(July 8, 2014 at 9:42 pm)Blackout Wrote:(July 8, 2014 at 9:15 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: Around here, "cheap" rent starts at around US$700, which is about 515€. Minimum wage is higher than the federal minimum wage ($9.10/hr in Oregon, $9.32/hr in Washington [I live near the border, live in one state, work in the other]). Minimum wage ends up being in the neighborhood of $1300/month take home if you can actually *get* 40 hours a week, but it's damn hard to live on that because of the cost of living. Have kids? You're fucked.
Yeah we're having a lack of young population crisis, it has been lasting for 10/20 years, but I guess with unemployment near 20% it's safe to not bring kids into such misery. I'm glad I can still consider myself middle class, it's a rare thing nowadays, kinda like being born black with blond hair.
We hovered at around 10% unemployment while the rest of the country "recovered", so to speak. Actual numbers were higher of course - they stop counting you when you stop looking.
20%? Fuck, that's horrible. I can't even imagine. I'm lucky, I've managed to stay employed during every recession during my adult life, if you except the times when I was young and not really that interested in working.
