There was an interesting story in the local paper a couple of days ago. It doesn't directly relate to getting squeezed, but interesting nonetheless.
Nau's Pharmacy has been located in West Austin since at least the 50's. It's still an old time pharmacy where you can fill a prescription and get a burger and shake. Same family has been running it the entire time. Given that everyone goes to CVS and fast food places these days the family is struggling to keep it open. But it is an institution in the community.

Sidenote: Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson hit the Texas Lottery jackpot many years ago with tickets he bought there. He's hit the jackpot twice actually.
The original family home sits a few block away. It's close to 100 years old (if not over) but is in severe disrepair. The family wants to raze it and sell the lot. Lot is worth $1.5M (house appraised at $50K I think). Problem solved! But wait. Neighbors say home is historic and want it declared as such. They think it could be repaired. But in present state no one is interested in buying. Meanwhile taxes are on the order of $35K for the family.

    swinnea

    Sometimes for the sake of protecting the historic relic including old buildings, will force the unthinkable.

    Ever notice there were fire going off in the vacant building all over the States ? Especially in places where real estate values are high ? New York and Long Island had several of such fires last year. New owner let the property go beyond repair and the homeless were occupying the buildings then one day, there were fire. Good Bye old building.
    If the municipality were interested in keeping the historical building in their jurisdiction, then they'll need to figure out a way to lessen the burden of the property owner. A close friend had inherited an 100 year old building in San Francisco. Same thing, could not take it down.......so they remodeled the structure to meet the new building code and renovated the interior to be habitable. A million and a quarter later, they are still not completely done.

    The dirty secret is, when the family could not sell the property with such building on top of the lot and no funds to renovate the building then the tax pilled up, soon the local County could just persuade the owner to "donate" the property to the County.

    We have a lovely 53 acre botanical garden within the City limit, it came about being donated to the City because the legacy of the property tax just about killed any chance for development.

    Property taxes are just one way the government owns your home and land. Even without a mortgage you are simply renting the property for life. Why buy property?

    My wife and I are considering getting an RV and selling the house once we retire and travel the country. Of course that eliminates property taxes, but I am sure the government will find some way of taxing you on the RV, depending on where you have it registered.

    Franklin was right; death and taxes are the only certainties in life.

      PIGDivot

      It's not all blue sky living in a RV.

      One of my wife's friend did just that. The couple retired in their mid 50's ( hunsband from Microsoft and the wife from management position in a local hospital ) sold the house and belongings, got a nice RV to travel the North America and live at wherever they stopped in a RV park, for as long as they feel like it then move on to the next spot. Great life style they thought. They penciled out the possible expenses and layout the plan for 15 years.
      Came back after 5 years and settled into a smaller house and both started working full time. Could not get their old job back so they are working harder with less pay. Tough to start over again when one is approaching 60.

      There are expenses associated with living in the RV type of residence. It's far more expensive than one could have imagine. Maybe that;s why we have homeless living in RV all over the City. City leaders have to create a RV park for all these old junkers RV to park, then they pull the park because of all the problems associated with these type of charity. I guess those thought they could solve the living cost issue by moving into an old RV.
      Some people here live on their boat , sail boat or power boat. Until County made it against the ordinance if not docked at permuted spots.

      Best way is not to get into the downward spiral. Our cities are trying to get new programs going to keep people in their houses, condos, or apartments. Stop the homeless epidemic from the start. Some programs worked as part of the solution but nothing is innovative to be learned and taught in other part of the Nation.

      I guess I'm one of the lucky one's.....timed the housing bubble in SoCal sold near the top.
      Got the hell out of THAT rat race life and moved to Utah where it's way cheaper to live,
      people for the most part are WAY nicer,no traffic and some fantastic golf courses at affordable
      prices.....a LOT depends on where and how you live and if you're willing to take a risk.

      I had no idea what I was getting into when I decided to leave Cali...but I'm glad I did!

      Google productivity vs. wages. After WW II productivity and wages rose together. Then around 1973 while productivity kept rising, wages flat lined. It's been that way since (increasing productivity and declining wages). Why? Corporate greed IMO.

