crap wages

CRAP WAGES
Before we start today, another fun fact about Gore Warming. Underground coal mine fires in China put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the entire car and light truck fleet of the US. If every driver in this country hugged a tree, put on a pair of Birkenstocks and walked everywhere, the pollution from China alone would be enough to doom our planet ( assuming people are causing the polar bears to drown ). Not that facts like these will stop carbon taxes, yet another way to shove the US middle class quickly into poverty so there are enough resources left for the elites. And for a happy theory on our engineered demise, check out a great article http://www.oftwominds.com/blogaug09/KaPoom2CHS.htm .
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Slackers have always gotten a bad rap. As the 80's "Greed Is Good" decade spilled over into the "How Do You Define Sex?" Clinton years and last of the cheap oil spilled out of Alaska and the North Sea, it was good and just and right and apparently also got the Popes stamp of approval that if you weren't living in a mortgaged house with a seven year SUV loan, you were doing something wrong. The highest priced gas was $1.25, and that was in California. Meat was a buck or two a pound. Gold got as low as under $300 an ounce. A used SKS was $99. The good times were rolling. You were an idiot not to enjoy the good life. Getting in debt was no problem, the Internet Revolution was lifting our economy into the stratosphere. The Asian countries were falling left and right while we were full steam ahead. People were beginning to move vast distances from work since commutes cost next to nothing. Super Stores were beginning to offer a sea of low cost crap from China. Cigarettes were still being sold at a buck or two a pack, this being prior to the Lawyer Tobacco Coup. You were really strange if you continued to exist out of the middle class consumer lifestyle.
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Throughout the entire decade I was working at gas station/convenience stores as an assistant manager. I had been a manager, and stepped down to an assistant after we had the kids. The wife was a nurse, and my time was more precious than the money since we alternated shifts rather than having day care. Right before the divorce I was working graveyard so I could be the sole provider and watch the kids while #2 went to school to be a pilot. As thanks for this sanity robbing schedule I was divorced, my payments for child support based on an abnormally high salary ( industry standard was $15k, I found a great company paying $25k after performance bonuses ), and her salary as a pilot wasn't factored into the equation for my payments. Anyway, even that didn't totally kill my quest for a better wage. I wasn't at the level of minimum wage yet. I still wanted to make a middlin wage. Not low enough to be poor, not high enough that it demanded 16 hours of my day. I still stayed at the $20-25k level.
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At the time minimum wage was around $5, I started work at the Dollar General as an assistant manager. Clinton's federal grants to local law enforcement for underage sale enforcement got the local pigs in a stampede and their little junior jackboots would try to buy cigarettes or booze from you. Of course, they picked the oldest looking of the Explorers for these stings. I was busted first on tobacco, which a kindly judge only popped me for $50 despite a real prick of a prosecutor wanting the maximum ( I understand the good/bad cop role playing here, but since I despise lawyers I just assume the worse ). The second time was for beer, and as the cops were writing me up ( a total square civilian, now a two timer second degree misdemeanor hardened criminal ) I called the manager and gave my two week notice. That was my last job in a convenience store. And a five grand cut in wages. But the maximum possible sentance on the first offense for underage sales is six months in the pen. I wasn't taking any more chances, and almost gladly paid the $300 fine. Nowadays it is much more expensive. And your employer doesn't pay it, you do. At the dollar store, I was making $7 an hour. After child support, taxes, and mandatory family medical insurance I brought home $500 a month. That was not enough, and we slept on the living room floor and rented out our two rooms so we had grocery money.
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After we moved from Florida to Nevada, I started work at the casino. After six months as a shift supervisor in the slot department, I was eligible for medical insurance. Since it was mandatory, I now brought home $600 a month, on $13 an hour wages. That was some very expensive insurance, and my kids couldn't even use it as they lived out of state. Six months later, they laid off the shift supervisors and rehired half of them as "lead attendants" for fifty percent less wages. To compensate, they were then allowed to receive tips which came out of a communal jar. My take home amount went up because of the tips, but my official hourly wages were only $400 a month take home. On $8 an hour! Finally, after the second lay off, I quit the casino for good. I also made up my mind to only work less stressful, lower wage jobs. I was tired of the BS of bringing home less than trailer park level of existence wages and still having the stress of a management job. When I went down in hourly wages, I was no longer working for a company that offered medical insurance. My take home pay went up as my wages went down. Not working management saved me money.
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For almost fifteen years I've lived on about $500 a month take home pay. With that I stockpiled for Y2K, bought four lots of land, a pile of silver bullion, a small arsenal, a few travel trailers, several vehicles and invested a bit of cash in this business ( which includes an extensive non-fiction library ). Granted, about a third of all that came from extra tips from the casino, but I still managed a lot of investments on all the other years with just that small wage. Those investments are now delivering my sense of security and allowing me to plan on even less wages if necessary. Guns are now much more expensive, as is ammo. As is grain and beans and canned food. E-Bay land is a lot riskier with ( I'm sure ) more scam artists. Precious metals are all but unaffordable. Yet, even with a harder row to how, you still make much more money than I do and can afford to invest the higher amounts. All you have to do is live with less luxury.
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The minimum wage strategy isn't as viable as it used to be, what with the shrinking job market. Yet, if you live cheaply, as if you only made minimum wage, you could invest in your preps now. And later, you could survive on less as everyone is squeezed harder.
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Publius- sorry I didn't give you acknowledgement on Friday's post. I got the idea from your comment Thursday, assuming it was fresh enough for everyone to remember. I do apologize.