American Wages

Holidays each year make me stop and think as I see so many people shopping and lining up for the latest fad to buy for Christmas.  America spends, they spend in the big box stores, claiming they cannot survive without those cheap goods in those big chains.  They have few jobs in this year, 2012, yet they still shop for items they could live without, contributing to the big box store empires.  

I also start to ponder on the ruining of American lifestyles, the middle class that was, the decent wages that once were and the unions that made decent benefits possible.  I have also been reading about the Hostess company and how it 'just has to fold mainly due to union demands.'  I wonder.

Let's look back at wages, mom and pop local stores and *sigh* what used to be pretty decent health insurance.  

This company once offered decent insurance to families.

The year is 1970, I was a very young newlywed.  We were able to purchase a nice little house for $9,000 and our mortgage payments were a whopping $60 a month.  Now, mind you, my parents had a mortgage of $12 a month when I was a kid.  (Oh the inflation!) Now you have to pay $500 rent for a dump, and $12000 to $3000 for anything semi-decent.  

 We were able to bring home a week's worth of groceries for $40 a week.  My then husband, was making $9,000 a year at his job and we had health insurance that covered everything, no damn co-pay and that included prescription drugs.  We still had mom and pop local stores to shop at.  Yes, some chains existed, but for local shopping, the locally owned stores had quite a lot to offer.

In 1970, the Small town of Penn Yan, where I lived, had industry.  It had Michael Sterns, a clothing factory.  Pennsylvania House, a furniture company.  Penn Yan Express, a local trucking company.  The Boat Company, owned by the person who invented the tunnel drive system for boat motors.  There were quite a few places to work.  Slowly but surely, each and every one of those industries closed up shop and left the town.

 Women were seeking more opportunities in 1970.

Now let's look at 2012.  In 8 years George W. Bush and his cronies managed to bring America's economy to its knees. Now if you make a lousy $9 an hour, you are supposed to be grateful for no health insurance and no benefits.  Just what amounts to slave labor in the 21st century.

In the 1960's, my now husband, worked a big grocery store in Lafayette, Indiana.  He started as a bag person, bagging groceries and actually helping people out to their cars with the groceries.  He later worked his way up to a manager position.  Hell, in 2012 you are not even given bags in many stores, you are lucky if the sales person gives you a smile much less help with any groceries to your car. You get to bag your own groceries when you do get a bag.  So technology, and cheap employers, getting rid of bag people to save a few pennies, is supposed to be progress?  Right!  

The store Steve worked in Indiana in the 60's and 70's.

Wages:  I remember in 2000, I had a nice Bachelors degree, but the crappy area of NY's Southern Tier had few jobs to offer.  So in desperation I had to take a home health course and during the course, the instructor said: "You can make $6.50 an hour doing this for an agency.  That's really good money."  Okay, well I'm not sure what planet $6.50 an hour constituted really good money, but planet Earth was another story.  That agency she spoke of, amounted to a lousy 30 hours a week max, you got to drive over 50 miles one way to a client's home to work, and the agency offered no gas mileage and charged each client $75 an hour for services.  Our slice of that million dollar industry, for doing all the work, was a whopping $6.50 an hour.  Be still my heart, I think I'm rich!

Mom and pop stores once thrived in America.

We could collect these stamps when buying groceries and swap them for really cool stuff!  Now, you don't get a damned thing from grocery stores or gas stations, except a 'go to hell' attitude.

Did I mention that I had to take that home health course out of desperation because I could not find any other employment, and had to obtain food stamps, having 2 kids still in school and having a college degree?  God bless American employers!  So now, when you feel sorry for Hostess, feel like you cannot live without big box stores, that by the way, have depleted America of decent jobs, remember the $9 wage of the 1970's and take a good look at your $6, $8 and $9 of 2012 an know wages have stagnated or gone down because chains cannot afford the new healthcare.  All the new healthcare will do is force those rich chains to offer what once was offered, thanks to unions, to hard workers years ago.  

"No one who works for a living should live in poverty"

Could not have said it better myself!  Remember this as you spend in big box stores.

Housing

We are searching for a different place to rent, NY State is our first choice because we do not relish that long drive to Indiana anymore.  So we look in newspapers and on Craigslist all the time.  My question: What in hell has happened to America?

I ask that question because Steve and I are retired professionals, moderate income, not low, not poverty and certainly not wealthy.  We are very responsible, we take care of property as if it is our own, sometimes better than a landlord takes care of it.  Steve does plumbing, heating and electrical work so often we spend our own money to fix something, we always ask first, out of our own pocket.  For instance, where we live now, we asked the landlord if we could have a screened in front porch.  He said yes, he bought the materials and we put it up.  This nice porch will bring up the value of the place, as the landlord even stated after he saw it up.  Now the once wide open front porch, is a nice living space in spring through fall.  We even cleaned out the nasty looking flower beds, also something the landlord noticed and was pleased with. We place very pretty flowers in the beds each spring, making the yard area very attractive.  So being very responsible and having great references, we decided: How difficult can it be to find a nice place?  Ha Ha!

