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So to put the below in context: my first job (at the tail end of the last recession) paid around $12-13 an hour, and was enough to survive with more than double

So to put the below in context: my first job (at the tail end of the last recession) paid around $12-13 an hour, and was enough to survive with more than double that rent figure. Granted, I had a couple factors on my side (namely: my grandparents in the next town over, who would insist on stocking my fridge and cupboards with the essentials), but even if I hadn't it was workable, even if not comfortable. I also didn't pay for health insurance at the time (I wasn't eligible for work-provided insurance until shortly before I switched jobs), since I think this was right before the ACA's individual mandate made it "mandatory". That all being to say: $10/hr full time does not in the slightest bit seem unreasonable to me, even if I do strongly believe that workers deserve better than that. ---- > Add 200 for gas and 50 for car insurance since you're gonna be living in a rural place. Or a bike, which is a thing, that people ride to and from work, even in "rural" areas. No gas and no insurance, even for an electric one (and those have come down quite a bit in price, to the point where the only cheaper cars are absolute beaters). Even "rural" cities/towns often have buses, too. They don't always have the most exhaustive coverage, but bikes can make up for that for the "last mile" of each way's commute (especially if the bus has a bike rack on it, which is becoming increasingly common for exactly this reason and because it's relatively cheap compared to the cost of the bus itself). > $350 for everything else. Entertainment. A gym membership. Your medical deductible. Your sanity. You don't need a gym membership to work out (as I'm sure most of us trying to get even basic fitness in can attest over the last couple months, what with all those gyms being shut down). Jogging, hiking, bicycling, pushups, planks, jumping jacks, shovelgloving¹... all dirt cheap to do (if you don't go overboard and splurge on fancy bikes or backpacks or whatever; the basics will work fine). If you happen to live in a snowy area, snow shoveling is a good workout, too, and helps out your neighbors (you might even get paid for it). All of those things can double for entertainment and "sanity", too, so that just leaves the medical deductible. That $350 would give you enough savings to cover that deductible in a bit over a year (even faster if you throw in the aforementioned $250 you'd be saving without a car). Anything past that is pure savings, enough to eventually buy a used car for the occasional out-of-town trip, or to eat out every once in awhile, or what have you. ---- ¹: http://shovelglove.com/ http://shovelglove.com/

maaarghk 6y ago
Read the word "granted" and disregarded the rest of the post. Trying to pass off your experience as some kind of canonical working class struggle when you don't need to pay for food is about as tone deaf as it gets, not to mention starting it with "to put that into context" as if you have ANY idea what that context is. I can tell you're just like "well, the poors can just ride bikes" having never ridden one yourself, otherwise you would know that a bike that you could cycle a 40km to 60km round commute on in a rural area is gonna set you back $2k and you won't get finance on it the way you do with a car, not to mention the fact that the cycling clothes you would need to buy to cover rural distances are mostly in the designer category and therefore very expensive. Not to mention your mechanical service, which if you're commuting daily is probably $80 every six months plus any parts which wear out, $15 for brake pads, $5 every time you puncture any wheel, $60 for new tyres every year, and the occasional unexpected uninsurable $200 "bottom bracket, crank and chainring all wore out at once" repair.
- rayiner 6y ago
  > Read the word "granted" and disregarded the rest of the post. Trying to pass off your experience as some kind of canonical working class struggle when you don't need to pay for food is about as tone deaf as it gets, not to mention starting it with "to put that into context" as if you have ANY idea what that context is. No, you’re the one lacking context. Most low wage workers are young, and the median American lives 18 miles away from their mom. People making $10/hour living on their own for the first time who have parents or grandparents randomly drop by with food is a very common scenario. People making $10/hour trying to support a family is not. Also, the notion of biking 60 km round trip in rural areas strongly suggests you’ve never been to one. Someone working a $10 service job in a rural county isn’t commuting 30 km each way. My wife grew up in Sibley, Iowa. It’s about a mile and a half across North to south, and less than that East to west. The apartments are all in town, and so are the stores. The people who might need to commute longer are farmers and farm hands, but they make a lot more money. The average farm hand in Iowa with a high school education or less makes $30-40k/year: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c1-60.html https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c1-60.... (The hours are long, so it works out to $12-15/hour.) They’re not riding bikes.

maaarghk 6y ago

Read the word "granted" and disregarded the rest of the post. Trying to pass off your experience as some kind of canonical working class struggle when you don't need to pay for food is about as tone deaf as it gets, not to mention starting it with "to put that into context" as if you have ANY idea what that context is. I can tell you're just like "well, the poors can just ride bikes" having never ridden one yourself, otherwise you would know that a bike that you could cycle a 40km to 60km round commute on in a rural area is gonna set you back $2k and you won't get finance on it the way you do with a car, not to mention the fact that the cycling clothes you would need to buy to cover rural distances are mostly in the designer category and therefore very expensive. Not to mention your mechanical service, which if you're commuting daily is probably $80 every six months plus any parts which wear out, $15 for brake pads, $5 every time you puncture any wheel, $60 for new tyres every year, and the occasional unexpected uninsurable $200 "bottom bracket, crank and chainring all wore out at once" repair.

rayiner 6y ago
> Read the word "granted" and disregarded the rest of the post. Trying to pass off your experience as some kind of canonical working class struggle when you don't need to pay for food is about as tone deaf as it gets, not to mention starting it with "to put that into context" as if you have ANY idea what that context is. No, you’re the one lacking context. Most low wage workers are young, and the median American lives 18 miles away from their mom. People making $10/hour living on their own for the first time who have parents or grandparents randomly drop by with food is a very common scenario. People making $10/hour trying to support a family is not. Also, the notion of biking 60 km round trip in rural areas strongly suggests you’ve never been to one. Someone working a $10 service job in a rural county isn’t commuting 30 km each way. My wife grew up in Sibley, Iowa. It’s about a mile and a half across North to south, and less than that East to west. The apartments are all in town, and so are the stores. The people who might need to commute longer are farmers and farm hands, but they make a lot more money. The average farm hand in Iowa with a high school education or less makes $30-40k/year: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c1-60.html https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c1-60.... (The hours are long, so it works out to $12-15/hour.) They’re not riding bikes.