A little something to consider: It doesn't look like things have gotten terribly better in Egypt since the military took over (big surprise, huh?). Lots of trade unionists have been "disappeared" (and the unions were a much bigger part of Tahrir Square than they've been of Occupy America) and the last thing I saw, they were all kinds of attacks (military, I thought, but I'd have to go double check) on Egypt's Coptic Christian community.
It's an old Leninist saw, but spontaneous, "leaderless" revolts can only get you so far.
For a revolutionary proletarian, goblin and hot-hippie-chick vanguard party!
"Since the military took over" isn't an accurate description of the situation, because it has been in power since the fifties. Moubarak was its figurehead, and only that. He stayed in power as long as he retained the army's backing.
No relation, but I read in "Le Monde" yesterday that a Koch plan backfired on them: they financed a major study on climactic change and the guy, initially a skeptic, found equal or slightly worse results than the ones currently held. He is now a firm believer in the reality of the human factor change. Oops.
The Socialist Worker disapproves of my attempts to meet hot socialist chicks.
:(
Good article. Some exaggeration here though: "Women, after all, make up a disproportionate majority of the 99 percent--due to being paid on average 75 cents to a man's dollar, and being held responsible for the majority of unpaid labor in the home." Even if every single member of the 1% were male, women would not make up a disproportionate majority of the 99%, just a slight majority.
"Since the military took over" isn't an accurate description of the situation, because it has been in power since the fifties. Moubarak was its figurehead, and only that. He stayed in power as long as he retained the army's backing.
You're right, of course.
Nasser's base was in the "progressive" officer corps, which remained in power after Sadat realigned Egypt from a Soviet-client state to a US-client state. Sadat got gunned down on orders of that blind sheikh who tried to blow up the World Trade Center in '93, and Mubarak, like all of his predecessors, had his power-base in the military.
"Since Mubarak was ousted" would've been a better formulation.
Merci, camarade.
Good article.
I tend to distrust a lot of socialist groups when they start talking about feminism.
There is, of course, a lot of sexism and chauvinism out there, but I've never believed that men wanting to have sex with women was an example of it.
I tracked down the video they were complaining about, and really, other than its title, I didn't think there was really anything that bad about it.
Of course, I do try to meet hot chicks at Occupy rallies and socialist meetings, so maybe it just touched a nerve.
Good article.
I tend to distrust a lot of socialist groups when they start talking about feminism.
There is, of course, a lot of sexism and chauvinism out there, but I've never believed that men wanting to have sex with women was an example of it.
I tracked down the video they were complaining about, and really, other than its title, I didn't think there was really anything that bad about it.
Of course, I do try to meet hot chicks at Occupy rallies and socialist meetings, so maybe it just touched a nerve.
We may be veering off-course, but men liking to look at attractive women goes waaaaay back. Attempts to stop it are futile.
Feminists are right to point out that they're more than eye-candy, and should be regarded as 3-dimensional beings, but a pretty woman is a pretty woman, and men are going to like that, period.
The Socialist Worker disapproves of my attempts to meet hot socialist chicks.
:(
that sucks.
So, this is fun for shiznit and giggles.
Without going into the particularities of my yearly income (not much, I admit), I am in the top 13% of the world's population ranked by income.
My friend, who makes a mere $60k/year is in the top .91%
Think of that the next time you're chanting "We are the 99%!"
EDIT: Assuming, that is, that this website has any idea what it's talking about.
A mere 60k/year?
I make around 40k and I do ok.
Full disclosure: Own a house, car, have a dependant, no degree...
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The Socialist Worker disapproves of my attempts to meet hot socialist chicks.
:(
That article made me laugh, and the guy's comments about the angry women made me laugh more.
He *May* be a pig. or maybe he just has a sense of humor, and some people take things too g@@#$@n seriously.
A mere 60k/year?
I make around 40k and I do ok.
Full disclosure: Own a house, car, have a dependant, no degree...
All good points ...
