Search This Blog

Vanishing American Dream & Failing United State Dollar + Disappearing Middle Class

I hope they enjoy burning in hell for eternity, or to rather be doomed to destruction with Satan when Jesus Christ Returns to Judge Fairly & Rule over the New Earth and New Heaven

Here is one good reason why so many people hate politics, hate some politicians, and distrust the government. Housing, food, fuel, and the cost of life basics increasing much faster than wages, leaving a whole generation of people born after 1980 in a hurt with almost zero hope of ever owning land or a real home. Even condo's nearby are $400K+ and don't include parking, have an additional monthly HOA fee that can $500+ per month, + the money doesn't go as far because of currency inflation so everyone needs even more money for gasoline for example.

In 2002 when I graduate from Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington, USA, unleaded regular 87 RON gasoline commonly sold today as E10 with up to 10% GMO corn ethanol content, sold for $0.99/ per US gallon, and was then not containing ethanol but MTBE as the fuel oxygenate, and MTBE has more chemical energy than ethanol, meaning E10 actually has about 4% less energy than straight no additive gasoline. This means when you add E10 commonly sold at most gas stations in America, you get 4% lower fuel economy or 4% less range per tank. As a result of E10's lower energy content, I pay a small price premium and time penalty to deliberately buy Ethanol Free gasoline from The Grange in Issaquah, near where I rent the basement of a normal suburban single family home for $1800 per month. Meg & I have combined income of around $70 annually, and our current total monthly expenses are around $3851.18 or so. 

We have one 13 year old kitty and no human children and can't afford to have human children. So we are DINKs or dual income no kids, and should easily be able to afford a moderate single family home for a reasonable price that's affordable on our income. For Meg & I housing nearby very unaffordable, but it was not always this way. When we born in the early 1980's homes like the one we rent the basement of now were selling for less than $200,000, and are now well more than 1 million dollars. Gasoline that sold for $0.99 per US gallon when I graduate high school in 2002, now $499 or 500% more expensive. Minimum Wage in Washington State in 2002 was $6.90 per hour. So for price parity for gasoline at $5/gal minimum wage would need to raise to $34.50, when in fact the current 2024 Washington State minimum wage is actually $16.28 only 47% of the needed wage to make gasoline reach price parity with 2002 levels. Food prices have risen at least 40% since the year 2002, but some things like 1 lb of organic butter that was $0.99 or 99 cents back then is now more than $5 today, a 500% increase. I remember being able to buy 1 US gallon of organic whole milk for $1.28 and now the same sells in half of a gallon for $3.89 or 600% more expensive now than back then. 

I purchased my first used car in 1999 for $2000, a 1985 Nissan 200SX with a 5 speed manual gear box from the wife of a Boeing Engineer, who worked as an accountant at Safeway and had retired, who commuted in this car, until I bought it. She paid $6800 for it brand new. The same entity level Nissan Sentra sells for north of $24,000 now. My 1 year old used 2022 Corolla Hybrid was $28,000 with 26,026mi ODO in minty condition, just a few thousand less than its brand price. Cars are more expensive nearby because people with more money than brain power keep moving here from other countries with no driving history, who also tend to drive like they are intoxicated on drugs or alcohol, naturally, because their parents never owned a car and they never grew up around cars. 

I see a lot of California license plates because there is an exodus of people leaving overtaxation of the State of California, and many of these new to the area low skill drivers also have a yellow sticker on the back of their car saying "Student Drive, Please Be Patient" as they drive 10mph under speed limit on a 2 lane road where passing very dangerous or nearly impossible, holding other people up, wasting other peoples finite value time alive driving behind some dim whited idiot low skill dangerous driver, or another class of motorist that plays with their smartphone while driving, which is illegal and super dangerous, up to 26X more dangerous than driving at the legal limit of 0.08 BAC with blood alcohol in the driver system. I see a lot of visibly obviously foreign drivers doing stupid or dangerous things like turning right from the left turn lane on a 3 lane road, across the strait and right turn lane, causing accidents, pile ups on the freeway, role overs, T-bones and other accidents that raise the lost of car insurance for everyone else. I consider this people self absorbed or inconsiderate or rude because they are. Driving a car with a value license and car insurance is a privilege not a right. 

The US dollar has lost a lot of value since I graduated high school in 2002, such that its inflated by 73.6% over that same interval, meaning something that cost $10 back then costs $17.40, meaning the dollar is almost half as powerful as it was for buying things when I was graduating high school. This means the consumer price index of commonly purchased items like clothing, shoes, computers, furniture, appliance, means you need almost 2X more money now for the same items. Thats like saying everything is twice as expensive now, except housing which is 10X more expensive, and food when is 5X more expensive, with the example of milk and butter, though the same can be said for eggs, beef, veggies, leafy greens and many other common food items like nuts and seeds. When food prices rise faster than wages, that create poverty, meaning food becomes unaffordable to even people living in entry level apartments. Many elderly people in America are experiencing elder poverty for similar reasons, because they on a fixed retirement income from 1997 when the cost of everything has risen sharply since then as noted previously. 

The situation in many big Canadian cities like Toronto or British Columbia is even worse, with basic homes in mediocre condition selling for $2 million, and bidding wars on entry level apartments where hundreds of applicants apply for the same apartments. Noam Chomsky made a documentary called Requiem for the American Dream that speaks to this. This eye opening YouTube video also sheds light on this issues from the Canadian context, though the same problems are true in expensive metro areas like the one that Meg and I live in just east of Seattle, Wa, USA. https://youtu.be/ZvSNcnG2eqY?si=v9nLstpZXliXhkbD

No comments:

Post a Comment