<p>The problem with that is the Central Bank pushing interest rates into the basement to push people into riskier asset classes. That’s part of the reason for pushing interest rates down - to get people to take risks and start the economy back up.</p>
<p>I have to admit, I’m quite confused–is the cost of living in NYC really so much that you can not have magazine subscriptions or go to Dunkin Donutswhen you make $125k a year? Are people making $85k or $65k living in rat infested apartments or on the streets? I’m not being sarcastic–I really want to know. </p>
<p>Also, I hope Mona’s husband doesn’t loose his job, especially with health insurance! I wonder how she’s doing now…</p>
<p>
They’re not living in New York, at least not in Manhattan, at all. If they’re living in NYC, it’s in small pockets in Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx. They’re living in New Jersey with long commutes. They’re not living in what most people consider “New York.”</p>
<p>The best way to find out is to spend a day or two there. I’m always amazed at how much it costs for lodging, food and transportation in New York.</p>
<p>I feel bad for anyone who has had his standard of living cut significantly and who is fearful for the future. It hurts. Certainly being homeless and hungry isn’t in the same ballpark as living on an income that’s still comfortable, but half of what it was in the past. That being said, the woman in the article is upset. Aren’t we all? I don’t see the point in bashing her because she’s complaining. Is it just people who are homeless and hungry who have the right to grouse about their circumstances?</p>
<p>For every person in Wall Street that is making millions, there are 100 people that are making regular salary by NYC standard. The bonus those support people are making is really the money they have earned, like the over time those GM workers have earned, except this year most of that bonus is going to be slashed in half if not more. There is no other industry where you could go to the workers to say, “Oh, because the firm has lost most of its money, we can’t afford to pay the wage you have earned.” I could go on about this because I am one of those unfortunate managers that’s going to get my earned money taken away, and to have to deliver this tough message to my staff at year end, after a very tough year for them. They have worked night/day and weekends because the firm has cut back so much on staff. I couldn’t vent to my CIO(or I could become of those people on the street), so I just did on this forum.</p>
<p>I agree with Bromfield.</p>
<p>^^ As do I. The articles are trying to portray the wealthy as spoiled brats, which I am sure some are. However, it isn’t a matter of “not being able to live on $250K a year” or whatever. It isn’t that easy to suddenly slash one’s expenses. Big houses don’t get sold quickly and the expenses to maintain them still exist. </p>
<p>I, for one, am not happy at the cost of my son’s university right now. However, he’s there and he’s a junior and it isn’t something I am able to change at this point. It scares me to be paying for some of the things I must pay for in this time of uncertainty.</p>
<p>I just get stuck on the “bonus” part. Since when is a bonus an expectation? How did people come to equate a bonus with an earned salary?</p>
<p>I admit that I do feel sorry for anyone who has had his income slashed significantly. The truth is that most people do come to <em>need</em> what they make. While I don’t make close to what the Wall Street guys made, I do live on more than I actually <em>need</em> to live on (compared with others who don’t make as much). I would hardly be starving and on the street if I lived on less - yet if my H lost his job, it would be pretty darn difficult to make ends meet - because we do indeed set our standard of living on that salary.</p>
<p>I think what really gets to me is that there is some level at which it just all seems excessive, and it’s so hard to garner sympathy for those who have had so much they have already spent more than I’ll ever make. Jealousy, maybe. But that’s the way a lot of common folk feel. Articles that attempt to evoke sympathy end up evoking scorn, as a result.</p>
<p>There is also that small matter of my personal thoughts on those who make money by taking huge risks with others’ money. If this was Vegas, these guys would have won a ton … which is fine. But then, when the luck ran out & they were caught at the tables on the losing side, they would have been out the money. Instead, they brought everyone else down with them. That fact limits my sympathy. And I get upset to know that some of the ones who orchestrated the fall - who knew the ultimate cost of losing the bet - got to walk away with golden parachutes.</p>
<p>Makes me furious, Kelsmom. They should have lost their shirts; instead, the average taxpayer, struggling to make ends meets, gets to pay them billions.</p>
