$650.00/month, eh? How long ago? How old were you? Why were you working a job that paid so little? Did you have medical expenses? Did you have family that you could call on in case of an emergency? What made you mend your evil ways and become a productive member of society?

Please give your budget and circumstances at the time.

If you were in college, it SO does NOT count.

If you had a SINGLE family member to turn to, it SO does NOT count.

If you were under 25 and living with a gang of your friends, it SO does NOT count.

If you tell me that within the past 5 years, you were working a job, came from a low income family, had little or no education, did not have a single benefactor or anyone you could turn to, yet still pulled yourself up by your bootstraps, please tell all.

Here's a sample budget for someone living today in my low priced community:

studio apartment rent $350.00
utilities $ 50.00
food $160.00
bus pass $ 50.00
laundry $ 30.00
personal care $ 15.00
cleaning supplies $ 15.00
clothing $ 10.00
____________________________________
Total $680.00

That's not a dime for anything else left over. That's the meanest most frugal, rock bottom budget possible. Please explain to me how and where you accomplished this on $30 LESS in terms of today's dollar.

So the victims of Katrina deserved their fate, eh? You deserve to be one of THEM if that's how you think.

I used to live on $200.00/month. BFD.

The year was 2002. So only 4 years ago. I was 33. Actually I made most of that in 4 months out of the year doing taxes January through April, so it really averaged 650/month over the whole year. The rest of the year I worked temp jobs for something to do. No medical expenses. I have fairly good health. No family. No parents to fall back on. Wasn't in college, or living with friends. I shouldn't be mistaken as a productive member of society, as my lifestyle was my choice.

This year I made about 3x what I made then, mostly to support my disabled husband. We still don't live extravagantly. I was always able to make MORE I guess, because I had a decent education and I went to college (no degree, though.) I just chose not to.

Oh I've discovered that you can live on $0 per month, too. At that time I was living in a shelter and receiving food stamp benefits. Not a lifestyle that I would recommend. Didn't I mention that I've made bad choices too?

In the world contest of who's had it worse, I'd be disqualified before the first round. I've had too many breaks and too much luck in my life, and I'm hardly complaining, just offering a comparison.

Mari, if you (or someone you know) is getting an actual studio apartment for $350/month, you're living in paradise.

Most of the folks I know on public assistance (the ones without section 8 eligibility) are paying around $500/month for a single room, shared bathroom, no stove, no refrigerator.

When I first met Keryx, I was meking approx. $65K. I left that job and moved in with her. We have had ups and downs, but we remain together. now she works for a public utility and does very well. There was a time that I was sick with with no hope and homeless I made bad decisions to. Going into the service instead of collage was first. The nature of my condition is such that it comes and goes. We have a relationship that people dream about.

Let us get back on topic. Most of the people "stuck" in NOLA chose to stay, for whatever reason. It was thier choice. When I see footage of CG helo crews doing Katrina rescues alot of people do not want to leave thier homes. CG(Aux) members that were there have told me that they had to call on active duty Coastguardsmen to get people to leave. I am not saying that all people had the means to leave, but it seems to me that a vast majority stayed for thier own reasons.
To see me and a little of what I am about goto www.frappr.com/fargon

The rest of the year I worked temp jobs for something to do. No medical expenses

I rest my case. You lived on more than $650.00/month.

And, yes, Wolf, in my area its possible to find a little studio apartment for $350.00. I have a small, two bedroom cottage for $550.00.

What are you resting your case on? :eyebrow:

Well, from what I understand, if she made $7,800/yr from H&R Block PLUS additional income from temp jobs - this would have made her monthly income more than the $650.00/month she claims. If she really only made $650.00/month from H&R Block PLUS her temp jobs, I'd be damned interested to know what her monthly budget was and how she managed to save money in addition. Even Wolf commented that my $350/month for a studio apartment sounded like paradise. So, where's this lady's paradise?

To elucidate further: Take home of $650.00/month would mean that she was earning under $6.00/hr at age 33. Well, stuff happens and I can feature an honest, hard working person earning some small sum per hour for whatever reason. But this lady claims she attended college and was STILL earning less than $6.00/hour at age 33 with no children and presumably anywhere from 10 to 15 years in the workforce. OK, it happens. But then she goes on to claim that she even SAVED money on that wage and turns her nose up at Katrina victims who need assistance.