As my son used to say, "life is not fair; if it were, I would have be an orphan in a third-world country."
If you are writing on the Paizo board then you probably are wealthier in aggregate terms than most of the world.
Something to be thankful for ... whether you are angry that you at the top 1/2 of 1 percent of the US population or not.
In service,
Rich
www.drgames.org
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It sounds about right.
It does ignore the vast differences in cost of living across the world.
$10,000/year is in the top 14%, but you'll have trouble even finding a place to live in most of the US. Costs for land/housing/food vary widely, since they're very responsive to what locals can pay, etc...
Like I said, for shiznit and giggles.
@Kryzbyn--"Mere" spoken with a subtle nuance that doesn't come across in print.
$60k/year and I'd be rich!!! Really, when your primary financial expenditures are used fantasy novels, cigarettes, gas, beer and pot, it's pretty easy to get by.
I'm very thankful I was born here. Kind of like winning the birth lottery, as it were.
@Ankle
Ahh, gotcha. Yeah I'd live comfortably for 60k here in the midwest.
Something to be thankful for ... whether you are angry that you at the top 1/2 of 1 percent of the US population or not.
There are certainly advantages to living in the belly of the imperialist beast!
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$60k/year and I'd be rich!!! Really, when your primary financial expenditures are used fantasy novels, cigarettes, gas, beer and pot, it's pretty easy to get by.
New fantasy novels, a new laptop each time one dies and the warranty has run out, and RPG books. I get around with a bicycle, dont smoke pot or ciragettes, and only drink hard liquor & wine(cheaper than beer if you measure price per oz of actual alcohol), and one bottle will last me more than a month.
Oh, and I occasionally LARP, so like $200 a year on leather and metal, and occasionally some new tools to work with them.
Also, funny sidenote; Christ is liquor cheap in the USA. a 26er here costs $30. I went to delaware once. a 40 cost me $12! (capt. morgan, JD, smirnoff, not the expensive imported stuff)
Perssonally I will not be happy with a 'mere' 60k. Taxes are high here, and prices are higher than the usa. I'd bring home like 30ish after tax, and that 30 would go like 75% as far as it would in the usa.
Plus, I've got a ton of student loans, and when I'm out of school I'm looking at like 800$ a month just for the loans.
Hmm. maybe I should move to the midwest. Comparable pay plus less taxes could mean that I get rid of the scary debt faster.
I lived in Illinois between Bloomington and Peoria. Had that little place that about froze over thanks to the global warming every frigging winter. Let me tell you, that was the worst that I ever dealt with because everything else was gravy.
The midwest isn't for people wanting a go-go-go lifestyle. It's where you raise your kids and let them develop away from the city-stink of the coastlines and large metro centers where people demand you pay for their lifestyle.
My apartment was 300 a month to start, but after a few years, I agreed to 435/monthly. That was a great place. Aside from the DIY mouse care thanks to living in a rural community, I loved it. I'd move to the Mid-west if they had an economy there but once Cat left, everything else is following.
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Ah.
I'm less go-go-go. And I dont need industrial work. I'm finishing my degree in computer science. So Software Design and Web Development would be just fine.
I just want a non-stressful software job (not EA Games or the like with 90 hour-per-week crunch times) that pays me well enough to pay down my student loans, and if I was in the USA, it would need to give me full medical and dental (since the medical isnt covered there, and since I would expect dental here from my job). :P
I'm cool with an easy job working for a bunch of accountants or something, boring if necessary. Its all good. lol
Let me relax, talk politics and philosophy, and game. No go-go-go. lol.
New york is not the sort of place I'd want to live for a long time. I'll take a pass on Toronto, Montreal, and LA as well. I don't want to be forced to be that busy. lol.
But then, some states have like, no taxes at all, don't they? Which ones are those? lol.
That sounds ideal for paying off student loans.
Here around Omaha we (as accurate as these numbers can be, of course) have 4% unemployment, and a low cost of living.
