About a week ago, my class did a random economic project, not in the sense that we had no idea what was going on, (although for some people that might have been the case), just that we were assigned various personalities to become. I was chosen to be the scenario of the white median, married with two children under five years of age. This meant that my spouse and I made $71 thousand a year, which was over $4,000 a month after taxes. Our task for the project was to complete one month's budget with our given scenario.
At first I was expecting some difficulties, for I knew that in today's economy it can be hard to make ends meet even for families in the middle class. But I was actually pleasantly surprised. After all of my expenses, (and I did have more than I expected) I had over $1,000 to play around with. This money I would have probably put into my savings, but it was money that could go anywhere in my budget. I did have some luxuries that others did not, for example, I said that my children's grandmother would be responsible for them, which meant I did not have to pay for day care, and I also did not have to make car payments.
There were many things about this project which surprised me. When you live at home, it is so hard to comprehend how much support your parents give you. When I look at my budget for one month, it's the little things that seem to add up. Items like shampoo, or when you want to go out to the movies, or even owning a pet which are just simple little things, but they can really ring up your monthly budget. When I had to pretend to be the responsible adult parent, it was much harder to say what I needed, rather than what I wanted. I was fortunate enough to make enough money to not have to really distinguish that point, but for others in my class it was a very hard decision.
The average family income, for the traditional nuclear family is about $79,966* per year. What I found interesting is that while I was close to making that amount of money per year as the White median, the Hispanic median, and Black median were not close at all. It is still astonishing to me that we are still so segregated at this point in time.
In 2005, there were about 2 million people receiving welfare**. This information intrigued me, because the number was so large, but it made me think of something we had discussed in class. When we looked at the income of a person on minimum wage, and the amount of money one could receive on Welfare, the amounts were only off by about $5,000, without tax deductions. I guess that some people might look at what they could potenially make, and what they would recieve on welfare, and say that welfare was just easier to manage. There are some benefits, up to a point, for example you don't need for daycare for your children, and you also aren't required to pay taxes. Looking at it from that angle, I could understand choosing to just go on welfare, but to me that option is just a pit, with no way out.
*http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/statemedfaminc.html
**http://www.govspot.com/know/welfare.htm
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2 comments:
If one spouse suddenly was unable to work you would realize in short order that with your income you are living close to "paycheck to paycheck". The hardest thing to do is forgo the "extras" and put away enough savings to cover a couple months expenses. Most people wonder how they can do with-out "things" but if you try it for just a few times and a few times more you find out you really can do more with less. Soda, chips, DD coffee ect can take a big chunk out of a paycheck. Mountain Mom
In the real world we can't pick all our expenses. Not having a car, not having child
care expenses, not saving for emergencies seemed to make your budget allocation too easy.
Without seeing the budget you were using it is hard to agree or disagree with your
results.
As to the decision of whether to be a productive part of society or not, there are
circumstances when some people require financial help. This used to be called going on
the dole. In the past, asking for even temporary financial help was considered an
embarrassment. Using public money to live on permanently would been have the worst of all
evils.
The current welfare state has created a group of people who feel they are entitled to
live off the work done by others. What good for families or our country can come from
such an attitude. The pilgrims of Plymouth Massachusetts learned soon after they landed
in America that their initial idea of common work for common good was a failure. They had
much greater success when each family was responsible for their own food production and
home construction. Today we should not rely on others to do our work for us when we are
able to work ourselves. How can our county grow with such a large burden placed on the
backs of those who work by those who purposely choose not to work.
B
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