Paycuts felt everywhere

[disykat]

I can feel a bit of sympathy for anyone who loses income that they are used to getting. However, I think that it will be a lot easier for people like this guy to adjust than most.

I agree. I also can see where it would be difficult. I think even the people in the article would admit they have it easier than most though in terms of ability to make cuts.

Those were extreme examples, but are they really that much different than many of us who whine about our income losses? I'm currently under-employed and often catch myself feelings sorry for myself that I can't run out and buy whatever I want or go on vacations as often as I'd like. Then I shake myself into remembering my warm, dry home, I never have to worry about where my next meal is coming from, etc. etc. Who am I to complain!?

Somehow not having a smart phone, a new couch, or a vacation doesn't seem like such a big deal when I compare myself to most of the people in this world.

I'm glad I'm not wealthy enough to come off like they did in the article, but my reality is that I still have a lot of things I could cut back on before I'd be "poor."

It seems to me, that rather than having that article simply incite the 99%, (which is my guess of why that article was written) maybe it can remind a lot of us how our lives might look to people with lower incomes than us.

 

[sissy_ib]

This guy was already living outside of his means if the pay cut is affecting him this badly. He is chasing some kind of Hollywood movie dream and not living in the real world. These people are so concerned about what others think of them and not with the quality of their lives long term. I have friends like this. Well, they're not making anywhere near $350,000 a year! But I see it. Living just outside their means, not putting anything away for the future and only caring about what others think they are. It is hard not to get caught up in it when I see others going on crazy vacations, buying new cars or even planing lavish weddings. I have to give myself a kick in the rear every now and then and tell myself it's not worth it. Most of that stuff is for show and I'm not gonna fall for it.

 

[Ember]

The disconnect from reality here is amazing. It's like the Hollywood elite.. I have always said they live on another planet. Simply to mean the life they lead is so far disconnected from the "average" individual and family that they honestly don't even know how crazy they sound when they say they are "struggling to live off of $350,000." For them it really IS a tragedy and to the rest of America it sounds like an April Fool's joke. But if we're really being honest here, most all Americans are disconnected from the reality of much of the rest of the world. Whether we make $30,000 a year or $300,000 a year, most of us have no idea what it feels like to have to live in true poverty. We have come to expect luxury as the "norm" in our country and take way too much for granted... to have drinking water that has no color and food in a cupboard for tomorrow, I'm already more rich than some. And of course I take that for granted every day.

This is such a valid point. In the US, if you earn more than $34,000 per year you are one the 1%, globally speaking. To many, many people on this planet, the complaining that we do would be just as ludicrous as the people in this article sound to most of us.

*http://news.yahoo.com/attention-protestors-youre-probably-part-1-153806044.html

Another DISer pointed me towards http://www.globalrichlist.com/ It's a great site that allows you to enter your income and see how you fare compared to others world wide.

 

[buzz5985]

You know what? We could all get some kind of smug satisfaction from reading about a 1%-er who can't live the lifestyle that he was accustomed to, but try to look at the total picture.

The guy in the article will not be able to make the additions or improvements on his home this year. That means that some contractor and his crew are not going to have work this summer. Maybe not all summer, but certainly for a few weeks.

And if this same guy decides to send his kids to public school instead of that private day school? Well, some teacher is going to lose her job. And another public classroom is going to become that much more crowded.

That landlord who is only going to get 1/4 the number of weeks rented out at his summer house is still going to have to pay his taxes and mortgage. Guess how he decides to make ends meet? He lets the landscaper go. And somewhere a waitress, shopkeeper and restaurant owner in that little town is going to have a rotten summer because tourism is down 75%.

That $17,000 a year that was spent on the dogs partially paid the salary of a dog walker, groomer and vet tech.

We can all be jealous of that 1%-er who feels like he's missing out on the American dream he worked so hard for. Or we can be worried about how salary cuts and job losses anywhere have an affect on our economy.

Trickle down economics.