Feel free to move here, but realize we are as a majority fiscaly conservative, which is why we have the above things. Leave your hippie bullcrap behind :P
Something is indeed very wrong, but most people have no real understanding why.
Care to illuminate us?
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Here around Omaha we (as accurate as these numbers can be, of course) have 4% unemployment, and a low cost of living.
Feel free to move here, but realize we are as a majority fiscaly conservative, which is why we have the above things. Leave your hippie bullcrap behind :P
*Hippie Bullcrap!?* *shocked expression*
There are very few socialist programs I think should be around. Healthcare (canada has this), Free education (canada does not have this), Free dental (canada does not have this), Firefighters (Canada has this). Burial Services for people who cannot afford them (I dont recall if canada has this.)
It makes me angry how many people slack off and live on welfare, who should be working. It makes me angry when I see women with 5 kids from 5 different fathers who have never even tried to get a job or finish highschool, and they expect everyone else to pay for them. It makes me angry when I hear about people being on permanent disability -Because they are illiterate-. On the other hand, the idea that people go bankrupt because their parents got sick and went into the hospital doesnt sound pleasant either.
So long as I have healthcare/dental before I move there (including hospital stays), I don't care about that, and I'll be done school.
Worth noting, that I won't step into your country for a weekend without having at least basic healthcare, and I dont understand how people dont get up in arms there expecting employers to provide it. Healthcare is the next priority after Rent. Before decent food. (if you can still get Mr. Noodles and hotdogs, then healthcare).
I'd be demanding Healthcare from my minimum wage mcdonalds job if I lived there.
Good thing I'll have a degree (and the jobs I'd be applying for have healthcare already).
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* You can pay for healthcare every month in the USA right?
Here they've started offering travel health insurance as like a 20$ per month thing through your credit cards, so like if I go to the states, they'll cover up to I believe 1 million dollars in hospital bills if I get put in the hospital while I'm there.
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* You can pay for healthcare every month in the USA right?
If you have a spare 300 sure.
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* You can pay for healthcare every month in the USA right?
If you have a spare 300 sure.
Ah. thats a very different psychological point of view. It would come off the top of my paycheck every month.
Thats also a bit more than I was expecting.
Oh wow, Minimum wage there is about the same there than it was here 10 years ago $7.25. but then, prices of food and rent and stuff seem to be lower, from what I'm hearing.
Yeah. If my math is right, and you make $1160/mo doing minimum wage (I dunno how much taxes are in the US on avg, but I know it varies by state).
Someone quoted like 450 for rent. then 300 for healthcare. 410 a month for everything else. that would be tough. I'd still take the healthcare with that little left over. I'd bus and eat cheap food, at home. And I acknowledge that I would never have the money to go anywhere or have fun. And I would not get married or have kids until my finances improved. And I'd complain about minimum wage being too low.
Clearly its not fiscally possible to raise children on minimum wage in the usa. cause another 300 for a kid, and now you have 110 to get by on (unless the provider has a family discount plan, and I know some of them do.)
yeah. thats rather riot-worthy. you guys put up with some awful s##~ down there.
* You can pay for healthcare every month in the USA right?
If you have a spare 300 sure.
Ah. thats a very different psychological point of view. It would come off the top of my paycheck every month.
Thats also a bit more than I was expecting.
Oh wow, Minimum wage there is about the same there than it was here 10 years ago $7.25. but then, prices of food and rent and stuff seem to be lower, from what I'm hearing.
Yeah. If my math is right, and you make $1160/mo doing minimum wage (I dunno how much taxes are in the US on avg, but I know it varies by state).
Someone quoted like 450 for rent. then 300 for healthcare. 410 a month for everything else. that would be tough. I'd still take the healthcare with that little left over. I'd bus and eat cheap food, at home. And I acknowledge that I would never have the money to go anywhere or have fun. And I would not get married or have kids until my finances improved. And I'd complain about minimum wage being too low.
