Unreasonable cost of living

This morning I was browsing local newspaper article when this section made me choke on my breakfast.

United Way of Northern New Jersey recently reported that nearly one in three Sussex County households is ALICE, an acronym for "asset-limited, income-constrained, but employed," otherwise known as the working poor. ALICE represents individuals and families earning between $20,000 and $60,000 annually.

This is something that really makes me think hard about about area where I live - it's not just about salaries and such but the actual cost of living. It's simply unreasonable and unsustainable. Considering that every job description that I've seen in past year only advertises $12-15 an hour it's not reasonable to expect people to live decently with such high costs of everything else around us. And it's likely to keep rising every year. It's another reason why I really want to keep my garden expanding and full of every variety of veggies and fruit that I can cram into it. Yes, there is upfront cost when you're building it but once that's done you can keep going with minimal cost afterwards. It also helps to plant extras so I can save some of the produce for winter time - canned tomato sauces; my own potatoes, garlic and onions; salsa; home made jams from starwberries and raspberries; frozen chopped veggies that I can use for stir-fry - they will all bring COL price down. And I intend to plant as much as my little garden can handle!

4 comments:

  1. There have been 4 job postings for some type of office work within a 30 mile radius of where I live since January and only one has been for over $10 per hour. Luckily my employer called and wants me to go back Monday, I asked for a raise while on the phone. lol It's very hard in my area right now with the economy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lisa - YAY on the back to work news! And I do hope you'll get that extra raise too! Just hope you'll take it easy and don't get stressed out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I heard on the news today that this is the longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression. I would assume they mean above 8%. I personally don't think the recession ever ended in summer of 2009 as the economists claim. If you ask every day folks, no doubt this is going on its fifth year.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kris- you're right, I don't think recession has ended either. At least not in this area :(

    ReplyDelete