Making a good living, but still feeling strapped
Posted June 2nd, 2008 by lastmovement
output
Consumers are feeling worse about their personal finances and prospects -
far worse than government statistics about the economy would indicate.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Only a few years ago, Americans who considered themselves middle class were scrimping to pay for their kids' college education.
Now, many of them are struggling to cover far more basic needs - gas and groceries.
Take Stacy and Chuck Burris. The Pittsburgh, Pa., couple view themselves as solidly middle class. In recent months, however, they've felt anything but.
Burdened by high cost of food and fuel, they are having trouble balancing their budget even though Chuck Burris earns a "comfortable salary" as a software engineer. The parents of five children, three of whom are grown, have essentially stopped eating out and entertaining and are considering canceling the annual family vacation to Maine. They keep to a Spartan shopping list and have planted a larger garden. Instead of buying their 12-year-old daughter summer clothes, they are turning her pants into shorts by cutting off the legs and getting hand-me-downs from family.
Never before in previous recessions have they had to cut back like this.
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It would probably
be safe to say, that now days having 500.00 is like having 200.00 if it's even that good.. We will never climb out of this national debt. Never. It's the compounded interest on the debt that will keep us and generations to come in chains of bondage. The only way out is to ERASE IT. Maybe this is the plan? Issue a new currency that is worth something, once the slaves start hollering, and just by chance you can spend it in Canada and Mexico, thus destroying our sovereignty in the process. You want to talk poverty, It is costing me at least 500.00 dollars more a month to live now than three years ago. From what I have read the only place prices can go is UP. Are we to keep sitting around twittling our thumbs waiting, hoping for something to give? Will we wait ourselves into chains? Will we give up what precious freedoms we do have while these bastards WHO KNOW FULL WELL WHAT THEY ARE DOING sell us all the way down the river? These traitors DESERVE to be hung. HUNG. For being TRAITORS. What they have done is TREASONOUS. They have left are borders WIDE OPEN. They have shipped our jobs overseas. They are allowing the destruction of our manufacturing base and they are TANKING OUR DOLLAR ON PURPOSE. When will the American populace figure out it's us against them, and there IS NO FRIGGIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO PARTIES. NONE. They are in protect themselves mode cause it's in full swing now.
now for those 70.00 dolar
now for those 70.00 dollar oil folks and no inflation past 5% folks ,I leave you this! M3 is at a 25.1% clip right now! as the dollar devalues, prices go up .. it is not "speculators" it is the federal reserve! please read!
http://www.atimes.com/ati...
as for me and my home, we shall worship the LORD
I feel it too
I'm a doctor and used to make a really good living. 4 years ago when our family moved to Nashville, we bought a nice home based on what we could comfortably afford on my salary. Now, we have two small children and even though I'm making more "money" than I ever have, we're having to watch things pretty closely and cut back on quite a few things. After getting hit with all the taxes that come with being 'self employed', and after the 9% sales tax in Tennessee, and after gas taxes, liscence and professional "priviledge" taxes, property tax, I'm lucky to keep 35- 40 % of my actual income. Now with the price of gas and food going up, the value of the dollar going down, and my practice slowing down because people can't afford to go to the doctor or the gas to get there, we're just barely staying ahead.
The thing that really pisses me off, is that now I know that this is all a DELIBERATE plan by the elites to destroy the middle class and create a nation of serfs. F*&K these guys!!
http://www.myspace.com/do...
Dr. William "Doc" Holladay
Nashville, TN
your exactly right Doc!
your exactly right Doc! this is done by design!
as for me and my home, we shall worship the LORD
We have a new pediatrician
We have a new pediatrician that has moved to town that does not take insurance. He takes small payments of per month (like his own private insurance) and gets people in quickly. I've actually have forgotten all the details because I don't have little ones anymore but I've heard he is dong better in these recession times. Seems to me a GP would do well with this formula. I know for a fact that insurance burns a lot of human energy trying to get Doc's their money. Not to mention the control of how treatment is mandated.
