60% of Americans now living paycheck to paycheck - again. You can't blame Bidenomics for this, but it sure hasn't helped . . .

Photo above - Nancy Pelosi (age 83, net worth $120 million) consults with Pope Francis on eradicating poverty. Stop laughing - what else could they possibly be discussing?

I wasn't surprised when I read the “60% living paycheck to paycheck” headline – again. (See link below). It's been popping up for years. I remember it during the Trump administration, and during the Obama years too. I'm not an expert on presidential eras before that, but if you showed me discouraging “paycheck to paycheck” stats from Bush, Clinton, Carter, Ford and beyond, I wouldn't dispute them. I suspect that during George Washington's presidency people lived “harvest to harvest”, and a poor one meant misery or starvation over the winter.

What caught my eye this time was the subtitle: "nearly half of people earning $100,000 a year are also living paycheck to paycheck." Geez Louise – I don't earn close to $100,000 (it's $58,000), and I'M not living paycheck to paycheck. Where do all these hamsters earning 6 figures live? Are they all in Silicon Valley, Seattle, NYC, and Los Angeles?

I suspect that's part of the answer. “Affordable housing” NYC style is around $3,500 a month for a walk up junior 1 bedroom on a crappy street. So right off the bat, nearly half their after-tax income is gone, before they even start thinking about food, clothing, electricity, cable, internet, cellular, subway fare, health insurance, liquor, pot, or junkets to Atlantic City to pay the slots and blackjack.

Don't scoff when I toss in “Atlantic City”. Half of all personal bankruptcies are precipitated by gambling losses. This is an official court statistic. And if your state has Powerball or scratch off lotto sales, then you've seen senior citizens lined up a dozen deep to buy tickets. Half of all retirees believe “lottery winnings will be an essential part of my retirement income”. I blame public schools for not including statistical probability in the core curriculum required for a diploma. But every kid has seen at least a dozen global warming films.

Snark of the day – wasn't Obamacare supposed to fix this paycheck to paycheck problem? To prevent people from being driven into bankruptcy by an auto accident or cancer? The actual cost of health insurance has skyrocketed. Most single worker coverage is around $700 a month ($8,500 a year) split between employer and employee. Coverage for a family of 4 in California or NY can easy top $25,000. It's surpassing car payments, for sure, and possibly edging up to match rent/mortgage payments for some unlucky people. No wonder some are tempted to ditch coverage and just pay the penalty - and hope for the best.

If we're alarmed at 60% living paycheck to paycheck (and we should be), here are some other official statistics to throw into the mix.

- 44% of workers don't earn enough to owe any income tax.

- 70 million people collect social security.

- 38 million people are on food stamps

- 13 million people work at least 2 jobs

- 10 million people live in rent subsidized units

- Over 2 million are homeless, live in tent cities, or sleep for free on a relative's couch

- Nearly 2 million are in prison or jail. Another 5 million are on court supervised parole, or out on bail awaiting trial.

- Only 1.4 million new homes are built annually, in recent years. This includes apartments, tiny homes, mobile homes, manufactured homes, etc.

Okay – that's a lot of data, I know. The conclusion I reach is that America doesn't build enough new homes, and people couldn't afford them anyway. At least not as Uber drivers, Amazon pickers, ex convicts, healthcare system compliers, and weekend blackjack players.

I'm not blaming President Biden. I'm not blaming people in general. But these statistics are so effed up. How can we be at “full employment” (like Bidenomics always claims) and have so much poverty and misery? How can we keep re-electing a US Senate where the starting salary is almost $200,000 annually (plus food housing and travel stipends), their average net worth is $7 million, and their average age is 64? How is this dystopian paycheck to paycheck life ever going to change with the same rich, old ruling class always in charge?

I'm just sayin' . . .

Nearly half of Americans earning more than $100K now report living paycheck to paycheck — here's why your savings are more important now than ever (msn.com)

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SteelHands · 61-69, M

The problem isn't poverty.

It's miseducation. Abandonment of worthy education and instead,

Government preaching, anti faith morals.

Here we see two costumed fakes pretending to like each other.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@SteelHands i am astonished that over the past 40 years we doubled teacher's pay (and benefits) on inflation adjusted basis. but didn't improve graduation or literacy rates.

LeopoldBloom · M

@SteelHands So your solution is religious indoctrination? Which religion?

