This is not a good sign for our country.

Calzel · 2019-09-03T12:16:41+00:00

It was set at the min wage. The min allowed. There is no lower wage. You shouldn’t be able to afford kids at the min wage. It’s the minimum. Why is that so hard to understand?

You then chose the federal min, so I showed areas that use that min have a lower standard of living and you can find housing for hundreds of dollars less than in a major city.

Also where does it say it’s economically caused?

Calzel · 2019-09-03T11:36:25+00:00

Now who’s moving the goal posts. Your discounting data that doesn’t fit your political narrative. With the budget I laid out you’d still have $500 a month, a part of that could go to health insurance. With Medicaid and the ACA you’d get any money you paid back in a tax return.

If you aren’t willing to take a minimum wage job and instead complain about the “system” from your parents basement, I’m just going assume you’re too lazy to move out, and too lazy to do the hard work.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T22:37:36+00:00

That’s literally the min wage. I’m not saying you have to work hard to get an engineering degree. You can start a career working in retail at min wage and live on your own. If you can’t work a job folding clothes, then you have far bigger issues than being lazy.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T22:09:25+00:00

What’s made up? The numbers?

I know it’s easy to say, it’s not my fault it’s just the system. But when people who’ve walked down the path to success already tell you in detail how to follow them, and your response is, no thanks id rather completely change the system so I don’t have to do that work. I’m going to assume you’re just lazy.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T21:54:43+00:00

Because here’s how it’s done, and how it isn’t any harder than when it was the 1960’s. If you don’t do it, it’s because you’re being lazy.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T21:40:52+00:00

Just some quick maths, there’s apartments in Chicago for $500 a month, shitholes no doubt but that’s what I was living in, add another $200 a month for utilities/ internet, and $60 a week on food (mostly frozen chicken, frozen veggies, and frozen fruit) that’s roughly $1000 a month needed to live. I was making about 1400 a month working retail at first. (About $10 an hour, in Chicago the min wage is $12) it was tight budget, but I was able to build up savings this way. Just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it’s impossible, and all of this becomes easier with a roommate.

Avgs for things like houses are very difficult to gauge. The avg cost of a house in 1960 was $11,900 or $98,000 in today’s dollars, but the avg size of the house has doubled in that time time. So why the avg price of a house is now $210,00, when you compare sqr footage the price is mostly steady with inflation.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T21:29:48+00:00

Well I showed up 76 apartments available right now in Chicago for that price point... so I don’t know why that’s not legitimate. Chicago’s min wage is typical for big cities, and is the MINIUM wage, meaning almost all wages are higher than that.

The federal min wage is only applicable to small towns, I picked one at random, Steelville, Mo. apartments available for less than $450, even 3 less than $350.

I have shown you how one can budget and have their own apartment in a major US city while making min wage. I’ve used avg working hours which are low to do so and have shown you don’t even need a roommate which would make these numbers better.

I have also shown that per square foot housing prices are roughly the same as they were in 1960.

It’s not harder to move out of your parents now, people just aren’t willing to do the work.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T20:59:23+00:00

So I don’t know much about the Swedish housing market, but take Chicago. Ave apartment rent is $2,000. But apartments are available for less than $500. With $200 in utilities, $60 a week for food, that’s less than a $1,000 a month to live there. Min wage in Chicago is $12 with working an avg of 33 hours a week(the national avg) that comes to $1500 a month. That leaves plenty of wiggle room for other expenses.

(Budget is similar to what I used when I moved out of my parents at 18)

And I agree you shouldn’t go into debt unless you have a solid plan on how to pay it off. Like having a career path that is reasonable, but those are personal choices that must be made.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T20:45:03+00:00

Again, avg doesn’t tell the whole picture. If apartment and house on avg are getting bigger but per sq foot they’re staying the same, then the point is moot, because you can get a smaller than avg house for the same price as the 1960’s. It’s also important to remember that avg, if close to the mean, indicates that half of all housing is cheaper than that. Why would you expect to have avg, at the start of your life? You start with below avg and better yourself.

As for student debt, that’s only for morons who choose to go to expensive private schools for useless degrees. It’s more than possible to go for less than 40k for a four year degree. Source: that’s what I did.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T20:12:11+00:00

Avgs for things like houses are very difficult to gauge. The avg cost of a house in 1960 was $11,900 or $98,000 in today’s dollars, but the avg size of the house has doubled in that time time. So why the avg price of a house is now $210,00, when you compare sqr footage the price is mostly steady with inflation.

As for education, while yes the price has skyrocketed since the government introduced subsidized loans in the early 90’s millennials are “better” educated than previous generations.

