Forum Post: Craig's List Job Pay vs Apartment Prices - the real economic gauge
Posted 12 years ago on March 13, 2012, 9:40 p.m. EST by elf3
(4203)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Just looking for curiosity sake at a real gauge of the economy - Receptionist $8.50 per hour ... Apartments $1200.00-$1700. per month check it out in your area and let me know what you see At this rate that receptionist makes $1473.33 per month but that's before taxes (20-24%) gas to commute - $30-60 a week, and health insurance (as mandated by the state) before any other bills or food... Our receptionist needs roommates to survive with no possibility of ever saving or paying for school. So she may as well live in a rooming house and live on the job site the rest of her life (until she meets a man?)
is that any different than when receptionist made 4 an hour and apartments were 600? this has been going on for at least 50 yrs. how is that a guage of economics.. there are actually plenty of roach invested dumps for rent for much much less than 1200
Not anymore at least not in my state - Section 8 will pay people up to $1500.00 a month for an apartment guaranteed rent for the landlord so it's a well of riches for landlord investors. They are buying up all the cheap houses and foreclosures and re-renting them to Section 8 (only) but they have to meet the stiff code requirements and so they're nice. It's driving up all the rents in the entire area. Rents would have come down without this subsidy so would housing. Instead of buying a cheap house young couples are out-bid by cash dropping investors who turn them into either Section * guaranteed check or "market rate" inflated priced apartments. This is why I have an interest in Ron Paul. I see a racket between government and certain sectors of society once again realty property rich guys winning out over generation screwed. Wherever there is government money to be capitalized upon - the scum bag corporations show up with their hands cupped ready to capitalize on it and do it in the name of the poor (that's actually doing nothing to help them escape their caste)
The saddest one is the collusion of nursing home operators and government money - all they do is send them to a hospital if they get sick /overpaid babysitters and the only medical care they'll do has to be covered by medicare if not then they charge granny or her kids the extra. Then they bring in their own employees (physical therapy companies or worse their own pharmacies)who bill the government way more than the actual cost but use their own subsidiary/ partner companies to do it so it appears legit. All the money they have is put into sprucing the place up because they can pay dirty partner/ brother contractors to do the work and bill for way more than they need to then hide the rest. Meanwhile the repair work is a write off and draws in new patients and no extra money goes into hiring enough nurses to handle the patients. Instead they hire one floor nurse and the rest are all nurses aides who work an hour a week and live on welfare the rest of the time which means the home doesn't have to pay them any benefits (meanwhile the one working nurse is ready to string herself up as she tries to give her patients what they need on a shoe string budget and babysit the nurses aides from stealing granny's jewelry and gets to contribute to their welfare money with taxes taken from her pay.) I witnessed all of this.
This is a huge problem. One half of jobs in America pay less than $26,000 per year. That is not enough money to live on in most places and many people make much less than that as you pointed out. Wages have been declining while the cost of living has been increasing. Why would anyone want this situation to continue?