You said a mouthful! It's
You said a mouthful! It's amazing how much effort and energy it takes to navigate the insurance jungle. I grew up fairly poor on a farm, and my family was able to survive pretty well on what we produced ourselves. I have a feeling that that background may come in handy if things keep going the way they are. I think it's insane to have worked as hard as I have to get to where I am and be thinking thoughts like "Well, as long as I have a couple of horses and a rifle......"
"Doc" Holladay
Nashville, TN
I'm right there with ya Doc
I'm right there with ya Doc. As I highly specialized IT consultant I had loads of dispensible income just 5 years ago.
This condition affects every man/woman that works for a living. Only those that do not rely on trading effort for income are able to float on the surface of this mess and even many of them are watching their assets lose value or disappear.
In order to have a one world
In order to have a one world government, the middle class has to be destroyed.. this is all being done by design!
as for me and my home, we shall worship the LORD
as long as the value of the
as long as the value of the dollar keeps dropping, inflation rages, and salaries do not keep up it will get worse!
as for me and my home, we shall worship the LORD
just a few thoughts
it's not what you make, it's what you keep.
it's not how much you make, but what you do with it.
many folks, even the "upper middle class" people that are being criticized for having to give up their vacation, worked very hard to get where they did.
it is sad and uncomfortable to give up a lifestyle that you did indeed work very hard to secure, only to be taken away by a crooked system you have no control over (the Fed).
as an example, my father grew up poor. he made a great career as a marine, retired young as a colonel, then worked for sheriff's in several counties under the state pension plan. twice retired, two pensions. not a bad deal eh? nope, pretty good, actually. but he DID work his ass off and now?
well, he and my mom are on a fixed income (not a bad one though). their medical costs have skyrocketed (fortunately they are in decent health), food has risen, utilities, etc. "hidden" inflation because of our monetary policy is ripping people off of their wealth that they worked so very hard to muster.
the point of all this? let us not belittle someone for having a little money - or two homes - or whatever. if we need to be critical, it is to those who refuse to re-invent their lifestyles in hard times and expect the gubment to bail them out. many, many americans worked hard to get where they are.
as a nation, it is in our best interest to have a middle class. i feel for anyone that is struggling (most are to some degree or another).
The new middle class and the new poor
I make a healthy six figure income in the mid 100ks roughly and support 1 wife and 1 11 month old son. I have some hope of getting out of debt in the next 15 years if we don't experience an economic collapse before then (unlikely) and I am on a very strict budget living very "paycheck to paycheck". I am the new middle class.
All of my siblings make between 40-60k annual. They have no hope of ever owning their own home and being debt free. They live paycheck to paycheck and have to use payday loans and post-dated checks just to survive while the rising cost of living slowly consumes them. They are the new poor.
In short, we're all in big trouble.
I support 2 off 16,000 a
I support 2 off 16,000 a year. Im living in poverty. I save every dollar I make but my savings have been depleted in the last 5 months. I make to much for govt assistance, Dont ask me how. Anyways if i can pay my bills anyone that makes 100gs can. I know theres more expenses and assets. But you really dont know what you can survive off till you have no other choice.
Now if this continues to get worse Ill be in the streets robbing to eat. I can predict police at the doors of grocery stores soon, All gas is now pre paid cause they know were going to drive off.
I was in the process of opening a business(catering, food stand). The equipment was around $450 but the licences and taxes were close to 2 grand. Some of the permits were useless. For example I could get a statewide food permit for $500 but my town hall charges $200 just to serve food in the city. If I want to do business in my city its a extra $200. So I would have to spend $700 on food permits. And theres still a big chunk of fees (vendor licence).
They have it so the first few months I would be working for the government.
Now this might not effect middle class but it defintaly effect the lower class. The money that was to be used for this was spent on groceries and gas. Now what would help the economy more. Me working for $8 hr, Or starting my own business?
On Glenn Beck's show last nite...
He was talking about how the prices are really only now starting to creep up.
