans and Vietnamese people got good educations once they got to N America. North Americans generally have a poor work ethic and expect hand outs, the Mexicans actually laugh at how lazy Americans can be. My father and his 3 siblings were poorer than poor. All 4 of them became very rich by working hard and going to school at night. Hard schools too. The top engineering schools. It can be done. But most people are too lazy.

 

[SC Minnie]

Of these folks making $15/hr and part of the union-- how much of that $15/hr is the union taking for dues?

 

[NotUrsula]

Popping in to note two important fallacies that have been posted in this thread:

1. "Rising wages drive up COL". No, that is exactly backwards. Rising COL drives up wages. It happens because people tend to leave communities that they cannot afford to live in, and when they go far enough, employers cannot get enough of them to come back to work. Orlando is an outlier; because of that "Sunshine Dream" that so many people chase to it. People give up and leave every day, but others come to take their places; people with little starter nest eggs like the other ones once had. Once it is gone, the pattern repeats itself.

2. "Increased demand has driven up the price of higher education."
No, again. Decreased government funding is what has done that.
Governments heavily funded undergraduate institutions from WW2 until the middle of the 1980s, but at that point programs began to be cut, and schools had to start charging students more to make up the difference.

 

[dclpluto]

people always want to talk bad about Disney. Wonder how many people at Disney are making 6 figures that wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for Disney.

 

[Alan1972]

Oh sweetie you are speaking to the wrong one. As someone who fights my food issues every.single.day. (And I’m currently thin) you have no *!@#$& idea what battle someone is fighting or their issues. Please sit down.

He can’t sit down

he had a chair once but his ex wife took it

 

[RamblingMad]

people always want to talk bad about Disney. Wonder how many people at Disney are making 6 figures that wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for Disney.

What does this have to do with poor kids not getting a fair shot?

 

[dclpluto]

What does this have to do with poor kids not getting a fair shot?

I didn’t say anything about poor kids not getting a fair shot.
When are you going on your cruise?

 

[LSUmiss]

I will try to answer this. I absolutely don't think 70% of people born into poverty are lazy. But I do feel that they sometimes make decisions (such as having children young, not having supportive partners, not always valuing the education they do receive) that do not help the situation. Many times these decisions perpetuate the situation they were born into. I am sure what I am trying to say will be misunderstood. For the record, I am divorced and realize that people do not plan to marry and get divorced.

Study after study shows that not graduating high school, having kids very young, etc. do not set one up for financial success.

This is true BUT for most of these kids there is absolutely NO ONE in their lives to show them what good choices look like. They honestly don’t know & the cycle continues. So, in such a wealthy country, it can’t be that if ppl make mistakes or poor choices when they’re young they are destined to be impoverished the rest of their lives b/c otherwise the cycle continues.

 

[RamblingMad]

This is true BUT for most of these kids there is absolutely NO ONE in their lives to show them what good choices look like. They honestly don’t know & the cycle continues. So, in such a wealthy country, it can’t be that if ppl make mistakes or poor choices when they’re young they are destined to be impoverished the rest of their lives b/c otherwise the cycle continues.

Financial literacy is so terrible that Ivy League schools have clubs, where students are trying to figure this out. And these are the rich kids who can buy their way into school.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ws...-is-now-teaching-personal-finance-11558171800
Poor kids don’t have a chance.

 

[RamblingMad]

They now have this: https://college.harvard.edu/guides/financial-literacy

 

[kaytieeldr]

I'm not sure at $11 or $13 or whatever wage it was, why one couldn't afford any of the between $18,000 and $50,000 homes I looked at in the area around Orlando.

Those pesky banks and mortgage companies want downpayments, and the realtor and lawyer want closing costs and legal fees, and probably the utilities want deposits - all very hard to have, find, or save on minimum wage.

Seriously, you don't believe? My child support is based on the $35,000 I made in the first quarter of 2015.

With that being so vastly not representative of your actual earnings, why have you not gone back to court to have it adjusted.

That was $5k I didn't have since I had just dropped every penny on a $9000 house 6 months prior.

Buying a home is a choice. Not first having an emergency fund is also a choice.

 

[msjprincess]

Of these folks making $15/hr and part of the union-- how much of that $15/hr is the union taking for dues?

DH and I pay 1.3% of our base pay.

 

[Skywalker]

Because it doesn’t fit their narrative that they deserve what they have b/c they earned it & anyone else’s struggle is b/c their personal choices & none of it has anything to do with being fortunate.

Right. Just like you discard ideas that don't fit YOUR narrative. You don't have a lock on truth or human nature.

 

[LSUmiss]

Right. Just like you discard ideas that don't fit YOUR narrative. You don't have a lock on truth or human nature.

My “narrative” is based on years of working with poor families & actually seeing reality. I gain nothing from it.