Clearly its not fiscally possible to raise children on minimum wage in the usa. cause another 300 for a kid, and now you have 110 to get by on (unless the provider has a family discount plan, and I know some of them do.)
yeah. thats rather riot-worthy. you guys put up with some awful s%*! down there.
Just to put things in perspective. I live in Madison, Wisconsin. It's a very liberal college town. About quarter of a million people. Lots of amenities of big cities but no skyscrapers. Property values are all sorts of out of whack. I pay $800/mo for a 2 bedroom, so my half is $400. I know how to live really cheap. My GF and I share a car (used Prius) which costs us about $320/mo total between payments, insurance, and gas. Internet is $20/month because I got this insane promotional deal, my phone is $80 (iPhone) and heat/electricity averages, over all months, to be about $50/month, but heat is included in this apt. We cook our own meals and eat out maybe once or twice a week. Each pay about $250/month for food. So my total expenses are around $1k a month.
I work at a job that pays about $10.50/hr, after shift differentials and a year and a half working there. I don't get health benefits because I'm not full time anymore, and if I did they're not great ($18 out of each paycheck for a program with $400 annual deductable).
So on minimum wage I could just BARELY get by without any pocket money to spend like a good consumer. As it is, if I worked full time, I could get a few hundred a month to save/play around with/invest. Really not awful, but I also hate my job with a burning murderous passion.
Where I work is sort of a roach motel for people with a college degree that couldn't get a job in their field. It's nice because it pays a (barely) living wage, but because there's such a glut of college graduates in my town and a LOT of applicants, they can pay probably $3-4 less than what we should be paid based on similar positions around the country. But then that's precisely why they came to our town.
I understand the theory around minimum wage tampering, and for the most part I agree. There needs to be a market for cheap labor. I just wish we had universal healthcare here. It would really smooth the ruffles of people working in those kinds of jobs. Furthermore, and this is a local thing, I wish I wasn't in a right to work state. It's really hard to get a union together. I mean I know for a fact that our company charges up to a dollar a minute for the telephone service we provide. Between $30 and $60/hr that is, and we get paid about $10 with no real benefits. If we unionized we could totally squeeze the company for about $12/hr starting instead of $9. Which would be enough of a difference that I could, like, buy a g!!#~~n house with the prices the way they are right now.
EDIT: Oh, I usually get about 18% taken out for taxes. If you worked for 7.25(min) I'd expect about 12% to be taken out, between state, federal, and Social Security. Granted someone making that little will see most if not all of their federal taxes returned in April, but that doesn't help much paycheck to paycheck.
Director of Game Development
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At current minimum wage it would take someone 66 years of 40-hour weeks of labor to earn $1 million (not counting any expenses or taxes).
I did this same calculation one night during high school at my fast food fried chicken job when the number came up as 114 years to earn $1 million.
Not that a million is some sort of benchmark or that society even expects people to work minimum wage jobs their whole life, but I still like looking at those simple numbers from time to time. I've lived incredibly lean for a large portion of my life, (and recklessly extravagant here and there), but I don't think people who have relatively few basic financial worries think about the bulk of the world's labor force and their situations.
My boss recently made a comment during lunch that made $300 seem trifling. The previous evening when I was talking to my mom, she noted a concern she didn't know where she was going to come up with the flood insurance for the house. I had to remind him that $300 is A LOT of money to millions of people living check to check.
I'm not saying there is some kind of class warfare going on, but there is certainly a class disconnect.
About the living expenses in the USA:
From Cracked, but its spot-on, nonetheless.
About the living expenses in the USA:
From Cracked, but its spot-on, nonetheless.
Sure a fun read, but certainly less fun to live. Maybe Elisabeth Warren will fix some of the bank and credit issue. Maybe.
I'm certainly not suggesting than anybody move over here because we also have unemployment issues, but for the sake of comparison minimum wage is 9€/hour in France, from which you have to deduce the costs of welfare (healthcare including dental, unemployment insurance, retirement benefits and so on) amounting to roughly 20% of wages. It means that you only get 7,20 € in your pocket, or something like 10$ at the current rate of exchange.
