How much money should we earn to lead a decent life ?

In todays world , money is one of the most essential component of our life . Without money , we just can not survive . Money is a need . Money also is a greed . Where is the balance between need and greed ?

How much money should we earn to lead a decent life ?

 

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Depends upon many things. Where you live is very important, size of your family, taxes and on and on. So it isn't an easy number to come up with as you see. In America I'd think that a family of 4 should have a disposable income, total personal income minus personal current taxes, of 50,000.00 a year to 75,000.00 US. That would be a little more than needed but not asking to much as well.

 

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I'll go with a little more stingey figure than normally thought of because the planet is getting low on many resources largely because of the big population. $30k per individual over 16 years old. However people could do extra work and as much as double that to $60K. Every person gets a $2k subsistence amount because of human dignity, except it increases to $15k after age 16.

If things progress really well, the idea of pay could be eliminated except for earning up to an extra amount of $30k. That could double total income to $60k from the $30k base figure for each individual over 16yr old. So, reward for work would generally be gratitude and esteem from others.

I'd like to see something like one of those scenarios.

 

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3-5 times your living expenses, as this is the only way to ensure any necessary but unforeseen expenses can be absorbed without disaster. The only variable being what is considered an acceptable standard of living, but generally the standard of living should be lowered to accommodate this margin, where possible. Otherwise you are technically living beyond your means, as one large, unexpected expense will prove.

 

Much money is spent on things (upscale wardrobe, jewelery, cosmetic dental work, fancy car, fancy house etc.) that are socially considered to represent trustworthiness and respectability, and without those external signs it is sometimes difficult to keep a (well-earning) job and respectable position in society.

With a different societal outlook, measuring trustworthiness and respectability by more substantial criteria than external appearance, we could afford to live comfortably with much less money - and also do much less harm to the environment and other people.

 

I use the 10's and 20's to heat the fireplace, and 50's to wipe my ass. I don't need money.

 

So then why do you use it to wipe your ass with then? :shrug:

 

Do you live without food ?

 

I deal with people who have more cable channels than I do, better cell phones than I do, full, no co-pay health insurance, take better vacations than I do, and they do not earn a dime.

Yes, I am a case manager for social services.
My job requires a four year degree, and I have 25 years experience.
My wife works, and our combined income is darn close to median for our state. She works private, so makes much more than I do, with less education. My benefits make us about even.

I have compared the net income of single mothers, with several children, who are considered so mentally disabled they are not able to be employed, and their income exceeds my own (not including that of my wife).

On my caseload of about 400 families, dozens and dozens do not work, and compared to my wife and I, have a decent standard of living.

When it is time to retire, they will get SSI of $698 dollars a month, with full medical insurance coverage, heating asssitance, housing assistance, food stamps.

There is a disconnect between working, and having a decent sandard of living.

 

When I was a kid, it didn't really occur to me that work was much other than sometning I did to accomplish something, but money never seemed to be something I cared to focus on. I think the notion still makes sense to me.

 

You don't need money for food

 

You don't need money to wipe your ass

 

For some people it is.

That is not true. Many people have successfully tried living without money. Here is one example:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/mark-boyle-money

Money is a means to barter with scaled value; otherwise, you would run into odd situations of trying to exchange your horse for a gallon of milk.

Greed is an aspect of human behavior. Not money.

That is a subjective question. The answer is "wherever you want it to be".

A fallacious and subjective question. You would have to start by defining what constitutes a decent life for you.

 

Since when does greed have a dollar value?

Look, greed has nothing to do with how much money you have, and having a lot of money doesn't make you a bad person. Greed is defined as a "selfish and excessive desire for more of something than is needed." Note the qualifiers of "selfish" and "excessive."

Essentially, if you're willing to lie, cheat, and steal your way to riches, then you're greedy. But if you come into your money honestly and without crushing people along the way, then it wouldn't matter if you had $500 or $500,000,000, you wouldn't be a greedy person.

And to want that much money (say, the desire to be a millionaire) doesn't make you a greedy person, either.

 

Money is far outdated. Free communal system now.

 

Any Example ?

What is 'free communal system' ?

 

How do you get food ?

How do you get internet ?

Do you get all these for free ?

 

Money has a connection with mind or human behaviour .

Its true the questions are subjective . Thats why i put them for discussion .

 

So do apples and a person can be very greedy with apples, or peanuts, or shoes, or chickens, or... you get the point.

The way you are weilding subjective questions is very poor and doesn't lead to good discussion. I'll explain why:

Your question was: "How much money should we earn to lead a decent life ?"

The question implies the following:

* The answer is a specific dollar value that applies to everyone.
* Everyone agrees on what a decent life is.
* Everyone agrees that money is required to lead a decent life.
* Everyone agrees that money should be earned.

As none of those bullet items are true, your question is simply a poor question. Now, you could rephrase it to: "How much money should I earn to lead a decent life ?", but the answer to that would require you clearly defining what you consider a decent life (if you expect other people to answer); otherwise, the answer is "However much you choose". The best use of a subjective question is to target individual responses, in other words the question: "How much money do you think you need to earn to lead a decent life ?". Each individuals response will have way different definitions at work in their answer that likely wont be visible to you, but you will get answers that are correct for each individual.

 

You are right . This is true also .

Perhaps your outlook of life is different .

You are right .

May be these are your individual views .

There are general principles , which applies to everyone .

Decent life means decent way of living .

Can you or anybody in general live without money ?

How to get money , if it should not be earned ?

You just seen the question in a very different way .

You have just changed 'we' to 'I' . The basic question remains the same .

Its a general question and i wanted to put it that way only .