From: "John A. Weeks III" 
Newsgroups: misc.invest.financial-plan
Subject: Re: Another Question - 50 K salary
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 20:12:28 -0500
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In article ,
 joetaxpayer  wrote:

> John A. Weeks III wrote:
> 
> > In article <1156786338.754501.30360@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com>,
> >  "RigasMinho"  wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >>How does a guy who makes 50k support a family with that kind of salary?
> > 
> > 
> > In the modern world, you don't.  You have 3 choices...spend less,
> > earn more, or move to a rural area where you can live cheaply and
> > grow some of your own food.  A 4th choice that many people try is
> > putting the 2nd spouse to work.  In reality, that often ends up
> > being a huge hassle for little net income after childcare is paid.
> > 
> > -john-
> > 
> 
> It appears from the HUD data sets;
> http://www.huduser.org/DATASETS/il.html
> that more than half the counties showed mean family income of 50K or 
> less. I know that wealth is disproportionate, but are you suggesting 
> that fully half this country isn't 'getting by'?
> JOE

Well, we hear that millions of people don't have health insurance,
and millions more don't get treatments for medical issues until
they show up in an emergency room.  Here in Minnesota, 1 in 5 
children supposedly do not get enough to eat each day due to
poverty.  In New Orleans, over 1000 people died because they
could not afford to evacuate from the most powerful storm in our
lifetimes.  Nationwide, credit card debt is epidemic, mortgage
forclosures are happening at an astounding pace, the savings
rate is below 1%, and gas is $3 a gallon.  Yes, I would say that
much of the country is not "getting by".  Lots of folks are just
making do the best they can.

I also qualified my response with the words "modern world", so
folks living in the back water swamps in $9 shacks who eat a diet
mostly consisting of crawdads does not count.  Nevertheless, the
current generation that is being born will be the first generation
since the founding of America that will, on average, be less well
off than the previous generation.  Remember that when you vote.

-john-

-- 
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John A. Weeks III           952-432-2708            john@johnweeks.com
Newave Communications                         http://www.johnweeks.com
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