Most people I know in NH make $8.50 per hour and are paying nearly $4.00 per gallon for gas

[graywarrior]

If they are lucky, they get 40 hours, but here in northern NH, they probably get 30 hours. So they gross $340 tops (more realistically $297.50 for 37.5 hours.) Most are paid every two weeks

If they have insurance (doubtful), that is deducted from their gross (probably $40-80 per pay period).

No state income tax, but federal tax, social security and medicaid is deducted.

So, $297.50 every two weeks = 595.00

$595.00 gross
-80.00 health insurance
-117.90 two tanks of gas for a 15 gallon tank at $3.93 per gallon (cheapest gas in NH right now)
-41.65 (7% deducted by fed and ss/medicaid

$355.45 net for two weeks of work. That's $177.725 per week.

Most everyone here works 2 or 3 part time jobs that have no insurance. That means whatever medical costs they have come out of their paychecks.

Some oil company executives have no idea how much they make.

How in hell are people managing to eat?

Yipes, I forgot rent or mortgage costs! $700-1500 per month.

And heating costs???????????????????????????Phone, cable, etc.

Jesus h christ.

[DesertFlower]

1. i've been wondering about that too.

also the food prices have gone so high.

[MountainLaurel]

2. I've been wondering that

When I lived in Maine, I knew a lot of people who had to commute an hour or more to work, from librarians and IT folks to hair stylists. I have no idea what they are doing now.

[Hydra]

3. Those people are going to die

I can say that, because that almost happened to me. I'm still only a little bit above the flood waters- my refund check next week needs to go to my overdue car payment.

So many people are going to die because of what one person told me about Bush when I was trying to get the warning out in 2000:

"How bad can he screw things up?"

[mainegreen]

4. The public kitchens here are overwhelmed.

Hell, I have a seven mile round trip commute and make good money, and I'm still going to get a bus pass and start bussing it.
$90/mo in gas vs $28 dollar/mo bus pass=no brainer.

[DesertFlower]

5. our food banks are helping more

people. we're okay financially so we make automatic donations to the food banks every month.

[remember2000forever]

6. We've Gone from Middle class to serfdom. SAD!

My Mom gets more in Social Security Checks. Plus she doesn't drive and does not have a heating bill because she lives in Florida. What do these poor N.H. people do for fun? How much is beer up there in a local pub?

[RoseMead]

7. Welcome to my world!

My husband had a $10-an-hour job building countertops, but his hours were cut way back because of lack of work. Now he's working full time, making $7.50/hour doing customer service in a call center. He's working on getting things lined up to go back to school, but right now (and for the next couple of years while he goes to school) this is our reality. By next year I will have a garden up and running, and we'll eat off that. But that's a year away at this point. So for now, we're on food stamps, and that's how we eat.

(And before someone jumps on here to say, "Why are you paying for Internet if you're on food stamps?" let me clarify: We have no cable, no telephone, and only one car which my husband takes to work. The Internet is my news source, mine and the kids' entertainment and reference library, and the way I keep in touch with the world. If thing get worse, I may have to let go of it, too. But for now, I'm keeping the Internet. Also, if it weren't for the kids, we would probably still try to muddle through on our own.)

[graywarrior]

15. Don't feel guilty about being online.

That's what they want, for us to stop communicating with one another and dumb down by watching corporate controlled news.

[4_TN_TITANS]

28. That's what they want, for us to stop communicating with one another

and to stop traveling everywhere (gas,airlines,etc.). A population that can't move around is much easier to control.

[fight4my3sons]

29. There are more than you know here on food stamps

:hug:

Don't you ever feel bad about being on food stamps. We have been on them off and on for over a year now. I thought we would be going off of them now that my husband had gotten a new job, but we still might be within the income limits and he is working two jobs.

[RoseMead]

33. Thanks :)

It's wierd: I've never looked down on other people for needing food stamps or other assistance, but I feel guilty when I need the same thing. It's like I expect to be told that I'm a bad person for needing help. I imagine alot of people probably feel the same way.

[hunter]

8. When I was a young single man gasoline was free.

Almost.

I once drove from Los Angeles to Vancouver and back and I didn't worry about the price of gasoline once.

