Part-time and an apartment -the new Norm

[Luddly Neddite]

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Check out this link -

How to cut your monthly spending by 800 - The Week

I can't imagine paying that in housing and a car every month. We've paid off the mortgages for both houses plus another property that we sold this year and one we have as a rental, and we paid cash for both cars. I worked two jobs to put myself through college and at that age, I had an apartment and a car. On a lark, I went to NYC when I was 19 and landed three jobs the first day of looking.

But times have changed. People can't work their way through college anymore. Its simply too expensive. With free university in other countries, young people will have no choice but to leave the US for their higher education. Wages have not kept up with cost of living and part time jobs don't pay enough to live on.

Esmeralda is right about Americans' attitudes. We have a friend from Peru who works as an elementary teacher, single, has paid cash for a pretty nice car, nice home, dresses well, no debt, sends money to her family and still manages to go home to visit at least once a year.

Will the university-educated people bring their knowledge and skills back to the US where their taxes support an incredibly boated military we don't have a use for and to make the rich richer? Many won't. Not when their skills are well paid in another country and where their taxes go for things they want and need.

Unless the US changes, we are well on our way to becoming a third world country. If the right gets what they want, wages will plummet and we will have even fewer jobs. Our middle class already cannot afford to own a home or pay cash for cars. Without higher education or well paid trades, young people who are willing to work will be living at home or in trailers.

 

[SteadyMercury]

U6( real unemployment) has leveled off at 14% almost double the pre-recession norm.

U-6 data here: Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization
and here: U6 Unemployment Rate Portal Seven

So U-6 this year:

Jan 12.7%
Feb 12.6%
Mar 12.7%
Apr 12.3%
May 12.2%
Jun 12.1%
Jul 12.2%
Aug 12.0%
Sep 11.8%
Oct 11.5%

So you say U-6 has levelled off at 14%, when it has been under 13% and clearly trending down to where it currently stands at 11.5%.

Are you one of those habitual liars who is so compulsive they don't realize they are doing it? I can't imagine someone without a condition trying to throw such a stupid lie out that is so easily caught and exposed.

 

[SteadyMercury]

so do you think Obama should be impeached for the 14% unemployment?

It was 14.2% when he took office, and 11.5% now. Should the previous leader be impeached for the 14.2%?

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

so do you think Obama should be impeached for the 14% unemployment?

It was 14.2% when he took office, and 11.5% now. Should the previous leader be impeached for the 14.2%?

you're right the numbers are lower than I remembered but as long as you agree that Barry's recovery is worst since Great Depression. Without Depression Barry's soviet recovery might be worst in American history!

 

[initforme]

People need to leave low wage jobs unfilled and companies need to have a very difficult time finding employees to fill those jobs. Leave those jobs unfilled. Until that changes, and people are making higher wages because they are overqualified for low wage jobs, the trend will continue in this god awful plutocracy. The truth hurts. This is coming from a 76 year old retire3d business owner. The odds against someone who is willing to kill themselves working are stacked hugely AGAINST them.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

People need to leave low wage jobs unfilled.

dear we could ship 20 million illegals home tomorrow
and all americans would get a huge raise and have 20 million more jobs. Liberals are opposed.

Then we could end corporate tax and create 20 million more jobs with huge upward pressure on prices. Liberals oppose.

Please post on fridge for daily review.

 

[SteadyMercury]

you're right the numbers are lower than I remembered

Lower, and not stabilized.

 

[SteadyMercury]

And with unemployment and wages stagnant

Two things I don't get about this part.

1. Unemployment isn't stagnant, it has been dropping. Not as fast as we'd like but there has been a distinct and consistent trend of lower unemployment numbers since the peak of the recession, not stagnation.

2. How do stagnant wages mean an American dream is dead? If there was a dream, and people are making about the same wages, why would that mean this dream is gone? I would think it would take a sharp lowering of wages to point at them as a source for a dream no longer being available.

 

[SteadyMercury]

Income quintiles in inflation adjusted dollars up to 2013.

