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What you’d need to make to afford a 1 Bedroom


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Last month we wrote about a report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition on how much a worker would have to earn to afford what the Department of Housing and Urban Development considers "fair market rent" in local communities across the country. The government sets these housing rates, which include rent plus utilities, based on the local market for decent-quality apartments of different sizes -- neither dumps nor luxury flats. These are also the rates that HUD uses to establish local housing subsidies.

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Our house has been paid off for a number of years and when I hear the going rates it blows my mind. My first apartment was $76 a month. It now goes for $800 and is only about 600 square feet. The general rule of thumb is your mortgage/rent should be equal to one weeks pay and minimum wage is nowhere near that anymore.

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where i live 1 bdrm without bills about 1200. that is regular 700-800sqf appt, with 1 bath.

anything bigger and with more than 1 bath 1500 and up.

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Wouldn't this depend on what your other bills are? I moved across town in order to be closer to work. Rent on my new apartment, which was pretty much the same size as my old one, was more a month due to location. However since I was close enough to work to walk, and also close to two grocery store shopping centers, and a mall. There are also many restaurants in the immediate area. So then I got rid of my car, which more than made up for the increase in my rent.

PS as a bonus I lost 50 pounds

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Wouldn't this depend on what your other bills are? I moved across town in order to be closer to work. Rent on my new apartment, which was pretty much the same size as my old one, was more a month due to location. However since I was close enough to work to walk, and also close to two grocery store shopping centers, and a mall. There are also many restaurants in the immediate area. So then I got rid of my car, which more than made up for the increase in my rent.

PS as a bonus I lost 50 pounds

Does not help much to try to get rid of the car you don't have. The point the article is making is that in most counties you could not afford a 1 bedroom earning minimum wages.

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Does not help much to try to get rid of the car you don't have. The point the article is making is that in most counties you could not afford a 1 bedroom earning minimum wages.

Minimum wage jobs are generally starter jobs. They are for HS and college students just starting their workforce experience. They are not careers. Being a cashier at McDonalds isn't a career. Managing a McDonalds is a career.

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Minimum wage jobs are generally starter jobs. They are for HS and college students just starting their workforce experience. They are not careers. Being a cashier at McDonalds isn't a career. Managing a McDonalds is a career.

There are people who never manage to get past a minimum wages job (and by no fault of their own). Are they to live with Mumma forever?

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I went from an apt.

There are people who never manage to get past a minimum wages job (and by no fault of their own). Are they to live with Mumma forever?

Roommates.

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There are people who never manage to get past a minimum wages job (and by no fault of their own). Are they to live with Mumma forever?

When I was making minimum wage or there abouts, I had roomates.

edit: looks like Sweetpumper beat me to it!

Edited by Razer
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There are people who never manage to get past a minimum wages job (and by no fault of their own). Are they to live with Mumma forever?

no fault of their own?? lmao, if you 45 and can't get a job that pays more than $8 and hour, and never had such job, you failed in life. it is your own fault.

if you are mentaly challenged, than it is different, but we got full congress of people like that,, they get more than min.

Edited by aztek
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no fault of their own?? lmao, if you 45 and can't get a job that pays more than $8 and hour, and never had such job, you failed in life. it is your own fault.

ehm, yes, those people exist, like those who did not have enough oxygen during birth, like those whose mother was on drugs resulting in an IQ of 75, like those who wasted their brain drinking and are laughing a lot on websites. (Where strangely the latter seem to get more than $8 an hour....)

And last, but not least, those who cannot sell themselves and are under-bought by every employer who sees them coming.... and lately those are a considerable part of the populace.

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wasted their brain drinking, can not sell themselves,, absolutely their own fault.

birth defects, that is a bit different, but hey as an employer that runs buissnes, i can sympathize with those people, but if i hire him shrinkwrap boxes, that any kid with no experience can do, i will pay him as much as i would pay that kid. i really do not care about their life story, i can feel bad for them, but that is about it.

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aztek, i agree that some people are able to get a good paying job but don't because they're lazy or whatever. some people have disabilities that aren't obvious that can make it difficult for them to get a good paying job.

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some people have disabilities that aren't obvious that can make it difficult for them to get a good paying job.

true, they get jobs they are able to perform, based on their mental physical limitation. and get paid as much as anyone else doing same job, so what is wrong with that?

not to mention if they are disabled enough (it does not have to be visible) they get ssi for life. and benefit from some other social programs. and i'm not even sure it is leagl to work while getting ssi, without loosing ssi benefits

Edited by aztek
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There are people who never manage to get past a minimum wages job (and by no fault of their own). Are they to live with Mumma forever?