      Couple that with Supply Side economics that's still with us since the early 1980's (regressive tax policy favoring the wealthy). Globalization where an American worker cannot compete with third world wages. The decline in labor unions where they're only ~ 9 % of the workforce. Transferring to a lower wage service based economy from a higher paying manufacturing based economy.

      With all those economic forces against the working class and favoring the donor class it's no wonder why the middle class is in decline and has been for quite some time.

      A billionaire hedge fund guy wrote a book awhile ago saying the pitch forks are coming if the greed continues. As the nations wealth continues to be redistributed to the top incomes eventually there will be a tipping point. This presidential election cycle may be a glimpse of what lies ahead.

      History shows what happens when a country responds to such huge disparities in class with "let them eat cake". How long will the corporate oligarchy / plutocrats continue to have it their way at the expense of everyone else? Time will tell.
      Interesting that you mention this, I was reading an article from "In These Times", that was attacking working people and unions undermining the Maduro government which is in the middle of the failure of communal economic system.
      Up is down and down is up.

        Umfaan A billionaire hedge fund guy wrote a book awhile ago saying the pitch forks are coming if the greed continues. As the nations wealth continues to be redistributed to the top incomes eventually there will be a tipping point. This presidential election cycle may be a glimpse of what lies ahead.

        History shows what happens when a country responds to such huge disparities in class with "let them eat cake". How long will the corporate oligarchy / plutocrats continue to have it their way at the expense of everyone else? Time will tell.
        Interesting that you mention this, I was reading an article from "In These Times", that was attacking working people and unions undermining the Maduro government which is in the middle of the failure of communal economic system.
        Up is down and down is up.

        I don't disagree with this, but I think there are several underlying factors playing a bigger role in all of this. I do think that morality comes into play on multiple levels, especially since you cited greed as an issue, which is certainly a moral issue.

        I cite morality, mostly because if you lose your integrity, you lose your conscience, and you lose your fear of getting caught, and fear or the consequences of getting caught. There are a lot of different directions you can run with this, but let's just look at the nuclear family, and the disintegration of it over the span of my lifetime. I think I read somewhere recently that married folks are no longer the majority in our country anymore. Everyone is "hooking up" now. So, since the sex is "free", and you don't need to be married, people are having fewer kids. People are also waiting later and later to marry or have kids, if at all.

        But back to greed - corporate greed certainly comes into play, and greed at it's core, is simply selfishness. When you think of yourself first, and screw over everyone else, you may be richer, but everyone around you is suffering. Eventually that selfishness will kill you. And sadly, I'd hate to be the rich prick living my life alone at the end, because I screwed over everyone on the way to the top. How can this define what life is about in any terms? Sure, you can buy anything you want, but who are you going to share that experience with? Go ahead, build your own golf course, just for you to play on, with no friends, and no family. You can play 54 holes a day and have no one to tell about it. But yeah, that's great for you. Sure sounds miserable to me.

        Honestly, I think guns are the only thing that separates the USA now from China. The Chinese are kept in check because no one can shoot back. Go ahead and try and take over a town or city in this country outside the democratic process. I know a LOT of people who are heavily armed, and thanks to Obama, he's only made that issue more pressing, as more and more folks are arming up to the teeth in preparation for when the feds try and take over more and more stuff. Frankly, this nation was founded by a bunch of guys who owned guns. The British lost because the people had will on their side, and a lot of guns. Sure the red coats could and did go door to door, but they never knew which door would open to an armed citizen.