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@LeopoldBloom finland and japan have the highest student math scores. maybe the best religion is a combination of lutheran and shinto?

SteelHands · 61-69, M

@SusanInFlorida Your comment is a signal to me. That it's time for me to make the devil laugh again.

Paradoxes must exist. So the small mind perpetuates obvious ones. Easier to live in denial of the painfully nuanced ones.

Yet, believing not in the "any port in a storm" philosophy. It's not a fitting fate for such magnificence as human consciousness. Thus, the spirit of inquiry, the strength to understand vastly more than most can bear to hold in mind, innures the weakest with continuing with the will to live and often inclines their betters with a desire to set the world ablaze.

Another way of putting it. That they've consigned all of humanity along with themselves to the fate of mutually reassured ignorance, calling themselves wise while calling the wise foolish has empowered the evil one to wage his war against humanity unfettered by such things as reason or self preservation holding him back.

I know. That sooner or later someone far more articulate and savvy than I will show up here and try to make the argument that he doesn't exist. Don't let him convince you too well.

He doesn't deserve the title.

SteelHands · 61-69, M

@LeopoldBloom i love it when little little gophers pop up out of their gopher holes and try putting words into my mouth.

*spits them out.

Spoiledbrat · F

It starts at home. Teachers can't make one smart. @SusanInFlorida

SteelHands · 61-69, M

@Spoiledbrat Some youngsters naturally thirst for knowledge.

Some have parents that instill that.
Others do all they can to encourage it wherever they find good curiosities.

Dissuading premature curiosities is both a tradition and a utility. Best to infuse the cerebral aspect later, when the struggle of later adolescence can put this distraction to use and relieve the angst.

When parents observe what comes naturally it is rare indeed to find that a child's intellectual curiosity is out of step with the child's physiological limitations.

Teaching wrongly, disinspiration, and absence of the elementary things and a demand to learn carnal ones, wanes or withers the entire invention of academia.

These are not based on emotional nonsense. They're inborn instincts bred into a human genome. If they're not then they should f-off.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@SteelHands most parents use videogames and television as electronic babysitters. they have no books at home which don't have pictures. every kid has a smart phone.

expecting parents who have minimal contact with their own kids to make a difference is probably unrealistic.

my sister is a teacher. Here's her take (paraphrasing) "If you a kid in school who's a disruptive moron, and you try to talk to the parents, you find out they are too". She was formerly an idealistic leftist before she started teaching public schools.

SteelHands · 61-69, M

@SusanInFlorida most parents aren't even heard from, given credit, or considered.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@SteelHands statistical question - are most parents single parents these days? or do intact marriages edge out single parent households? a full time worker trying to supervise kids - any age - is going to struggle, irrespective of skills and intent.

SteelHands · 61-69, M

@SusanInFlorida Any statistical observations here would be substituting the effect as a cause.

Maleducation combined with a dearth of gainful trainable skilled employment locally regresses generational successes.

While becoming less educated generationally at increased government funding and oversight it is illogical to assume that academic failures aren't the product that's exactly what is being purchased and desired by those who advocate those funds.

SteelHands · 61-69, M

Relationships fail because hardships have become increased. Single parent homes have increased. A two parent one stay at home while one works has the greatest chance at having generational successes.

While government policies and the corporate market actually encourage divorce.

LeopoldBloom · M

@SusanInFlorida Finland is around 40% atheist, and Japan is 86% atheist.

LeopoldBloom · M

@SteelHands As usual, you resort to ad hominem when you can't answer the question. Or in this case, when you're embarrassed to answer it.

"Schools should teach kids values! I just won't say which values because that would open me up to criticism"

SteelHands · 61-69, M

@LeopoldBloom Your userid and picture are enough to cause me to ignore you and if that wasn't enough your lack of honesty and fairly vitreolic discomposure would be.

LeopoldBloom · M

@SteelHands And yet like a robot, you keep responding. If my user id and picture lead you to ignore me, when does that start?

SteelHands · 61-69, M

@LeopoldBloom Quite a while now.

Yet you still show up on my threads.

Funky mf won't be told to go.

LeopoldBloom · M

@SteelHands As long as you're posting on a public thread, people are going to comment. You could always be a pussy and block me.

I didn't come here for you, anyway. The OP is pretty smart and I like to hear what she has to say. You're just a chimp throwing poo at people who are trying to have a conversation.