THERE'S where I begin to dig in my heels. I want to know just what this woman paid for rent, food, utilities, and where she was living and what her circumstances were. I want to know what she would have done had she been stricken by a major illness or disability. I want to know how she felt about life in "paradise" on a budget such as what I outline which is REAL world and includes not so much as a dime left over for a cup of coffee somewhere, never mind your own phone or God forbid, cable TV or an Internet connection. How the hell did she pass her time and did she ever wish she had the money for a pair of nylons or some make-up to look pretty and go somewhere? Did she ever wish that she could put a dime in the collection plate at her church?

She did very, very well for herself on $650.00/month and I'd love to know how she did it so I could share her wisdom with the disabled of Colorado who must make do with $580.00/month. I'll spare them her scorn, however. :eyebrow:

This flappin thread has lasted for about 20 post and now is about peoples income. What I'd like to know! WTF are any of you going to do about things?
Do you stay on your elected offical's asses about things? How do you know when they slip a big fucking into a bill? I'm not smart enough to know how. In fact most who vote on a bill, later claim if they had only know that was included would have voted against. BULLSHIT. I live around 100 miles north of the coast. The gov. hasn't given me a fucking thing. We had winds of around 100mph. Run! Hell this is the area where the coonasses come to hide from a storm. Anyway not one nail has been driven to fix my house except by me. FEMA passed the buck to insurance co. and SBA. Still waiting on a loan from them, because insurance isn't paying enough to fix. But still no contractor to do the work. I'm on the list.
I'm better off than a hell of a lot of people. And have got more help and offers of help from this board and others.
Most of this should have been post in buster's bs thread I know.
VOTE WISELY, but sometimes there's no one to vote for. yuk

Busterb, no lady like comment from me. You have no idea how many e-mails and letters I've sent, how many tears I've shed, how many sorry ass excuses I've heard, including one's like keryx's. Why don't you go ask her. She seems to have all the answers.

Back on the topic at hand. It is probably a safe assumption that a lot of the people that stayed with Katrina bearing down on them were just like me with Francis, Jeanne and Wilma here in South Florida ... I am staying with my house to protect what I have rather than take to a road and hopefully get somewhere that doesn't get hit. (the picture is a little different down here as we have to flee up Florida for 400 miles just to get to Georgia). Having gone through those storms in my house I now feel a bit foolish for sitting here when Francis was off the coast with 155 mph winds as my house probably wouldn't be here now if it hadn't weakened. But people prefer to stay and hope the worst will pass by to the west, east, north or south.

Also, look around where you live and think of the worse case scenario and think about what it would take to guard against it. No government can possibly come close ... did Bush and crew know that the levees could be breached? absolutely. Do they also know that NYC will get hit by a catastrophic flood as a result of a direct hurricane hit? absolutely. So do they spend 100 billion of the taxpayer's dollars today to guard against it? Tough call .... what about a tsunami on the west coast? going to happen someday? probably. So do we spend billions or trillions today to guard against it?

No one need spend $billions IF our leaders are not mental midgets. Look at what Clinton did after a previous disaster equivalent to Katrina. FEMA moved towns rather than rebuild them in the wrong place. Then when flooding arrived only two years later, so many were not flooded again.

One lesson still not learned are levees in St Louis that are too close to the river.

Humans who create unnecessary death is called the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. Rebuilding homes there makes zero sense. Making it even worse is the Mr GO. What about Bay St Louis or Pass (forgot the exact name). Why build any residences within one half or one full mile of that coast? Because ego is more important than intelligence. Those seafront establishments should be open parks, recreation centers, business, and other facilities that people need not flee to during inclement weather. It's called basic intelligence which too many $multi-million home owners cannot be bothered to agree with.

NYC is another potential disaster. No where near as likely as New Orleans. A hurricane must hit NYC just right. How likely? Well NJ has not had a hurricane strike in over 100 years. Somehow the hurricane has to turn left at just the right time and strike NJ in Monmouth or Ocean County. Then major floods would travel up the Raritan and Hudson Rivers with catastrophic damage. Knowing this, we build today assuming a 10 or 20 foot flood may someday arrive. For example, ventilation shafts for Holland and Lincoln tunnels are constructed assuming water that high.

BTW, some who have intelligence have authorized or done these studies. Flooding is defined on Long Island maps for each type of hurricane. I believe Category 2 puts JFK airport completely underwater. This cannot happen under MBAs such as George Jr who stopped all such programs in FEMA - cost control mentality. Just another reason why good Americans should be daily calling for his impeachment.

