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Thread: Nearly half of Americans can't afford survival basics....

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    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    Nearly half of Americans can't afford survival basics....

    "Nearly 51 million households don't earn enough to afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cell phone, according to a study released Thursday by the United Way ALICE Project. That's 43% of households in the United States."

    http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/17/news...udy/index.html

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    Senior Member flowerseverywhere's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post
    "Nearly 51 million households don't earn enough to afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cell phone, according to a study released Thursday by the United Way ALICE Project. That's 43% of households in the United States."

    http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/17/news...udy/index.html
    i found this astounding. 43% of households. What is the solution?

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    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    It would not load the article. I will try later. If I was low income I would not live here as it is too expensive. Wichita, KS is really cheap with plenty of jobs so would probably move to a place like that.

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    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post
    "Nearly 51 million households don't earn enough to afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cell phone, according to a study released Thursday by the United Way ALICE Project. That's 43% of households in the United States."

    http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/17/news...udy/index.html
    Your thoughts?
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

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    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by catherine View Post
    Your thoughts?
    It is a big question, and I have many thoughts on the topic, which I am still gathering.

    The situation where I live is even worse, given the much higher cost of living here. And I see the nearby city of Seattle has a similar problem, with larger numbers of folks impacted.

    My local community simply doesn't have the economy with its borders to support a "middle class lifestyle" as defined in the article. One of the tasks I am charged with here is economic development, but most things we might try tend to bring in additional population, drive up land values/rents, burden our already oversubscribed infrastructure, or impact our ecosystem negatively. It's not an easy nut to crack.

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    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    Our housing has become un-affordable and the homeless numbers are rising. They tore down all the cheap housing downtown and now it will be all upscale. We really need affordable housing for people based on income. People working at google, apple etc make good $ but the casino workers not so much.

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    My bf periodically looks at ALL jobs in a very local area on job boards and says it's amazing how many of them don't pay enough to live off of.
    Trees don't grow on money

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    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    From the data I've seen, you need a $25/hour to survive in NJ. Probably a lot more in many areas. If the minimum wage is <$20/hr, what do people do? You co-house. You put off dreams of having families. As Terry said, you move--a stressful decision, but one that many of our ancestors made. If you are making <$10, you go under. What's wrong? Who are the lucky ones in the bare majority who are managing to get by?
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

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    Around here, it looks like a lot of people as described either live by the river in a tent, rent out a room in a house, stay with friends/family or at extended stay hotels very short term. CL is full of ads from people like this looking for somewhere to be other than under a bridge. What happened to our country?

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    Senior Member Ultralight's Avatar
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    Workers need to unionize.

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