It's Impossible To "Get By" In The US

[Universal]

Can't speak for the Average Joe, but only for myself. Our parents saved to buy cars, which we did not do, but financed. Mistake. Our parents never used credit cards, but we did. Mistake. Our parents lived in a small house, we w-a-n-t bigger. Mistake. Our parents lived w/i their means, we did not. Mistake. This is only my own situation. That doesn't mean I necessarily disagree with everything in the initial post, but I am accountable for most of my own problems.

[broken64]

Well Xue it is spot on with us...Almost to a tee we Are JOE!!! We have two vehicles, have cut every corner we could and we are now entering foreclosure. There is NO money left over ever and with vehicle repairs (which we need to get back and forth to work) threw us in a tailspin. I can tell you right now we do not eat out at restaurants or buy processed foods. I cook every night and my husband and I take leftovers for our lunches...

[ForumReader]

Not sure if my post would be relevant to this thread, but I keep reading stuff that "due to the economy we would have to raise prices". I do not see this as really helping due to inflation. For instance I have been looking up hotel reservations to book a room for an upcoming event and the event group claimed that they are not able to keep last year hotel rates (block rooms) due to the economy so the rates have gone up. One has to live within his/her means really well, but it feels like just getting by!

[BKMike1]

I think Average joe lives in too big of a house.!!! and drives too expensive of a car!!

[chriselle]

At least Joe America has a JOB... i will just think of it that way. imagine crunching numbers without employment

[shabam]

I don't know about any else but I am sick of being feed this BS that the average Joe, the middle class, and the poor must cut back. All while the wealthy get to throw money around like it's going out of fashion.

Seriously, what country do we live in when those who work hard are told to cut back, that they are 'spending too much' or to get a second or third job (working 60 hours a week), while the wealthy who control the majority of the wealth are living it up. More often than not, for doing absolutely nothing.

Regardless of political orientation, I do wonder if there will be a day when the middle class and poor stop buying the BS feed to us, stop believing that the rest of the world is "socialist", and start to smell the coffee. That is, that the majority of us are being screwed Mr Potter style, while even in this economy, the rich live like aristocrats.

[ForumReader]

I don't know about any else but I am sick of being feed this BS that the average Joe, the middle class, and the poor must cut back. All while the wealthy get to throw money around like it's going out of fashion.

Seriously, what country do we live in when those who work hard are told to cut back, that they are 'spending too much' or to get a second or third job (working 60 hours a week), while the wealthy who control the majority of the wealth are living it up. More often than not, for doing absolutely nothing.

Regardless of political orientation, I do wonder if there will be a day when the middle class and poor stop buying the BS feed to us, stop believing that the rest of the world is "socialist", and start to smell the coffee. That is, that the majority of us are being screwed Mr Potter style, while even in this economy, the rich live like aristocrats.

Right--one thing that concerns me out of the whole system whether it is in the US or elsewhere in this world is that there tends to be a three tiered social class:

Wealth Class
Middle Class
Poverty Class

Why can't a country as a whole be even out with a good sense of balance? The gap is getting wider between the wealth and the poor with the middle class being socked in in the USA from what I hear. Heard that Eurpoe, the gap is smaller between the wealth and the poor.

Correct me if I am wrong.

[broken64]

I can gurantee you that we DO NOT drive new vehicles and we ARE living within our means. It was not our fault we had job loss 3 separate times in a year and I am still not able to find work, husband is working but at wages he made 10 years ago. We tried to play the mortgage game with our lender and they could give to sheets to what needed to be done so that we wouldn't have to foreclose. I really don't care what anyone thinks of me, we are hard working people and never asked for any handouts. I can hold my head high right through our bk and now foreclosure, shit happened out of our control and we did our best to try to get out of it...Now we move on.