All this does not require billions. It is part of normal planning. It means homes - the one place all go to in worst of weather - must be the safest place in town. It means building based upon intelligent zoning and people thinking like engineers - not like lawyers and MBAs.

That's not what it says. She said, " I made most of that" doing taxes and "averaged 650/month over the whole year". The rest came from temp jobs.

Your budget has holes. $50 buss pass? I've lived at lot of places that don't even have busses. $30 for laundry? $15 cleaning supplies? What are you, a clean freak? Hell, you might as well get maid service. :p

I lived in Plaquemines Parish, LA for years and lost all but my car in Betsy, 1995? (Opps 1965) Of course that parish was, is ruled by a few. Any one remember Judge Perez on tv? It's a low place with only one road out. When you get people comming from offshore the road can get clogged becaused there were only 2 bridges across the river from the westbank. I remember a few times on IS 10 where the assholes turned the 2 lanes into 5, because Betsy was fresh in their minds. Anyway from the WaPo. "Neighboring Plaquemines Parish, by contrast, issued its order Aug. 27, helping to hold the number of storm deaths there at three."
BTW What I meant about ruled. You couldn't buy rolling papers or anything like that in stores. The jail at Point-a-la hatch? was rough I heard.

When I first worked offshore the oil cos. didn't pay much attention to storms, but after they got it broke off in ther butts a few times they learned. That became a pain. Living where i'm now at. Sometimes you would be out of, say Camron,LA and get sent in. Time you got home was a call to come back.
Stay if you like. It always gave me a few days off.

See, this is what gets me. You people who don't have to count pennies have no idea of the realities. Fine, how did you get around in those places with no bus passes and what did it cost you? And, NO, it does NOT count if you were a membr of the armed services, a CO rep who had the red carpet laid before him or any other such circumstance. Tell me about the time when you lived in Anytown, USA and worked 36 hours a week at the local hotdog stand and how you got there and what it cost you. Also, please describe how you got to church on Sunday, how you stopped over at your best friend's house and how you managed to make it to the Local Elderly Fascists for Amerika rally and what the costs were.

In Philly a WEEKLY transit pass costs $18.75. Tokens and transit passes are good on buses and subways but not on commuter rail lines.

In Colorado Springs, Colorado a monthly bus pass (20 trips) WITH transfer fees to my town costs $50.00. I can give you the number of the local transit authority if you don't believe me. PM me.

Philly must have the deal of the country on laundramats. Here the laundromat charges $1.25/load /per wash and $1.00/per dry. I do 4 loads of laundry a week. I'm an uppity poor person who changes my sheets weekly and showeres every day with clean towels and a clean change of clothes. I suppose you'd be complaining about how bad I smelled if you ever happened to stand in line behind me waiting to buy your bus pass. Anyhow, my Swiss, out of control laundry standards come to $9.00/wk or $36.00/month. My estimate was for smelly non Swiss background members of the population.

OK, so I lied on cleaning supplies:

Monthly costs:

Laundry soap (on sale) 2.99 x 2 = $5.98/m
Fabric softener (on sale) 2.99
Dish soap (on sale)= .99, x 2 = $1.98
Vacumn cleaner bags (on sale) one per month = 1.99
Bleach (on sale) $1.09/gal
Pine-sol type floor mopping detergent –generic- (on sale) $2.00
Ajax type sink and bath scrubber (generic brand) =.99
Total $14.00 mas o menos
Colorado state and city sales tax 7% = .98

Sum = $14.98

I LIED EVERYONE! My cleaning supplies costs are ONLY $14.98 NOT $15.00! Can you ever possibly forgive me? And I was really, really stupid to have picked up a road flare thinking it was an old (and therefore, harmless) stick of TNT. And I'm ever so sorry I tip toed back and put it back when everybody explained to me how stupid I was. And I apologize from the bottom of my heart for EVER thinking "flippent" was my friend and telling her about the Cellar. And I am really, really sorry I ever mentioned having to be homeless, camped on the San Miguel River. And I apologize from the bottom of my heart expecting ANYONE here to understand about mild traumatic brain injury or diffuse brain injury and I'm really, really stupid. Hitler was cool and Rommel couldn't have fought his way out of a paper bag and Katrina happened only to low lifes who deserved to die.

Now.

Are you ALL happy?

Well, why the hell NOT?????????????? :eyebrow:

And Mari left out a $1000 dog, plus upkeep from her calculations.