Agreed!



We are circling the drain.

Greed is God.

It's a hard life. We can't get good jobs nor wages.

paying $20 a month on loans, thanks to the income based repayment plans, but will never be able to pay it off at this rate.

I feel for all of you younger folks trying to make your way in this harsh, cruel country.

as longs as she pays on time, the balance after 20 years will be waived.

to face a life of debt for $10 per.

Her entire generation can refuse to pay and collapse the system under its own weight.

Perhaps that's the only workable answer. It will require a divorcement from the insane idea that nonpayment of debt to anyone but an actual person is immoral or unethical, though, and I don't think our society has the courage to do that.

My daughter graduated last year debt free due to going to a local university, living at home and working 30 hrs/wk. However, she's only making $11/hr. which isn't enough to pay rent & living expenses so is still at home. She's got a double major, but can't find work here in her area of expertise due to the depressed economy in FL. (phuck you very much, Rick Scott, job destroyer). She'll probably have to move out of state to have a career, which will hurt because she helps us take care of my 89 year old mother. I have a bad back and she helps me with some chores I simply can't do anymore. When she moves, I'll probably have to pay someone to do these things and our income has been reduced 25% from what it was 3 years ago, so don't know where the $ will come from.

t just sucks that the 1% has destroyed so many good American jobs by transferring them overseas and refuses to pay American workers a decent wage.

fathers' apparently have a say on where she can live in PA.

I hope all goes well and you find someone that can help with your mom for a reasonable amount.

I almost wish the guillotine would make a comeback. Those assholes are destroying us all.

We certainly need it, with the game so rigged against the working class and both parties favoring the 1%, although the Repugs are certainly far worse.

Other countries are looking better and better every day. If Obama signs anything cutting benefits for SSI or Medicare, Repugs win and it's time to go.

I'll stay and fight if I have too, but I am not a good fighter at all. Thinking is more my forte.

insane. No one I know is thriving at all. A friend took a pay cut two or three years ago, from $16 per down to $14. He is single and barely getting by.himself.

What are your mother's thoughts on the downfall of the country? 89 years, she has definitely seen some history.

My mom is gone and really only have my daughter and the grandsons left. They are the only thing keeping me here. I could sell off everything and retire somewhere cheaper, and kinder, just can't leave them.

Hell of a situation, isn't it?

My mom is really sweet & kind, but also very much a "Christian Republican". We argue politics a lot but when it gets heated, one of us will always say - politicians from both parties are on the take so let's not get mad and we laugh and go on from there. She's a very interesting person, had to quit school at 8 to help support the family by picking cotton in TX with the 2 older sibs because there were 7 children ttl & grandad got TB. Grandma took in washing, ironing and neighbor kids, as well as raising her own 7, at that time. Eventually the family grew to 12 kids. She does love & accept her gay grandson, though, so I give her credit for that.

Sorry for your loss. I can certainly understand not wanting to leave the family you have left. We are just hoping that our children will want to move too. Both are left wing progressives, so it might happen. Daughter is taking classes to teach English as 2nd Language so she'll be able to get a job where-ever she lives. Son has not committed to moving, so a little worried about that.

It is a hell of a situation when one's country treats it's people so badly, that even in the richest country in the world, workers are getting more poor by the day. Sickening.

right now.

Our grandmothers were some of the hardest working women. It is amazing how some managed to raise 10 - 12 kids and work too.

Thank you,

It's good you and your mom can laugh together and let it be. How hard her life must have been. My one great-grandfather was 9 or 10, one grandfather was 12 or so, iirc. Afraid we may see this coming around again. Parents losing desperately needed help if their kids aren't doing well in school?!! In 2013?!! Really?!!!!!

Stay safe, lark.

...until the young man got married, they all lived at home. The young women are still there.

Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on. Their jobs just don't pay enough to live on.

Same for a lot of my friends who busted their chops to put their kids through college.

it's a problem in EVERY age group.

And it's equally deplorable across the board.

The only ones I know with good jobs are Republicans.

A job that usually pays between $18-$25/hr depending on various factors. I laughed at him, but only because I already have a job that pays well over that. It's messed up because the guy even said he needed someone who had a broad knowledge base and was able to do everything and anything thrown at him/her. Basically he wanted an experienced (and certified) network and telecom guy who could troubleshoot copper and fiber lines, configure/fix phone systems, configure routers/switches, administer servers and whatever else. Which is cool, but ya gotta pay for that. /rant

what some people think they can pay a network/telecom professional. They all want an 18 year old that doesn't mind being paid minimum wage and knows how to do everything under the sun. I get offered jobs all of the time and tend to laugh in the faces of those who have no idea what I make and why I make the salary that I do. It's because I know what the hell I'm doing, I'm reliable, and no - none of that is cheap.

They all want to hire you, but they can't (or don't want to) afford you. I take it as a compliment

He even said he tried hiring some people with little or no technical expertise with the intent of training them up, but that they just couldn't take it all in. Clearly he needs to figure out what he's looking for, or simply realize he isn't big enough to have staff yet. He can't really have it both ways.

