Political Discussion

ayayrawn said:
For anything to get going, it has to go.
Click to expand...
100% agree the GOP can’t even pretend that “Unity” doesn’t mean a complete acquiesce to their ideological views even though they lost complete control of the Federal government. Haven’t they been saying “elections have consequences” since Garland and ACB confirmations? They have shown zero interest in actual governance only obstruction. If the Dems don’t kill the Filibuster soon they will squander the next two years and rightfully lose both chambers of congress come 2022. If they can actually help Americans over that time they may have shot to keep control for the entire Biden term. Lord willing. It’s weird, I am actively rooting for the GOP Senators to be obstructionist assholes for once to help force the Dems hand.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
One thing I have noticed is most people who did not go to college and who don't work in the service industry make more than those with a bachelors level degree.

For example, many cousins of mine in the family did not go to college and entered the work force directly. They work in construction, got into the company their father works at and are union. State jobs are prevailing wage, meaning it doesn't matter who you work for, you get the same rate. Doing manual labor they entered the workforce and starting making 6 figures easily. Working a job that has a lot of over time? They have made nearly $200,000 in a single year due to a large project they were on. Much more than I make with a Bachelors. And I have huge student loan debt.

People I went to high school with also make a lot more money working at their family landscaping company or tree service company and what not.

Unless you work in finance or healthcare, where good money can be found, having a college degree and working for corporate america for sure does not generate wealth or put you in a spot where you are better of than people without a college degree
Click to expand...
I'm in a right to work state. Many of the state jobs are going away and being replaced by contractors. I might still be in public health today if I had started with the state, but there are no entry level jobs for state run offices, just contractor and temp jobs. I did get insurance (it was terrible) and a 401K with a 4% match, but definitely not the amazing state insurance that my SIL had as a teacher or getting in on the state retirement plan.

Most of the manual labor jobs here don't pay nearly as well. I have a friend who is an independent contractor mainly doing electrical jobs and while he makes okay money, he has no health insurance and no retirement savings. From what I see, people with degrees are getting jobs that pay less but often offer more safety nets like retirement, health insurance, and life insurance. While I'm sure the guys running around with mowers mowing lawns are doing okay, I also wonder how much of whatever they have is insured--including their grass cutters. I see a lot of people I know deciding over whether to take a job because it might cost them more money in health insurance premiums.

I work in healthcare and even here they are putting the squeeze on us. If you are a doctor, it seems much better. We are at a point where the debt of student loans no longer is worth the investment of the degree. I'm concerned that pathways to wealth are closing for more and more people.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
One thing I have noticed is most people who did not go to college and who don't work in the service industry make more than those with a bachelors level degree.

For example, many cousins of mine in the family did not go to college and entered the work force directly. They work in construction, got into the company their father works at and are union. State jobs are prevailing wage, meaning it doesn't matter who you work for, you get the same rate. Doing manual labor they entered the workforce and starting making 6 figures easily. Working a job that has a lot of over time? They have made nearly $200,000 in a single year due to a large project they were on. Much more than I make with a Bachelors. And I have huge student loan debt.

People I went to high school with also make a lot more money working at their family landscaping company or tree service company and what not.

Unless you work in finance or healthcare, where good money can be found, having a college degree and working for corporate america for sure does not generate wealth or put you in a spot where you are better of than people without a college degree
Click to expand...

The danger of taking your personal experience and generalizing it to a larger economy is that you can’t get the entire economic picture.

getting a degree always correlates with higher income.

Wealth is a different thing all together. @nolady How did they define wealth, by assets? Home, stocks, retirement plans. That’s how the middle class generates wealth. What are the factors that prevent people from getting this?
 
Dtknuckles said:
Wealth is a different thing all together. @nolady How did they define wealth, by assets? Home, stocks, retirement plans. That’s how the middle class generates wealth. What are the factors that prevent people from getting this?
Click to expand...
Here's how they define income:
Income. To measure income for the SCF, the interviewers requested information on the family’s cash income, before taxes, for the full calendar year preceding the survey.11 The components of income in the SCF are wages; self-employment and business income; taxable and tax-exempt interest; dividends; realized capital gains; food stamps and other related support programs provided by government; pensions and withdrawals from retirement accounts; Social Security; alimony and other support payments; and miscellaneous sources of income for all members of the primary economic unit in the household

And wealth:
Household Net Worth. Household net worth, also adjusted for household size, is our preferred measure of wealth. The SCF is considered the gold standard of balance sheet information precisely because of its detailed accounting of household assets and liabilities. Family net worth is the difference between a family’s assets and its debts at a point in time. Total assets include both financial assets, such as bank accounts, mutual funds, and securities, and tangible assets, including real estate, vehicles, and durable goods. Total debt includes home-secured borrowing (mortgages), other secured borrowing (such as vehicle loans), and unsecured debts (such as credit cards and student loans). Debt incurred in association with a privately owned business or to finance investment in real estate is subtracted from the asset’s value, rather than being included in the family’s debt. All wealth figures also are adjusted for inflation.


As for the factors preventing people, this is what the study is saying:

Our findings highlight the fact that income and wealth measures, while related, are distinct and may provide different insights into college and postgraduate experiences. We suggest three potential explanations, each of which may contribute something to the patterns we identify:

• The luck of when you were born, since beginning to save and accumulate wealth at a time when asset prices (stocks, bonds, and housing) are high makes subsequent rates of return low and vice versa
• Financial liberalization, which may have created more opportunities for people born in the 1980s than in the 1940s, for example, to use (and misuse) credit when they were young, affecting their wealth but not their incomes
• The rising cost of higher education, which would not reduce college graduates’ incomes but would reduce their wealth, at least early in life

Here's the full text for anyone that's interested: https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/...th-it-the-new-calculus-of-falling-returns.pdf
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top