They'll eventually raise the minimum wage all across the United States, unless they want to keep the current minimum wage earners on food stamps forever. Either way, with this sorry ass pathetic excuse of a economic system we call Capitalism, it's the hammer or the nail, which affects everybody in some way.

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I'd agree.... minimum wage = roommates.

The price of an apartment is basically set by what desperate people can just barely afford.

Edited by DieChecker
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They'll eventually raise the minimum wage all across the United States, unless they want to keep the current minimum wage earners on food stamps forever. Either way, with this sorry ass pathetic excuse of a economic system we call Capitalism, it's the hammer or the nail, which affects everybody in some way.

If you mean by "system" the constant inflation of the money supply jacking up all goods and services forcing people that were prudent and saved their earnings to have less buying power as the years go bye. That's not Capitalism.

If you mean by "system" a free market that is bereft of being free by so many regulations you need a book the size of the Bible to transport cabbage across the State lines. That's not Capitalism.

If you mean by "system" a more intrusive government in all aspects of our lives to benefit corporations that have bought and sold every elected leader that speaks in our name.. for their benefit and against the average voter. That's not Capitalism.

The system that was co-opted from us long ago and the one that is presently dictated to us in schools and from government are much different monsters.

Edited by W Tell
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The system that was co-opted from us long ago and the one that is presently dictated to us in schools and from government are much different monsters.

That system was co-opted long before schools were common. If I go back to when it was first mandated that it is immoral not to properly clothe, feed and house your servants we come to the beginning of organized religion. And employees are modern day servants (either private or of corporations).

The most radical in that sense would be Christianism, which additionally says that if done for the purpose of optimizing earnings (which there is called greed) it is a "deadly sin", no matter how much you try to buy the stairway to heaven afterwards you are going to hell anyway unless you repair the harm done and ask the injured for forgiveness.

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The problem is Inflation. Minimum wages.. most wages problems... problems paying the rent... troubles paying for higher education... troubles buying nutritional groceries... the pain of forking out thousands of $ each year for gasoline are ALL Symptoms of the overlying problem of inflation.

...duh

Edited by acidhead
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There was a time in this country when the average income surpassed the average cost of living. That equation, for a multitude of reasons, has been reversed .

Edited by lightly
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There was a time in this country when the average income surpassed the average cost of living. That equation, for a multitude of reasons, has been reversed .

The city, local, county, state and multiple Federal taxes were all probably lower then too. I get to keep 60% of my income, but 70 years ago I might have got to keep 85%.

That is part of what happened.

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Minimum wage jobs are generally starter jobs. They are for HS and college students just starting their workforce experience. They are not careers. Being a cashier at McDonalds isn't a career. Managing a McDonalds is a career.

They are also jobsfor people my age that may have been laid off do to plant closures etc. I can only hope where I am now never does.I doubt I will find a job in these field ( process plants ).I barely got this job do to age. Not saying descrimination, but people do not just hire 50 year olds, when they have a pool of 25 to 35 year olds.

So, they can also be " finisher" jobs.

Also, Son has a felony. Spent quite a long time in prison. He has 100% cleaned himself up, is raising a daughter, and doing a great job doing it. He is working a min. wage job ( he did get a small raise ). He learned to weld, and do many other things in Prison. He has skills. But, he can not get a decent job because he is a " felon "......It is bull****. It is a life sentence, whether a DUI, Theft. " Felon " is not calssified i stages, and no one gives the ones trying to change their lives a chance.

So, it is also a " only way to survive " job.

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hrmm.. we rent a one bed one bath 640 sq foot aprt.. $285 a month, landlord company pays water, sewage and trash, we pay electrict, it runs bout 100 a month on extreme months of running air/heat constantly, otherwise, it can be a lot less.

it is NOT in a good neighborhood, and the neighbors are loud, fighting pple.. but it is cheap.

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Also, Son has a felony. Spent quite a long time in prison. He has 100% cleaned himself up, is raising a daughter, and doing a great job doing it. He is working a min. wage job ( he did get a small raise ). He learned to weld, and do many other things in Prison. He has skills. But, he can not get a decent job because he is a " felon "......It is bull****. It is a life sentence, whether a DUI, Theft. " Felon " is not calssified i stages, and no one gives the ones trying to change their lives a chance.

I have a guy I know from Church who got his several Felonys expunged. You should probably look into that. Apparently it takes a fair bit of Lawyer action, but if your son is still a fairly young guy, it could easily be worth it in the long run.

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I have a guy I know from Church who got his several Felonys expunged. You should probably look into that. Apparently it takes a fair bit of Lawyer action, but if your son is still a fairly young guy, it could easily be worth it in the long run.

He has looked into it. Can not afford attorney though.

But thank you, I will pass this on.

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