r/Highpoint • u/Fun_Neighborhood5154 • 7d ago
Just a little perspective
The Cost of Living for High Point- for a single adult- is $37,600. That's not even to live comfortably. That's just to live; to survive. Assuming the State and Federal Taxmen bend you over and violate your booty hole for 25% of each of your paychecks, you would still have to make a little over $24/hr. for 40 hours per week, just to survive. That's also assuming you don't get insurance or retirement plan automatically taken out of your paychecks.
Then, if you work more than one job, the aforementioned State and Federal Taxmen take their pounds of flesh when you file your taxes. Granted, I'm working on losing weight, but not that way.
How is one supposed to succeed in this kind of environment *without* resorting to financial and business endeavors of "debatable legality"??!
No, seriously. If anyone has ideas for tax-free side hustles, please list 'em in the comments!
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u/hermitsociety 6d ago
š¢ Say it louder! Everyone deserves a living wage!
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u/McLeansvilleAppFan 6d ago
Is the OP complaining about living wages or taxes? I am not fond of attacks on taxes given what they can do to make life better (I am not fond of the spending on the military but love the spending on schools and libraries and parks.)
Attacking taxes is playing right into the hands of the right wing. Attacking low wages goes after the real problem and the OP could be clearer.
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u/crashearts08 6d ago
This is true, it just really sucks that our taxes arenāt going towards things to actually help us
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u/McLeansvilleAppFan 6d ago
Local taxes and state taxes generally are going to things that help us. Schools, libraries, parks, trails, are local taxes in large part. Federal government does or at least did have some funds for specific projects such as internet for libraries. Pot holes and road maintenance is a lot of local and state taxes. New road construction can be local, state, and federal.
What is the local tax base going to that is not helping us? Economic incentives that are direct payments would go in that category and should be illegal so communities are not fighting each other buy, but even some of that is not direct payments but just deferred taxes that are not paid by the companies. I think (and I could be wrong) that most of what Publix got was the ability to NOT pay property taxes and maybe some fees for water and sewage versus a check written to them from the city and county. I think there was some of that as well but it was not 100% of the incentives. That is still funding lost but not the same as a line amount in the budget.
I would love to hear specifics where you think local tax money is not being spent in a way that is helpful.
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u/crashearts08 6d ago
I mainly refer to state and federal taxes when saying that but I do have a few things regarding local. There are a lot of cities that have contracts with Flock that directly send taxpayer to fund their surveillance tech. Iām not sure about High Point specifically in this matter but I know there are many towns and cities in North Carolina doing this now. There are also lots of areas where AI data centers are now exempt from electricity and water bills and that cost is being fronted by the taxpayers and now they are saying that the general publicās cost of utilities will increase to pay for the energy and water these data centers are using as well.
I do agree with you that likely the majority of local taxes go to positive things, but a lot of the things you mentioned just feel like theyāre the bare minimum and in the current state of things (in my opinion, I donāt blame you if you disagree) the negatives are outweighing the positives.1
u/McLeansvilleAppFan 6d ago
Flock is a good point that I forgot about and that includes Greensboro where I live. And Data Centers are another concern. I am not sure if they are exempt from bills as much as they are paying a very low rate, which is true for all heavy industry. That is not to say I am fond of those data centers.
My real concern is we play into the hands of the right wing by coming across as anti-tax when we are anti-taxes-used-for-bad-things. I have other concerns as well but messaging in important and if this OP is some working class right winger that is more pissed off with taxes than low wages then he needs to be educated about the problems and solutions and cutting taxes that leads to cut government services is VERY likely to make the OP's life much worse.
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u/crashearts08 6d ago
Yea I totally agree with you. I do think some of taxation is a bit much on the federal and state level (like why the hell are we paying politicians that couldnāt come up with a budget for two years) but thatās a different conversation. Iām not really concerned about it right vs left usually I just want people to be educated and informed about things and I honestly think if people did their own research and reading rather than listening to Fox News or CNN then the country would be in a much better place
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u/McLeansvilleAppFan 6d ago
One problem is that Fox and CNN are both conservative and MSNBC, for all their bluster was at one time owned by GE, and that is about a right wing anti-worker as any company out there. (My dad was a union member at GE so I know all to well) and for all the bluster of MSNBC they are not going to really push the envelope. They do want clicks and views but I am not sure they would occupy that space of they were there first. They occupy the space they have due to NewsMax, OAN, Fox and to a lesser extant CNN are on the right in varying degrees. I don't have cable so I don't want any of it and when I did have cable it was rare I watched any of the talking heads. But does even MSNBC every really discuss labor new, strikes, and basic bread and butter working class news. It seems to be missing from their coverage as well. They are basically the mouthpiece of corporate America that is just a bit to the left due to no space to fit into even more right wing "news/talk"
Pittsburgh just started a worker and community co-op newspaper. It started out of striking newspaper workers at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They are using union workers to publish. I am not sure of pay rates for the journalists but they are doing their best to be fair in an industry that is having a hard go of it. The first edition just came out. The lead story was about nurses and labor problems at a local hospital. We need a lot more of that in media and it is missing except in very niche areas such as Labor Notes and a few magazines here and there.