Home values are down. Gas is up. Prices are beginning to go up because the cost of shipping has gone up so much. Everything is shipped on a truck. I'm in the trucking/logistics business, and I've had to increase the price I charge to my shippers by at least 50% over the last few months.
As an example: To move a truckload of canned goods 1000 miles, it used to cost around $2000. Now it costs $3000. I don't know how many canned goods you can fit in a 48' truck, but each one now has a portion of that extra $1000 shipping cost that will have to be compensated for somehow. (Our wallets.)
Everything we buy is going to go up. It's all shipped at one point or another. Combine that with the decline in housing values, the increase in cost to heat/cool your home, the additional cost of driving to and from work...
We're looking at a perfect economic storm.
Just imagine everything you buy going up 25% or so... and food, gas and energy going up by 50% or more.
Scary.
and there is no upward
and there is no upward pressure on wages because there are so many people looking for work! the layoffs are in the millions, unemployemnet is at 12% or more.. the governments statistics LIE!
as for me and my home, we shall worship the LORD
I have to ask.
It doesn't look like, at least from reading the article, that the wife is working. Why does she not get a job?
My debt is mainly just my car at about 18k. I bought my 06 mustang when gas was about 2.30/gal. I feel the pain a bit. Then again, back when I got it, I was making 8.5/hr at a full time, 50/hr a week, job. I now make 12.5/hr at a much better part-time job and I have a small part-time business.
I'm saving up to go back to college. I've managed my money quite well I think. I probably should have kept my 02 mustang but it was my first purchase by myself without a cosign.
I'm 21, by the way. Yes, the economy is crap right now but there are things people can do to improve things dramatically for themselves. I mean, if you're in dire need, then get a second job working night shift. My father has two jobs and he's a firefighter/paramedic. He's actually gotten a payCUT from the city he works.
Im really scared
I just dont see how we can pull out of this. Even with Ron Paul in the office it was going to be bad-but we could have started turning the ship around. Now we're full steam ahead in the wrong direction. I cant describe the rage I have for the people who dont inform themselves on the candidates they choose. Ron Paul has a PERFECT record in the face of the most important election in our nations history but he didnt "look right"
hmm...
A software engineer is middle class now?
Baby Boomer-rangs
My son is a software engineer, 28, and has moved back home to get out of credit card debt acquired during a bad/past relationship, and student loans. We baby-boomers, are getting boomer-ranged. I think the future lies in households like the Waltons.....several generations under one roof.
yes you are right! it will
yes you are right! it will come to that!
as for me and my home, we shall worship the LORD
Withering Economy is everywhere
Look around. The evidence of a withering economy is everywhere. In "good times" consumers shun the canned meat aisle altogether, but no more. Today, Spam sales are soaring; grocery stores can't keep it on the shelves. Everyone is looking for cheaper ways to feed their families. The Labor Dept. assures us that core-inflation is only 4 per cent, but everybody knows it's load of malarkey. Food prices are going through the roof. White bread is up 13 percent, bacon is up 7 percent and peanut butter is up 9 percent. Inflation is rampant and there's no end in sight. The dollar is closing in on the peso and working people are struggling just to get by. The bottom line is that more and more people in "the richest country on earth" are now surviving on processed pig-meat. That says it all.
For rest of article:
http://www.rense.com/gene...
Guess I'd rather hear
about how a family living in their
car is getting by than a family
that can't afford to go on their annual vacation to Maine.
I'm 60 and worried
that I may not be able to retire at all. I've worked all my life and had hoped to do some traveling. I have some investments but the way things are looking I may never have enough to enjoy my retirement. I don't begrudge people who work hard and like to take a family vacation. That's why you work - to be able to afford some things, like vacationing with your family once a year, or maybe go out to dinner once in awhile. I am soooo angry about all this mess. Here we have planned and saved these many years and for what!
Only this morning
there was a segment on a current affairs program here where they interviewed people in a town in Tennessee.
