The Lone Ranger Retires to Philosophize on Culture and Current Events on Earth.
Went with some pretty nonsensical nonsense and stream-of-consciousness (as much as can be done while incorporating twelve random words) for this. I don’t know what it is.
I remember the trace line of politics
Muddled crayons in congress to keep from congealing
Wretched sounds that sound so therapeutic
When they change from smooth to odd and back to new again
New like a sense we’ve sensed before
But you bounce back like the pipe swung at a volleyball
Laid down to rest
Well, not quite. But today’s random journal/blog generator topic read: “What do people come to me for advice and how can I use that to my advice?”
What does that mean? Does that suggest that I have an implicit skill that I could capitalize off of? Or does it mean that when people ask for advice they are showing their vulnerability and, thus, have shown an opening to be infiltrated for my personal gain?
Either way, it’s clear that people come to me for housing advice. I’m not sure if, at this point, I’m practicing and honing my skill or using my knowledge to pushing my political agenda on people more.
I was going to use this as an opportunity to post a diatribe about affordable housing, but I’m tired, reruns of Drag Race are in the background and I’ve somehow managed to keep up with this two days in a row and that’s more than I can ask for.
Alright. The whole purpose of creating a WordPress page was to force myself into regularly creating something that I could throw into some sort of void, but a void that carries a potential audience member or two so it almost feels like maybe I’m accomplishing something. But actually creating a topic always feels arrogant to me (my mental illnesses really have no limits), so I googled “random journal post generator” and this is what I got: Five Short Term Goals.
How do we define short term? I don’t know. I’m going say with however long or short the next five items can be categorized as because I aim to put as little thought into this as possible.
So, here, from the inspiration of Google Search, my top five short term goals as decided in this very moment, in no particular order and that shall expire shortly:
:Note…this is a first draft, excuse any typos. I haven’t gone back through yet to edit…:
You can’t actually get any relevant data from this at face value. You can attempt to get somewhere if you rework it. So I’ll go item by item.
First off, with the wages – In a quick search for McDonalds, it says that, for non-managerial staff, they pay anywhere from $11-$17. The first thing I see erred in the chart is that it says the employee will make $2060 net, but the point is to prove that an employee can live off of $8.25/hr. So let’s do some math. If the wage is $8.25, we can assume that’s not taxed (this low, we can assume 20-25% of taxes would be taken out, let’s be generous and say 20%), but the monthly total is. Months are kind of wonky, so let’s annualize for consistency.
1st job = $1,105/mo net = $13,260/yr = $255/wk
$8.25 less taxes = $6.60
$255/$6.60 = $38.64
But wait, doesn’t that mean we’re already at just about 40 weeks? This sheet doesn’t say anything about overtime. What would the hours be without taxes removed?
$255/8.25 = 30.9 hrs/wk
Okay, that’s better, but what would the pay/hours be for the rest?
2nd job = $955/mo net = $11,460/yr = $220.38
We won’t even bother trying to take out taxes here.
So if we’re still making $8.25/hr, that would be 26.7 hours for a total of 57 hours. But nowhere did it say there would be overtime.
So if we did the reverse, $220.38/9.9 hours (the remaining) = $22.26.
So basically you can stop right there because their math makes absolutely no sense, unless what was shared is missing vital information. But let’s play around with the rest of the budget. I inflated their numbers at 5.4% for inflation and I want to explain somethings (some comments are teetering on the edge of not to open-mindedness).
We all need to understand that the standard of living is different everywhere. For example, most apartments in large US cities are super expensive, but go to Montreal and they’re super cheap. Inflated, rent/mortgage becomes $632. Cities like Columbus, Memphis, El Paso, Tallahassee, Albuquerque, Indianapolis, Tulsa, Lincoln, Detroit, Wichita, Louisville, and Tucson all offer one-bedrooms (this budget was made for a one bedroom) for that amount or lower. So imagine all the rural places and smaller cities and towns in between? For this activity, I’m going with the assumption of rentals and I won’t include rental insurance as it is usually a nominal cost. But with housing we need to talk about utilities like water, sewer, heat and electricity. Everyone is different and pays different amounts. To anyone who thinks, “they don’t budget for heat?” Well, would you in Tallahassee? Also, if you lived in, say, the City of Plattsburgh, your heat would be included with your electricity AND you would most likely pay less than $90 a month for the warmer seasons. Adjusted for inflation, electricity becomes $105. Then let’s through an extra $400 for the year for heating costs, just in case. It could be more or less. Next step of math:
$632/mo rent x 12 mo = $7,589
$105/mo electricity x 12 mo = $1,265 + $400 annualized heat = $1,665 + $7,589 = $9,254.
Let’s assume and variances would cover water/sewer/trash.
Now these are your housing costs. Per HUD’s definition of affordability, your housing costs should be no more than 1/3 of your take home income. So:
$9,254 x 3 = $27,271/yr net income = $2,273/mo = $524/wk
To find out gross, let’s go a little higher for taxes a 25%:
$27,761 x 1.25 = $34,701/yr gross = $2,892/mo = $667/wk = $16.68
So for your housing to be affordable, you need to make a minimum of $16.68 an hour (assuming you work a full work week). So that’s the base right there.
