Where Americans Are Spending Their Paychecks — If They’re Still Getting Them

By Uncle Dave Friday July 10, 2009

Click pic to embiggen

Fewer dollars being spent on discretionary spending.

40 Comments

ECA says:

7/10/2009 at 1:14 pm

Vehicle purchase??
$3400??
Find someone that will let you pay that cheap.
It will take him 8-10 years to pay off, unless he already paid 1/2 down.

Gas and oil?? do you mean maintenance??
His car is costing him $2400 per year?? I suggest he get a better car.

I would love to find a house that only cost 1/3 of my check including utilities.
You figure that at $10 per hour.
$1600 per month(full time) Take 1/3 out in tax gives a person about $1056 to spend. Lets make him happy and make it $1200(25% tax).
$600 for rent.(if you can find a house/trailer this cheap, good luck)
$300 for utilities.
$225 for food.
$1125, and we hope we can buy gas for the car.
Patrick says:

7/10/2009 at 3:06 pm

# 27 Patrick said, “Here’s something we won’t see UD blogging about.”

I knew all I would get would be the sound of crickets from UD when I posted this.
Timuchin says:

7/10/2009 at 4:19 pm

As I recall, Clinton assumed tax money belonged to the state even when it was still in our wallets, so this chart is accurate to his perspective.

My own chart looks radically different since I am retired, own my own home, don’t go to Hollywood’s movies, don’t pay for education any more and don’t travel that much. I do buy a lot of books, though.
ECA says:

7/11/2009 at 12:22 am

JUST HEARD THAT IN CANADA MIN WAGE IS $11 PER HOUR??
Patrick says:

7/11/2009 at 4:22 am

# 37 ECA said, “JUST HEARD THAT IN CANADA MIN WAGE IS $11 PER HOUR??”

That’s about $9.00 US, minus the larger Canadian taxes. Nothing to get excited about…
k.g. says:

7/11/2009 at 9:18 am

ITT: Bitching, whining conservatives. Hey, nobody gives a shit what you have to say because you didn’t start saying it until you lost power. Cry all you want to, but you’ve been discredited as a bunch of hypocrites and the majority of the population realizes it. Good luck with your Alaskan ‘tard factory.
Frank B says:

7/11/2009 at 9:41 am

Interesting how Social Security is lumped in with Insurance and Pensions when it’s actually a tax. At least it is for me. I don’t believe for a second that I will ever receive squat from SS. It’s just another massive redistribution of wealth program from our tax-and-spend big-government Congress-critters. And whether you consider it tax or pension, it certainly isn’t discretionary.

So the amount this chart hides from us isn’t 34% (in the taxes as noted many times previously), but rather 34 + 7.5 = 42.5%. So almost half our money goes to D.C. Unsurprisingly, the chart hides this. It’s there, but our “friends” at the Dept of Labor are pointing the other way and hoping we don’t see it.