I know a 52 year-old woman who has been unemployed for over 18 months since being laid off her position as an office coordinator for a medical practice.

She got a call to interview with Kroger last week, where she had applied for any open position, and had anticipated that this unionized employer would pay a starting wage of maybe $9.00 per hour per advice from her friends.

She was disappointed to learn at the interview that Kroger starts all new hires at minimum wage (or a few cents higher), $7.25 per hour.

So when I was shopping there yesterday, I asked an employee how minimum wage employees could afford union dues and, probably more to the point, why they'd be inclined to join the union if it were as ineffective as that in negotiating any living wage.

The employee, who's been with Kroger over 30 years, said their union membership is way, way down.

She also said that their contract, which had expired in May, was renegotiated just last week and that members were dismayed at its particulars.

The moral of this story appears to be that unions are most effective when there are lots of them.

Households headed by adults ages 35 and younger had a median net worth of $3,662 in 2009. That marks a 68% decline in wealth, compared to that same age group 25 years earlier.

Over the same time frame, households headed by adults ages 65 years and older, have seen just the opposite. Their wealth rose 42%, to a median of $170,494.

(link...)

The "Greatest Generation" and "Boomers" have the right to their money, they earned it.

And without the first, we would probably be speaking German.

That said, "that giant sucking sound" of outsourcing isn't the only drain on this economy.

Lack of investment in subsequent generations plays a part. A LOT of money is being hoarded for retirement and health care. (something a single payer system would have helped alleviate)

As it stands, generations are being left with little other than the service industry: http://education-portal.com/articles/Tennessee_Job_Outlook:_Fastest_Growing_Tennessee_(TN).html

The upside is subsequent generations will likely be left with considerable real estate, but unless something like this passes, that too will just be more debt. Many parts of America has more people dying than being born.

Living wage calculator at MIT ...

Knoxville. $8.86 per hour for a household with one adult and no children
Knox County. same

Living wage calculator

How much does an employee cost

"The costs to this point (basic salary, employment taxes and benefits) are typically in the 1.25 to 1.4 times base salary range- e.g. the cost range for a $50,000/year employee might $62,500 to $70,000."

How much does an employee cost

About to sound like like the old woman yelling for kids to get off her lawn, but...

I got my first (used) car when I started grad school because I got married, moved to Rutledge, and had to commute. Now kids EXPECT their own cars when they turn 16.

Also, when my sister gave me a list of what my niece wanted for Christmas, one of the items on the list was $50 eye shadow. I don't think I've paid $50 combined for all the eye shadow I've bought in my entire life.

I used to work with an electrician who said he told both of his children they could attend any college in the country and he would provide them with free room and board.....right there at home in Oak Ridge.

Just as the public education system does not fail all children, not all children have that level of expectation.

That came off snippyier than I intended, but watching my kids adjust to lower expectations this Christmas has really made me proud.

Merry Christmas from all of us thankful for 14$ tennis shoes from Costco.

I didn't intend the tone of my last post to be quite as brusque as it was but I think I would be remiss to let the fact that many of notice the gap between the upper and lower classes widening.

My guess is that there are two ways to raise one's children to grab at the opportunity to stay on the upper side. One is to heighten the parent's level of expectation from the child. This method involves being as honest as is age appropriate of the way the world works. That doesn't mean there is no Santa Claus. It just means he's busting his but to make stuff happen and being good is just what's expected if the whole deal is to work. This holds true with grades, sports, scouts, etc. Doing one's best is just what it takes. Deal with it.

The other is to heighten the child's level of expectation of what to expect from the world. The Paris Hilton effect, if you will. Rich people want friends and marriage partners too, and raising a child to fill that role by teaching the chameleon effect works. Plus, it's easier.

The parents I generally see tend to use the former technique or a reasonable blend of the two styles. I have a tendency to be too blunt for my own good at times and folks too concerned about social climbing tend to look for others with more percieved social standing than they feel I offer.

As for the older generation hoarding money, part of the problem with half of a generation jumping on the Ronald Reagan bandwagon is that they think it's all about them. They can marry and divorce with no consequence, they don't pay taxes, and they don't save. At one time there was a universal obligation to family, no more. If subsequent generations aren't being staked, then when it's time to care for their elders, the resources just aren't there.

Again, sorry about being snipey , it being Christmas and all, but if peer expectation is that there are no social obligations and everyone not participating in "every man for himself" is a chump, then social order will begin to crumble.

