The Glade 4.0

Georgia requires all residences to be Air Conditioned unless the house or apartment complex was built before 74 or so. And I didn't say the transportation thing was law; I said it was practice. It's simple ...

You don't have a car or a home phone, you don't get a job. Too many migrant workers of questionable ... eligibility around here these days.

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We had a guy in our local paper a few weeks back...the local government was threatening to take away his property because he had no electricity or running water for 20 years...(they had just discovered he was living like this) and even though he used bottled water to stay clean and flush his toilet, they gave him a minimum amount of time to get utilities and running water or they would evict him from his own property.
(This is in Mississippi btw.)

Also, I don't believe there is a law that states you must have reliable transportation, but I can assure you that the question is asked and you must specify what your form of reliable transportation is...those who answer that they have their own vehicle are more apt to get the job than one that says they will get a ride from someone else. (No data on walking or bicycling...it's too God-awful hot down here 9 months out of the year. You can do it, but you would have to take a shower and change your clothes as soon as you got to work.)

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

no, not simple, and disproven by two posters whove lived and worked there. Maybe it's more accurate to say that there are employers who will not hire folks unless they have these things, but other posters have not found this in our areas of work. Still not finding a law stating that it's a requirement to have air conditioning, which would be in the same vein as having to purchase something in order to live- ala whats been struck down in healthcare law.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Someone living in a tent for two months in Texas does not prove that the average southerner can live without AC all year, year after year. It just proves that one crazy dude can survive 2 months in a tent in 120 weather.
People down here are hospitalized and die of heat stroke all the time. It's a very serious thing.
Yes, people lived a long time ago without AC. There are lots of health and social problems that went with that...just because it was done before does not mean it was a good idea.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Hrm, I put out about 300 a month for the mortgage, 20-25 dollars a month for gas, 60 a month for utilities (80 during the winter if you add in firewood), 100-120 a month for food, about 60 a month for cell phone, can't think off the top of my head what car insurance runs as I only pay on that like twice a year.

Just estimating off the top of my head, it probably costs me 650-700 a month for the "necessities" (including the ones that are arguble such as phone etc).

Not all that long ago. Most cars when I learned to drive didn't have AC, and my childhood home didn't have it either. If I remember correctly, few of my friends had AC in their homes.

I've done the math for my kid a couple of years ago - 13,000 will supply a minimum existence here in StL. You won't save money, but it will cover the cheapest car and insurance, and someone could even live alone. There just can't be any emergencies or luxuries.

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In time, this too shall pass.

Can't people on minimum wage get all their payroll taxes and a significant portion of their federal income taxes refunded?

Only if they're in school full time and under 25.

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I think you guys are arguing two separate things.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

+1

Don't certain parties state over and over how the lower XX% don't end up paying any taxes at all?

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Heh, this is kind of a bit of a tangent, but that's so my "problem" right there (if it's really a problem).

I'm so ridiculously underemployed/underpaid for how talented/smart I am...but when I'm able to easily afford every gadget and toy I feel like (I've spent nearly 2 grand last year on D&D stuff alone lol, plus the home theater, etc), own my home, have paid off 2 cars, and am saving up over 5k a year, etc...the "hunger" to do better really isn't there.

And I value my free time too much, which makes it hard to get back and finish college (especially when anything I generally want to learn, I can learn much faster teaching myself) which well...

...eh, I'll cut off the tangent here. Just had my attention caught by that statement hehe.

You said "all jobs in the South" require vehicles registered in your name. I provided one example where this is not true; therefore, it is not all jobs, and you are disproven. Likewise, I illustrated how air conditioning is not necessary.



1) You said the South, not Georgia.
2) There is no such thing as "all" residences, and simply passing a law does not make it so.
3) Furthermore, complying with the law is not what I would consider a "necessity".
4) From what I see, there's no requirement for you to pay for air conditioning, merely that it be provided in rentals (not seeing anything that requries it in owned homes). I definitely have not seen anything that requires you to pay for air conditioning.
5) Even if it is required in new construction, that doesn't mean it exists in old construction, and it doesn't mean you have to pay to turn it on.