People with this level of income only pay income tax (at 5,5% rate, it's strongly progressive) if they are single, as the composition of family is included in the math (number of mouths to feed and all that). But they still have to pay a housing tax based on the value of their lodgings, and another of roughly the same amount if they do own it. It's much criticized because this tax amount varies wildly from town to town.
Add to that a VAT tax on almost everything you buy (at 19,6% rate, or 5,5% for some privilegied goods, such as basic foodstuffs, building costs or books) and we're done.
I'm under the impression that costs of living are slightly higher here, but couldn't find any point of comparison. So...
Please that it's meant as an example of tax structure for low income people in an europen country, not as a lecture. We have a lot of plans flying around to overhaul our tax system, but here is the current one.
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hmm.
@meatrace: Sounds rough: I would probably trade the car for health insurance and bus. Of course that may not be possible with the job you have and the location you live in.
The way I see it and to quote an old saying I heard "If you dont have your health, you have nothing". And I consider being unable to afford taking care of my health if something goes wrong a dangerous gamble.
You guys have it rough man.
Things aren't much better here, in terms of economy and jobs we lost alot of them when you did, but we all know if we get sick we can still see a doctor.
@Smarnil: thats not alot as you mentioned, but it sounds like its about the same the americans get, assuming cost of living is a bit higher, except you have healthcare still. Which sounds similar to here. Minimum wage in Ontario is $10.25. I could move to france and get by, I think. I haven't used it since I was 13, but through my childhood, all my schooling was in french. (Until Highschool). Of course, I wouldnt move there unless I already had a job.
But as I mentioned, consumeables cost more here than in the usa. For food, you get less food, for more money. Rent is comparable. I pay $450 a month with everything included (heat, electricity, water, internet) But I live in a house where there are 6 of us all paying 450/mo. for a bedroom.
Yeah. If my math is right, and you make $1160/mo doing minimum wage
Someone quoted like 450 for rent. then 300 for healthcare. 410 a month for everything else. that would be tough
You forgot taxes.
Despite the myth of americans not paying taxes compared to you canadians the fact is that social security is a 6% (+1.45% for medicare income tax for anyone not making more than ~100k
Furthermore the money is not saved. Its put into the general fund along with everything else and spent along with everything else. So the "left wing" program was effectively used to put a regressive tax on people with the assumption that they would pay more in taxes and then die before ever seeing the benefits. That way they could spend the money not taxing millionaires and still be able to invade south america for united fruit.
Then two things happened. First off, the damned pesants had the temerity to stay alive. Instead of dying off before they collect benefits they stayed alive and stole their tax money back.
Then they stopped having so many kids. A ponzi scheme works as long as your population keeps growing. When your population shrinks you have more people looking to get their money out of the system than you have putting money into the system and thats a problem.
About the living expenses in the USA:
From Cracked, but its spot-on, nonetheless.
Hee hee!
You've used that before, but it's still funny.
To pick an unimportant nit, though: my credit history has always been fair to poor and I've never had to prepay for utilities (except, of course, when my apartment in Boston had oil for heat). Maybe that's a regional thing?
But I've certainly been down to the check-cashers before!
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Ah okay.
Well 6% is alot less than people pay here. I'm not sure what it is on the low or the top end, but the middle class types pay I believe 46% here in Ontario, and almost 60% in New Brunswick* I havent double checked, this is what I recall being told. Wikipedia likely has detailed answers.
Additionally, everything you buy except like, fresh fruit and vegetables, and bread, has 13% tax on it, as well as costing more than in the states to begin with.
Not sure how this is legal, but protesters in Nasville must pay $65 to protest and have 1 million in liability insurance.
hmm.
@meatrace: Sounds rough: I would probably trade the car for health insurance and bus. Of course that may not be possible with the job you have and the location you live in.
You're assuming that bus service is available. I live in a suburb of Atlanta, and we just recently implemented bus service. It doesn't go nearly enough places and is a major hassle. You pretty much *have* to have a car to get anywhere -- especially in a reasonable amount of time.