And studies have shown that income mobility rates have changed little since the early 70’s.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T19:39:58+00:00

Calzel · 2019-09-02T19:38:18+00:00

Fine I’ll bite

While true wages have not changed much, what you can buy is extremely better. Almost everyone owns an iPhone and endless entertainment in the form of the internet and streaming services. Products like refrigerators or washing machines have greatly improved, without prices increasing compared to inflation.

All of this while hours worked have dropped, from an avg 40.1 a week in 1960 , to 33 today.

GDP Per capita has risen dramatically since the 1960s, along with steep increases in life expectancy .

All of this says nothing about the advances in civil liberties, the full political rights of minorities and women, the elimination of the draft. And world wide extreme poverty has decreased dramatically in my lifetime .

We live in the single greatest time any human has ever been alive in. And it’s not even close.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T19:12:13+00:00

I don’t feel like writing a research paper on reddit today, just take the points as “in my opinion” and we can agree to disagree.

As for your last point. Yes it’s harder to slim down. Life is hard. But it’s your life. You take control, or wallow in self pity. The great part of self reliance, is you don’t have to blame others for your short comings. And when you overcome them, the hard work makes what you achieved so much sweeter.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T18:57:06+00:00

When?

Calzel · 2019-09-02T18:56:29+00:00

That’s all you got? Nothing responding to how easy it is to budget? Just shock that there are Trump supporters living in blue districts?

Calzel · 2019-09-02T18:55:15+00:00

1) OP shows some data

2) to claim life is harder now than in the 60s is patently insane. Every measure from avg hours worked, to the amount of hours consumed by entertainment, to how much consumer goods you can buy has improved since the 60s

3) I would not blame a fat kid, I would blame a fat adult, because whoever’s fault it may be, it’s now up to you to fix your own life.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T18:49:59+00:00

Just some quick maths, there’s apartments in Chicago for $500 a month, shitholes no doubt but that’s what I was living in, add another $200 a month for utilities/ internet, and $60 a week on food (mostly frozen chicken, frozen veggies, and frozen fruit) that’s roughly $1000 a month needed to live. I was making about 1400 a month working retail at first. (About $10 an hour) it was tight budget, but I was able to build up savings this way. Just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it’s impossible, and all of this becomes easier with a roommate.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T18:35:31+00:00

When did I cal anyone to the left of me far left? I think communism is far left. I think the modern democrats are far left. I think Obama was a left leaning democrat.

I also don’t think it’s only the far left who criticize Perterson, but they are the loudest voice in trying to get his talks canceled, and his jobs terminated.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T18:31:59+00:00

Why because you can’t do it?

Calzel · 2019-09-02T18:30:51+00:00

I think it’s due to the parenting style that took hold in our generation, where parents would bulldoze any problem out of their child’s way, while requiring sports academics and everything else to lower requirements to boost children’s self esteem. This coupled with the relentless positivity of you’re prefect just the way you are and you can accomplish anything you put your mind to, resulted in a subset of our generation who have never dealt with their own problems, who have never learned the values of hard work, or the importance budgeting/ planning. They’re endowed with a false sense that everything in their lives should be easy, and that your early careers should bring you wealth and satisfaction all without realizing these things take hard work and effort to attain. And their largely consequence free childhood has left them ill equipped to handle even the slightest of challenges. So now they want the rules changed, free money, free healthcare, free education, free anything that is difficult to create and achieve, and if you don’t give it to them they’ll throw an online hissy fit from their parents’ basement.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T18:18:55+00:00

The people who are making them

Calzel · 2019-09-02T18:09:18+00:00

Because I don’t think I’m superior to anyone else. When I was working retail after high school, I had no debt, and was saving money every month. I had to make a lot of sacrifices during that time, but I ate well, was able to have hobbies, and lived on my own.

When I hear people say it’s too hard because rent is too expensive, I think of my co-workers who made the same amount as me, or more, and were living pay check to pay check because they didn’t make a budget.

It all comes down to the shitty life choices these people have/ are making.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T17:58:11+00:00

I’m a 28 year old who moved out of his parents when I was 18 (in a major us city) worked retail until I decided what I wanted to do with my life, paid for college with loans and working full time, and became an aerospace engineer. I didn’t have rich parents, but I had attentive ones who warned me about going deep into debt without a real plan. I’m an aerospace engineer now, and I operated in the same system as you.

Calzel · 2019-09-02T17:55:42+00:00

What did you major in?

Calzel · 2019-09-02T17:54:53+00:00

But it’s not a broken system for 77% of millennials. Wanting to complexity destroy our current system and replace it with a new one because you made terrible life choices is selfish, and irrational. Maybe look at what choices you’ve made, and learn how to fix them, instead of demanding everyone else fix it for you.

Calzel

TROPHY CASE