I know people here who take half-doses of medicine or skip it altogether, eat the cheapest, lousy canned food, and are one emergency away from complete disaster. These people's car is iffy, and I have been lending them mine for twice-monthly trips to a medical specialist in another town. (The wife has a degenerating spine condition and is in chronic pain.) Now I learned their transmission is going. I can't offer my car more than I am already doing, and I can't pay their repairs. I wish I could help them more. These are people I truly have sympathy for, not Wall St jokers who blow their way thru hundreds of thousands and cry when their very-undeserved high pay gets reduced.

I guess everyone missed the part about giving $100,000 to charity???

I am not defending the people in the article. It was poorly written, slanted, etc. Stop hating the wealthy. They go to work everyday, don't look for the angle of what can I get for nothing, pay their taxes. I despise the people that don't pay any taxes. Why should a family of 6 pay less taxes than my family of 3 - when the get more benefits?? Why are their health care charges the same as mine?? When it is used more??

Stop hating the people that pay for the freeloading society we have become.

 

[superme80]

This is such a valid point. In the US, if you earn more than $34,000 per year you are one the 1%, globally speaking. To many, many people on this planet, the complaining that we do would be just as ludicrous as the people in this article sound to most of us.

*http://news.yahoo.com/attention-protestors-youre-probably-part-1-153806044.html

Another DISer pointed me towards http://www.globalrichlist.com/ It's a great site that allows you to enter your income and see how you fare compared to others world wide.

I think it is a nice prespective, but honestly the whole "think how rich you are compared to the rest of the world" attitude irks me. Yes I am rich compared to a poor nation, but I am still sitting at the poverty line in the nation I live in. And if I can barely make it in my current nation how on earth can I help those less fortunate than me in another nation?

This article made me , but I do understand how the people who benefit from their wealth will be suffering.

 

[burnurcomputer]

I do feel badly for them. When you work hard and choose a career that is supposed to yield high earnings and it doesn't give you risk vs reward for that work, yeah it sucks big time! If you worked hard for years to have the top grades to get into the best college so you can get into that career that has the high yield and gives you the lifestlye that you want and have worked hard for, it can be very hard to loose any part of your income, just like anyone else.

Many of these people are highly educated and work long and stressful hours. Yes, the life they lead isn't the "norm", but does that mean that we should mock them on a budget board? The area they live in has a high cost of living, low outdoor spaces, and they are working there bums off for that $. Stop hating and realize that the 'poor little rich girl/boy' attitude just makes you look jealous. People are people no matter the size of the income.

 

[Soben]

But if we're really being honest here, most all Americans are disconnected from the reality of much of the rest of the world. Whether we make $30,000 a year or $300,000 a year, most of us have no idea what it feels like to have to live in true poverty. We have come to expect luxury as the "norm" in our country and take way too much for granted... to have drinking water that has no color and food in a cupboard for tomorrow, I'm already more rich than some. And of course I take that for granted every day.

I wonder what the millions of people living on a $1/day would think when I complain.

 

[mistysue]

I get that we sound crazy to people who live on $1/day- but the difference is that here you actually can't live on that. I can't just go out to a field, build a hut out of sticks and farm the open land. There is no such thing as getting a place to live that you could get for that in expensive here, the cost of living is totally unable to be compared. If you didn't get kicked off for code violations, most areas you couldn't even buy or rent the land for $1/day. The modest income in the midwest is dirt poor on the coastlines... and it would be filthy rich in some countries. In places where people live on $1/day you get much more for that dollar than you do here.

As strange as it sounds, the more money you have, the harder it often is to take a huge cut because of lifestyle patterns.

 

[mjbaby]

It's not a trait unique to the affluent to become used to X income and then become distressed when that income drops to X-Y. Sure, many of us here wouldn't spend $17,000 a year on dog walking but no doubt we could all look at each other's budgets and find things we believe to be "unnecessary" or frivolous. There was a thread around here not long about about soccer tournaments and my first thought was "what a stupid thing to spend money on" and yet I know it was a well-thought out expenditure for the OP's family. Meanwhile, we spend lots of cash on my daughter's riding lessons and showing - money that no doubt lots of fellow DISers would find ridiculous.