Yes, reliable transportation is required. This does not equal having a vehicle registered in your name.



So?

I don't think anyone's contesting the notion that AC is a good idea. Having it is not necessary, as there are other ways to cool down. It may very well be necessary for survival for some people in some situations (elderly, for example), but not for all.

Again, it really boils down to what you consider "living off of minimum wage". Survive? Be comfortable? Be happy? etc, etc.

I agree with Arathain here. Living on minimum wage is both easy and possible. Flourishing on minimum wage is not possible and shouldn't be expected. If you want to flourish, you change your life or skill set so minimum wage is no longer a reality.

The savages who live in Africa with bows and arrows or the Amazon rainforest don't "flourish" but I'm pretty sure they're happy. Also they don't have AC.

I'm also fairly sure people lived in Georgia before Air Conditioning was invented. It may be a requirement that it be present in newly-built residences, but that does not obligate the tenent to turn the unit on.

That siad, who cares if people can live on minimum wage? We know they can't; we've been over that in detail when it was raised. Minimum wage isn't supposed to be what a primary wage-earner makes.

Heck, even a $10/hour job is an over-33% increase from that, and that's well within the scope of what a lot of low-paying jobs available these days generally offer.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

They also have a higher infant mortality rate and a lower expected lifespan and a lower standard of living than a welfare person in the US.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

So? They're still happy. Also nowadays the lifespan in the U.S. is much less than it will be 50 years from now but there are plenty of happy people around.

I think it'll be funny when "poverty" means the people who don't have their own holodecks. Right now poor people still have high-tech cell phones, flat screen tvs, and plenty of food.

OK, lets try this in Denver

Rent: $475 gets you a cheap room on the outskirts
Utilities: $60 for your share of gas/water/electric/trash/cable (you have roommates, you're stuck with cable)
Cell Phone: $40 (you live with roommates, you can't rely on them for messages)
Trans: $176 for the bus pass you'll need
Groceries: $200 cost of living is high, this budgets about $2 per meal with $20 leftover for toiletries (toothpaste, soap, razors, shampoo, deodorant, tampons, toilet paper.) This is beans, rice, eggs, cheese, and occasional ground beef and some seasonal fresh veggies between May and August.
Insurance: $80 your employer offers coverage at $20 a week and you know you won't be able to afford even one ER visit without it.

OK, at this point you have $37 leftover. Sounds like this might work. Laundry is $3 a load, you'll do one or two a week. Say $20 a month.

$17 left. You need a haircut, $15 at the cheapie ($12 for the cut, $3 tip because you're not an *******).

At the end of the month you have two bucks. Put it in a jar and you can replace one item of clothing every year unless you miss a day of work.

You can replace one item of clothing about every two months with $2 extra, if you shop carefully, especially at the good will or church sales.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

@Taamar
Sounds like the perfect amount to survive with :p I'd stretch my money with one haircut every two months, though. Or, make a single $15 investment and cut your own hair.

Or trade with a friend. There are strategies to make it work, but its super tight. And you're right, DE, there decent Goodwills around, though I've never seen a church sale. The big issue is what happens when you lose a day of income. It doesn't even have to be you getting sick, either. Schedule reduction, snow day, whatever. Miss one day a month and you're reduced by $50, which eats not only your optional clothes and haircut by nibbles away at your food budget.

It also doesn't account for the random opportunity to make a few extra bucks on the side.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

You have to go, you know, into a church to see a church sale.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Kind of a tangent, but these comments bring to mind something I've been thinking about lately: I don't know how to be poor. Hell, I don't even know how to be working class. I would suck at figuring out ways to stretch a dollar like that. And on the flipside, I don't know how to be rich or upper middle class either. A number of my colleagues at the law firm where I work grew up fairly well off, and much of what they think is "normal" still strikes me as ludicrous. There is, in fact, a very narrow slice of socio-economic existence that I "get" on an instinctive level (i.e., the middle class, rural New England, college-bound-but-nothing-fancy background I come from). Everything else is a bit of a mystery and requires conscious consideration to figure it out.

Class may be pretty fluid in the US, but I think jumping classes is still quite a leap.