Zastava_101

May I ask what type of a work were/are you doing?

MARZ

I'm sure most realize how hard it is. It's not as if they woke up one day making that kind of money. Most work their way up to $210K per year; they don't begin their careers there.

Rather B.Blown

I agree, but someone that was making 25K a year in 1977 had a huge leg up. 1977 was hard freakin' times. Sheet was REAL bad back then. Making 25K in 1977 would have put you into the so called "1%" that is demonized today. Hell, 25K in 1977 factored into todays money would have made you the enemy of the current president by a long shot (unless you supported him and donated to his campaign).

Making 210K, you my friend ARE the 1% and you should pay your fair share, most of your money should be going to those that don't work to support them.

2k7gtcs

$210k is not the 1%

At least I hope not

Jackass

BRADGTCS

Nice new cars are getting expensive. BUT There are plenty of painted pop cans out there for cheap. There is an old adage you get what you pay for. another old adage is if it is valued you can charge more. So all these more expensive high performance or luxury vehicles are a product of our demand and what we are willing to sacrifice. Many of us when we were younger had the starry eyed dream of owning the cars that we can afford to own today.
it is like earning your way in life. You can not start out with the top pay and top cars starting out. If you can then your one of the lucky ones.

Flagstang

I dont know anyone that makes 75k or higher that would buy a 30k car..

Glenn

I think a big part of it is the taxes we all pay. I do ok in the income department but it seems every time I get a raise, my health ins, sales tax, tolls, income tax, state tax property tax, food, fuel and more all increases. Its like I didn't get a raise at all in fact I probably bring less money into the house every year not more.

Five Oh Brian

I bought my first brand new 5.0L Mustang back in 1989 for just under $16K. I bought my most recent brand new 5.0L Mustang in 2011 for just under $28K. So, in those 22 years I saw a 75% increase in the cost of a brand new 5.0L Mustang. During those same 22 years, gasoline went from about $1 gallon to $4 gallon (300% increase). And, my wages went up about 300%, as well. So, gasoline is still about the same proportion of my income as it always has been, yet the price of a new car is a much smaller proportion of my income these days.

The difference between 1989 and 2011 for me was that I was a single guy in college in 1989 with few bills to pay, but in 2011 I had a mortgage & 2 kids in college to pay for, along with the other expenses of being married.

Five Oh Brian

I make over $75K per year and my last new car was $28K ('11 5.0L Mustang). Now you can say you know someone in that position.

exchallenger

Anybody can claim to make a huge income but there is no verification here. Important to note that people have been known to lie on the internet.

BRADGTCS

what is your point and does it matter.

BRADGTCS

SORRY I FORGOT>

houtex

So, what can be gathered about this is two things:

1) People should't buy cars they can't afford.

2) Car makers should make cars they can sell to people.

This is Economy 101 stuff, people. Not really news when you get down to it. More like someone's crying "WOLF!" to get the ad revenue for making a mountain out of a molehill.

Oh, sure, there's the obvious "Economy sucks and here's why" angle that really isn't the truth, per se. It's been like this for... well, ever. People always complain when they can't get what they want... or can, but have to bend over and take it dry. And inevitably, they get mentally trapped, and present themselves for the taking.

So really what's going on here can be summed up in two words, when you get down to it:

Humans suck. Take that as you will, which side you want, which situation... either they suck because they take advantage of other humans, or they suck because they allow themselves to be taken advantage of.

And NO ONE OF US escapes this rule.

And... that's all I got to say about that - Gump.

cdynaco

houtex

Well, that's a goat of a slightly different odor, Charlie, but the same "Humans suck" rule applies.

Either you work for a decent wage or you don't. Either the company offers a decent wage, or they don't.

If they can't get workers, they'll have to up their game to get them in the wages offered.

That people decide to work for lower wages in the first place is WHY THEY DO NOT GET GOOD WAGES.

Desperation, bad decisions, yes, yes... the point is still valid, if harsh and hurtful to some. I don't want people to suffer either, but truly... if they ask for $10 an hour, but get $4 and say "oh, fine." then they really don't have anyone else to blame but themselves, and/or the others who said "oh, fine" along with them.

Don't even need a union for that. Just need to be on the same page, yeah?

rhumb

Which is probably more an indication of just how horribly worse the Great Recession of 2007 was than anything else. It was both quantitatively and qualitatively very different and much worse than the more average-scale post-war recession, sort of comparing a typical shopping mall fender bender to a thrice rolled into the corn field at 70 mph wreck that 2007 was -- it was inevitably going to take much longer to recover from that regardless of how good the rehab was.

That all said, wages/incomes and overall middle class wealth have been essentially stagent since about the early '80s, but with a bit of an uptick during the Clinton years. The very wealthy got very much wealthier, but the average working Joe? Forget it.

A real eye-opening (watering?) video on what has happened with income and wealth distribution:

Flagstang

28k wasnt msrp on that car. You got a discount. You also put a few grand into the car modding it.

most people I know that make that much driver a huge SUV or a merc/bmw.