        We live in a time when rules and law are subjective and interpreted differently all over the place. There is no national standard for anything anymore. Even murder and rape are VERY subjective, depending on the circumstances. And we've allowed a judicial oligarchy to make up the law as they go along. A select few in black robes dictating to the populace what is right and what is wrong. Honestly, even their rulings are so complex and convoluted half the time that no one can truly understand them. And I'm actually surprised there aren't more murders of judges, especially from the family courts, where fathers are stripped of their constitutional rights in favor of making them slaves to a mother who simply didn't want to be around the father anymore; using a child as a monetary weapon to bankrupt the father both physically and morally. Sure, I'm being vague and generic, but I could spend days talking about how the family courts have not only neutered men, but has easily destroyed the lives of thousands of men, all in the name of "what's best for the child." And yeah, if I'm a 20-something man, there is no way in hell I am getting married in this day and age where the courts can cut your nuts off without even your having a say so.

        And some of you will disagree big time with what I am closing this with, but we've lost the fear of God in this country. God used to be our compass and our guide, and we lived by what God says was right and wrong. Now our country is basically telling God to go F himself, as we've kicked God to the curb in favor of personal social freedoms, so everyone can go screw anything and everything they feel good about, with ZERO objective standard in any of it. You may think this doesn't matter in the least, but whether or not you believe in God really has nothing to do with it. Ultimately, if you kick God out of the public square, you have to replace it with something else. And society has chosen chaos, which is the alternative. That's ultimately where we are headed, which leads us back to pitch forks and revolution. It's coming; not a matter of if, but when.

          PIGDivot

          There had always been and always will be the disgruntled wishing to have what they don't have.

          It is healthy to have something to look forward to in life. Except when the disgruntled decided not to work for what they want and just take it by force . Excuses will be invented and used to justify their action.

          Here's a short clip from Nick Hanauer (on Bill Mahr's show this past week) who is the rich guy I referenced in my post. He rips into Trickle Down economics and exposed it for the scam it always was. As I've said Trickle Down is nothing more than redistributing wealth to the rich from the middle class and working poor.

          Also, although not in this clip he says if wages were still in line with productivity the minimum wage would be $22.00 and hour.

          A personal opinion is but "a personal opinion"

          Where is your opinion ? Every time you reference the other's opinion and argue from the position of facing the corner.
          If you lead an army to war, you will have the whole troop killed in no time.

          Don't try to win the battle, try to win the war.

          In other words, look at the larger picture instead of microfiche.

          Where would a $22 minimum wage lead up to ? Higher inflation and bankrupt most of the remaining small businesses. When will you figure out that most the stuff which looks good on paper would never fly in reality.

          You are over loaded with information from everywhere but you could not filter and select the ones best suited your model.

          I gave my opinion in post #20.

          But since you asked here's more of my opinion in a nut shell.

          A job is created because of demand for a good or service and not because of tax cuts for the rich (supply side / trickle down / Reaganomics).

          A higher minimum wage would put more money in the hands of consumers. Since our economy is two thirds consumer based it would drive up demand by putting more money in the hands of the masses instead of a few at the top. You might call it 'trickle up' or 'demand side' economics.

          You're reciting the same talking point myths that have helped keep wages stagnant for the last 40 plus years. What that economic theory has created is a rigged economic system where the nations wealth is redistributed to the top incomes like we haven't seen in a long time.

          How has this happened you may ask? Over the years instead of a democracy we have become more of a corporate oligarchy. Basically government by a few for the few.

          Several years ago I talked to a labor lawyer. In his career he has worked for both sides (labor and corporations). He said the pendulum has swung way over in favor of the corporations.

          People think things like a minimum wage, the 40 hour work week, ending child labor, benefits, safe working conditions, vacation pay, overtime pay etc., were given to workers because of the benevolence of corporations. These are the same people who probably believe in the mythical trickle down economics.

          The truth is the American tax payer is subsidizing large corporations like Wal-Mart. How? Because they pay such low wages many of their workers need government programs like food stamps etc. to get by.

          The bottom line is this, there has been a concerted effort by the powers that be to keep wages low in this country. Why? The evidence is clear. Pure unadulterated greed.

          How much longer can this massive redistribution of the nations wealth to the few at the very top continue? Who knows. But first the mindset of people like you need to change. If you keep buying into these bullshit economic myths like supple side / trickle down and higher wages will ruin the economy, it will continue.

          I think people are starting to wake up though.

