Yup, was small, but impactful to many. I was just entering the workforce at the time; minimum wage in the US was I think $3.15/hr, gas had just topped $1.00/gallon for the first time and the cost of living had gone up about 20%. Wasn’t fun holding 3 part time jobs and working 60 hours a week to pay for just basic living expenses.
Gas peaked this year around $4.40 when minimum wage is still somehow 7.25. The lowest average rent I could find in any state was $983 a month in West Virginia. So that will take about 135 working hours (pre tax of course) to afford. That’s about 3.4 working weeks at minimum wage just to pay rent. After taxes and other expenses that would be like 80 hours a week easy.
And yet our leaders say the country is doing just fine. There’s no recession. God we are fucked
Yup. Very close to today’s economy. I survived on a diet of Rolled oats, Kielbasa and Top Ramen for almost three years in that timeframe. Rent and auto insurance took 80% of my wages.
TIL, never heard of that recession before. It last about 8 months and seems to be the smallest labeled recession in the past 100 years
it literally gave clinton a cudgel to use against the right just months later - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It’s_the_economy%2C_stupid
Yup, was small, but impactful to many. I was just entering the workforce at the time; minimum wage in the US was I think $3.15/hr, gas had just topped $1.00/gallon for the first time and the cost of living had gone up about 20%. Wasn’t fun holding 3 part time jobs and working 60 hours a week to pay for just basic living expenses.
So basically the modern economy lol.
Gas peaked this year around $4.40 when minimum wage is still somehow 7.25. The lowest average rent I could find in any state was $983 a month in West Virginia. So that will take about 135 working hours (pre tax of course) to afford. That’s about 3.4 working weeks at minimum wage just to pay rent. After taxes and other expenses that would be like 80 hours a week easy.
And yet our leaders say the country is doing just fine. There’s no recession. God we are fucked
Yup. Very close to today’s economy. I survived on a diet of Rolled oats, Kielbasa and Top Ramen for almost three years in that timeframe. Rent and auto insurance took 80% of my wages.