Reply #60: I lived in the SF Bay Area in the nineties on about 20K [View All]

[salin]

and was able to keep a several thousand dollar "cushion" in the checking account for emergencies. Granted I was in grad school, and knew that it was temporary (but that I would have to leave the area in order to work and begin to save and do things like buy homes and cars on nonprofit salaries, and I did that - it is a *choice* to do so). On those salaries I would agree that it would have been "working poor". However, even in the Bay Area - at least on the Penninsula (during the tech boom) I would NOT call 50K "the working poor" - those earning that, who were in working poor situations - had a spending/debt (choice) issue. I LIVED it - and if you choose to keep being insulting to others - than I can return the favor. If one lives in a very expensive market - DONT BUY A HOUSE unless the income allows it, then all of the extra expenses go to the landowner. I didn't buy until I lived where I could do so in a place where I would be able to SAVE enough to create a safety net in accessible funds to cover for all of the expenses (but the surgery) that you describe - and make sure that in my 50K job that I have health insurance.

Ironic - you define my income as on the edge of the "working poor" - yet from your postings, I would guess that I have a much greater securty net that I have saved to create.

To equate decent salaries to those of folks who are working at service jobs that pay 10 or less an hour (and who earn less than 20K unless they work two jobs) - is really blind to those that TRULEY struggle. Even at 20K in the Bay Area - with little safety network, I recognized that a) I was earning a high-power degree that would let me earn more later and give me job security and b) that there were many who were earning FAR less than I, and having to also live in the expensive SF Bay Area. I would suggest that your post indicates that you do not really *get* how many people live on significantly less than that in your area - and somehow survive - and that our concerns should be for HOW they survive. They could be we in a flick of a moment per employment opportunities, health crises with huge costs, etc. To over inflate what level is "crisis" or "working poor" (living on the edge - paying the way but with no cushion) - is to be very blind to the reality of many, many Americans living around you in the same high cost of living area.