            I feel sorry for your family !

            Sneakylong all these economic theories totally miss one residing factor in all (most) successful businesses. Innovation and creativity.

            Apple was sluggish in a overly saturated computer market until Steve Jobs came back and started creating the iPhone, iPod, IPad, etc. All of a sudden Apple's growth exploded and they became one of the largest corporation in the world. But now that Jobs is dead, I predict Apple will slowly over time start to deteriorate and eventually disappear. Without those new products Apple will have no where to go and eventually go bankrupt.

            Google took the search engine and made is fashionable and became a verb. They figured out how to make money from it too - LOTS of money. But it took two geniuses to create the product and the model that most other internet brands are copying to some extent. As long as Larry Page and Sergey Brin remain motivated and continue to create new ways of expanding their business Google will continue to be a beast.

            Athletes and entertainers make millions of dollars a year, based on nothing more than their talents. But there's only one LeBron James, or Tom Brady. They do something very few others can do. Supply and demand basically. So little supply, so the demand dictates what they generate in revenue. It works the same in golf. While sports are the most competitive things out there, when you become an elite athlete you are essentially creating a product no one else can. Tiger Woods did things no other golfer ever has, and the purses on the PGA Tour tripled during is tenure as the world's most dominant golfer. We have some new young talent out there, but it remains to be seen if Tiger's start power can be duplicated by others. Same thing with movie stars. There's only one Tom Hanks, or Matt Damon. You can't just throw someone else into a movie in their roles and expect the same magic or results. They have extreme talent that no one else has.

            Economics in America, as long as we remain a (relatively) free capitalistic society will dictate that anyone who wants to can create their own wealth. Come up with the next big thing, and BOOM, you are instantly rich. That wealth wasn't stolen from poor people, or people less fortunate. Apple didn't steal your money; you bought their product. Corporations only exist so long as they offer something that millions of people want.

            Proctor and Gamble continues to offer a wide variety of household items that millions of Americans need and want. They didn't steal people's money to become huge, they sold a product that people wanted and bought.

            WalMart didn't become this large over night. They spent decades selling products people wanted and needed, at a cost cheaper than their competitors could provide it at. They didn't steal people's money. People willingly and voluntarily patronize WalMart. Now, if enough people get pissed off at WalMart they can choose to shop somewhere else. No one puts a gun to your head to make you shop there though.

            Believe it or not, this works the same with oil companies, albeit in a much more restricted way. You buy a car, and choose to drive it. You need gas to fill up your tank. So you buy gasoline, that seemingly has a fixed price that you don't have any control over. But actually you do. If gas becomes so expensive as to be unaffordable, I can go down to WalMart and buy myself a 10 speed bicycle and ride it to and from work every day. I can sell my car and tell the oil companies to take their product and shove it up their ass. Realistic? You tell me. When I went through divorce I got rid of my cars, because I had to choose between paying for day care, and a car payment. I put my daughter on the back of a 10 speed and rode my bike to and from work every day.

            Corporations are nothing more than groups of people deciding how and where to sell products. If the corporation because "greedy", and enough people see the greed, then you can stop buying that corporation's product. This works in pretty much all industries. So this argument about greedy corporations is pure garbage in my humble opinion. YOU choose to support corporations by buying their products. Don't like how they do business? Then guess what, stop supporting the corporation. One person won't make a difference you say? Fine, get a group of 100, 1,000 or 10,000 people to organize against said corporation and boycott it. It's honestly not a magic formula, and we still have the opportunities and choices to affect change in our society, especially economic ones.

            But you choose to blame these same companies that supply you with all the products that you run your life around. Again, no one told you to support these corporations. And yes, if you don't like your electric bill, go off the grid and tell the electric company to go screw themselves. No one is forcing you to turn the lights on at your house. There ARE other ways to live if you aren't happy with your current circumstances.

            YOU made the choice, YOU bought the product, and YOU accepted the job making whatever wage you are making. NO ONE is putting a gun to your head forcing you to stay in your job at whatever wage you are bitching about. Don't like the way your company does things? Go out there and start your own business and compete against them. People do this every day. It's called entrepreneurship.