<p>I think that the hedge funds stopped dumping about a little over a week ago and many were predicting a bounce in the market. Then the banks tightened up on collateral on loans so that hedge funds had to dump their illiquid stuff on the market resulting in the rout last week. So are these bankers stupid or did they short the market before tightening up on collateral? So now hedge funds are asking to be bailed out too.</p>
<p>^That’s one of the problems with the bailout. We are bailing out the banks so that they can start lending, but we gave them a blank check, so now they have our money and they still won’t lend like they are supposed to. :mad:</p>
<p>I thought that the primary purpose of the bailout was to back money market funds to get the credit markets working again and to provide money market fund asset holders assurance that their funds were safe. The bailing out of the banks and AIG are separate bailouts, right? I assume that some of the banks run money market funds too but it is supposed to be the holders of the assets (MM retail and institutional customers) that receive backing for the assets.</p>
<p>I think that money will go where it isn’t intended. A picture of a soup line of rich bankers lining up to get their bailouts comes to mind.</p>
<p>question quest, I had a friend living in an apartment in a desirable area of Manhattan. He paid $1800/month for his PARKING SPACE in a parking garage. And that was 15 years ago. Even in this economy, hotel rooms in midtown are $500+ per night. Yes, life in Manhattan is that much more expensive. </p>
<p>Which is why, when DH was offered a transfer from his NYC office to Boston 23 years ago, we jumped on it - even though both our families are in NJ. Boston’s not a cheap place to live either, but you can live a commutable distance from the city a lot more affordably (housing price wise) than you can in NYC.</p>
<p>DH was in NY last week on a business trip. The midtown hotels near their office that they have used for years have gotten so pricey, his firm made them stay in Queens. Maybe the recession will bring prices back down to earth…</p>
<p>We stayed in mid-town this past summer for about $360-$380 a night. But it was about $440 after taxes I think. It was a nice room with two queens. They gave us a big discount on the room - I think the normal price worked out to over $500 after taxes.</p>
<p>With Boston, you have a lot of nice suburbs with public transportation into the city. You can even reasonably bicycle into the city (I used to do this when I was a lot younger).</p>
<p>My H usually stays in Newark when he has to go to NYC. Takes trains both into the city and to the airport.</p>
<p>Our relatives on Staten Island used to brag about their higher teacher salaries, but mentioning the higher cost of living would shut them right up.</p>
<p>Boston is a great city, but it’s in Taxachusetts.</p>
<p>I think we are all victims of the media on some of this. For every person like the one in the OP’s story there are 5 oldforts and at least 5 of the auto workers. The media seeks out the story of the extreme…
Not everyone who works or worked on Wall Street was living the high life. And quite a few of those people, like the auto workers, are trained/educated for one profession which may now not be available to them.</p>
<p>
That’s an old stereotype. Massachusetts’ state tax burden (income, capital gains, sales) is actually right smack in the middle, not on the high end anymore. And with Prop 2 1/2, which limits property tax increases without voter approval, our property taxes are pretty low. I’m paying lower taxes on my house than my parents did on their two-bedroom condo in New Jersey.</p>
<p>That being said, Boston’s also a very expensive place to live.</p>
<p>while some of you will have a hard time feeling sorry for people as mentioned in the start of the thread, very real people around me are hurting, and I have become consumed with worry about if and when / our family will feel it. We have a specialty retail store and up until the $700B bailout , were holding our own.
Now, the streets seem empty in our area.
I went to a local garden center yesterday to get some pumpkins. What normally should’ve been a day where I would have a little trouble finding a parking spot was surprisingly empty. I was literally the only customer there.
We have had construction workers coming into our store looking for work…any work.</p>
<p>I have taken some steps to cut back with our household bills in the anticipation of harder times.
Just last week, I took my car off the road and swiched to my daughter’s little car. I also took my other daughter’s car off the road since she won’t be using it for 6 mos</p>
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<p>I don’t know NYC, but I know Boston, and have been told by NYC natives that it is even more expensive than Boston. Certainly, in Boston, $65K will get you more than a slum. It’s definitely a solid middle-class wage (for a childless person - I’m not sure this holds as well if you are supporting a family). But people from cheaper places tend to underestimate how much difference cost of living makes, especially in housing. I know people in cheaper regions who are living in apartments of similar quality to mine (or even slightly better) for a third of the cost, or even less.</p>