Topic: Is $40k to $70k peanuts to you?

[Jack Morris]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050821/northwest_mechanics.html?.v=15

Obviously it is to some people. That's insane, they earn way above national average salaries and cannot put up with a 25% pay cut? They are lucky their airline is not bankrupt. IMO those mechanics and cleaning people should feel free to apply at bankrupt United.

[toasty0]

A family earns 40,000 a year and you're gonna tell me they can afford to take a 10,000 a year cut in pay?

Do you actually earn a living and provide for anyone beside yourself, Jack?  It reads like you don't have a clue how little 40,000 a year really is to raising a family.

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

40K for a family?  Crap.  I'd like to make 25K for me and mine!!!

[toasty0]

40K for a family?  Crap.  I'd like to make 25K for me and mine!!!

If you're making less than 30,000 a year and assuming a family of 4 what are you doing with an unnecessary expense like this internet connection? (and that is asked in the sincerest, most concerned fashion I can muster).

[Jack Morris]

As usual, our dyna psychoanalyst and all knowing speaks! 

http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20040518.html

Granted it is from a year ago, but we will use the govt.'s wage increase of 3.0% for last year to compensate.

Survey says... $36,764 plus 3%! Now figure you are a cleaning boy or woman, and yes, the wages would be lower. I'd venture to say the Northwest employees are overpaid. It's no secret that it also takes TWO wage earners to raise a family. Noone said life was fair, or that we would have it as good as the one breadwinner in the family baby boomers.

[Sten]

40K for a family?  Crap.  I'd like to make 25K for me and mine!!!

If you're making less than 30,000 a year and assuming a family of 4 what are you doing with an unnecessary expense like this internet connection? (and that is asked in the sincerest, most concerned fashion I can muster).

Ooh Class warfare cool. Only the "rich and well off" should have access to the net. The rest of you peons can use the public library.

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

Considering the wealth of information available on the internet that I can use for my kids learning, and the fact that I can search for information I need as well, your 'necessary' and 'unnecessary' expense isn't valid.  Nothing is ever overdue, and I can find information immediately, without having to get in the car and drive seven miles to the library, look for the book, then check it out and drive home, and then return it on time.
   The internet is efficient, and not just for playing on. 

[toasty0]

As usual, our dyna psychoanalyst and all knowing speaks! 

http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20040518.html

Granted it is from a year ago, but we will use the govt.'s wage increase of 3.0% for last year to compensate.

Survey says... $36,764 plus 3%! Now figure you are a cleaning boy or woman, and yes, the wages would be lower. I'd venture to say the Northwest employees are overpaid. It's no secret that it also takes TWO wage earners to raise a family. Noone said life was fair, or that we would have it as good as the one breadwinner in the family baby boomers.

Your point being they should make less than the national average? That anyone who makes more is earning too much...

Gee, Jack, you're starting to sound like a hard core Democrat.

[Just plain old Punisher]

Jesus Christ, anything below 45k here in CA is below the poverty line.

Get serious ladies. People have mortgages to pay for, cars, education for their kids. You think 45k is alot for a family of 3-4 people? Sure, if you live in a two-story refrigerator box on the corner of crack house and ghetto...and you feed your family nothing but expired tuna fish.

Not meaning to insult anyone here, but all over the United States we are seeing a similar increase in the cost of living. Ca is really bad, but quickly growing regions like Las Vegas (Check out how much housing prices have increased in the past 5 years there) and you'll see that we aren't alone.

[Jack Morris]

While I can see your point Pun, you have to understand that not everyone wants to live in those places. All across America there are places where the ratio of housing costs to salaries are MUCH better. Noone twisted anyone's arm and forced them to live in S.D. or S.F. or N.Y., and you can thank the Californians that have been placing bets in L.V. for the speculation going on there, and now it is starting to bite people in the butt.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/07/MNGOTBLIIR1.DTL

As far as raising kids goes, EVERYONE knows it takes money saved to have a kid. First you have birth expenses, then you have daycare, not to mention an extra mouth to feed in the household. Let's not forget clothes, braces, and when they hit 16 or so an extra car in the family, then last but not least the most expensive item, college. As with housing, noone twisted their arm and told them to have a gazillion kids.

Sorry if it sounds cold amigo, it's not, I'm a realist. IF I were to have a child (Not going to happen as too many Sarin exposed vets have had children with birth defects), I would be smart enough and responsible enough to think about these things and do something about attaining those goals for my child. It's called personal responsibility, and I would hope that other American couples thought the same, unfortunately they do not.