So with other costs, let’s go back to our net income at $2,273. Here are our remainder costs:
Savings: $100.
*Savings are really important, but when you’re poor not all that practical (also I didn’t inflate here for obvious reasons). This also is the most flexible.
Car payment: $158.
*A lot of poor people don’t have a car, especially in cities. So this should be transportation. And if you own your car outright, then gas. I think a lot of people don’t realize what a luxury it is to be able to finance or lease a vehicle. And yes, you’re payment may be way higher, or it could be way lower. You have to remember that this is an average and depending on where you are, not a need. In the North Country? Sure. NYC, definitely not.
Car insurance: $105
*This one can also very a lot. You could be like me with a lot of speeding tickets and a lease and spend almost $200. You could own your car outright and have no problems and pay $30. You might not have a car at all. So let’s just leave it for now.
Health Insurance: $21
*This is the most unrealistic one to me. At full time, in NY, at almost $17/hr, you will not qualify for free/low cost health insurance. Plus copays, should be here. Because I’m thinking average, I’m going to bump it only to $100.
Health Insurance: $100
Cable/Phone: $105
*Cable is absolutely not necessary – and I am the first to say everyone has the right to luxury. But with streaming services and whatever, it is not necessary. I understand stretching your budget, but having it make or break it should never happen. That being said, my cell phone is through AT&T, more data than I need and unlimited talk/text for $30. Between that and internet I meet $100. But I saw comments thinking it couldn’t be done. It can.
Other: $105
*Instead of other, I’ll say groceries for now. And this really depends. Let’s say $30/wk, which is arguably high (again, this is assuming one person).
Groceries: $120
The total: $688
Plus monthly rent = $56
So that would only give you $14 a week to spend. So really, even $15 an hour isn’t that realistic, at least not if you want to live on your own. Looking at this what would you cut out? If you take out savings you’d have almost $40 a week but then nothing if things went wrong. We tend to focus on a minimum wage or this evil corp or that one. What if thinks like rent, utilities, health insurance were all subsidized? What if cable and phone companies didn’t have monopolies so you only had one or two choices?
Most importantly though, never ever look at these charts, pro or anti capitalism, and take them at face value. 90% of the time they will be wrong and are just propaganda. Like the ones that say “this is how much you need to make to afford to live in this state” – those are the most leading maps I’ve ever seen.
I thought about cacti.
The cacti tell migrant stories veraciously.
Our love, soon destroyed by veracity.
As promised I will still be posting six word stories once or twice weekly- usually when I’m feeling a bit lazy to write a longer post haha 😂
Today’s Word:
Veracity
Don’t forget to leave your six word reply in the comments because I always love reading them or simply stop by and say hi!
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So I love things like this. And yeah it’s not today’s, but this came up first as I was looking at the “discover” function. But making something only six words is not easy. Especially a word with an overbearing (no pun intended) meaning. It’s an exaggeration of fear so you can’t be flippant in your use. And since I have no interest in romantic sentiment, nor do I want to be too negative – I chose sarcasm.
Stability’s finally stopped being your bugbear?
That was my line. It’s an appropriate term for my life and the lives of many fellow millennials, or at least those of us who grew up with trauma. Living in chaos your whole life makes you fear stability. I’m finally at either an age or place in my life (or combo of both) that makes me fear chaos more than stability. Stability is no longer such a bugbear that I avoid or self-sabotage immediately. Now it seems chaos is what I fear. Which I think is good overall but does that mean I won’t be able to handle chaos as well as I did before?
Your love soon became my bugbear. Today’s Word: Bugbear- a cause of obsessive fear, irritation, or loathing. More about the word. Don’t forget to …
Six Word Story #108
That’s Margot. She’s pretty much everything that is keeping me sane right now. The past year and a half have amped up and turned into some sort of surreal reality. As of this exact time, if I finish writing about five papers and a play, I will be a college graduate. I’m about 13 years late, so that may be adding to the shock. The amount of hurtles I had to jump to get to this point in the past year and a half are fucking ridiculous. I dropped out of school because my mother tried to kill herself and I found out her and my father were junkies. Goddamn. If only I knew how little I’d care back then.
Anyway. Whenever I lay down to go to sleep or am driving or whatever else kind of mundane activity, I seem to recite essay-like prose in my mind – like diary entries about current events or whatever topic of the day that seems of particular interest. Words tend to circle in my brain in a repetitive loop. So I figured maybe a blog would help end the obsessive cycle. And with a potential audience, you become choosier about the language you use which leads to skill-building, I suppose. And if this were to be read and enjoyed or my opinions angered someone enough to illicit response, I mean, that’s cool. Playing it safe in a pandemic means fewer challenging conversations. I miss them.
The Lone Ranger Retires to Philosophize on Culture and Current Events on Earth.