Not so simple

Post #183,793 by jbrabeck 11/9/04 3:31:42 PM Reply	Not so simple Food - Steady diet of beans, pasta, or rice? Shelter - Tent or house? Medical expenses - What's basic? I've survived in tents and on limited rations (for a limited time) while in the Army. Big tent, pot bellied stove, and MREs in Jan-Feb in Minn/Wis. Same tent, and C-rats while in Germany (no stove). There has to be an accepted standard of living before a survival income can be established. Once a standard of living is defined, then the income could be adjusted based on locale. A good friend will come and bail you out of jail ... but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"
Post #183,795 by inthane-chan 11/9/04 3:41:39 PM Reply	Agreed on that. Admittedly, I was just throwing out a quick example, but codifying that into law should not be too much more difficult - I.E., figure out the low end of rent for a given geographical area - bottom 10% of rent, averaged? - (States are generally too large, but counties can be too small), how cheaply a balanced nutritional diet can be obtained, and basic services (preventative health care + trauma insurance) would cost - and use that as the baseline. Let the president answer a higher anarchy/Strap him with an Ak-47, let him go, fight his own war/Let him impress daddy that way/No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil/No more psychological warfare, to trick us to thinking that we ain't loyal/If we don't serve our own country, we're patronizing a hero/Look in his eyes its all lies/The stars and stripes, they've been swiped, washed out and wiped/And replaced with his own face, Mosh now or die!
Post #183,802 by drewk 11/9/04 4:05:56 PM Reply	Simpler method -- set the bar higher Just say that half the population shouldn't have to pay taxes. Every year, the baseline for owing taxes or not is the median income from the previous year. We all know how the top 20% already pay 80% of the taxes. (No, I don't know the exact figures, but that's the ballpark.) I'd bet the top 1% could pick up the taxes for the bottom 30% without even noticing. === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #184,526 by tuberculosis 11/19/04 1:45:32 PM 8/21/07 5:43:12 AM Reply	Not rent - average home price. Renting is slow financial suicide. OTOH, only 3% of SF Bay area people can afford to purchase a house - putting the bay area (by my estimates) mostly below the poverty line. "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." --Albert Einstein "This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." --George W. Bush Edited by tuberculosis Aug. 21, 2007, 05:43:12 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #184,603 by gdaustin 11/20/04 1:03:16 PM Reply	700 sq. ft. townhome $321,000 My friend just sold his 700 sq. ft. townhome for $321,000 in South San Fran. Free and clear. He says why own when you can rent a 2br 1000 sq. ft. for $1300 a month? He really does think that real estate in CA is about to decline. I told him to move to Texas where 2/3 of that will buy more home than his family of 3 will ever need. And with his house paid for, his cost of living will be low, too. Glen Austin
Post #183,796 by ben_tilly 11/9/04 3:42:53 PM Reply	Not so simple, but I'll settle for the govt's definition They call it the "poverty level" and put out annual statistics for where it is by region, by composition of the family unit. You can survive on less than that - people do all of the time - but it isn't any fun. Most of us expect a much higher standard of living. Cheers, Ben I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)

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