Stagnant for people not in the to 20%? Sure! I can even see a slight drop in income compared to pre-recession peaks in 2000 and 2007.

But where is the big drop in income I'd expect to see for people that suddenly have no chance at the American dream? If you look at the raw numbers back to the 1980s every single income group is now making more in real dollars, so would we also say that there was no American dream because of low wages in the 80s?

 

[SteadyMercury]

Let's look at part-time work.

Similar to claims about wages, there is basic truth to the claims that more jobs are part time. However it is the scale of the change that strikes me, it really isn't as significant as implied especially when being leaned on as an argument the American Dream is dead.

Before the recession 83% of jobs were full time, currently the number is 81%. A drop? Yes. A validation of the "omg all the new jobs are part time we must live in apartments now!" battle cry? Hardly.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Republicans want to restore the 40 hour week by doing away with Obamacare for starters.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

My 30 year old son drives a big rig truck and makes 50k a year..they only need 400,000 drivers over the next decade....
I am a mason, they make 18-20 dollars an hour and they are in short supply where I live...
You live by what you teach yourself to accept...
If all you have is a part time job, get a trade and education or a skill in demand and ho yourself out to the highest bidder...

So you're a mexican?

 

[Friends]

My 30 year old son drives a big rig truck and makes 50k a year..they only need 400,000 drivers over the next decade....
I am a mason, they make 18-20 dollars an hour and they are in short supply where I live...
You live by what you teach yourself to accept...
If all you have is a part time job, get a trade and education or a skill in demand and ho yourself out to the highest bidder...

I have read on several occasions, so I think it is probably true, that two thirds of colleges in the United States accept anyone who has tuition money and a high school degree. Someone who goes to a college like that and gets a degree in the liberal arts or social sciences has wasted a lot of time and money.

People who are interested in the liberal arts and social sciences, like I am, should study those subjects for free in public libraries. They will enjoy it more without the pressure of grades.

Any education after high school needs to be job and career oriented. If you can get a professional degree from an elite college or university, go for it. Otherwise, think about trade school.

However, not all trade schools are useful either. Before you go to one, make sure that people who graduate get jobs in what they are trained for. Do an internet search for the school, and see what people have to say about it. Walk around the school and talk to students. By the time they are ready to graduate they should have some idea of how much of a demand for their skills there is.

 

[Friends]

Republicans want to restore the 40 hour week by doing away with Obamacare for starters.

What will they replace Obamacare with?

 

[Politico]

It was Ronald Reagan that broke Unions.

Just a little perhaps but not enough to prevent 30 million union jobs from going off shore to more competitive labor markets. If only Reagan had been able to make unions illegal again all those jobs would still be here.

A simple lesson but one a liberal will lack the IQ to understand.

Many non union jobs went over seas, can we still blame the president and labor unions?

Not this one. We'd have to go back to Slick Willy for that part.

 

[Judicial review]

I own a few units. Great investment.

 

[Moonglow]

My 30 year old son drives a big rig truck and makes 50k a year..they only need 400,000 drivers over the next decade....
I am a mason, they make 18-20 dollars an hour and they are in short supply where I live...
You live by what you teach yourself to accept...
If all you have is a part time job, get a trade and education or a skill in demand and ho yourself out to the highest bidder...

So you're a mexican?

Nope 90% WASP and 10% Native American Injun...

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

My 30 year old son drives a big rig truck and makes 50k a year..they only need 400,000 drivers over the next decade....
I am a mason, they make 18-20 dollars an hour and they are in short supply where I live...
You live by what you teach yourself to accept...
If all you have is a part time job, get a trade and education or a skill in demand and ho yourself out to the highest bidder...

So you're a mexican?

Nope 90% WASP and 10% Native American Injun...

Than you obviously dont live somewhere where illegals are a problem.
You will not see a single gringo laying bricks anywhere in Texas.
And thats no exaggeration.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Republicans want to restore the 40 hour week by doing away with Obamacare for starters.

What will they replace Obamacare with?

capitalism of course to reduce costs about 80% and to add 10-20 years to our lifespans!!