These people were lining up in a food line, waiting for hand outs. The program is financed by I'm not sure what organisation but people being interviewed were desperate, crying, and some at their wits end because the funds to finance the hand outs of foods is stopped some time in June.
Was so sad to watch, young mothers with young children, many elderly.
One thing that I couldn't help but observe was that a large proportion of those waiting in this food line were not just overweight but obese.
I guess for those who have lived with their eyes closed are going to be hardest hit, not just financially, but due to lack of coping skills. It's hitting them like lightning, out of the blue. Hard way to be woken up.
Obese Poor
The poor are obese because they can only afford 'scrap' food, like pasta, gov. cheese, flour, sugar, etc. Fruits and veggies are a luxuery. They have to eat alot of the 'wrong' food to satisfy hunger. DO NOT judge them!!
Maybe, but they could eat a
Maybe, but they could eat a lot LESS of the 'wrong' food, get off their asses and exercise and not be so obese. I don't think it's a moral issue to be obese, that's the individual's choice, but what you just said evades ALL personal responsibility. There's a thing called self control. It can be utilized rather than eating and eating until you "satisfy hunger". Hell, if I "satisfied" every hunger I had, I'd be drunk in a gutter with 198 kids with different mothers running all over the place. Just sayin....
"Doc" Holladay
Nashville, TN
Yeah, I saw a story the other day about a family that
had to sell their vacation cabin in the wilderness.
Boo hoo, cry me a freakin river. So some upper middle class wannabes with too much debt had to sell their wilderness retreat. Wow. Now they only own one home. How sad.
Would like to know how much debt they are in.
Credit cards. Gas cards. Department store cards. Home loans. Car loans. Motorcycle/Jet Ski loans.
Eating out, entertaining, vacations to Maine... Sounds like they had a pretty good time and now the chickens are coming home to roost
Why don't they ever give both sides of the story?
___________
Lisa C.
http://www.women4ronpaul....
"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."
-Dale Carnegie
Im 25 I have 6K all in
Im 25 I have 6K all in medical debt. Maybe $500 in bills from before I moved to this place. I was going to pay them but I was laid off in April. I just found a job making about 1/3 less. So If gas doesnt jump to $10 a gallon Ill have some of my debt taking care off. But even before I was laid off I was feeling the crunch. Inflation makes everything go up every week and I use to spend maybe $70 a week on groceries for 2. Now im spending between $105-120 and believe me im a penny pincher. I havent been on a vacation since I was 11.
Ron Paul 2008
www.waronyou.com
www.ronpaulforum.info
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Freedom For Life
I'm doing OK'ish.
Never take a holiday.
Paid off my credit cards and stick to cash.
Without the IRS I could get by.
Made some savings but find I can't move money overseas.
Doesn't matter as I see I'll need it to get by in the next two years.
Wish I'd been born a banker.
Then I know y'all would keep me rich with your hard work.
LOL.
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Watch and feel the power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bump
Ron Paul 2008
www.waronyou.com
www.ronpaulforum.info
www.waronyou.com/forums
Freedom For Life
Culling of the middle classes
It's the same in my country. Here it's yet slower, so it is like the frog you put in lukewarm water and slowly rise the head. Perhabs the American frog will jump out of the water just in time.
Vote RON PAUL
Dr. Paul cured my apathy
What is sick
they haven't seen anything yet. Wait till after the elections. Peace
I couldn't agree more...
The election will be the beginning of a sucking sound like nothing we've heard. All of that wealth getting sucked into D.C.
On a separate note, the echos of class warfare in this thread are unsettling. Wealth is being drained from all of those not in the uber wealthy category- those who have the means for hiding their wealth from tax liabilities. The family ( and those in the same bracket) with the vacation home in Maine, are paying the bulk of the taxes in this country. They are suffering the most from the inflationary and taxation thievery. I don't know their personal spending habits our whether they are rabid and excessive spenders- it's irrelevant. There are millions of folks who've worked hard for their money, lived wisely and are suffering the same fate.
Is this the Daily Paul, or the Daily Kos ?