Liveable Wages

This is a topic that I am firmly in support of in any conversation, and it came up last night. Our neighbor came over because the tube that his oil dipstick slides into had rusted completely through, much to his surprise since he'd had an oil change done last month, and he couldn't get the dipstick back into the engine block due to the tube rusting completely through. (I keep saying Ford just isn't worth it...) So his 1999 truck now has a big issue that he needs repaired.

Anyway, we got onto the conversation of how to pay for these surprises in this area. My husband just got a 60 cent an hour raise--first raise in a few years now. While we are thankful for anything, it won't cover the fact that our propane rates for winter heating has just increased 60 cents a gallon. We use about 800 gallons a year. Obviously gassing up the car has increased a lot. Electricity rates go up every fall (back to winter rates) and then let's not forget that the state of Vermont and the town we live in are asking for more money in property and school taxes this year. We are expecting a $400 increase there.

So how do families stay ahead? My neighbor went on about how he was just given a 50 cent an hour raise -- yet he works all over and the area they currently have him working at is a 40 mile drive one way. He never gets a company truck like some of the other construction employees, so the raise doesn't help him at all. I'm baffled. It's understandable that families are having to work more hours than ever and some work two jobs just to stay ahead.

In Vermont, you have to earn less than $30k to get any state aid. The average price of a house is $200k (A two bedroom, 900 square foot house on 2 acres in our neighborhood just sold for $195k.) A three bedroom farm house with no basement on 3 acres just sold for $210k. Mortgages are up there with property taxes and school taxes escrowed in--most mortgages for people I know are over $1000 per month.

The government keeps blaming television and video games for the declining morality of our youth, I disagree. I think it is the fact that many parents are having to leave their middle school aged kids unsupervised while they work more hours in order to pay the bills.

So if I can see this is a scary situation that's not getting better- how come the state and federal governments are still missing it?