            And you even mentioned unions. I laugh at this argument. Unions are killing themselves by their own greed. I've lost count of the number of unions who bargained for better wages for their members from a corporation, but eventually forced the corporation into bankruptcy. I grew up with my Dad working in the airline industry. Remember Eastern, Pan Am, and National Airlines? Yeah? Why aren't they around anymore? Labor unions that got greedy and felt that the $120,000 that pilots were making for working 10 hours a month wasn't enough. Flight attendants weren't happy making $20 an hour, and wanted $25, all for doing nothing more than smiling and serving coffee and peanuts to customers stuck on an airplane at 35,000 feet for a couple of hours.

            Just one industry, and one example, but it works everywhere. While you bitch about corporations being greedy I've just shown you several examples of where employees and unions have become beyond greedy. Go look up the salaries of the leaders of the Teamsters and ask yourself if those guys are worth what they are making just to run a Union. Go look and see what the leaders of some of the Teachers Unions are making. Now if you want to talk about greed, let's start there. Simply absurd how you can twist any argument to suit your worldview. Yours and mine are definitely 180 degrees different.

              PIGDivot

              Very easy to get lost in the weeds here. The title of this thread was 'Feel the Squeeze'. I gave one reason people have been feeling squeezed and that is starting in 1973 wages stopped growing in line with productivity. Which they had done (rose together) since right after World War Two. Why? Corporate greed.

              If wages had continued to grow with productivity the minimum wage would be $22.00 an hour (a realistic living wage).

              Couple that with supply side / trickle down economics which was ushered in in the early 80's and you have another reason for feeling squeezed. Supply side economics is an economic theory that says if you give tax breaks to the wealthy they in return will take that money and create jobs. So in essence the wealth will 'trickle down' to the masses in the form of jobs. Problem is it trickled up, not down the last 35 years because of greed.

              Then you have globalization where corporations started chasing cheap labor around the world. Another example of greed.

              Then your have deregulation in the banking industry. More greed.

              Back in the late 80's we had the Savings and Loan scandal (greed). And we saw another example of it recently with the bank failures caused by deregulating the banking industry back in 1999 (getting rid of Glass Steagall which worked for 60 years following the great depression) allowing investment banking and commercial banking back under one roof (making banks become too big to fail). Another example of greed which damn near caused another great depression.

              It's ironic how people will rail against how much a Union Leader makes, but say nothing of a Hedge Fund manager making over a billion dollars a year and who adds nothing to the economy.

              So there's some examples of the greed that's been going on for several years by the oligarchs.

              The corporate oligarchy have done a very good job of getting people to buy into voting against their own self interest (think Koch brothers), thinking their interests are the same as the wealthy oligarchs. Delusional. But you see it where people attack the poor or blame unions instead of the greedy oligarchs. Nuts. The middle class has much more in common with the working poor than they do with the top 1%. Crazy.

              We should scrap Reaganomics once and for all and go with demand side economics where you put money in the hands of the masses thru good paying wages. That along with progressive tax policy instead of regressive tax policy like trickle down which just funnels the nations wealth to a very few at the top at the expense of the rest.

              Demand side economics isn't a radical idea. Henry Ford paid his workers enough so they could afford to buy one of his cars. It's really just economics 101 for a consumer based economy.

              If we don't change course then the squeeze will get worse.

              Many of the points all of you make are valid.

              The bottom line is greed on many levels.

              I do believe there are groups of billionaires that are controlling much of the economy, after all, it is capitalism.

              There will always be opportunities, but as been said, wage workers, the disparity between profit and wages took a big split in the early 70's and has continued. The junk bond era of the 80's, the recession of the 90's, the mortgage backed securities debacle of the mid 2000's. Add 9/11 and the subsequent war and terrorist hunts and that China holds our debt and is our biggest consumer and the USA gets just deeper and deeper and the gap between the rich and poor grows with an eroding middle class,

              No one thing will fix all of this. My first start would be tariffs of goods entering the US and penalties of US companies that leave the US and import goods from foreign countries to be used in their finished product by businesses the own or have a stake in on foreign soil. I am not speaking isolationism, but there has to be production in the US that gives the middle class a livable paycheck.

