Tag: finance

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less Part 11: Who Profits?

    ,

    Following the Money We’ve shown you the costs. We’ve shown you they don’t add up. Now let’s follow the money. Emma from Part 10 pays out $71,564 per year in shifted costs—92.9% of her gross income. That money doesn’t disappear. It goes somewhere. Let’s trace every dollar Emma spends and see who collects it. Emma’s…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make LessPart 10: The Compound Effect

    ,

    When All the Costs Add Up We’ve spent nine parts examining individual cost categories. Banking fees. Credit card debt. Forced car ownership. Food monopolies. Phone and internet. Insurance. Fees everywhere. Each part showed how one sector shifted costs onto working Americans while profits soared. Now let’s see what happens when you add them all together.…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make LessPart 5: The Auto Trap

    ,

    Forced to Buy What You Can’t Afford Jennifer lives in Phoenix, Arizona. She’s a single mom with two kids, works as a pharmacy technician, makes $42,000 a year. Her shift starts at 7 AM at a CVS 8.5 miles from her apartment. She doesn’t own a car by choice. She owns a car because there…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less. Part 4: Credit Cards

    ,

    The Debt Trap Jason is a high school teacher in Arizona. He makes $48,000 a year, which is about what teachers make there. He’s 32, married, has a two-year-old daughter. His wife works part-time as a medical records clerk, bringing in another $22,000. Combined household income: $70,000. They’re not living extravagantly. They rent a two-bedroom…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Make Less But Pay More. Part 3: Banking Fees

    ,

    The Poverty Tax Maria works two jobs. Monday through Friday, she’s a home health aide making $15/hour. Weekends, she works retail at Target for $16/hour. Between both jobs, she brings home about $2,400/month after taxes. It’s not much, but she manages. Carefully. On Friday, she deposited her paycheck from the home health agency—$680 for the…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Make Less But Pay More. Part 2: The Baseline Shift

    ,

    Part 2: The Baseline Shift How “Basic Survival” Got Redefined as Luxury In 1970, Robert worked as a machinist at a manufacturing plant in Ohio. He made $9,400 a year—roughly the median income at the time. His wife, Linda, stayed home with their two kids. On that single income, they: Robert wasn’t exceptional. He wasn’t…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Make Less But Pay More. Part 1: The Impossible Math

    ,

    Part 1: The Impossible Math When Median Income Meets Real Costs, America Fails Meet Sarah. She’s 34 years old, works as a registered nurse at a regional hospital, and makes $77,000 a year. That’s well above the median individual income in America ($59,228). She’s single, no kids, lives in a modest one-bedroom apartment in a…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • BrokeCon by Design Part 19: The Corporate Tax Dodge

    ,

    How Corporations Profit from Our Tax Investment While Avoiding Theirs You’ve heard the story a thousand times: we need to cut corporate taxes to incentivize job creation. Lower the rates, reduce regulations, and watch the jobs flow. The “job creators” need their freedom and their profits, and if we just get out of their way,…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • BrokeCon by Design Part 18: The Rigged Tax Code

    ,

    Taxation Without Representation (For the Bottom 90%) Why Billionaires Pay Less Than Teachers, and How We Let Them Write the Rules In 2007, Warren Buffett—then the second-richest person in the world with a net worth of $52 billion—made a bet with his office staff. He offered to pay anyone $1 million if their tax rate…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • BrokeCon by Design Part 17: The Systemic Theft Of Our Retirement

    ,

    How Wall Street, Corporations, and Both Political Parties Dismantled Retirement Security for the Bottom 90% Meet Barbara. She worked as an administrative assistant at a manufacturing company for 38 years. In 1985, when she was hired at age 25, her offer letter promised a pension: after 30 years of service, she’d receive 60% of her…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • BrokeCon by Design Part 9: Immobility Nightmare: How Three Failed Systems Killed the American Dream

    ,

    The Door Is Already Locked Say you’re thirty-two. You have an idea for a business. Maybe a good one, maybe not, but you want to find out. So you sit down and run the numbers. The first thing that kills it is the healthcare math. Your employer pays most of your premium right now. Walk…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • BrokeCon by Design Part 8: The Education and Childcare Cliff: $1.8 Trillion in Debt + The Childcare Crisis That Starts It All

    ,

    The story we still tell about student debt is wrong. It’s not a young person’s problem. The fastest-growing segment of borrowers is over 60, and roughly 452,000 of them are in default and receiving Social Security checks — checks that can be garnished by up to 15%, leaving a $750 monthly floor that was set…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • BrokeCon by Design Part 3: Follow the Money: How the System is Rigged Against 90% of Us.

    ,

    This is Part 3 in a series. Part 1 ran the numbers — America comes out near the bottom of every developed-world ranking that matters and near the top of every one that doesn’t. Part 2 walked through how language gets weaponized to keep you from noticing. This one is just accounting. Now That You…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd

  • BrokeCon by Design Part 2: The Words That Stop You From Thinking: How Language is Weaponized to Keep Us Fighting Each Other Instead of Those in Power

    ,

    The Words That Switch Off Your Brain BrokeCon by Design, Part 2. Part 1 showed where America actually ranks. This one is the inoculation before we follow the money. How this post came about I was working on the next piece in the series — the one that traces who profits from America’s failures —…

    Written by

    Even that’s Odd