TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
I was gonna say “crater” as opposed to “dip” but figured in the world we live in; Trump being a narcissistic asshat would, at most, knock him back to the low to mid- 40’s.
Political Discussion
- Thread starter David A.
- Start date
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
THIS
is why I voted for Bernie...
is why I voted for Bernie...
THIS
Go Bernie. I 100% back that. Wall street did not appreciate this though. All gains the stock market saw yesterday after the Senate approved the phase 3 bill were erased by Bernie's rant
Another thing that sucks about this bill is the Republicans designed the $1200 stimulus in a way where if you are one of the millions of people struggling with the student loan debt crisis, the Department of Education can seize your stimulus. You won't see a dime.
Wow, people can be so out of touch with reality.
For example, the stimulus check we are going to see for $1200, many are saying it's not enough.
Meanwhile you have others say "I'm sorry, but saying $1200 isn't that much money is completely out of touch with reality. That's 2 months rent for many Americans."
Yeah, sure, it's 2 months rent in rural America. But for those who live in higher rent areas, $1200 is nothing. It's $650 short of covering one months rent for me. And if you live in Boston, its 1 to 2 thousand dollars short of covering one months rent.
For example, the stimulus check we are going to see for $1200, many are saying it's not enough.
Meanwhile you have others say "I'm sorry, but saying $1200 isn't that much money is completely out of touch with reality. That's 2 months rent for many Americans."
Yeah, sure, it's 2 months rent in rural America. But for those who live in higher rent areas, $1200 is nothing. It's $650 short of covering one months rent for me. And if you live in Boston, its 1 to 2 thousand dollars short of covering one months rent.
debianlinux
Well-Known Member
Not only this but which areas are being hit the hardest and thus in most need of support; right, the major metropolitan cities.
jaycee
Well-Known Member
If the polls are to be believed the bloviated idiocy is working.
projects.fivethirtyeight.com
The disapproval line just dipped below 50% for the first time since the inauguration.
How Popular Is Donald Trump?
FiveThirtyEight is tracking Donald Trump’s approval ratings throughout his presidency.
jaycee
Well-Known Member
This is a fundamental problem with the our system. We have this desire to treat everybody the same when things go wrong. We get really concerned with fairness. Then when things go well it's on the individual or the individual state to take advantage and own their failure if they can't, don't. or won't. All of it fails to recognize the diversity of situations, lives, lifestyles, and needs.
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One of the things people have said is we need an index of cost of living by region, and take it into account when issuing aid like this. This currently does not exist and could be very helpful.
I heard one person give an explanation of why this will absolutely not happen anytime soon. Reason being is this index could be used to for employees being moved by their employers to different cities across the country the index could be used to show the employer the cost of living is higher where they are being forced to move to keep their job and be used to help them negotiate a raise. Currently in situations like this, employers do not want to give cost of living raises to employees they consolidate into different offices.
Wow, I was just reading a post from a father who is concerned his daughter is committing fraud and what to do about it.
She's a college student and works a full time low wage job which got furloughed because that job isn't essential. Her father is very concerned that with the new unemployment benefits as part of the phase 3 bill that sends an additional $600 a week on top of the states unemployment that she would actually be making more on unemployment than if she was still working. Even more troubling to him is the fact that that unemployment is more per week than what a new job would pay his daughter.
He is convinced she is committing fraud and should be applying for another job rather than collecting the unemployment.
His daughter his not interesting in finding a job right now knowing her old job will be available again once things reopen. She wants to shelter in place verse find some crummy job that would put her at risk of catching the virus.
This goes back to what Bernie said the other day. God forbid someone makes just a little bit more on unemployment. What are we going to do.
She's a college student and works a full time low wage job which got furloughed because that job isn't essential. Her father is very concerned that with the new unemployment benefits as part of the phase 3 bill that sends an additional $600 a week on top of the states unemployment that she would actually be making more on unemployment than if she was still working. Even more troubling to him is the fact that that unemployment is more per week than what a new job would pay his daughter.
He is convinced she is committing fraud and should be applying for another job rather than collecting the unemployment.
His daughter his not interesting in finding a job right now knowing her old job will be available again once things reopen. She wants to shelter in place verse find some crummy job that would put her at risk of catching the virus.
This goes back to what Bernie said the other day. God forbid someone makes just a little bit more on unemployment. What are we going to do.
jaycee
Well-Known Member
I think this data and info. is already readily available at least at the state level if not by county. I'm pretty sure if that person just did some googling of their state's economic and finance divisions they could find more local economic indexes and indicators.
If you do get transferred by a company, and you are not unionized, that scenario is definitely possible but national firms tend not to want to lose employees that they want to transfer so they are likely to compensate them to be able to live wherever they're going. Moving expenses are also still a tax deduction if your employer doesn't cover them.
I've lived and worked in 6 states and cost of living is definitely reflected in pay in different places. Whether the reflection is adequate or accurate is another question, but the same job in the same company can already be paid differently in different places.
To me the bigger issue is the bubbles or boundaries we put on analyses like these and how we think about our economies. Rural and Urban areas need each other, economically, socially, but they've been pitted against each other politically. The cliches about the city being a cesspool of liberals and crime and rural people being dumb-dumbs that don't understand science or reality are constantly thrown about. Neither one of those narratives are true.
debianlinux
Well-Known Member
Absolutely, my company was acquired by a Michigan firm. According to them our salaries are <meme> too damn high </meme> and they believe themselves a very high paying employer. If you are in Michigan where my modest $125k house in NC would sell for ~$65k and require substantially less property taxes then this would be true. We've recently ventured into Raleigh where cost of living is even higher in this state and they are really struggling to secure competent employees in the area because they don't understand what competency costs in that area.
This data does absolutely exist at the local level for most if not all of America. And is likely collected in private databases. But there is no single source for all this information by the federal government for this information. Most other countries do have this.
jaycee
Well-Known Member
Public databases - state and local government.
Edit: not that they're necessarily easy to access
yes. not federal. As I said it's only in public databases on the state and local government level. There is no national database that has this information that is pubic.
dhodo
Well-Known Member
C2ER Cost of Living Index
the most reliable source of city-to-city comparisons of key consumer costs available anywhere
coli.org
jaycee
Well-Known Member
why does that matter? i don't understand why you're harping on this?
Because a federal database could be used to give relief based on cost of living verses a flat amount to all Americans. People in high cost of living areas could receive more help in emergencies.
dhodo
Well-Known Member
As far as I know, the federal government already uses COLI, so I don't know why we'd need another database.
jaycee
Well-Known Member
thanks, i see where you are coming from, but do you think the feds don't have that data?
Going back to my post about that father concerned his daughter is committing fraud.
While he him self is able to work from home during this time, her daughters job doesn't allow for that as we know when she got furloughed. He is now posting that the local grocery stores are hiring and looking for all the help they can get right now. His daughter should be looking for a job and applying at the grocery store. Not sitting at home collecting unemployment. He believes the fact that she would make more money on employment than getting a new job is fraud and motivating her not to work.
I think he is missing the point that the expanded unemployment benefits. The purpose is actually opposite as usual. To allow people to stay at home and not spread the virus.
While he him self is able to work from home during this time, her daughters job doesn't allow for that as we know when she got furloughed. He is now posting that the local grocery stores are hiring and looking for all the help they can get right now. His daughter should be looking for a job and applying at the grocery store. Not sitting at home collecting unemployment. He believes the fact that she would make more money on employment than getting a new job is fraud and motivating her not to work.
I think he is missing the point that the expanded unemployment benefits. The purpose is actually opposite as usual. To allow people to stay at home and not spread the virus.