I guess I don't get exorbitant prices for places with no garages, some looking dumpy, and of course nearly every one of them say: No pets. We have a cat.  A cat is small with a litter box.  Not the least bit destructive in any way.  But anyway, go figure landlords.  I looked at one on Craigslist (I have to see pictures, please) and it also said, no pets.  This one is in the Ithaca area, more or less, I mean within a 50 mile radius it seems is the 'Ithaca area' to landlords.  This place with 'no pets' had pictures of curtains that looked like bed sheets to me, two cages in the living room and a dog perched on the back of the sofa.  Geesh!  No pets?  Then quit showing a pet in the picture.

Most landlords in the Ithaca area think they need to gouge college students.  What college city doesn't anymore?  College students are notoriously poor and so charging huge prices makes no sense to me at all.  I saw one ad for an 8 bedroom house, charging each student $875 a month for each room.  Nice work if you can get it, I always say.

So Ithaca is like the rest of the Finger Lakes area.  If you are in a 50 mile radius of Ithaca, it's 'the Ithaca area.'  Penn Yan, Geneva, Canandaigua and beyond, if you can drive to a lake, it's lake property.  LOL  I guess landlords aren't much for geography either.

Even the God forsaken Southern Tier now tries to ask exorbitant prices.  Now we are talking the Olean, Wellsville area, which to me, is Boondocks, end of the world, middle of nowhere.  Those places advertise: Need references and credit checks.  OK  So if they had not rented to all the meth cookers and users in the past, maybe a credit and background check might not be necessary.  So now, everyone is a potential druggie?  Apparently so.  Credit check to rent?  I hand out my Social Security number and birth date to no one unless I'm buying something.  When did renting turn into buying anything?  Geesh, yet again!

Even in the Prattsburgh, Italy Hill area, they think they have a gold mine.  I lived in that area, once and believe me, it is nothing to write home about.  Desolate, wooded areas, huge areas in fact of desolation and a war zone in hunting season.

Elmira, well this one is absolutely funny.  One ad there said: "Bring a police report when looking at the property."  Again, if they had not rented to every drug lord, meth user, crackhead, and bank robber in the past, maybe a police report might not be needed.  

Do people realize all these areas, or most anyway, of NY State is considered the Rust Belt?  This mean there are no jobs, most small towns in NY are dying at a rapid pace, NY is bleeding population and these areas have seen their hey day?  Guess not!

So all landlords have gold mines, I guess, by the looks of things.  But we keep looking and maybe, just maybe, somewhere, someplace there will be a 30 something or 40 something, or older, landlord who is reasonable, allows a cat, knows we do not intend to buy the place (well we will consider a rent to own if possible) and would like a retired, professional couple who are very responsible.  Every landlord we have ever had was sad when we did not renew a lease, for whatever reason, because they come into their rental unit and see nothing but clean, neat and very nice. 

Not gonna pay $1200 to $3,000 a month for a shack!

Affordable, cute homes are now only in a child's imagination.  How very sad America has become!

Ode to stupid landlords

I'm supposed to get rid of this beautiful face?  Don't think so!

So the landlord decided we cannot have a cat.  He called us on his cell phone to tell us this.  He obviously has no balls or he would have knocked on the door.  Obviously he likes to sit on his ass, collect rent and do nothing more. 

Well it's not like we set out to get a cat. She was a kitten in the backyard, dying, abandoned and we didn't have the heart to take her to the pound.  They kill cats who find no homes at the pound, so no, we will not take her there.

He can start an eviction notice for all I give a damn and we are looking for a different place as I write, a better landlord or a rent to own place.  She just caught a mouse this morning and played it to death.  So here is the lease breaker anyway.  Any state law says:  If you have cockroaches, mice or any infestation or ongoing problem and the landlord does not take care of it, you can break a lease due to the fact it's the landlord's problem to fix.  We have given this jerk written statements and told him in person that every year when it gets cold, mice come in.  We have told him for two straight years.  He has always forgotten.  Well, well, so he can shove his lease, Slumlord!  Our cat is doing the landlord's job.  He gave us no time limit on 'get rid of the cat' so while we look he can start an eviction notice for all we care, it will cost him money to do so.  

The thing is, we have rented some absolutely beautiful homes, with a dog, with the landlords knowing we owned a dog and no problems.  We come to stupid, stupid Penn Yan, the red necks who think they are sophisticated, I know since I moved here in 1970 and then lived other places since and coming back here was a mistake for sure.  

The Finger Lakes is a beautiful landscape but the people, well, much to be desired.  We rented a brand new house, never been lived in, in Indiana in a housing development and had a dog.  The landlords were sad we didn't renew the lease the next year because I wanted to move closer to my job.  They loved us, even with a dog because we treat all homes as if they are our own house.  We keep them clean, pay all our rent on time and keep the yards pretty.  Most normal landlords appreciate good tenants when they see them.  But Penn Yan dips apparently have no idea how to attract good tenants then whine because someone ruins their places.  I have no sympathy at all for stupid landlords.  Stupid ones abound in the rural areas of New York State.

When we moved in here, our oven door was broken, we had to tell him several times to fix that too.  The woman who lived here before had a young kid, and he probably sat on the oven door and broke it.  I know, I've raised five kids and have seen that happen.   Our cat is less destructive than her kid was!

So we get rid of our kitty?  No, and I will suggest he go home and pick which of his kids he should give away.  Same diff in my book.

Here's to all the idiot landlords who have no idea how to treat a good renter when it crawls up their noses.  Those kind deserve bad tenants! 

Beautiful baby, You are Staying with us!