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Egyptians march in support of US protests
I don't know whether to laugh because its funny, cry because its sad that its neccesary, or awwww because its so sweet that with all they've been through they can see the same problems here.
I'm male dammit, i can only process one emotion at a time.
You're assuming that bus service is available. I live in a suburb of Atlanta, and we just recently implemented bus service. It doesn't go nearly enough places and is a major hassle. You pretty much *have* to have a car to get anywhere -- especially in a reasonable amount of time.hmm.
@meatrace: Sounds rough: I would probably trade the car for health insurance and bus. Of course that may not be possible with the job you have and the location you live in.
Thats the basic idea, yeah. The buses here either don't go where you need to go, or they do it just takes minimum 2 hours, where it would take probably 20 minutes by car. And I do take the bus when it's feasible.
But regardless, the point is that private health insurance is insanely expensive. If you can't get a job that provides insurance you basically can't get it on minimum wage. When you make ~18k after taxes (me at 10.50/hr, WELL above minimum wage) and your expenses are $14k a year (minimum) it's hard to justify $3600/year (i.e. all the rest of your money) for insurance. Leaves you absolutely no leeway.
You're assuming that bus service is available. I live in a suburb of Atlanta, and we just recently implemented bus service. It doesn't go nearly enough places and is a major hassle. You pretty much *have* to have a car to get anywhere -- especially in a reasonable amount of time.hmm.
@meatrace: Sounds rough: I would probably trade the car for health insurance and bus. Of course that may not be possible with the job you have and the location you live in.
Thats the basic idea, yeah. The buses here either don't go where you need to go, or they do it just takes minimum 2 hours, where it would take probably 20 minutes by car. And I do take the bus when it's feasible.
But regardless, the point is that private health insurance is insanely expensive. If you can't get a job that provides insurance you basically can't get it on minimum wage. When you make ~18k after taxes (me at 10.50/hr, WELL above minimum wage) and your expenses are $14k a year (minimum) it's hard to justify $3600/year (i.e. all the rest of your money) for insurance. Leaves you absolutely no leeway.
Is it 300$ just for you, or for your whole family?
So the article isn't great but I love this quote
“The alcoholics are our policy makers; the protesters, though, are the ones stuck with the hangover. Unfortunately, it does not look like anyone is going to sober up anytime soon.” -Axel Merk, currency manager
Is it 300$ just for you, or for your whole family?You're assuming that bus service is available. I live in a suburb of Atlanta, and we just recently implemented bus service. It doesn't go nearly enough places and is a major hassle. You pretty much *have* to have a car to get anywhere -- especially in a reasonable amount of time.hmm.
@meatrace: Sounds rough: I would probably trade the car for health insurance and bus. Of course that may not be possible with the job you have and the location you live in.
Thats the basic idea, yeah. The buses here either don't go where you need to go, or they do it just takes minimum 2 hours, where it would take probably 20 minutes by car. And I do take the bus when it's feasible.
But regardless, the point is that private health insurance is insanely expensive. If you can't get a job that provides insurance you basically can't get it on minimum wage. When you make ~18k after taxes (me at 10.50/hr, WELL above minimum wage) and your expenses are $14k a year (minimum) it's hard to justify $3600/year (i.e. all the rest of your money) for insurance. Leaves you absolutely no leeway.
Just me. It's just a figure. My friend got some really good deal on his insurance, he only pays about $160/month. But it has a really high deductable ($1500) and only pays 60% of costs over $10k, maximum lifetime payout of about 300k. He was hospitalized for appendicitis a while back and it cost HIM, out of pocket, 4 grand, after insurance chipped in. The total cost of the operation, including 2 nights at the hospital, was 14k
Actually, what I said was true, and what you said isn't.
Wrong again.
You present a well-said defense bereft of context in order make elitist apologist statements.
No, I don't use your methods.