I was regularly making ten dollars an hour doing work that still pays ten dollars an hour, and I could fill up the tank of my car for less than an hour's work.

My share of the rent was $85.

This is not the same nation I grew up in.

[Vinca]

9. I'm in southern NH and I'm worried as I can be about heating oil

this winter. I think it's at $4.50 a gallon at the moment so filling up the average tank will cost the average worker about half a month's wages. In the dead of winter, the tank could need filling every 4 - 6 weeks. The nonwealthy are going to freeze to death.

[graywarrior]

16. We're thinking of paying out $1500 for a pellet stove in our rental.

Otherwise we'll be paying for electric heat. Screw that.

[Vinca]

17. We bought a pellet stove several years ago when oil was hovering

around $1.50 (aka "the good old days"). I recommend Harman - safe, dependable and easy to use. We buy pellets on sale in the summer and store them in the garage. Over the winter we also buy dried corn (half the price of pellets) from a local farmer and burn a 50/50 mix of pellets and corn. The corn actually burns hotter than the pellets. At this point, the cost is about 1/4 of what the oil bill would be. We also have electric heat in a back addition on the house and we've taken to just keeping it off and being cold back there.

[jakem]

18. we went from oil to pellets to wood (north-west MA)

if you have the strength to deal with wood, it will save you a bundle over pellets.

[graywarrior]

32. Our problem with wood is storage.

We live in a condo and the association limits how much you can store. Otherwise, I'd go that route.

[Vinca]

35. I gave up on wood after setting the chimney on fire . . . twice.

Love the pellets - no creosote.

[graywarrior]

31. Thanks. I was wondering which brand was better.

I have heard about the corn mix. I think even if we make an investment for the stove, it eliminates the dependence on the electric company. In April, our electric bill was $165 and we only put the heat on for a few hours in the evening.

[fight4my3sons]

34. I think that jpak might know about pellet stoves

if I remember correctly he switched to pellet not long ago and said it saved him quite a bit. I can see if I can find the thread, but it was from a while ago.

[LiberalEsto]

10. My daughter earns minimum wage at a daycare center

while trying to get her associates degree in education at a rural Virginia community college. Because of the price of gas, and because she earns so little, she's taking four on-line classes this summer. At least she has that option.

[Hissyspit]

11. Hi, graywarrior.

Very good post.

[graywarrior]

14. Thank you

[KSCFAN]

12. Inflation

It's time the progressives got on board this one. The problem isn't oil companies. The problem is Bush's foreign policy. Running an empire isn't cheap. It costs on the order of 1-2 Trillion dollars a year to maintain our empire around the world. And we aren't paying for it by raising taxes that is for sure. So how do the bills get paid? Why just print the money. Take that shiney new money to pay off your bills. It's great. It only costs a few cents to print out $100. But like any counterfiter it is the people who use it first that end up rich. So the military industrial complex, banks, and Wall St. do fine. By the time it trickles down to the rest of us the economy has caught on to the new money so prices rise. First comes the prices of commodities, next comes manufactured goods, finally wages. Notice how the Federal Reserve (Private Bank) stopped releasing M3 a few years back. That was to hide how much the currency is inflating. We need Obama to catch on to this and show how the shitty economy and the war (empire) are linked. We can be rich and try to rule the world. It didn't work for the Romans, it didn't work for the British, and it won't work for us.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. Yes, it's the military industrial complex eating up our economy

If, for example, we were repairing and modernizing the U.S. infrastructure instead of trying to add Iraq to the American Empire, the following good things would occur:

1. An abundance of blue collar jobs at good wages

2. We'd have all this shiny new infrastructure: repaired roads, bridges, and sewer and water mains; public buildings including schools, parks, and dare I dream it? The beginnings of a high-speed rail network, beginning with regional systems.

3. The people who worked on these projects would release a lot of money into the economy due to pent-up demand.

4. Tax revenues would go up and welfare costs would go down.

5. With economic security, people would be less vulnerable to right-wing demagogues. Bigotry and warmongering are the outlets that right-wingers use to channel the resentments of the people they are screwing over.