I'm kinda being screwed by my current company too. They hired me on as a field engineer, but as an occasional part-time (they made it sound like there was more work)... I accepted it because it's better to have some money coming in than none. The problem is that they are paying me hourly, but seem to expect me to be on call 24/7 and ready at a moments notice. I already told them I couldn't work one night. If they want to pay me to be on call or even pay me salary, then I'm all for it. In fact, I did this exact same job that paid me salary, and I was ready whenever they wanted me to go. It was a fair trade off, I might have been getting paid to sit around and do nothing, but I was ready to hop in a car or plane within a few hours notice. Anyway, I don't foresee myself being at this company for long either. I don't feel guilty about it either.

and many places don't include utilities. that's 40 percent of our income when we're both getting close to 40 hours a week, we pay 30 percent as it is. but this winter was rough because my husband was only getting about 20 hours a week.

...while homes for sale sit on the market for awhile.

The military housing allowances (I think it is close to $1000 a month) means that landlords can charge a lot even for the most basic of apartments. Plus the lack of DECENT apartments means I pay more than I really should.

But, get this, there are HUNDREDS of houses on the Coast Guard base that are standing empty. I don't know why; they look okay. Maybe they have asbestos or something, but they could be rehabbed for the Coast Guard and let us civilians have cheaper housing in town.

(e.g. space requirements based on pay grade and minimum square footage) or they may have maintenance issues (inefficient heating system, lead paint, faulty wiring, etc., etc.).

If some houses are being used, and others sit empty, it's likely that this kind of thing is at issue--can't force people to take substandard housing if there are alternatives available.

The pot of money (MILCON--military construction) that pays for rehab/refurbishment of buildings is a completely different pot of money that pays for military personnel allowances. It could well be that a bean counter in the Funny Farm (the Five Sided One) did the math and determined it was cheaper to pay allowances than upgrade the housing.

The housing allowance varies by paygrade. The more senior you are, the more "house" you can get. It also varies by location (you get more money in a high rent area than a low rent one) and you also get more money if you are not single; i.e., you have "dependents" in tow (I personally think that distinction is terribly unfair--single people with no spouse/no kids cost the military the least, and they are screwed out of additional cash for the "crime" of being single--can't claim a dog or a cat as a dependent, and often the rent is higher if you have a pet, but there's no consideration for that).

Landlords are gonna get what they can--this is true in any military base environment. When the bases close, or downsize, as they often do, then they have some adjustments to make.

No utility bills, close to work, close to BX, commissary, golf course, gym. All within walking distance.

Too small in terms of the newer standards for a family, but just fine for a single.

Sorry, that blast from the past just popped I my head. Something is seriously screwed up in this country when one needs three jobs to keep a roof over their heads, yet CEOs can make $100 million a year or more.

Once housing went from a commodity to a get-rich-quick speculation scheme which started to happen in a real big way in the 70's, continued unabated into the 80's - then skyrocketed in the 90's - there was just no turning back. I recall someone buying a house in 1970 in Santa Cruz County, California for $12,500. By 1980 it was worth more than $80,000, by 1990, more than $180,000 and by 2005 more than $750,000 - this is unreal and it is not sustainable. Imagine now when we are living in a world where a typical four year college graduate starts off in the workforce between $50,000 to $100,000 in debt before they even start earning an income - How on earth are they going to ever enter the property owning class?

Way back in 2008 - long before there was any suggestion of her running for office - Elizabeth Warren gave this excellent lecture on the collapse of the middle class.

I was looking at a Northern California newspaper just yesterday and saw that.

After I lost my house to foreclosure, partially because my husband declined to get a job as he had promised, we had to look for rentals. We live just outside DC and close to several military bases and the Naval Academy. The rents for sub-standard housing are incredible. The first place we rented was 80 years old and a former summer house so it was tiny. It was 2 tiny bedrooms and 1 bath. It went for $1450, 4 years ago The heating sucked. It had no real basement. The house was splitting in two due to subsidence and part of it at the back had crumbled, although my husband fixed it. The landlord could have cared less. We found out from the neighbors that his tenants generally stayed a year and then got out as fast as they could. The only saving grace was that he didn't care about our 4 dogs and didn't charge us a pet fee. The bathroom was in such bad shape that he actually had to pay a plumber to come out and put in a new shower pipe. The job the guy did was terrible - turned out he was the landlord's lawn person who claimed to be a plumber also.

We were going to stay another year, but couldn't get the landlord to ever sign a renewal lease, so we found another place which seemed better. It was slightly bigger and a bit cheaper. Sure, my commute increased by 20 minutes each way, but it seemed ok. That was until the first rain storm when the back porch and roof over the laundry area leaked. Then the entire ceiling over the washer/dryer fell down due to water. The front porch leaks, the living room and the dining room have leaked and we have had leaks in the master bedroom. The landlord has no money to fix the place. He is a Greek immigrant who claims to be a building contractor. The couple of times he's stopped by to "fix" the roof have proved he is grossly overstating his abilities. He'll put some goop on the roof, claim it's fixed and drive off. By the next rain storm the goop has dried and the roof leaks. Just recently we noticed the water tasting funny. It's a well. We are terrified that it's going bad. The landlord doesn't have the money to have a new well drilled. We put more salt in the conditioning unit and the water seems to be better, but we have decided that we will only stay one more year. My bankruptcy payments are finished in December and so after that we'll have more money for renting something slightly larger and hopefully better. Again, the one saving grace was that the landlord didn't care about our 3 dogs. I just hope that I'm able to buy something as soon as possible so that we don't have to worry about the dogs. But rents here are out of sight and for places that are almost uninhabitable.