Here's some context, the top 1% in this country have had a share of about 20% of the income in this country; however, only at a few points in time in the last century, the Great Depression and the current recession.Here's the chart:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chart_of_humanUS_Top_1%25_Income_Share_%2 81913 -2008%29.svg
Your link doesn't work, and you are now changing your numbers. You first complained about the top 20% in your previous post, which I replied to. Now you are changing the subject matter by complaining about just the top 1%, not the top 20% like before.
Can you decide which percentage is the problem?
So, when money is being sucked out of the economy by a few, the economy falters. Between those two period in time, there is also a curve in regard in the wealth inequality, not just income.Meanwhile, you presented an observation by an Italian philosopher that might fit on a bumper sticker but never makes the a point than an 80/20 split is good for the economy.
The 80/20 split is true for economies in extreme poverty, and and it is true for economies where wealth is in abundance.
The 80/20 split is true for the USA, it was true for the Soviet Union during its period of communism and it was true for the Roman Empire.
It just "is". I never claimed it was "good" or "bad".
Wrong, he was making an observation about the wealth...
Pareto, whom the principle is named after, was actually making an obervation that "20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas." That's hardly saying that such a thing is the most efficient. It's just an observation.
Hi. I admit being no sociologist, but being curious, I made a quick research on Pareto and found two sources : 1) scientific papers, most refutating Pareto's theory by demonstrating great variations in wealth distribution in time and in space (that is, between different countries). The only ones to support him seems to be austrian school economists (von Hayek) and elitist sociologists; and 2) nice sites decorated with a lot of nice symbols such as svastikas, calling Pareto the " Karl Marx of fascism" and celebrating his justification of the elites. Yuk.
It seems he is quite controversed, not an uncontested authority of sociology as you implied.
Is it 300$ just for you, or for your whole family?
It depends. If you're healthy, you can probably get decent insurance for less than that a month. But heaven forbid if you're sick or someone in your family is sick! The costs can easily escalate into the thousands of dollars for the monthly premium.
Me for example. I can't even get individual insurance; they won't insure me at all, because the risk is too high. The only way I can have insurance is through my employer -- and working in the benefits department I can tell you that family coverage costs the company about $1,200 a month. The employees pay about $300 of that cost a month. It's a really good plan. Most things are paid for with copays, but the expensive stuff (hospitals, MRIs, CAT scans) go towards deductible plus coinsurance (the amounts you would have to pay before the insurance did). But there's a max out of pocket of $1,500 for individuals and $3,000 for families for deductible and coinsurance. So if something catastrophic happened, you'd only have to pay $1,500 -- but you'd still have to pay copays for doctor's visits and the like.
We got lucky this year, and our health insurance rates are only going up by about 5%. The national average is around 11% per year -- and that's just not sustainable.
In new york its ~300 a month to meet the obama care requirements for a single healthy male.
If you think the corporation government entanglement is bad now, just wait till you're forced to shell out your entire paycheck to carecorp and pay whatever they tell you to pay because Obamacare isn't adjusted by area: if you make 35k a year in new york city (which means you're probably living on a sewer grate) it means the same if you're making 35k a year in rural iowa.
Ah.
I'm less go-go-go. And I dont need industrial work. I'm finishing my degree in computer science. So Software Design and Web Development would be just fine.
I just want a non-stressful software job (not EA Games or the like with 90 hour-per-week crunch times) that pays me well enough to pay down my student loans, and if I was in the USA, it would need to give me full medical and dental (since the medical isnt covered there, and since I would expect dental here from my job). :P
I'm cool with an easy job working for a bunch of accountants or something, boring if necessary. Its all good. lol
Let me relax, talk politics and philosophy, and game. No go-go-go. lol.
New york is not the sort of place I'd want to live for a long time. I'll take a pass on Toronto, Montreal, and LA as well. I don't want to be forced to be that busy. lol.
But then, some states have like, no taxes at all, don't they? Which ones are those? lol.
That sounds ideal for paying off student loans.
