I'm 56 and debt free.
#153 | Posted by lfthndthrds

Then you're doing it wrong.

You're supposed to borrow against your own assets to get that tax free income.

This is just one example of how the economy is structurally set up to extract wealth from the poor and middle class, and redistribute it to the wealthy class.

Someone upthread said something about a man in the 1950's being able to support a family on one income... Has anyone looked at the size of those houses they lived in?
#96 | Posted by lfthndthrds

Poor people used to deserve homes, but now they don't, is what you are saying here.

That's what the homebuilders and the regulators have decided: No more building homes that poor people can afford.

This is exactly what's described in "The Innovator's Dilemma" by the way. As a business scales, it requires higher margins to sustain growth.

And we are in an era of record corporate profits.

And corporate profits are paid for with wages that don't keep up with production:

We distribute income on a bell curve and the bottom 20% are poor. or whatever % we choose to define it.
#29 | Posted by eberly

That's incorrect. Probably not malicious; just statistically awful.

The bell curve is a symmetric distribution. Income distribution is very different. If income was truly a bell curve we wouldn't be having this conversation. We get further from a bell curve every day, every year, decade after decade.

"The "long tail" in U.S. income distribution refers to the portion of the income distribution where many households have relatively small incomes far from the high-income "head," while a few households hold a disproportionately large share of total income. In the U.S., income inequality has widened since the 1970s, with the top 1 percent earning significantly more than the bottom 20 percent."

And when most households have both parents working.....that's why the cost is so high.
#146 | Posted by eberly

No, that's just another right wing Trump thing you're dutifully regurgitating.

"Home prices rose 2.4 times faster than inflation since 1960s, study finds."

"The trend holds if the timeline is narrowed, too. Since 2013, inflation has clocked in at 31% while the median home price has risen by 63%."

Women working since 2013 didn't cause housing inflation to double overall inflation.

"People are living within their means. By getting 3 roommates. Living in vans. Moving back in with their parents."

Coincidentally, this is how most poor immigrants live.

Poor Americans are behaving like illegal immigrants, when it comes to making ends meet.

Republicans blame it on anything and everything but low wages.

"Thoughts And Prayers.
Nothing Can Be Done to help the poor."
^
This is Eberly's economic treatise.

"There is no political party who's interested in changing it."

Incorrect.

Republicans would like to eliminate the minimum wage.
Most Red states don't even have a State minimum wage.
Most Blue states and cities have enacted a minimum wage higher than the Federal.

Not to mention, their employer didn't consider hiring a woman or a minority for their job much less sending that job to Vietnam.
#97 | Posted by eberly

Today's employers send jobs to Vietnam.
Poor people didn't do that.
Rich people did that to poor people's jobs.

See Also: Illegal immigrants can't take American citizens jobs.
Illegal immigrants can only be given American citizens jobs.
Given by employers, wanting to pay poor people even less.

we went off the rails and started crazy things that screwed over that minimum skilled man.
like civil rights, the ERA, etc....you know.....things that leveled the playing field. Then we asked that minimum skilled man to compete with men from other countries for the same job.
And now that same minimum skilled man can't care for his family on minimum wage.
#36 | Posted by eberly

^
This sure sounds like stuff you heard Trump (or some other racist blowhard) say, owing to your lack of education and critical thinking skills you believed my believed it, and finally put it into your own words.

But it's all lies.

Immigration doesn't drive down wages.
Civil Rights didn't drive down wages.
The ERA didn't do anything because it's never been enacted.

Kids need to learn to live within their means,
#32 | Posted by eberly

You don't practice what you preach.
Your kids lived within your means.
Your private school tuition payments.
Your five car payments.

I stated it clearly I don't have advice for poor people.
#36 | Posted by eberly

You're definitely in the right party.