Dd852
Full time employment: Posting here.
IASC: The Hedgehog Review - Volume 16, No. 3 (Fall 2014) - Falling -
Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
He doesn't have some skill- he has extreme skill.I know a lot of people making a living wage in freelance writing. I'm surprised he can't make enough scratch to get by (along with his SS check) doing some freelance writing. He appears to have knowledge and some skill at operating a keyboard.
edit to add: I didn't realize he's over 80. Maybe he can't write like he used to, or doesn't have the skills to find the work any more.
Stories like this give poverty a bad name
Does anything give poverty a good name?
Yes - he put himself in this position.
Yes - others are born into this position....
But poverty sucks, either way.
By federal government standards, I’m not poor, but by any rational standard, I am. My income is above $11,670 annually, which, in 2014, puts me above the poverty line for a single person. My Social Security comes to more than that. The federal minimum wage in 2014 is $7.25 an hour, or $15,080 annually. When FICA taxes of 7.65 percent for Social Security and Medicare are deducted, that brings the income of a full time minimum-wage worker to $13,949. For a family of three, the poverty line is $19,790. This is not a joke. It doesn’t leave much extra for an ice cream cone.
The man is filthy rich. In life experience. As is often the case money is often not included, for whatever reason. I find his his self pity annoying.
Are we so screwed up as a society that getting help from our own kids is now wrong?
I wouldn't want to support a parent or uncle shopping at upscale markets if I was working full-time, raising my own kids and shopping at Costco myself.
Interesting view as it seems that Costco's primary mission is to market luxury to the many.
If you are living on someone else, as he is, you really ought to go where you don't necessarily want to go.He could add significantly to his income just from little ideas on the the Reddit beer money thread, let alone freelance writing or blogging. And shopping at Costco and ethnic markets.
Anyway, what use is 6 dozen eggs to a single man?
+1I liked it. He is a talented writer and does a good job describing the drudgery of borderline life. It doesn't matter if he put himself in the position. True, there are plenty of LBYMers who have intentionally and knowingly organized a rewarding life with similar finances. But when they reach their 80s and catch a bad toss of the health dice they may find themselves in similar straights - bad teeth and a crashed hard drive and no money to deal with either. At that point they (we) too may face some of the drudgery he reports. His broader point is that the problems of old age and little money are also the problems of many of the younger working poor and most of us don't feel their pain.