The point is, the feelings related to one's income dropping from $30k to $20K are the same as an income dropping from $300K to $200K - a 30% drop for each - are universal. The experience can be panic-inducing, disappointing, galvanizing or angering (or whatever), but claiming that any of these is not a valid human response is to be more invested in finding differences just for the sake of them than is probably healthy.

 

[Free4Life11]

Trickle down economics.

I think that's when the rich piss on us "little people,"

Stop hating the wealthy. They go to work everyday, don't look for the angle of what can I get for nothing, pay their taxes.[/B] I despise the people that don't pay any taxes. Why should a family of 6 pay less taxes than my family of 3 - when the get more benefits?? Why are their health care charges the same as mine?? When it is used more??

Stop hating the people that pay for the freeloading society we have become.

LOL so we should stop "hating the wealthy" but you can "despise the people that don't pay any taxes" aka the poor? Riiiight What about the rich/wealthy who pay a lower rate then a middle class family? Do you despise them too?

I don't hate the wealthy, I hate when people of means who complain about having to makes cuts to their lifestyle...I've made plenty of cuts myself, but I'm not sitting around crying feeling sorry for myself! In fact I LOOK for ways to reduce my expenses and COL.

 

[Marionnette]

Trickle down economics.

I think that's when the rich piss on us "little people,"

No, that's when the rich give the "little people" a J-O-B.

I guess everyone missed the part about giving $100,000 to charity???

I am not defending the people in the article. It was poorly written, slanted, etc. Stop hating the wealthy. They go to work everyday, don't look for the angle of what can I get for nothing, pay their taxes. I despise the people that don't pay any taxes. Why should a family of 6 pay less taxes than my family of 3 - when the get more benefits?? Why are their health care charges the same as mine?? When it is used more??

Stop hating the people that pay for the freeloading society we have become.

Unfortunately, there is an element in our society that benefits from perpetuating the evil, wealthy myth. We can ignore that they pay the majority of taxes while we focus on the effective tax rate that they pay. We can hate them for their success while we bite the hand that feeds us. We can moan about dwindling charitable contributions and all the while mock anyone with means who support those causes for the purpose of a tax deduction.

There was a time when people in this country aspired to wealth. Now it seems as if most people would rather take it from those who have it. Instead of trying to raise themselves up, they would prefer to tear the successful down. The author of that article has a history of writing pieces like this. He takes quotes out of context, making the interviewee appear ridiculously out of touch with the common man. When you consider the source, it's not surprising that the subjects in that article come across as unsympathetic characters.

 

[SaraJayne]

Trickle down economics.

Trickle down economics doesn't work. No matter how much Reagan wanted you to believe it.

 

[ccgirl]

Personally, I think it's all relative. We all have a budget, it's just a different $$ amount.

Those that make 300K+ have more bills to pay, a higher mortgage, more expensive car payments etc.

Those that make the 300K+ are the ones putting more money back into society. If they can't go to Aspen, for example, the housekeepers at the hotel may lose their jobs, the people that work at the ski lifts, waiter/waitresses at the restaurant etc. They will also be paying less in taxes which means less money for Medicare,Medicare, SS, welfare etc.

It is very cyclical but people want to make the wealthy the "bad" guy.

 

[punkin]

I think that's when the rich piss on us "little people,"



LOL so we should stop "hating the wealthy" but you can "despise the people that don't pay any taxes" aka the poor? Riiiight What about the rich/wealthy who pay a lower rate then a middle class family? Do you despise them too?

I don't hate the wealthy, I hate when people of means who complain about having to makes cuts to their lifestyle...I've made plenty of cuts myself, but I'm not sitting around crying feeling sorry for myself! In fact I LOOK for ways to reduce my expenses and COL.

So do the people in the article. Their starting expenses were just higher than yours. They are cutting down on vacations and unnecessary expenses just like the rest of us are.

One of the families in the article lives in a 1300 sf 2 br duplex which they don't even own...not exactly the lap of luxury there.

Everyone has the right to complain. These people really have taken a financial hit. They may still be better off than you, but they are worse off than they were just a few years ago.

