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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Vess1, post: 707847, member: 13650&quot;]Doug, I agree with the majority of what you&#039;re saying.&nbsp;&nbsp; The problem is, it&#039;s far more vast with far more factors involved than anyone can realistically put together in a post here and solve the world&#039;s problems.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; People can argue that the price of many technologies have gone way down.&nbsp; But one could also argue that the same technologies have added to everyone&#039;s financial burdens that older generations never had to deal with before.&nbsp;&nbsp; I don&#039;t know how to adequately factor that in.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; We have insurance for everything now.&nbsp; I believe people pay far more in insurance for many more things than people ever used to in the past.&nbsp;&nbsp; Most of that money goes to waste.&nbsp;&nbsp; I pay 5 different insurance companies monthly. </p><p>&nbsp; In general, there&#039;s much more to pay for now than two generations ago.&nbsp;&nbsp; If life stayed as simple as the 1950s, but our pay increased to what it is now, we would all have it made.&nbsp; But that is not the case.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Now people have to make enough to support a family, pay the mortgage, a couple car payments (since the wife usually has to work too now), a multitude of other bills, (all the same and some that never existed 20 years ago), and oh BTW, maybe service an $80k school loan on the side, while still trying to live your life AND pay for the fun stuff, AND save for retirement AND save for the kids&#039; college fund AND save for that emergency fund and on and on....&nbsp;&nbsp; Just as an example.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; You HAVE to make A LOT of money in 2009 to realistically accomplish all that and I&#039;d say most people are not even coming close.&nbsp; They&#039;re simply not able to.&nbsp;&nbsp; There is no way the entire population of the U.S. can make 100k a year.&nbsp;&nbsp; There&#039;s no way every family can make even 60k a year.&nbsp; Or 40k.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp; So depending on what faction of society you want to look at, you can almost come to any conclusion you want. </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Shadowstats puts real unemployment at 22% right now.&nbsp; Then you&#039;ve got all the underemployed and lousy jobs out there.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Beyond that, a very small fraction can say their wages kept up and they&#039;ve really got the world by the tail in 2009 when it comes down to it.&nbsp;&nbsp; I&#039;d guess if you took an overall average, wages are lagging behind severely and have been for some time.&nbsp; You feel this is temporary.&nbsp; I don&#039;t think it is or will be.&nbsp;&nbsp; I don&#039;t believe the 21st century can be compared to the 20th century.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; The federal minimum wage, as of July, is now (finally) up to $7.25 in the 21st century. (A laugh for sure.)&nbsp; Some people have to live on that!&nbsp;&nbsp; After taxes you&#039;re taking home $5.44 an hour.&nbsp; Keep in mind gas was over $4 a gallon barely a year ago.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; The federal government says that amount is adequate for the year 2009.&nbsp;&nbsp; Is that REALLY adequate and will it be going up again in the next 10 years?&nbsp; I doubt it.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; In 1999 I believe it was $5.15.&nbsp;&nbsp; At it&#039;s lowest point, I filled up my truck at 0.89 a gallon in Iowa.&nbsp;&nbsp; Gold was around $250 an ounce.&nbsp; A 20 oz Mt. Dew was about 0.75.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; Now that minimum wage worker has been bumped up to $7.25.&nbsp; A mere 29% increase.&nbsp; Meanwhile, everything else has doubled, tripled or more.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Gas is steady at the GIFT of $2.50.&nbsp;&nbsp; Gold is $1,050 an ounce.&nbsp; The price of a candy bar went up about 3x.&nbsp;&nbsp; 20 oz dew is 1.69.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Min. wage oughta be around 10.30 at LEAST to catch up to todays prices.&nbsp; But it probably won&#039;t budge for another 10 years.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; For the rest of us, if you&#039;ve been receiving a 3% raise steadily every year, you may or may not be breaking even!&nbsp;&nbsp; Probably not.&nbsp;&nbsp; Many go years with no raises at all before they maybe see that 3%.&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, you didn&#039;t catch up because you finally got a raise.&nbsp;&nbsp; They&#039;ll never catch up.&nbsp;&nbsp; Places aren&#039;t just going to hand out a double digit raise to allow people to break even for all the years they never got a raise.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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