[ELITE-Kaos]

$45,000 is more money than most of the people in the world will ever earn and yet they seem to survive...  Here in the UK the average wage is considered to be about £30,000 this is down to the big greedy pigs that pay them selves £1-200,000 py while many of the population earn far less than the 'inflated' average.  Im sure the same is true in the States for your average figure.  As for living on the corner of Crack house and Ghetto, you snob.  Some people have no choice but to live there while others sit behind big fences with armed guards preying that no poor people try to rob them.  The home of democracy?  More like the home of porpers and pigs IMO...

[toasty0]

$45,000 is more money than most of the people in the world will ever earn and yet they seem to survive...  Here in the UK the average wage is considered to be about £30,000 this is down to the big greedy pigs that pay them selves £1-200,000 py while many of the population earn far less than the 'inflated' average.  Im sure the same is true in the States for your average figure.  As for living on the corner of Crack house and Ghetto, you snob.  Some people have no choice but to live there while others sit behind big fences with armed guards preying that no poor people try to rob them.  The home of democracy?  More like the home of porpers and pigs IMO...

1.) We not talking about living on 45,000, but about dropping that figure by 25% and then expecting a family to live on that wage.

2.) Jack called that a good wage for any family and anyone who says different is a cry baby.

3.) Angel Slayer says he makes less than 25,000 a year and he and his family do just fine. He never did say if that was his family's only income though...

4.) Pun says 45,000 is a barely liveable wage for th average sized family. I tend to agree with him.

5.) Jack replies that if you plan well you should not need 45,000 dollars a year to raise a family...

6.) Kaos diagrees with Pun and I and says folks in the UK do it on 30,000 pounds a year. I guess he forgot the conversion rate would make that 30 into 45 in the US.


So, what that re-cap I'd like to ask, do you think 30,000 is a good wage in whcih to expect a family to grow?

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

Angel Slayer says he makes less than 25,000 a year and he and his family do just fine. He never did say if that was his family's only income though...

That is the only income, Toasty.  Never said it was easy street, but we can make it, and do, as long as I don't lose my wallet. 

Me, wife and three kids.  The boys are out looking for work.  Should be working in a couple of weeks, and I may get a promotion in a couple of weeks.  Then I can upgrade my compy!!!

On a more serious note, 30K a year?  That would be nice.  It would be much easier than what we work with now.

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

By the way, if I get this promo, it will put me at or over thirty k a year.  I find out next week. 

[toasty0]

By the way, if I get this promo, it will put me at or over thirty k a year.  I find out next week. 

Best of luck!

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 

There's no reason a family of 4 or 5 cannot survive on $25 ~ $30K (US) per year if they manage and prioritize wisely.

I pray that I'll never have to do it again, though.

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

Are we talking gross or net guys?

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 
Gross.  US taxes on $25k are quite low.

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

Just figured it up.  If I get this promo and the pay is what they say, it boils down to over a 10K raise for me.  WooT!!!  I didn't realize just how little I made until I started reading this.  Thanks for making me realize how crappy my check really was!! 

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 

Well, I'm sorry.... Ignorance is bliss!

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

Grin.  Not really.  I got my family and we got a roof and food.  Everything else is a luxury item.   

[ELITE-Kaos]

Taxes and National Insurance for £30,000 comes in at 30% so the money in the bank is closer to £21,000.  A large number of our population manages to live a good life on much less than this.  Toasty your bullet points miss-out one thing, the variations in cost of living within one country.  People in London get paid an allowance, this is approximatley £1500 py, given the very high costs of all goods in the capital that really dosn't cover much.  For instance here in Liverpool a can of Pepsi costs 50-60 pence in London the same can costs double.  The only reason ever given for this is down to tourism, personally I think that this is codswallop (think of a 4 letter word starting with c and ending in p ).

[Dracho]

There's no reason a family of 4 or 5 cannot survive on $25 ~ $30K (US) per year if they manage and prioritize wisely.

I pray that I'll never have to do it again, though.

Surviving being a key word there..

that'd include things like saving the dinner napkins to re-use as Toilet paper.

[Just plain old Punisher]

There's no reason a family of 4 or 5 cannot survive on $25 ~ $30K (US) per year if they manage and prioritize wisely.

I pray that I'll never have to do it again, though.

Surviving being a key word there..

that'd include things like saving the dinner napkins to re-use as Toilet paper.

