How Much Income Would You Need to Survive?

[opebo]

USA:

Rent/
Utils: $750
Food:  800
Ins:     100
Phone:  60
Car/
gas:      300
Misc:      90
Total:  $2,100

So with tax (say 15%), about $2,500/month, or about 83 hours per week at minimum wage.

In Thailand:

Rent/
Utils:    $160
Sat:         60
car/
bikes/     
gas        200
Food/
drinks/
misc:      300
phone     60
Girls/
hotels/
travel    600
Total:    $1,380

Taking into account tax (about 6-7%), I would need to earn about $1,500/month.. My regular salary is just a little bit short of that, but lately I've been getting a few extra gigs at $30-35/hour.

[opebo]

Where the heck do you guys live? My rent is $1500 a month and its considered a very good deal.

Seriously mine is $1,100 and considered a good deal.

Democrats drive up costs and drive down the value of the dollar. You're implying that it's seen in your state of New York.

What the heck?  Isn't it rather that you live in a hell-hole devoid of economic opportunity, and thus there is no demand for housing (or much of anything else) in your worthless locality?

[opebo]

I would need to earn about $1,500/month.. My regular salary is just a little bit short of that, but lately I've been getting a few extra gigs at $30-35/hour.

Stop complaining and go to work.

Can't you read?  I work all the bloody time.  I feel it is stupefying me horribly.  Did you know that the more you work, the stupider you get?

[opebo]

No conservatives are good at keeping the economy livable.

Indeed.  I'd much, much rather make 60-70K in Oklahoma City than 100K in New York City. 

What the heck are you twin cuckoos talking about?  Most people in Okie City and that sort of place make $15,000 per year - that's why its so cheap in those places: there is almost no money there.

[opebo]

USA:

Food:  800

800$ a month for food just to "survive" ?

Are you crazy ?

You can survive with 100-200$ a month.

Where do you find these cheap restaurants?  I'm figuring about $7-8/meal on average.

[opebo]

you can easily spend roughly 5-10$ a day for 3 liters of pure (spring) water and 2-3 sandwiches/hotdogs. So, 3 meals a day for 5-10$ at a supermarket.

I don't think you could live on 2-3 sandwiches or hotdogs per day for very long.  You'd probably develop scurvy.

[opebo]

I have zero idea to be honest. What I do know, is that I wonder how a family of say 4 can make ends meet in OC making say 40K or so per year. It's really tough. That is one reason (another being simply the immorality of denying folks more equality of opportunity that I know is attainable) why I am so militant that something drastic in this nation be done about secondary education. I will probably leave most of my money devoted to that cause. It's my passion really.

Good lord, again blaming the victim and peddling a nonsense fantasy.  Typical right-wing behavior. 

People don't make subsistence because of lack of education, they make subsistence because this is what the socio-political system which privileges you demands.

[opebo]

I have zero idea to be honest. What I do know, is that I wonder how a family of say 4 can make ends meet in OC making say 40K or so per year. It's really tough. That is one reason (another being simply the immorality of denying folks more equality of opportunity that I know is attainable) why I am so militant that something drastic in this nation be done about secondary education. I will probably leave most of my money devoted to that cause. It's my passion really.

Good lord, again blaming the victim and peddling a nonsense fantasy.  Typical right-wing behavior. 

People don't make subsistence because of lack of education, they make subsistence because this is what the socio-political system which privileges you demands.

How my text above equates to "blaming the victim" quite escapes me. I think you are getting into rather a mental rut on some of this opebo, in that you don't actual focus on what someone actual wrote, rather than just boxing them into your little algorithms.

Sorry, I meant 'blaming' in the sense of 'attributing to', not any suggestion of moral judgement.  The reasons people make what they make has nothing to do with 'their own individual' characteristics but rather their place in the social power structure.

[opebo]

I think we're interpreting survival loosely, as in opebo's "$600 for girls" or ebowed 700-dollar-per-month booze bill.  There are things you might find hard to live without, and you'll find a way to get the money to get those things, no matter what.  It seems fair to include them in this thread.

Actually if you notice I gave a bare bones survival budget for the USA in that post.  I just included my actual budget from Thailand to show that I'm able to live rather well here on a smallish budget.

[opebo]

So you think improving your skills that are in demand in the marketplace has no correlation with subsequent income levels?  Really?

What 'skills are in demand' in the 'marketplace', and the wage rates that they are paid, are entirely determined by State policy, and changing that policy is the key to reducing poverty.   To use one example - Bushie and his 'CAD'.  This kind of woebegone struggle of the working class for the 'brass ring' is an utterly hopeless dead end.

[opebo]

So you think improving your skills that are in demand in the marketplace has no correlation with subsequent income levels?  Really?

What 'skills are in demand' in the 'marketplace', and the wage rates that they are paid, are entirely determined by State policy, and changing that policy is the key to reducing poverty.   To use one example - Bushie and his 'CAD'.  This kind of woebegone struggle of the working class for the 'brass ring' is an utterly hopeless dead end.

At least try to address the question.

I already gave my budget several pages ago in this thread, Dairy Queen.

So you think improving your skills that are in demand in the marketplace has no correlation with subsequent income levels?  Really?

What 'skills are in demand' in the 'marketplace', and the wage rates that they are paid, are entirely determined by State policy, and changing that policy is the key to reducing poverty.   To use one example - Bushie and his 'CAD'.  This kind of woebegone struggle of the working class for the 'brass ring' is an utterly hopeless dead end.

It is good that you were not the wise old man guiding my business partner Guillermo in life (who arrived illegally in 1987 in the US at age 16 with no money, no English, no family support, and no job (and he became highly successful before I even met him, and now I aim to make him rich (with him working his ass off as his part of the bargain), and I generally achieve my goals in life). But frankly, I just don't believe you really believe that. You are just not that stupid opebo.

In fact, after he gets rich, I may try to induce him to run for public office (he registered as a Pub per my advice, immediately after becoming a US citizen last year, which I also induced him to do). He's just that good - and totally honest (his word is his bond) - I just don't deal with folks who are not. He's 42 years old now. Stay tuned. Cheers.

You can't 'get rich', Torie - he'll still have been a cabinet maker (or whatever he is) with dirt on his hands most of his life.  One is either born an owner or born a worker.

As for 'honesty' - people are honest when they are placed in a situation of life where 'honesty' is rewarded/reinforced.  I wouldn't place to much stock in it if I were you  (another way to put this is, if I were a rich old man of whatever predilections, I wouldn't trust anybody).