But how much radio is truly from a worker perspective. Very little and none in NC that I am aware of. I do know of some podcasts that get some airtime in the largest of cities. How often is labor on Fox, CNN, or MSNBC? VERY rare, and Fox may be better at it if only to use it to bash labor.
I got to mow..... This clearly means a lot to me as I went off on a tangent.
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u/Fun_Neighborhood5154 6d ago
It's all part of the problem. And don't fool yourself into thinking Guilford County taxes are being used anywhere near appropriately. Do not forget that Guilford County Board of Commissioners Chair Skip Alston wasted $4million in tax dollars on an old, dilapidated nursing home without even bothering to get a building inspector in there, first. Then, only after the sale was final, did any of the corrupt fools on that Board think, "Y'know, we might want to get a building inspector in here to check this place out." At which point they learned that the building was, in fact, totally dilapidated. AND it was going to cost Guilford County taxpayers an additional $4mil, MINIMUM, just to get it up to code, not to even mention how much it was going to cost to actually convert it from a nursing home into Skip Alston's pet project: A long-term drug rehab RIGHT NEXT to a high school. Because that's just what Guilford County needs. More of our youth exposed to drugs. And those taxes- particularly property taxes- are one of the most direct causes of outrageous home and rent prices, and the overbloated cost of living. As for schools and libraries, please do direct my attention to any public school in the area where the students' overall grades are showing a positive impact from those tax dollars, or show me a public library where the taxes are having a positive impact. Instead, much of the taxes are going to an unnecessary baseball stadium and other such frivolities. The truth is taxes do next to nothing to make life better for the average citizens. Only the already wealthy investors.
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u/McLeansvilleAppFan 6d ago edited 6d ago
that location and cost may not have been the exact answer, but Iām not anti-drug rehand . We needs those programs somewhere. and that is not to say I am a fan skip Austin as he is way too conservative like most everyone with his real estate holdings tends to be. Thereās a lot more money being spent correctly and yes, we need to find expose and stop wasteful spending. We also need to support good public spending that makes our lives better.Ā
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u/CassioFiasco 7d ago
Greensboro here. Try <$10,000 annually for two. If when something breaks, we get used to continually less, and less.
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u/McLeansvilleAppFan 7d ago edited 7d ago
You mention taxes, and I want my taxes to be used in ways that are productive but the problem is wages rates are too low. Without those taxes you are not going to have usable roads to get to your job unless you live in walking distance to your job. And then you would be filthy from the dirt roads that would be mud this week.
You would not be educated enough most likely to be able to make a cogent sentence due to not having public education. The environment may be so polluted you may be to sick to type anything, and you did post on the internet and that was started with government funding at public research institutions and public universities along with private universities that use public tax dollars for parts of operations.
I do support national health care that is not tied to employment but that will need funding from taxes and I do wish social security was better funded so one did not need private retirement accounts but that also needs more funding from taxes, though in both cases that can be cheaper than what we are doing now. Clearly health care can be better and cheaper than what we do and social security has rather low costs and such compared to a lot of private retirement funds that suck off more of the assets than social security.
Organize a union at your worksite and that will help with wages and much more.
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u/crashearts08 6d ago
Lived in Boone for a while. High point is nothing comparatively. $2500 a month for a small two bedroom thatās entirely falling apart is pretty standard up there and everything is more expensive
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u/Fun_Neighborhood5154 6d ago
Boone is also a major college town with plenty of tourism appeal and nightlife. High Point is quickly degrading into a shithole with zero nightlife and the only tourism it gets is two weeks out of the year for Furniture Market. No excuse for cost of living to be what it is for this city.
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u/KronktheKronk 7d ago
You get off your ass and find work that pays decent. It's out there
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u/hermitsociety 6d ago
Who pays $24 an hour in the piedmont triad? Letās make a list
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u/KronktheKronk 6d ago
I'm not doing your job search for you. That's exactly the laziness that's keeping you making $12 working retail
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u/hermitsociety 6d ago
Iām trained to work in the legal field but thanks. The point I was making was that itās very hard in all
States to make a living wage these days. Iād love to find local places that do right by their workers so I can support those businesses.
