Flipping burgers and fast cars.
 

I've always heard from the muscle crowd in the 60's that you could flip burgers as a teen and be able to buy a proper muscle car. The argument is that it simply cannot be done today.

Math time.

Will use three cars from the era, with original sticker prices of the times.

1968 Dodge Charger R/T $4300
1967 Ford Mustang 427 $3400
1967 Chevy Camaro $2600

Now these are rough prices, yes i know options made a difference but these prices aren't base models but aren't top of the line ones, they are something the average gear head would buy.

Now for 1967 the minimum wage was $1.40. Average work hours for the year were 1,716. Since these are teenagers were talking, lets cut it down to 1200, don't forget were thinking in the mindset that some are in school and some aren't.

Wage per year: $1680.

So basically, if they worked two years without ever being social or spending money. They could get a muscle car, but these nostalgic view of the times seems a bit fake through rough math. Also i can't find info on insurance prices and i do know for a fact that insurance was a lot of money at the time for these cars, plenty of stories of kids not getting Hemi's because of insurance prices...or just BS.

Now lets do a modern version.

2013 Mustang GT: $32,000
2013 Camaro SS: $33,000
2013 Dodge Charger RT: $30,000

Average minimum wage is $7.25. Average work hours :1790. Yet again lets cut it down to 1200.

Wage per year: $8700. Even with 3 years working, you'll have about 26K. Even with 4 years then, you might have enough for insurance. But considering how high insurance prices are for new drivers, it's just as likely.


Yup, starting to feel grateful now.


Disclaimer: This was done for fun, do not cite, bitch or moan about the info in this topic.

Good thing minimum wage is 8.25 in Illinois. I am lucky to land jobs that always paid over 10 an hour for a college kid. The kids who did not go to college around my neighborhood could actually afford 20-35k cars by working full time. If you flip burgers and you get paid really crappy then you should get a used car.

Well of course you could consider used cars, then the possibilities of getting a "muscle car" would heighten, but i thought i would have some fun with minimal wages.

I think i'll print this and start handing it out at car shows. :lol:

You also gotta factor.

Gas
Parts
Maintenance
Tires (These are muscle cars...)
Taxes
And more taxes.

Minimum wage workers often can't even pay rent and many are also on food stamps and/or receive federal housing subsidies. It's a damn shame that a person working full time still needs tax payer subsidies. We need to commit one way or another: either take the difficult steps to close the income gap (like raising min wage) or just legalize indentured servitude, we're damn near there already with medical costs and college loans.

p.s. I don't see this thread lasting long as I can't imaging this topic being discussed in depth without being political.

My uncle was able to get a nice fox body mustang while working on peanuts full time when he was my age. But the days of minimum wage keeping up with cost of living are long gone.

Lol I agree with the politic idea. I think I can recall reading something about Obama approving to raise minimum wage in some states to $15 an hour. That would help a lot if someone were to work full time. College loans and Obama care would be more affordable.

my dad bought his first car when he was around 17 working a minimum wage job.

I think @rice_classic is missing the point. From the OP: "flip burgers as a teen", which I took as meaning living at home with no rent and no/very few other financial obligations.

Exactly, i'm taking apart the view of making minimum wage and living at home paying no sort of bills. Even then buying a new "attractive" car is pretty damn hard.

Were talking new.


I'm not looking into discussing modern day minimum wages and how you can't afford to live, etc etc.

I'm taking apart a common saying from those that lived in the 60's and proposing that it was unlikely. Overblown per say.

Average minimum wage is 7.25? I always thought it was 8.25.

Either way, I can make more than 8700 a year easily as a student (over the summer) and I would never ever think of buying a 17k car on this kind of budget. Oh right, this is America, where you're not supposed to save money.

Let's try to find a minimum wage needed to be able to afford this car for high schoolers. Prices will vary from person to person but just trying to get an average.

All prices are per month

Car payment financing $26000 @ 4.5% with cosigner, no d/p, and 6 yr note - $413
Insurance - $175 if on parents
Phone - $75
Food - $175 ($40/wk)
Fuel - $175 ($40/wk)

These cover the basics for the average teen I think. That's $1013 a month. So at 25 hours a week, a bit on the high side for most teenagers, they would need to make $9.35/hr just to break even. Not impossible but they would need to be disciplined.

I don't think a high schooler would pay that much for food...they eat at home with their parents right? Also high schoolers don't do that much driving, since they're locked up in a classroom < 3 miles from home 5 days of the week. Even if you have a gas guzzling V8 Mustang, driving 25 miles to school + maybe another 50 going random places to screw around is only going to burn ~4 gallons of gas which in California would run you 18 dollars ish.

Inflation all has to do with how the United States gets its money. The FED (privately owned bank) prints us notes, and charges us interest on the notes (thus making money LITERALLY out of thin air), and then we have to pay back that interest through taxes etc.

My dad bought our house in the 70s for $30,000. It's worth well over $500k now. His brother bought a home for $60k around the same time and it's worth well over $1.5m (right next to the beach)

I'm pretty sure his corvette he had back then was $6,000 IIRC.

Here is where I have a problem with anyone thinking minimum wage is supposed to get you by: it is not. It's where you start and then you find ways to enrich yourself and add to the workforce instead of just 'getting by' having a job.

I never sought minimum wage jobs - during high school, a lot of my friends went to McD's or Burger King and got paid minimum to flip burgers or something else. I went to pick orders at warehouses or do food packaging and would find every opportunity to learn something (drive a forklift, tear down the machine and rebuild, etc.) to push for something better than my current paycheque. I always earned $2 to $3 per hour more than my friends (I am not bragging but trying to give metrics). Keep in mind, at the time, minimum wage was $6.50 / hr in Ontario, Canada.

What if they didn't want to give it to me? Well, I'd put it on my resume with specifics (eg: I can tear down a Kraft MX5500 industrial slicer and ammonia packaging system) and the next job would make me do it for a higher wage.

Minimum wage is important mind you but it should only be for kids and immigrants breaking in to the workforce and not people thinking they can live off it indefinitely.