I used to wonder how average workers around Silicon Valley managed to live there with the high cost of living. Turns out a lot of them live quite a distance away and commute.

I've also known people who buy or rent mobile homes simply because pets and smoking are allowed, though that's probably not an option anywhere near DC.

Good luck!

n/t

Has a salary cap for it's upper level people, which is why they can pay starting workers 12 bucks an hour.

And it's been since Reagan's reign of terror. They profit, we suffer. And then these fucking psychos have the balls to tell us that we don't deserve what little pay we make.

And now that they have managed to imbalance the wages, the investments, the retirement money and the pensions, they realized there wasn't much left. So they are coming after our Social Security, and our Medicare, after our students, and they are looking to profit from things that were always considered investments in out future, hospitals, schools, prisons...

Yet we are the "takers".

It's that stupid bullshit Any Rand philosophy about how the workers are the parasites and that we're not worth anything. I believe in freedom of speech and all that but I honestly wouldn't mind if every copy of Atlas Shrugged were destroyed in a giant bonfire, it's existence was wiped from our memories, and it was outlawed from society.

What was that quote from that 1860s rail tycoon who said something like "I have enough money that I could pay one half of this country to fight the other half?"

I rent a 2 bed/1 ba Inlaw w/full private garage, for $750 a month. Safe neighborhood, & near everything.

I have to commute 2 hours by bus to get to work, but it aint bad. And oh yeah, Florida's unemployment just went below the national average.

Thanks Obama! (it must of been Obama because our dear Governor Voldemort has done nada to help this state).

Anyway my point is that the prices don't hurt everywhere. There is hope.

I had a one hour commute in one job if I slept late (it was 28 minutes at the asscrack of dawn) and an hour and twenty minutes going home in the rush hour--again, 28 minutes if I worked late. Those basstids got 12 hour days out of me just for that reason--I learned after a month or two to lock my door and take a nap mid-day; otherwise I wouldn't have been able to stand it.

by bus.

If I drove it would be 30-45 minutes.

Nice commute though, the bus drives through a bayou and I see lots of water and critters out the windows.

I often have a 2-hour bus ride as well (not including the other modes of transportation I use during the same trip), but the scenery is nothing to write home about. But at least I have the chance to relax, and let the driver deal with the traffic jams.

And the bus is way cheaper than what it would cost me to try to drive the same route.

A lot of people would park their cars at the park-n-ride and take the bus into the city. Works great when a city has decent public transportation.

I haven't taken public transportation since I've in Texas though. I don't know if it's because I was spoiled by Portland and to some extent New York, or if the public transportation just sucks here (been in Austin, Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth) It would be great if more cities had a system like Tri-Met in the portland metro area. It's nice because it's pretty extensive even outside of the core downtown areas. I lived in a small town of 13,000 people about 40 minutes from Portland, and we had regular service twice an hour.

good for 31 days of unlimited use = less than car insurance

Id love to have 4 hours of my day back though

You could bring your breakfast and make an event of it!

I don't mind a longer commute by public transportation, but two hours each way would try my patience. I admire your fortitude!

I've seen whales dolphins and seals at times on the way to work.

That's my mantra.

or living with friends splitting the rent if your only skills require a minimum wage only job.



It's been that way since at least the 80's, and I speak from personal experience.


I used to date a girl that had two jobs and I still either paid her rent, or her car payment every month.

Another chic I dated was in college and had a roommate they split the rent.

The neighbors on the left had kids and there was two of them, divorced mothers that split the rent.

The neighbors on the right were both college kids they split the rent.

That was WV when the Mwage was 3.35 or something like that...I was in making less than 7/hr and in college.

The restructuring has forced millions into poverty.

Is this considered important by our elected "representatives"? Do we hear urgent calls to address this crisis...the rape of the American people?

No, not considered a crisis at all. In fact, they are focused on cutting the social safety nets.

This is the new normal, and these are your oligarchs.

Telling a Divorced mother that her having 3 jobs was uniquely American and fantastic. Idiot was too stupid to realize that her jobs paid shit wages.


http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/georgewbush/a/top10bushisms.htm

In NW DC which is a desirable part of the city to live in (low crime rate, lots to do, includes parts of/close to downtown and museums, attractive historic neighborhoods, lots of parks including Rock Creek Park and C&O Canal), a 2 br. apt is about $2800/mo. to rent and $350,000 to buy, the latter which does not include the condo or coop fee, which is around $1500 typically for a mid-level (as opposed to derelict or luxury) building.