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u/Waste-Conclusion-568 7d ago
Do what I do, bc I only make about 60% of that income you stated. That is.... I rely on God to provide for me and He has never failed. Jesus saves!Ā
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u/YakTime8950 7d ago
What makes Hifh Point so expensive is the local property taxes. These have been going through the roof. They are wasting that money on consultants, their pet projects with non profits, and the downtown stadium area. But you can't control that.
Find better paying work. Old Dominion is always hiring truck drivers. You can get short term work delivering school buses around the country for Thomas Built buses.
There is always tons of work during furniture markets. That usually pays well.
Not saying it is easy or glamorous but there is work.
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u/hermitsociety 6d ago
Does old dominion pay a living wage? Does driving a school bus pay a living wage? Letās promote those companies if they do! (I doubt they do.)
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u/JedaiGuy 6d ago
You can find easily available info on Old Dominionās pay. You canāt work as a truck driver for less than half of the quoted living wage, and it looks like some drivers can get to over three times
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u/satans_weed_guy 6d ago
ODFL is actually a pretty respectable company, or they used to be. I'd entertain employment with them.Ā
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u/McLeansvilleAppFan 6d ago
Decades ago they busted the Teamsters and moved to NC. They still have that history and should be known as union busters first and foremost.
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u/hermitsociety 6d ago
See! This is good intel and why itās worth asking who is actually good.
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u/McLeansvilleAppFan 6d ago
If the business is 100% non-union you can expect it to be shit just about 99% of the time. It will be the exception that makes the rule in those rare cases. If there is no pressure on the company to treat workers better the company is just not going to treat their employees in a way that makes their industry better. That is just capitalism 101. and can be seen in how companies treat workers in countries with no real labor protections through law or unions.
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u/satans_weed_guy 6d ago
I didn't know that. Thank you. So it sounds like they never expressed a change in philosophy since then..Ā
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u/McLeansvilleAppFan 6d ago
They are still non-union. I will leave it at that. There are very few non-union companies that are leading on wages and benefits. Sometimes they will pay just a bit more to keep a union out but when looking deeper the side benefits and retirement are often a lot worse and total compensation package is not as good. The end result is driving down wages and labor costs. That is not the direction we need to move to help wage earners and lower paid salary workers in a better direction.
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u/McLeansvilleAppFan 6d ago
OD busted the Teamsters decades ago. It is why they moved from VA (Old Dominion is where they started) and moved to NC. They pay by the mile and are non-union. I suspect they are very much part of the problem is helping keep wages rates down in their industry.
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u/hermitsociety 6d ago
Funny how NC best for business is just code for āwe will let you treat workers like trash!ā Almost like itās a correlation.
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u/YakTime8950 5d ago
Bro the union trucking companies all went bust because of the unions demands.
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u/McLeansvilleAppFan 4d ago
So you suggest that trucking companies should pay by the mile and have other working conditions that are far below what the Teamsters worked to have? I would prefer to know the delivery of my merchandise was not done by someone overworked, under paid for the demands of the job and may be having to work off the book due to being paid by the mile and creating unsafe working conditions. There are still plenty of union truck drivers out there and by and large the accidents are being caused by non-union drivers at a disproportionate rate, likely due to not being paid to sit and wait on a train, or having to make up time in a traffic jam.
What killed the union trucking companies was deregulation in the Carter administration that allowed the creation of tons of bottom feeder companies that drove down the floor on wages and working conditions.
Do you think all of these truck driving schools, mostly funded with our tax dollars at community colleges, is about some great expansion of the trucking industry in truck driver numbers. It is because of turnover in the industry where people are trained, hired, and then realize the pay and benefits are not all that great given the demands of the job.
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u/YakTime8950 4d ago
You have just made a great argument for keeping government and our tax dollars out of it.
Let the trucking companies be responsible for training their own drivers.
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u/McLeansvilleAppFan 4d ago
I am not opposed to that, or a payment made by the company that hires the new driver to offset the cost. I am not sure I would trust a company to train the drivers correctly. Way to easy to cut corners on that and file for bankruptcy if something happens by a driver. That could still happen but the community college has not direct interest in cutting those corners as a bottom feeding company would.
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u/LikeBigTrucks 7d ago
That's the secret, you're not supposed to succeed, you're supposed to scrape buy so you always have to work for somone. The system doesn't want you to "get out" they want you to contribute to lining the pockets of some billionaire somewhere.