I know what it's like to grow up in a family that lives paycheck to paycheck

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

[George II]

1. I do too. When I was a child my father made $20 a WEEK and my mother did piece work...

...out of home to raise five (and then six) children.

We had seven of us living in a two-bedroom apartment in Bernie's neighborhood in Brooklyn. My parents slept on a Castro convertible in the combination living room/dining room, I slept in a room with my three brothers.

I don't dwell on it or whine about it 60 years later.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Bernie isn't "whining" when he explains his life story, it's what shaped his beliefs

and character.

It gave him empathy for the tens of millions of Americans living on the edge.

Of course not everyone has empathy whether rich, poor or in the middle.

[George II]

7. Didn't you watch the debate tonight?

[Uncle Joe]

9. Yes I did.

[LanternWaste]

13. "Not a good look." "Disqualifying"

Those seem some pretty vapid, unsupported, border-line trolling and empty-headed reposes on my part, yes?

[question everything]

3. Except, when was that? In times when a high school dropout working on a floor

of a manufacturing company could still support a family of four and a car?

The "paycheck to paycheck" of the past 30 years has been vastly different.

[crazytown]

4. Poor is poor

the humiliations of being poor are the same, whatever the year.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Due to wage stagnation, the "paycheck to paycheck" of the past 40 years is about the same

for the average American, only now it requires both parents to work outside of the home for a family of four and a car.

That's why Bernie supports a livable wage of at least $15 an hour, Medicare for All, tuition free higher education, increased social security benefits, medical and school debt being erased, all of that being a combination of rungs on the ladder of success and a strong social safety net in case of a fall.

[George II]

6. No it isn't.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Really?

On the face of it, these should be heady times for American workers. U.S. unemployment is as low as it’s been in nearly two decades (3.9% as of July) and the nation’s private-sector employers have been adding jobs for 101 straight months – 19.5 million since the Great Recession-related cuts finally abated in early 2010, and 1.5 million just since the beginning of the year.

But despite the strong labor market, wage growth has lagged economists’ expectations. In fact, despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage (that is, the wage after accounting for inflation) has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And what wage gains there have been have mostly flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers.



The disconnect between the job market and workers’ paychecks has fueled much of the recent activism in states and cities around raising minimum wages, and it also has become a factor in at least some of this year’s congressional campaigns.

(snip)

After adjusting for inflation, however, today’s average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power it did in 1978, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then. In fact, in real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would today.


https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. Much of my working life I lived paycheck to paycheck.

Or on even less.

When I was in high school I got desperately needed dental work thanks to a charity organization in the city I lived in. People passed used clothes on to us, and they were greatly appreciated.

When I was a sophomore in high school I had a Saturday baby sitting job. This was 1964. I babysat two little girls (ages 7 and 9 if I remember correctly) whose parents were school teachers and had a Saturday job at (again, if I recall correctly) a nursery/greenhouse. The job was posted at my high school, by which I mean that an announcement was made that the job was available and interested students could sign up at the office. When I got there and put my name on the list, I figured there was zero chance I'd get the job as at least five or six others were on the list ahead of my. To my surprise, at the end of the day, I was called into the office and told I had the job.

The school was aware of my family's financial situation. They'd scholarshipped our book purchases starting the year before, as there was no way my mother (a single parent) who was a nurse and trust me, nurses, made very little money back then, could afford the book fees. Anyway, I got the job.

It paid $3.00 for the day. And before you have a stroke at how little that was, a quick look at an inflation calculator says that $3.00 in 1964 is worth $24.83 today. Not bad.

More to the point. I had four siblings at home. Mom was working as much as she could, taking extra shifts every time they were available. Sometimes I didn't see her for several weeks at a time. As you might guess, food was tight. I'd long since learned to cook for my brothers and sisters. So, most Saturdays, when the mom of the girls I babysat was driving me home, I'd request we stop at a grocery store so I could buy food for the family. She was always astonished. I couldn't even begin to think of spending that money on myself when it was needed for the family.

Trust me, I'm not a saint or a martyr. But because I've lived very close to the edge (and the story above is not the only time) I get it. I know what it's like. I also know that I'm extremely lucky to have gotten well above living paycheck to paycheck. Currently, my income is such that I have more than some here, and less than others. More to the point, I can pay my bills and afford certain luxuries and even save money.

I sincerely hope that if my current income were to increase tenfold (not likely, I promise you) I'd never lose appreciation for what I have.

[BeyondGeography]

11. Not a unique attribute on that stage

[ehrnst]

14. Elizabeth Warren especially:

Warren has described her family as teetering "on the ragged edge of the middle class" and "kind of hanging on at the edges by our fingernails"

Her overcoming that to become a Harvard professor is incredibly inspiring, knowing what we know about a common struggle in employment and education of those who come from that situation.

[BeyondGeography]

15. She wants everyone to have that chance

It’s noble.

[ehrnst]

16. And she has the emotional intelligence, intellectual rigor and agility, people skills

and influence with her peers that sets her apart from other candidates.

[BeyondGeography]

17. And toughness...my favorite quote about her

came from an attendee at Netroots Nation: “I just feel like she would go under a bus for us.”

[ehrnst]

12. I do, too. (nt)