Twice.

[Jack Morris]

Like I said before, it all depends on where you choose to live. Land in OK is dirt cheap compared to TX, and especially compared to Austin, the highest cost of living city in TX.

As for Pun and EZKill? San Diego and San Fran are highly speculative now, and a lot of Californians have the cash available to play that game.

As far as mechanics are concerned? An ASE master tech rolled in 70k at least during the boom of the late 90's. Nowadays they are lucky to push past 50k in the year.

Janitors and "cleaning staff" (Just an uptown word for janitor) are VERY LUCKY to be pulling in 40k a year. Supply and demand, and their are PLENTY of people out there looking for work, not just in their degree field, but ANY work just to survive.

[toasty0]

Like I said before, it all depends on where you choose to live. Land in OK is dirt cheap compared to TX, and especially compared to Austin, the highest cost of living city in TX.

As for Pun and EZKill? San Diego and San Fran are highly speculative now, and a lot of Californians have the cash available to play that game.

As far as mechanics are concerned? An ASE master tech rolled in 70k at least during the boom of the late 90's. Nowadays they are lucky to push past 50k in the year.

Janitors and "cleaning staff" (Just an uptown word for janitor) are VERY LUCKY to be pulling in 40k a year. Supply and demand, and their are PLENTY of people out there looking for work, not just in their degree field, but ANY work just to survive.

That doesn't justify killing off 25% of a man's 40,000 a year salary. Especially when the motivation for doing so is to give some non-working schmoe a bigger return on his OR HER lazy, no account stock dividend.

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

There's no reason a family of 4 or 5 cannot survive on $25 ~ $30K (US) per year if they manage and prioritize wisely.

I pray that I'll never have to do it again, though.

Surviving being a key word there..

that'd include things like saving the dinner napkins to re-use as Toilet paper.

Maybe 'surviving' just means no {gasp!} Cable TV, High-Speed Internet or Cellphones for the Whole Family....

[toasty0]

There's no reason a family of 4 or 5 cannot survive on $25 ~ $30K (US) per year if they manage and prioritize wisely.

I pray that I'll never have to do it again, though.

Surviving being a key word there..

that'd include things like saving the dinner napkins to re-use as Toilet paper.

Maybe 'surviving' just means no {gasp!} Cable TV, High-Speed Internet or Cellphones for the Whole Family....

I don't think so...

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 

Then run the numbers and prove me wrong.

[toasty0]

Then run the numbers and prove me wrong.

Oh my, I'm required to proove you wrong? Since when? Someone appoint you gaurdian of the flame?

But I'll tell you this much...I have raised a family and so I know exactly how much it cost to do so and 25-30 thousand in today's economy ain't squat. Hell it wasn't squat to raise a family with ten years ago...

[Jack Morris]

Obviously it is squat according to the Dept. of Labor's numbers for the average American worker's salary.

Cable tv can run near 100 a month, add another 40 a month for Roadrunner cable modem, plus the cost of the electricity for all those electronic gadgets and that is about 200 a month for luxury items alone.

Then as many people forget, in today's world it's no secret that it takes two to tango. If both spouses work, and you figure the average salary in, that is over 6k a month! I would say that is more than enough to live on and raise a family in my book.

I also fail to see how the owners of NWAC are being greedy or lazy, seeing how the stock is NEGATIVE in dividends payout, and is riding on an appreciation or depreciation of monies invested or withdrawn.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=NWAC

-14.42 EPS, yup, darn those greedy investors with their dividends payouts! 

[KBF-Angel Slayer]

There's no reason a family of 4 or 5 cannot survive on $25 ~ $30K (US) per year if they manage and prioritize wisely.

I pray that I'll never have to do it again, though.

Surviving being a key word there..

that'd include things like saving the dinner napkins to re-use as Toilet paper.

Maybe 'surviving' just means no {gasp!} Cable TV, High-Speed Internet or Cellphones for the Whole Family....

Cable Modem, cable TV, and my company provides mine and my wifes cell phones for a very good price.  (Kids don't need one.)  Ain't surf and turf budgets by any stretch of the imagination, but it is doable, as long as you don't get stupid and lose your money.  That can draw you up tight.
   Found out today that I made it through this round of potentials for management that didn't make the cut.  So, I am still in the hunt.
   Fingers crossed, and getting good feedback. 
   People find a way to make it on what they have.  They may not have everything they want, but they can get what they need and consider important.