Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

This post is for Blog Action Day, this years topic is Poverty.

Poverty is defined by some as a lack of money and/or a lack of material goods. A living wage is what a familt needs to earn in order to pay to make ends meet.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services the poverty threshold for a family of 5 is $24,800/annually in the 48 contiguous states. Assuming 40 hours a week and 52 weeks a year that works out to be $11.92 an hour. Right now the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act sets the Federal Minimum Wage to be $6.55 an hour or $13,624 annually, again assuming 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. The only way to earn minimum wage and stay above the poverty line is to be a family of one.

According to the Living Wage Calculator for the town of Pomfret in Chautauqua County, the living wage for a family of four (they don’t go higher than that unfortunately) is $40,738 compared to the $21,200 poverty line for a family of four. So to earn a living wage in Chautauqua County for a family of four one must earn $19.56 an hour compared to the New York State Minimum Wage of $7.15 an hour.

Clearly something must be done about wages in the US. Right now there is too much disparity in the wages of the haves and the have-nots. Executives are making far too much compared to everyone else. The minimum wage must be raised to accommodate at the very least a poverty wage, but should actually be high enough for a living wage. How can a minimum not afford people a minimum standard of living? The fact that CEOs and entertainers make astronomical salaries is shameful. I won’t go so far as to say no one should be wealthy, but there should be a cap on wealth. Is 10 times a living wage enough? Who knows, but certainly thousands of times is too much.

Until wages and compensation are more equitably distributed poverty will exist in the United States of America.

So I finally replaced my old ’93 wagon. I got a 2003 Dodge Neon, flame red. It’s a lot of fun to drive! In fact I’ve driven in the last 2 days what I usually drive in a week, 50 miles. Every little trip I take I can use my car now instead of Karen’s. Here’s a picture, just a stock Neon, not actually mine:

I hate car shopping, so I am glad I was able to get it done so quickly. Karen and I went on Wednesday to most of the local dealers. We weren’t even going to stop at this dealer since it had started raining again. But we did. They had 2 cars in my modified price range. Having not bought a car for seven years I vastly under-estimated how much a used car would cost. Once I upped my initial estimate we found a few cars that fit the price. One dealer was trying to up-sell a 2003 with 129,000 miles on it. Oh, it has leather interior and a sunroof, he said. Yeah but it has more than twice the average mileage on it, so no thanks I said. Plus the leather smelled like ass in the damp. They also had the exact same ’98 Cavalier that Karen and I traded in when she bought her mini-van. Besides the fact that I wanted something in the 2000′s I refused to even consider purchasing the same car we traded in a few years ago. For all we knew it was our old car.

At the dealer we finally purchased from, they had two promising cars. One was a white Buick Century, which was too funny since I was getting rid of a Buick Century Wagon. The other was the Neon. I drove the Neon and was happy with it, so two days and a little haggling later the sale is completed. I actually feel pretty good about the sale too. Even though it was more than I originally wanted to spend it was a realistic price and I got everything I asked for so I am happy. I even feel less buyers remorse since at one point in the negotiation I got to say I’d walk if I didn’t get what I was asking for. That was very empowering and helped me feel like I didn’t get ripped off.

more animals

AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka delivers a powerful pro-Obama speech

I’ve been waiting to see this more than the actual debate!

Direct link to video

And a bonus LOLCAT, because I can’t resist a Schrodinger reference

more animals

A few weeks ago Karen and I had bought the movie Cleaner, mainly because it starred Samuel L Jackson and Ed Harris. We finally had a chance to watch it tonight. It was a very short (just under 1.5 hours), fast paced murder movie. Definitely worth watching once. I’m not sure if it will be as good the second time around. Very good movie though.

Take the 20 minutes and watch it. Wow.

http://www.storyofstuff.com

Read more