In the meantime, I hope that people in New Hampshire are car pooling.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

13. yes, min/low wage workers literally are working for a gallon of gas

and a loaf of bread per hour.

All of this can be laid in the republicans lap, as it is their policies, since Raygun that got us here.

[datasuspect]

19. um, we were supposed to become a nation of subcontractors

and the idea of "employee" was supposed to change to "small business."

in other words, the american people got fucked hard in the ass.

[Tracer]

21. Infuriating conversation with my sister:

While discussing the price of gas, I mentioned how hard it must be for low and moderate income people to afford to fill their car's tanks to get to work.

She: "They can always take the bus."

Me: "What bus? Not every place in this country has bus service!"

She: "Oh yes they do!! I can take the bus from my house to XYZ town anytime I want!"

(Typical thinking from people who extrapolate their own experiences and apply it as a general rule. Not that she would be caught dead on a bus).

[graywarrior]

22. The reason auto insurance is not required in NH is because there is

no bus service in rural areas. This according to the state of NH when I called a few years ago after being hit by a non-insured driver in a car accident.

[Juche]

23. Who cares, boys are kissing

And there is a war on christmas and Obama is an Al Qaeda double agent. We can't be distracted with the fact that we have become an autocratic plutocracy. There are wedge issues at stake this election.

Sad part is it'll take a decade or more to fix our infrastructure to deal with these energy costs. Until then I really have no idea what we'll do.

[graywarrior]

24. I know what some people will do

Start stealing from the companies they work for, gas up and run, shoplift, commit armed robbery, and find other creative ways to survive until it comes to begging at the doors of the rich.

[bean fidhleir]

25. There's a way to help: stop buying gasolene yourself

If everyone stops buying gasolene, the oil companies will understand that they've gone too far.

[graywarrior]

26. We have drastically cut down on our gas purchases.

I just found a quote by Bob Dylan after he endorsed Obama a few nights ago.

"Poverty is demoralizing. You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor."

[bean fidhleir]

27. I've been able to cut back to 10 gals so far this year, thank the Goddess

And the Dylan quote is right on. We're going to see a huge rise in the crime rate as desperation burns away all respect for a government and law that do nothing to help.

[gullwing300]

38. Let's all just quit breathing...we won't NEED any gas.

:shrug:

[bean fidhleir]

40. If we continue to be profligate, we soon WILL stop breathing

Personally, I think it would be better to change the laws to favor bikes and similar, and re-build the light rail network we once had.

[graywarrior]

42. I can just see millions of bicyclists pumping up and down route 95

[bean fidhleir]

44. I'd love it! Though actually I'd prefer a level-graded highway. Or electric assist at the hills,

as in Trondheim Norway.

[graywarrior]

46. We'd all be in great shape and breathing emissions free air!

[gullwing300]

43. True enough but humans aren't hard-wired for long-term planning.

There's a song (and a commercial...I never noticed what they're selling) that goes "I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now." What a perfect commentary on the body politic. Bah, humbug.

[bean fidhleir]

45. Well, you know the zen aphorism: everything is action, everything decision

Even the ones pretending no choices need be made are making long-term choices.

[gullwing300]

47. Yes, I suppose choosing nothing is still choosing.

And now I feel more like I do now than I did yesterday.

[fight4my3sons]

30. great post

happy to recommend!

[Initech]

36. Hey Congress! If you really want to stimulate the economy, raise the fucking minimum wage already!

It should be like $14.00 / hour in most states and $17.00 in California to keep up with the increasingly ridiculous costs of living.

What we are heading toward right now is slavery. People will have to work tons more hours to keep up with the increasingly ridiculous costs of gas to be able to afford to live. :grr:

[graywarrior]

41. In norther NH, if you want to apply for fuel assistance, you have to drive 15 miles

south on a two lane highway. You must go to their office to apply. They will not drive up here because, get this....they can't afford the gas costs.

[gullwing300]

37. Next minimum wage increase will be....22 ounces of petrol.

yikes

[sarcasmo]

39. Time to bring back the Extended Family home.

Adult children will have a hard time living on their own at even ten dollars an hour if gas hits five dollars a gallon. I think we will see a lot of young adults staying at home, instead of moving out in their early twenties, if that is an option.