Minimum wage in 1985 was 3.35/hr x 40 hours wk = $134.00 x 52 weeks = $6968.00 before taxes, ok? n/t

[peoli]

[Liberal Veteran]

1. The Obama was poor thing meme is as ridiculous as the Edward's house thing.

Some people just latch on to some of the stupidest shit.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. Yes. There's plenty of unstupid things to discuss. n/t

[Skittles]

11. I am out of the loop as usual

what is this $12,000 figure being bandied about?

[Liberal Veteran]

12. Apparently some people are floating a trial balloon about how much Obama lived on in the 80s

Apparently, it was impossible to live off so little money or something like that (which begs the question: What sort of EVILLLLL might Obama have done to survive?)

Just a bizarre thing.

[Yael]

14. His44 decided that today's rumor would be that Rezko

funded Obama while he was a community organizer in the mid-late 80's because there was no way he could live on $12k a year back then.

In other words, you didn't miss a thing.

*yawn*

[Skittles]

21. that kind of ugly speculation

WTF! very poor form indeed

[Yael]

24. But not surprising in the least. I have a heads up on tomorrow's meme

He was dealing drugs WHILE 'owned' by Rezko.

[Forkboy]

31. Even sadder that it came from a long time DUer.

x(

[gateley]

2. And minimum wage then wasn't any more

a "livable" wage than it is today.

[tabasco]

3. Average US income in 1984 was $16,000.

I would be LIVING LARGE on $12,000 plus allowances.

Bottom feeders can't elevate their candidate so they start cowardly whisper campaigns against their opponent.

[gateley]

8. I think I was making about $18,000 -

and I certainly wasn't LIVING LARGE.

[tabasco]

19. You're not very resourceful then, are you?

A single guy with intelligence certainly can do without big bucks.

[gateley]

38. I don't know about what a single GUY can do.

Although it was a good salary, $18,000 was not considered BIG BUCKS at the time. I did well, but I was not LIVING LARGE. No exotic car, home, toys, jewelry.

And I wonder who you are to judge if I'm resourceful or not :shrug:

[DJ13]

4. Ok, and the pont you want to make is.............

:shrug:

[peoli]

7. is fuck off to people who are claiming that Obama is somehow being dishonest

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

5. What's your point?

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. $12,000 was a plausible starting wage in 1985.

I made not much more than that in 1985 - living in Seattle.

[JayFredMuggs]

15. I made $19,000 in 1985

And I was NOT rich!

I made $40,000 in 1990,

And I couldn't afford to buy a home.

Obama was in law school then.

[Kukesa]

17. In 1984 I started a new job at $12,500 and was happy!! n/t

[Yael]

20. I was in college starting in 1988 and making $10k if that

Living off campus with off and on roomates, paying $250 a month for rent for a 2br, 2 story townhouse.

[TahitiNut]

29. $12,000 in 1985 = $23,609 in 2008

That's more than about 45% of workers earn annually.

[myrna minx]

10. Ha.

I guess most people in America were drug dealers and pimps in the 1980's. :rofl: Perhaps we'll see a new thread implying that $12,000/yr is shifty because it's TOO much money to make in the '80's. K&R.

[Ysabel]

13. lol myrna minx...

- yep probably... :rofl:

edit: typo...

[myrna minx]

35. (Shhhh...I did happen to see that someone posted in another thread that 12,000

is now considered a fortune in the 1980's, but no original thread...yet. )

[Forkboy]

32. Well, I don't know about others in the 80's, but I was a pimp.

:)

[myrna minx]

34. I was too, we all were!

Oh my stars, who wasn't? :rofl:

[cornermouse]

16. I'm thinking this is just a lit-tle bit obsessive

and I don't really care what Obama did or did not live on back in '85. That's what I'm thinking...

[JayFredMuggs]

18. You probably have a lot of problems trying to stay focused on the question

The question is, was Obama honest about his income in the 80's when he worked for 3 yrs as a community organizer on that kind of pay?

The answer is: yes, he was honest, and the Hillary lovers are, once again, trying to make up issues about Obama.

That's the point, now move on, now that it has been explained to you.

[cornermouse]

41. Au contraire.

My attention span is well above average. I'm saying you've lost your minds if you think this is important.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

22. EXACTLY....but Obama just misspoke about his poverty days as an organizer in Chicago

[myrna minx]

23. How so?

[Yael]

25. Um, wow.

[tammywammy]

26. How did his misspeak?

[JayFredMuggs]

27. You just come in here and drop a silly bomb that he "mis-spoke"?

about his "organizer days"

and YOU mis-spoke without saying what it was he said, when and where he said it, and in what context.......

Typical trash-Obama post, give us half the facts, or even NONE of the facts, and then run away. Refuse to answer questions.

Hillary acts much the same way.

That's why she's losing.

[Forkboy]

33. You'll get used to it. Par for that poster's course.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

28. My parents raised six kids on not much more than that.

Our morgage was $200 a month. We didn't have to pay for water, TV, the internet or cell phones.

Life was a lot cheaper back then.

[DeschutesRiver]

30. Different times

Things are so expensive now that I think it is hard to imagine how little things cost back in the day.

My dh's starting salary as a lawyer at his mid sized firm in our mid sized town was $17,000 - I believe that was 1978 or so. We married in 1980, and my food budget was $50/month. By 1985, it was $80 and we weren't eating all that poorly. The thing that was a killer then was the interest rates on mortgages. It makes the rates today look wussy.

We were so scared with that first house that I typed out a list of all of our monthly expenses, and when dh woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, I'd turn on the light, hand him the list, and say we can make it. The house we bought cost $47,000 for 1100 sf. It wasn't exactly a palace, but was on the more expensive west side of town. Could have spent less on the east side.

[struggle4progress]

36. I was a grad student in the mid-80's, pulling down something less than 10K

It paid my bills (rent, auto insurance, etc) and left me enough to buy a few books that really interested me and not much else

[On the Road]

37. I Got a Job for $11,000 in the Early 80s

In 1985 I was in grad school and made less. I can't believe people would claim that it's impossible.

[JVS]

39. Now they will say that Obama was living high on the hog as a community organizer.

[johnnydrama]

40. i read he got use of a car

Which most people would have had to pay for, which means maybe $150 a month at the low end. Then you have insurance, say $75 a month at the low end, and gas, say $50 a month at the low end.

That's another $3,000 that most people would have also had to pay for, so $12,000 is not extremely low at all if you get the use of a car.

[DerekJ]

42. he had a 2K Car Allowance