I’ll Give It a Shot
Atrios writes, of upper-class twit and congenital liar Sebastian Mallaby:
I’ll give it a shot, because I AM working poor. I make about $31K annually, even though a job like mine typically pays $41K. Ahh the joy of social service.
Here’s the deal. I make about $875 every two weeks, after taxes. Of that amount, $75.00 goes into a savings account to pay for a home equity loan. $450 goes to my student loan (which , consolidated, is about $48,000), and I’m behind on two payments. Another $400-$450 goes to child support. Because the price of electricity has gone up, my electric bill is about $50-$60 each month, and we make an effort to keep the lights off. The water rates have also increased and our $32.00 bill is now about $40 or $50. My van has a 27 gallon tank, and gas costs about $3.15 a gallon for the cheap shit, in Philadelphia at least. You do the math: is it any wonder I bike to work? the phone/dsl (which sporadically at best, and whose company puts me on hold for an hour at a time, and if you see my brother’s comments in the most recnt meta post, gives me no assistance whatsoever, and in fact steers me wrong) is about $60 a month.
What else? Oh, my auto insurance is $100.00 a month. My mortgage is covered by one of my housemates, so I won’t include that. Oh what the hell, if he wasn’t there I’d have to pay it myself. I got into the market right before it exploded and found a decent place for $35K. You heard me, $35K, not $350K. My mortgage is, after the loan is considered, $375 a month, but I always overpay.
By the time the next payday comes around, I am usually just about tapped out. I deduct automatically my retirement monies, so that draws off income as well.
Because I need whatever money I can scrimp, I chose the cheap insurance. $20.00 co-pay when I go to the doctor (my girl wonders why I don’t go), and $100 co-pay if I have to go to the ER, payable NOW.
I have three creit cards I’m paying off. One of them, Capital One was paid off with part of my loan, but because capital one refused ot lower my usurious interest rate, even when I didn’t use the card, the one purchase left on it balooned back to the original amount. [Thanks, Joe Biden and Tom Carper, what good, good democrats you are. Always looking out for the common man, that's you assho-- I mean pals, buddies. Oh, by the way Joe? Bragging that Delaware was a slave state is no way to win votes from Democrats. That part of your state's history is what normal folks call "an embarrassment". Kinda like you. But I digress.]
Anyway, Cap One’s monthly payment is $97.00. My other two credit cards are on their way to being paid off.
Every two months, I spend about $200 going to and from Syracuse to pick up my son, and probably more than that.
And then there’s the nickel and diming that is a fact of American existence, such as ATM fees.
Seriously, by the end of the month, I am tapped out. I have no idea how I’m going to pay my oil bill this winter.
And you know, compared to a lot of people, I’m well-off. THAT’S disgusting.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Brendan – this is off topic, but could you email me? I would like to pick your brain about some job-related stuff and I can’t find your email address. Thanks!
August 31st, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Shiiiiit. You don’t have to tell me, dude.
September 1st, 2006 at 12:56 am
Brendan, I haven’t checked my own blog yet. Have you sounded off about poooooooor Elizabeth, who has NO options except to move back in with mommy and daddy? I’d love to hear your take on it!
September 1st, 2006 at 1:08 am
Yeah….the $100 emergency copay. I had to take my husband to the emergency room last week and don’tcha know, they brought the bill to his bed! Too bad the medical staff doesn’t operate as quickly or as efficiently as the billing staff!
September 5th, 2006 at 1:11 am
One way to deal with the financial burdens you and your colleagues at work have is to look into forming a union. More and more non-profit agencies are becoming unionized in order that the employees get a living wage. Many elected officials, including myself, are working on legislation making it easier for people to form unions.
The Pennsylvania Social Services Union and AFSCME District Council 47 are two of the leading unions organizing non-profit organizations in the Philadelphia. If you would like me to get you in touch with them, please contact me.
September 5th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
You know Mark, with all due respect, I don’t see that as the answer at all.
The answer is that politicians, including you, need to pay more attention to the middle class. the way thigns break down now, only the very rich and the very poor get any attention at all. Legislative priorities are all out of whack: legislators in PA seem to be more invested in giving themselves a fat pay raise in the dead of night than in raising the minimum wage for the rest of the state (you guys had to be dragged into it, kicking and screaming if I recall). The tax system in this state has top be overhauled. Philadelphia needs to be treated like the economic engine in should be rather than a red-headed stepchild. And while I realize a lot of the latter is due to the cockfaces who represent the rural counties, there is a lot more to be done here as well.
But yeah, that union drive? That doesn’t cover it. In fact, it would probably put the agency I work for out of business, and then where would I be?
Neither the democrats nor the republicans have been looking out for the middle. Shit, I SHOULD be middle class: instead I’m workign poor with middle class trappings.