We have met the enemy, and he is us.- Pogo

$50 eye shadow. Jeez. When I was 16, my butt would have been whipped for asking for such a thing. I had tons of eye shadow in college, but it was from the drug store. For real. These days I mostly use what comes in the bonus gift package when I macke my twice a year Clinique purchase. And that's probably what I would have told the niece. I'm blunt like that.

I got a car when I was a senior in high school, but it was practical -- a used VW. And unlike most I had insurance money from when my parents were killed and a first car was one of the things it was expected to buy. As was a college education. I'm ever thankful.

NPR had an article the other day about vendors who offer customizing options online for their products. They interviewed a high school kid who was bragging about his designs for several custom pairs of Nike athletic shoes and about how 'everybody wanted them' although they cost about 20% to 25% more than the already ridiculous prices for their shoes.

I can just imagine the pressure a parent in my income level would endure when they heard that everybody else is wearin' 'em.

Yeah, Converse is doing it, too.

I told my teenage son we'd just carry our 40% off coupon over to Hobby Lobby and scope out their multi-packs of colored Sharpies, small iron-on transfers, and bright colored grommets.

(BTW, that 43 year-old hand-held grommet setter Mom put in my very first sewing kit has saved me probably $3000, over the years. You heard it first here.)

Ten states will raise minimum wage Jan 1.

I-Pads, I-phones, laptops, and video games galore.

The middle class has spent their savings on spoiling their kids and keeping up with the Jones's spoiling of their kids.

I have no sympathy.

You don't want to know how many clients I had as a social services case worker who had brand new model cars and better and newer cell phones than my flip top.

Poverty is, among other things, an education issue. Just because some rich f*** tells you you need to buy something, doesn't mean he's not lying.

Just because he can afford a real slick ad campaign to convince you he's not lying, doesn't mean he's not lying.

Illusion is not reality.

Class dismissed.

Not to discount the legitimate topic of this thread, Toby, which is growing income inequality (due to stagnant wages, union-busting, etc.), I think AnonymousOne is speaking to another equally legitimate topic, namely our national ignorance of basic personal financial management--as in that guy I carried the groceries to, only to learn he'd just spent his paltry paycheck on $90 shoes I don't feel I can afford!

Like Bob observes, poverty is--at least in part--an "education issue."

Case in point: TN is the bankruptcy capital of the nation, hence the legislature's decision to add a semester of persoanl finance coursework to the state's high school graduation requirements.

Yeah, I know there's lots more the TN legislature could do to help and, again, I don't trivialize the urgent need to address why our growing income inequality, BUT that problem only makes more crucial the need to manage prudently what income we do have.

(Please don't insult the hausfrau lacking any cell phone, paying just $20/month for Basic Cable, and driving an eight year-old salvage vehicle. I am adding $100/month to the required amount for every mortgage payment and managing that payroll deduction to the 401-k, alright?!)

And I don't mind speaking about such matters on a public forum because I know full well what the average household income is in Knox County, which means I'm also perfectly confident that a whole lotta folks live like I do.

Probably most.

In the way of explaining my pointedness, my husband covered this month the November mortgage payment for one of my relatives--but not before I personally dialed the number for Direct TV and handed the woman the phone to cancel her service.

I also went into her garage and unloaded her second refrigerator (she lives alone) to stash its contents in the fridge sitting in her kitchen.

Suck it up.

When I talk to employers some say they have a hard time finding skilled workers and workers who can pass a drug test.We are running out of young people who are interested in becoming skilled carpenters,masons,plumbers,welders etc.Maybe better training for those skills would provide more opportunity for some.

As you would know if you worked for a living as opposed to brokering others production, a man's worth is measured by the market value of his work. The entire value of a half million dollar house is produced by the laborer, yet the contractors, developers, real estate agents and banks take the lion's share of the profit.

Why would a reasonably intelligent person choose a high risk career, subject to the whims of the market, just so a bunch of snot nosed rich kids could steal from him the rest of his life? That's why there is a skilled labor shortage.

35.00 dollars an hour is low. Try buying insurance, saving for retirement. buying a house and educating two fairly intelligent children on that. It's a slightly lower middle class existence.

Apprentices don't make the same wage as a journeyman. There is a wage progression as one gains knowledge and experience in accordance to the value and worth one brings to the marketplace.