Black Coffee: The Workin’ for a Living Edition

It’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe …

Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance.

I’ve got a bunch of errands to run, so it’s an espresso edition of Black Coffee this week. Here we go …

Credits and Debits

Debit: Hold on to your hats — this week we’ll finally get to see why Obamacare advocates decided to hide 2015 plan premiums until after the 2014 elections. Preliminary indications are that double-digit rate hikes will be the order of the day for many states.

Debit: It won’t be long before we also get to see the negative impacts of the employer mandate; that was delayed — without Congressional approval — until after the 2014 elections too. I wonder how many more people who like their doctors are going to lose them next year.

Debit: Of course, this week multiple tapes surfaced of a chief Obamacare architect bragging that the complex law was written in “a tortured way” because it was the only way “stupid voters” would support it. In other words, the ends justified the means. Pathetic.

Debit: I don’t blame you if that’s the first time you heard about those incredible remarks. Apparently, ABC, NBC, the New York Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press have all avoided the story. I think we all know why.

Debit: I see the cost of a college education climbed again. The cost of a single year of in-state tuition and fees at public four-year schools increased 2.9% to $9,139. Really? As usual, the increase outpaced the official inflation rate — not to mention most Americans’ wage gains.

Debit: According to USA Today: “When adjusted for inflation, students are paying more than triple what students paid 30 years ago to attend a public, four-year institution.” You can thank government loans and subsidies for driving university costs to these absurd levels; the universities do.

Credit: I graduated in 1988 with a degree in electrical engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. To get it, I spent slightly less than $15,000 — for everything: tuition, fees, books, room and board, and general living expenses. And that was over a five-year period, not four.

Credit: Unlike college tuition, gasoline prices are continuing to decline. In the US, the average cost at the pump is now just $2.89 — that’s 34 cents less than motorists were paying last November.

Credit: Strangely enough, Californians, who are used to paying some of the highest gasoline prices in the nation, are currently enjoying an even steeper year-over-year decline. At an average price of $3.21, gas in the Golden State is now 40 cents cheaper than the same time last year. I’m not complainin’.

Debit: Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that Hummers are suddenly back in style. Don’t laugh. It’s no coincidence that sales of those 4-wheeled behemoths have been rising as gas prices fall; I suspect most of them will be kicked to the curb when pump prices climb again.

Debit: Those lower gas prices have got to be welcome news in Chicago where, according to one survey, 33% of residents are living paycheck to paycheck, have less than $250 in their bank accounts before payday, and don’t make regular savings contributions. Yikes.

Debit: It’s not just residents in the Windy City who are living on the financial edge — it’s the whole country. Another survey found that four in ten Americans now live from one paycheck to the next — and 20% of people who earn at least $200,000 annually rarely save, if ever. Wow.

Debit: Then there’s this chilling look into America’s work ethic: A new survey by the Pew Research Center found that 39% of people between 16 and 24 have no interest in working. At all. Unbelievable. It looks like we’re in far worse shape than I thought.

By the Numbers

For some people, “work” truly is a four-letter word:

37 Percentage of all Americans age 16 and over who are neither employed or actively looking for work.

86 million Americans not in the work force who don’t want a job now.

29 Percentage of American men not in the labor force today who said they don’t want a job.

24 Percentage of US men outside the labor force in 2000 who said they didn’t want to work.

40 Percentage of American women not in the labor force today who said they’re not interested in being employed.

131,000 Unemployed people who are able to work, but didn’t look for a job during the past four weeks because of family responsibilities.

Source: Pew Research Center

The Question of the Week

[poll id="34"]

Last Week’s Poll Result

What is the most expensive purchase or investment you’ve made so far?

• My house. (67%)
• My education. (10%)
• Something else. (9%)
• My car. (8%)
• My business. (6%)

Almost 500 people answered this week’s survey question and, perhaps not too surprisingly, the biggest expenditure for a strong majority of people has been their home. What is surprising is that just 6% committed their biggest outlay toward their business. I suspect that percentage would have been much bigger several decades ago if only because there were so many more “mom and pop” local businesses around. Today, for the most part, they’ve been supplanted by nationwide retailers. Call me crazy, but I believe those local “mom and pop” merchants will rise again — and I think the failing economy will be the catalyst.

Other Useless News

Here are the top — and bottom — five Canadian provinces and territories in terms of the average number of pages viewed per visit here at Len Penzo dot Com over the past 30 days:

1. Saskatchewan (1.92 pages/visit)
2. Prince Edward Island (1.81)
3. British Columbia (1.76)
4. Manitoba (1.75)
5. Alberta (1.71)

9. Yukon Territory (1.50)
10. Newfoundland (1.42)
11. Quebec (1.38)
12. Nunavut (1.25)
13. Northwest Territories (1.13)

Whether you happen to enjoy what you’re reading (like those crazy canucks in Manitoba, eh) — or not (you hosers living in the Northwest Territories) — please don’t forget to:

1. Click on that Like button in the sidebar to your right and become a fan of Len Penzo dot Com on Facebook!

2. Make sure you follow me on Twitter! And last, but not least…

3. Don’t forget to subscribe via email too! Thank you.

Letters, I Get Letters

Every week I feature the most interesting question or comment — assuming I get one, that is. And folks who are lucky enough to have the only question in the mailbag get their letter highlighted here whether it’s interesting or not! You can reach me at: Len@LenPenzo.com

Last week, sd11485 sent this to my inbox:

You can be overwhelmed. You can be underwhelmed. So why can’t you be simply whelmed?

Um … I’m going to assume that’s a rhetorical question. SD.

I’m Len Penzo and I approved this message.

Photo Credit: brendan-c