              Having everyone go to college and receive a degree isn't the answer. My dad used to tell me of how many guys he worked with having masters degrees that worked at John Deere with my dad because they couldn't make the wages in their field that they could working in a union shop. Unions are good and bad, but when Reagan fired all the PATCO workers, it was the beginning of the downturn of the strength of unions. Unions served their place, but they need to policed by their membership.

              I could babble on for hours, but our legislators, leaders, and laws are greatly more beneficial to those with money and influence than the poor.

              If we can't resolve this, there will be revolution, and the rich fear that more than anything. Don't think it can happen?

              I have one word for you, Cuba.

                brsmith If we can't resolve this, there will be revolution, and the rich fear that more than anything. Don't think it can happen?

                I have one word for you, Cuba.

                Cubans didn't have guns in every home. Same thing with China, or most other countries in the world. Our 2nd Amendment is the most IMPORTANT amendment we have, because it keeps those with thoughts of revolution in check.

                "Cubans didn't have guns in every home. Same thing with China, or most other countries in the world. Our 2nd Amendment is the most IMPORTANT amendment we have, because it keeps those with thoughts of revolution in check."

                You do realize the second amendment was only to keep the the government from repressing the citizens, right???

                It was put in place to enable the citizens to bear arms if needed and to not be herded by it's military. The US military could never control 325 million people, there are only 200K active soldiers if that.

                  brsmith It was put in place to enable the citizens to bear arms if needed and to not be herded by it's military. The US military could never control 325 million people, there are only 200K active soldiers if that.

                  brsmith Most revolutions start as a military coup; so you are essentially saying the same thing I did, granted, my wording was misleading, for which I apologize.

                  Bottom line is we are where we are because of public policy. Public policy favors those who can buy influence (corporate interests). It's been said there are 3 chairs in a Congress-persons office. One for the Congress-person, one for the corporate interest and one chair is empty. The chair representing the public is the empty chair.

                  As was said Reagan firing the PATCO workers cannot be understated. It sent a message that corporations could go hard line against unions. It is not a coincidence that today only ~ 9% of workers are represented union workers. The decline in wages and in unions are directly related. It's also not a coincidence that right to work states pay lower wages on average.

                  The old adage that says those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it is true. Everything a wage worker enjoys today was fought for by workers who stood together. People say yea, yea, yea, but we don't need unions today. I would argue just the opposite. Things taken for granted today can be gone tomorrow.

                  Not a big second amendment guy. I believe the second amendment has been bastardized by the gun lobby. But that's another debate. When Hanauer says the pitch forks are coming if the corporate greed continues he means at the ballot box.

                  The revolution will be at the ballot box. It's long overdo. The corporate oligarchs are cunning in the way they operate in fooling the public though. Here's one anecdotal example.

                  Here in Florida there's two competing ballot initiatives regarding solar energy coming up this November. One is sponsored by (consumer advocates) and favoring consumers. The other is titled very similar and is sponsored by and favoring the power companies. The confusing competing ballot initiative by the power companies is deliberate.

                  The point is it will take an educated electorate to change course and reduce the corporate influence that holds the power today. They won't relinquish that power without a fight.

                  And for those that don't want to see more socialism then they better hope things change. As the race to the bottom continues for workers the reality is we'll see more socialism and not less. Most people don't realize every modern civilized country has a mix of capitalism and socialism. Pure unfettered capitalism would create too few winners and far too many losers.

                  The irony is people actually like socialism. They love their social security, medicare and other related government programs. But also things like public schools, municipal police and fire departments etc. are all forms of socialism.

                  I can't help but wonder in the future what economic system we'll see as work becomes less and less necessary. I'll be dead and gone, but that day is coming.