I've been in the mid-west for four years now, and I'd just like to warn you that of a few things....
-40 winters (I've seen up to -60).
VERY religious, VERY conservative people. It can be a downright unfriendly place to be an atheist (and I'm a very non-confrontational atheist) or to be liberal minded (I'm very much a centrist, but out here you'd think I was a "Wackjob Lefty").
It gets to be a bit much. It's flat and ugly, the weather sucks. The people are (for the most part) very friendly however, and I've overall enjoyed the place... I'd aim for somewhere near the Twin Cities in MN if I were making a decision about it. Stay away from western North Dakota - the economy is jumping because of a major oil find, but the de-regulated state of things in the state has led to serious problems. People are being forced out of their homes, murder, rape, and abduction rates are skyrocketing in that area, and the road systems and police are woefully underprepared for the volume that they're dealing with.
If you avoid that area however, you don't mind having little of the conveniences of developed areas, you enjoy the cold, your conservative, and christian, it's a great place to be. It'd be a good place to raise kids, but I can't imagine being a kid here.
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I've been in the mid-west for four years now, and I'd just like to warn you that of a few things....
kk.
-40 winters (I've seen up to -60).
Thats definitely quite cold. But manageable, so long as the summers are also cool.
VERY religious, VERY conservative people. It can be a downright unfriendly place to be an atheist (and I'm a very non-confrontational atheist) or to be liberal minded (I'm very much a centrist, but out here you'd think I was a "Wackjob Lefty").
Ah. I'm not atheist, but I'm not christian either. More like: agnostic polytheist (there may be a god, there may be several, there may just be ancestral spirits or something, and all of these spiritual entities may be scientifically explainable with technology we dont yet possess), with some old norse philosophical admirations (I value many of the qualities they did, and less of the christian ones: self-reliance (instead of charity), retribution/justice (instead of forgiveness), directness (instead of niceness), honorable behavior(instead of pacificism)), and have the personal belief that even *if* I knew christianity to be correct, I still wouldn't be christian. But I avoid confronting christians about these things, and I dont get in their faces to tell them logically all the things I dislike about their philosophy and why, because I dont think most of them can defend their belief system enough, or have even given it enough thought, to be worth debating. I'm sort of centrist with libertarian leanings, and one or two key elements from the lefties I'd bring over. I imagine I'd be in a similar situation to yourself, and I would be keeping my thoughts to myself when going around the community.
It gets to be a bit much. It's flat and ugly, the weather sucks. The people are (for the most part) very friendly however, and I've overall enjoyed the place... I'd aim for somewhere near the Twin Cities in MN if I were making a decision about it. Stay away from western North Dakota - the economy is jumping because of a major oil find, but the de-regulated state of things in the state has led to serious problems. People are being forced out of their homes, murder, rape, and abduction rates are skyrocketing in that area, and the road systems and police are woefully underprepared for the volume that they're dealing with.
Good to know.
If you avoid that area however, you don't mind having little of the conveniences of developed areas, you enjoy the cold, your conservative, and christian, it's a great place to be. It'd be a good place to raise kids, but I can't imagine being a kid here.
So long as I can get highspeed internet with reasonable caps and reasonable prices, and I can use a cellphone, I'd get by.
I enjoy the cold, I'm not especially conservative (though I'm not a leftie), and I'm not a christian, but I can stay silent about my beliefs of where I think they are wrong about things.
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In new york its ~300 a month to meet the obama care requirements for a single healthy male.
If you think the corporation government entanglement is bad now, just wait till you're forced to shell out your entire paycheck to carecorp and pay whatever they tell you to pay because Obamacare isn't adjusted by area: if you make 35k a year in new york city (which means you're probably living on a sewer grate) it means the same if you're making 35k a year in rural iowa.
Eeesh. thats not well thought out.
I think healthcare is important (as you all know by now), as for the specific implementations being proposed? I dont know enough about them yet.
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In the interest of talking about the Occupy movement, I found this article quite illuminating, wherever you stand on the topic.