 

[RamblingMad]

My “narrative” is based on years of working with poor families & actually seeing reality. I gain nothing from it.

You just lose faith in humanity. Volunteer at dog rescues.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

I made it about half way through and I just couldn't anymore. Commuting 63 miles each way to a low wage job is just stupid and to blame the financial implications of that on the employer is even dumber. 126 miles round trip is $1.58/hour in just fuel costs. Oil changes, depreciation, 3 hours of her time, etc add up to the point that she is probably worse off than she would be working at the Lakeland McDonald's. And this is ignoring her qualifications that she is refusing to use that would give her much higher wages.

I hate to attack the person instead of the argument but if this is the best example they could come up with I seriously question how big of a problem it is. She COULD make more money doing other things but chooses not to so how do we know she's trying as hard as she can at Disney to get higher wages? Or she's putting efforts in to manage her money properly so she doesn't experience hardship?

WDW could increase wages just from the profits they make from sodas, bottled water and Mickey bars. No employee there should have to struggle.

No matter how high wages go, there will always be people making bad decisions and claiming it's not enough. There are doctors in the US that live paycheck to paycheck.

Financial literacy is so terrible that Ivy League schools have clubs, where students are trying to figure this out. And these are the rich kids who can buy their way into school.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ws...-is-now-teaching-personal-finance-11558171800
Poor kids don’t have a chance.

The internet could be the great equalizer in this as it has opened up the world of information to a much larger audience. I'm hoping that translates into more people moving up the ladder but I do understand that many people fall into the trap of doing what is "normal" based on the people around them.

 

[starry_solo]

I feel like there's another thread about this article already.

 

[mrodgers]

With that being so vastly not representative of your actual earnings, why have you not gone back to court to have it adjusted.

Buying a home is a choice. Not first having an emergency fund is also a choice.

You can't go back. That is how they calculate it. In PA, it is based on your largest quarter of the last 5 quarters. I work overtime, I don't work $20,000 of overtime every quarter.

It's a crap shoot to go back. I do work overtime as I said, not continuously through the year though. I get raises. The ex got an entire new position and doubled her income to what my income is. The child support isn't a number I have to pay, it's a number we both pay a percentage of, of course the father paying the majority of it in 99 cases out of 100. Countless people at work in the past have gone back to court. They come back paying less support in the eyes of the court because they were paying 75% of $1000 and now only have to pay 50%, but the overall number went to $2000. The guys never go back because of the risk of this.

Note, I am talking normal people wages/salaries here, not something you can lose $750-1000 and still have something left to live on.

One guy at work (well, he's been gone for a few years now) making $18/hour cleared less than $200 every 2 weeks. I've said before, my initial child support amount was $1200 a pay. I only cleared about $1000. I was lucky in having a decent lawyer.

My brother also tried to get his reduced or put on hold. He lost his job and couldn't find another one. Called mom from jail for some help, owed $2300 or something like that and couldn't pay with no job. Didn't matter, he was arrested and wasn't getting out until that was paid.

As for a home being a choice, ah, the poop streets of San Francisco doesn't look to appealing to me. I think a home is more important than an emergency fund. You kind of have to have a place to live.

 

[dlavender]

My “narrative” is based on years of working with poor families & actually seeing reality. I gain nothing from it.

Its telling that one sides’ narrative is based off life and statistics while the other sides’ is based off an idea....

That’s where my grounded in reality comment comes into play.......

 

[LSUmiss]

You can't go back. That is how they calculate it. In PA, it is based on your largest quarter of the last 5 quarters. I work overtime, I don't work $20,000 of overtime every quarter.

It's a crap shoot to go back. I do work overtime as I said, not continuously through the year though. I get raises. The ex got an entire new position and doubled her income to what my income is. The child support isn't a number I have to pay, it's a number we both pay a percentage of, of course the father paying the majority of it in 99 cases out of 100. Countless people at work in the past have gone back to court. They come back paying less support in the eyes of the court because they were paying 75% of $1000 and now only have to pay 50%, but the overall number went to $2000. The guys never go back because of the risk of this.

Note, I am talking normal people wages/salaries here, not something you can lose $750-1000 and still have something left to live on.

One guy at work (well, he's been gone for a few years now) making $18/hour cleared less than $200 every 2 weeks. I've said before, my initial child support amount was $1200 a pay. I only cleared about $1000. I was lucky in having a decent lawyer.

My brother also tried to get his reduced or put on hold. He lost his job and couldn't find another one. Called mom from jail for some help, owed $2300 or something like that and couldn't pay with no job. Didn't matter, he was arrested and wasn't getting out until that was paid.

As for a home being a choice, ah, the poop streets of San Francisco doesn't look to appealing to me. I think a home is more important than an emergency fund. You kind of have to have a place to live.

When you have a child, it doesn’t matter how much money you will have left after paying for its needs whether you’re divorced or not.