 

[ccgirl]

No, that's when the rich give the "little people" a J-O-B.




Unfortunately, there is an element in our society that benefits from perpetuating the evil, wealthy myth. We can ignore that they pay the majority of taxes while we focus on the effective tax rate that they pay. We can hate them for their success while we bite the hand that feeds us. We can moan about dwindling charitable contributions and all the while mock anyone with means who support those causes for the purpose of a tax deduction.

There was a time when people in this country aspired to wealth. Now it seems as if most people would rather take it from those who have it. Instead of trying to raise themselves up, they would prefer to tear the successful down. The author of that article has a history of writing pieces like this. He takes quotes out of context, making the interviewee appear ridiculously out of touch with the common man. When you consider the source, it's not surprising that the subjects in that article come across as unsympathetic characters.

Very well put.

 

[SaraJayne]

So do the people in the article. Their starting expenses were just higher than yours. They are cutting down on vacations and unnecessary expenses just like the rest of us are.

One of the families in the article lives in a 1300 sf 2 br duplex which they don't even own...not exactly the lap of luxury there.

Everyone has the right to complain. These people really have taken a financial hit. They may still be better off than you, but they are worse off than they were just a few years ago.

If they would have saved some of their earnings, they wouldn't be in such bad shape.

In the story, only one of the people they talked to said he had a savings account to fall back on (and IIRC, he was in his late 50's). Yes, you have larger bills ~ you also have a much larger paycheck.

Just like everyone else, when your income falls, your output needs to be adjusted.

The smaller bonus checks that hit accounts across the financial-services industry this month are making it difficult to maintain the lifestyles that Wall Street workers expect, according to interviews with bankers and their accountants, therapists, advisers and headhunters.

This is one paragraph that really stuck out to me.

 

[sam_gordon]

Something that hasn't been pointed out in the thread, and perhaps my title isn't totally accurate... this was not a cut in SALARY. It was a cut in BONUS. I was always taught bonuses are just that... "bonus". You shouldn't count on them. While yes, if you get a large enough bonus, maybe you splurge on a vacation, car, house renovation, etc. But counting on a bonus to send your kids to private school? I disagree with that.

For a while, my company gave us a week's bonus pay every year. I'm talking this went on about 5 years. In 2009, we were told there would be no bonuses. Now, granted, our bonus was only 1/52 of our salary, not 1/3 or more. But IMO, the principle is the same.

 

[SaraJayne]

Something that hasn't been pointed out in the thread, and perhaps my title isn't totally accurate... this was not a cut in SALARY. It was a cut in BONUS. I was always taught bonuses are just that... "bonus". You shouldn't count on them. While yes, if you get a large enough bonus, maybe you splurge on a vacation, car, house renovation, etc. But counting on a bonus to send your kids to private school? I disagree with that.

Great point.

 

[DWGal210]

Sam, I felt the same about a bonus. They should be treated as gravy, not something you spend before its even in the bank. I'm lucky enough to get a modest bonus most quarters, but I don't budget based on it.

What really killed me was that most of them don't save. Really?!?! Wow!! That's ridiculous.

 

[punkin]

Something that hasn't been pointed out in the thread, and perhaps my title isn't totally accurate... this was not a cut in SALARY. It was a cut in BONUS. I was always taught bonuses are just that... "bonus". You shouldn't count on them. While yes, if you get a large enough bonus, maybe you splurge on a vacation, car, house renovation, etc. But counting on a bonus to send your kids to private school? I disagree with that.

For a while, my company gave us a week's bonus pay every year. I'm talking this went on about 5 years. In 2009, we were told there would be no bonuses. Now, granted, our bonus was only 1/52 of our salary, not 1/3 or more. But IMO, the principle is the same.

On Wall ST., the bonus IS the bulk of remuneration. The salaries are actually rather small in comparison to total comp. For example, there are people who have salaries of $250K but their bonuses (including cash and stock options are in the millions). Now imagine if their bonus was cut to $0. They have expenses of a $million income, but only made $250K. You can bet that's going to hurt.