(07-10-2019, 12:12 PM)TrivialPursuit Wrote: (07-10-2019, 11:43 AM)TJBender Wrote: $15/hr in Jacksonville is solidly middle class. $15/hr in LA is "good luck existing" money. I too wonder where that blanket figure came from.
Nah, it's still Poverty level but you can survive.
That seems about right, at least for Jacksonville it does. You would be lucky to bring home $1600 - $1800 per month after taxes at $15 an hour with a guaranteed 40 hour work week. It's doable. You can survive. But you wouldn't be able to afford very many luxuries. You would literally have to live within your means. You would also be looking at a rough area, give or take, with rent and square footage.
You could find a roommate to split the cost with in a two bedroom or a partner to share the bed and rent with in a one or two bedroom. It's possible. My friend moved back here about three months ago from Texas. He's able to make ends meet working at Publix with three boys all under the age of ten to cloth and feed while his wife works at CVS.
It's not ideal. But you have to make due with the hands you're dealt in life. Pick-up a skill or trade that pays more if you want to live differently. But there's always a trade off. I am certainly lucky to be in my position in life. But I have to work my [BLEEP] off weekly, well after hours from my standard 40+ hour work week on a daily basis.
While being subjected to making decisions after hours that revolve around money and whether or not it results in a happy customer or a pissed off customer based on a service failure or service being successful (which most of them take very little time to tell you how awesome you've been doing but don't hesitate to tell you to kick rocks the moment something bombs). They'll be asking for a meeting within 24 hours with the "sky is falling" rhetoric with sales and operations people involved after you hit 97% all year and one little load misses the mark.
Never fails here. Especially during peak season. It's high pressure. High anxiety. And a lot of dirty finger pointing most of the time.
It's nice to have a house I am barely able there to enjoy. But it's also nice to have a safe nest of money in my account for the few times I actually get to take time off from work for awhile. Everybody wants top billing in life but they are not willing to climb up that ladder a little bit more to reach for that top shelf. There's a price to pay for that and a toll it takes on all of us. And it varies based on profession.
"What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie? I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky. The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing; Rush in and die, dogs - I was a man before I was a king."