Quote:No, I don't.


40 hrs a week at $15/hr works out to be about $400 dollars a week and that's well above minimum wage.


$1600/mth barely covers rent in most areas.


The problem is wages and jobs.


Edit: and my grandfather lived through the depression. Makes a lot of comparisons to then and now.

 

Your math is flawed.  40 * 15 = 600.  That amounts to $31200 per year.  At that wage, a person effectively doesn't pay income tax, especially if the person is married and it's a single income household.  If the person happens to have a child, they get the Earned Income Credit (EIC) and pay virtually no taxes at all.

 

It's easy to say that it was easier back in the day prior to 1980 for a family to live on one income, but a lot has changed since then.  There was no satellite/cable television, no cell phones, no internet, etc.  Heck, even having a color tv was considered a luxury.  There was no such thing as a microwave oven.  There were no ATM's and people actually saved money and thought twice before going to the bank to withdraw money.

 

There was a story that ran in the paper a few years back about a woman that was complaining that she wasn't getting a break from the local utility company, and was concerned about keeping her home heated.  In the background was a large flat screen television complete with DVD player and a gaming console.  I would wager that said television, gaming console, etc. was probably bought with a "tax refund".

 

Perhaps priorities in our society are flawed more so than the wages paid by employers.

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