[banca rotta]

I don't know about any else but I am sick of being feed this BS that the average Joe, the middle class, and the poor must cut back. All while the wealthy get to throw money around like it's going out of fashion.
Seriously, what country do we live in when those who work hard are told to cut back, that they are 'spending too much' or to get a second or third job (working 60 hours a week), while the wealthy who control the majority of the wealth are living it up. More often than not, for doing absolutely nothing.

Regardless of political orientation, I do wonder if there will be a day when the middle class and poor stop buying the BS feed to us, stop believing that the rest of the world is "socialist", and start to smell the coffee. That is, that the majority of us are being screwed Mr Potter style, while even in this economy, the rich live like aristocrats.

I don't fully agree with you on this. Whether you are rich or poor or a poor hardworking person you need to keep a balanced budget.

If you are tired of not having a large enough budget to "live it up" then you need to rethink what you are doing and go into business for example, take some calculated risks and be rich!

I am however tired of politicians actually debating over things like extending unemployment while throwing trillions at the rich all in the name of saving us. Suddenly the budget is always important with the average person but never for the too big to fails.

My 11th commandment is "Thou shalt not bail out ANYONE PERIOD!!!"

[shabam]

Right--one thing that concerns me out of the whole system whether it is in the US or elsewhere in this world is that there tends to be a three tiered social class:

Wealth Class
Middle Class
Poverty Class

Why can't a country as a whole be even out with a good sense of balance? The gap is getting wider between the wealth and the poor with the middle class being socked in in the USA from what I hear. Heard that Eurpoe, the gap is smaller between the wealth and the poor.

Correct me if I am wrong.

We do seem to be heading in the direction of two tired third world system, with one class being the wealthy and the rest being poor. The middle class in our country, once the largest class, is reducing in size daily.

If we look at Canada we can find examples of the outcome of a system the promotes greater equality. Ironically, their economy has also weathered the storm much better than we have. Canada and others around the world do not have societies built on a winner takes all approach as we do. They also do not allow someone to earn minimum wage yet expect them to somehow magically 'get by', all while a firm earns record profits.

[shabam]

I don't fully agree with you on this. Whether you are rich or poor or a poor hardworking person you need to keep a balanced budget.

If you are tired of not having a large enough budget to "live it up" then you need to rethink what you are doing and go into business for example, take some calculated risks and be rich!

I am however tired of politicians actually debating over things like extending unemployment while throwing trillions at the rich all in the name of saving us. Suddenly the budget is always important with the average person but never for the too big to fails.

My 11th commandment is "Thou shalt not bail out ANYONE PERIOD!!!"

I think it's narrow-minded to assume that everyone in this situation is here because they simply did not budget. Many are guilty of overspending, no doubt about it, but do not be fooled into thinking that this is the sole cause. When I was working in the UK, I did not hear of one person that had to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. However, even prior to this recession and during the boom years, this was still quite common here.

The middle class once built America yet we are now led to believe that we are simply spending too much. Personally, I do not want my country to end up Mexico or Kenya, where people barely earn enough to pay basic bills and are stuck in poverty. I will never buy the con that the middle class are the bad guys, while the wealthy live it up doing nothing. This mentality is the equivalent of blaming and punishing the drug user rather than the pusher. Or blaming the rape victim for looking proactive rather than the actual perpetrator.

[Faust]

If you are tired of not having a large enough budget to "live it up" then you need to rethink what you are doing and go into business for example, take some calculated risks and be rich!

Yeah, don't be so lazy everyone, get off your rear end and start a railroad or airline or something.

[/sarcasm]

[tigergem]

Yeah, don't be so lazy everyone, get off your rear end and start a railroad or airline or something.

[/sarcasm]

Or a bank, or manufacture automobiles. Then if you fall on your butt, you can get a bail out.

[Faust]

Or a bank, or manufacture automobiles. Then if you fall on your butt, you can get a bail out.

Yeah, cause when you take risks the government should bail you out. Only if your a corporation though. Not some smelly person.

[tigergem]

Right. And guess what? It's cheaper to register a corporation in almost any state in the union than it is to retain a BK attorney. Go figure.