The United States has a lot of issues with financial stability due to immaturity and poor math skills in its government administration.
These issues are not related to sociopaths in government which are normally issues related to non prosecution of IT Administrators and Developers for conducting, engaging, or being complacent in human rights violations by technology workers in data centers, customer service centers, and manufacturing plants producing IT products.
With economic modeling, which is a requirement to maintain a developed nation status, the modeling provides an ability of forecasting and reporting on population health, and potential economic related human rights violations that will be likely to occur, or are pending for the future. Over militarization of the US population and its governance processes are indicated as factors contributing to these conditions within the US in addition to its math inabilities through 2015, as documented by OECD. Sanctions and breach of Geneva Conventions in civilian quarters are also documented as a contributing factor, not only within the USA but also in other UN Security Council Nations, both permanent and short term appointment. Normally, reducing civilian monetary resources when they are not involved in a conflict is considered a civilian assault. This is an important parameter and data point that is a separate conversation, mostly on military oriented targeting.
For civilians, economic modeling is a top priority for human survival in nations that were traditionally not communist or socialist. Many monarchal countries are mostly socialist and use open market systems for mass resource trading, a process that is normally called capitalism. It is likely that over half of the Earth's human population lives in a socialist or communist based resource area and less than 15% to 25% live in a strict open market system that was traditionally called capitalism.
Updated terms
Personal Budgeting - Household or independent adult budgets, including independent workers, contractors, or subcontractors who work on their own and must pay for tools and equipment out of their personal budgets.
Workplace expenses - Mostly payroll and overhead such as utilities, lease or building finance costs, equipment. Normally most money related terms are being simplified, most younger people don't do credits, deductions, investments, write offs, depreciation, or retained earnings. They mostly have overhead, expenses, and savings. Most financial transactions are confidential due to government cominglement with business associates and the fact that 50 different business will use different expenses to increase their after business savings which were normally called profits and revenues.
Family business - often less than 10 employees or workers, at least 80% family related like siblings, aunt, grandparents, and an uncle; or parents, cousins, a niece, nephew, and 2 neighbors without any family.
Micro business - less than 25 or 50 employees.
Small business - at least 50 to 500 employees but up to 1500 employees and up to 35 million in revenues. There is a lot of economic modeling that determines this.
Medium enterprise - like with small business this varies; mostly involved in enterprise level processes that can be complex. There is a lot of economic modeling for example, a small business or group of independent workers with less than 2.2 million in payroll and 0 overhead costs, can qualify as a medium enterprise if they are at the center of a 1 million business industry.
Franchises - groups of businesses sharing tradenames, service marks, marketing, and business processes.
Fortune 500 - traditional large business from the 1940s.
Large business - not currently documented by government, suggested to follow the small business, family business, independent worker, and medium enterprise model.
Regular full time workers - often times, work trainees, paid community volunteers, beginner level workers, last generation lifelong workers (pre 2005). Mentally and physically challenged workers are often regular full time or part time workers and have up to date resumes with a list of work based skills and achievements. This helps with socialization and making new friends. A new term has also emerged called
economic disability, often meaning not being able to make enough money to survive on their own in strict open market economies. Many US workers fall into this category by default.
Budgeting
Personal budgeting is often the main focus of strict open market or formerly capitalist areas that have been taken over by communist or socialists governments. Often times, there is no violence, conflict, or altercations, the areas government simply disappeared, abandoned, gave up, or left the area and the population reached out to someone for humanitarian assistance. Often times, it is impossible to just make the area socialist or communist, it is a transition due to ingrained behaviors and RNA signaling in humans.
The personal budget starts with rent, mortgage, property tax payment, or lease agreement plus utility costs averaged for the year and paid quarterly, plus transportation costs for food at a minimum and socialization, and the actual food costs. Many times a military doctor can manage an very large area with a few nutritionists and dieticians. In an economic crises area, there is often little physical injury. The goal is usually to get the military doctor away from the civilians as soon as possible.
Normally, housing, utilities, food, and transportation is a $0 economy. These costs must be paid in order for the population to remain viable to future generations of humans. Even if there are costs here, and there is a desire to return to an open market economy with additional money for travel, hobbies, leisure, and foreign interactions; the costs of the new economy can not drop below $0 or this bare basic economic baseline.
This does not account for traditional American amenities such as retirement accounts, investments, gifts, holidays, birth celebrations, religious offerings, medical costs, courtship dating, or interactions with law enforcement and the American court system.
From here, costs are accounted for fairly traditionally to most supply and demand economies because product or service development are based on human desires of the population and the cost to produce those products and services. If the costs are unreasonable compared to the projected sales, they will not be produced or they will be made available for self building through crafts and study clubs.
The desire for amenities, comfort items, hobbies, socialization, and participation in cultural activities like celebrations or religious ceremonies will dictate the value of work beyond the $0 sum.
Samples
$20 per hour wages
$800 per month apt.
35 hours per week
48 week work weeks or up to 20 days off per year
- 48w/35h or addtl 20 days off as needed.
- e.g 5 days a week, 52 weeks,+20 days off.
No late fees on life essentials
Paid quarterly
$2,800 a month
$2,184 after taxes, no write offs, no refunds
$800 rent
$75 Utilties
$250 food
$135 for vehicle payment
$924 available for spending, saving, or gifts.
This was the economy of the 1990s within parts of the US with many single people.
$35 per hour wages
30 hours per week
6 weeks off, 30 work days paid
$1,050 per week minus taxes
$48,300 to $54,600 before taxes depending on whether 6 weeks time off is paid or not.
$37,674 after taxes or $42,588 after taxes, depending on time off payment or clerical error status.
$3,139.50 to $3,549 per month after taxes, can not be price gouged for rent, food, utilities. More money available for expenses such as nicer place, nicer car, better food or more food, more vacation options, or clothing, shopping, gifts and cultural participation.
* $45 per hour, 40 hours a week for either 3 or 5 years. Do the beginner modeling and budget assessment. *
$65 per hour for 1080 hours per year.
$70,200 before taxes
$54,756 after taxes, no writeoffs, no refunds
$4,563 takehome pay
Same $1,260 in expenses as $20 per
$3,303 per month for savings, expenses, small gifts, or independent work assessment.
Human Overhead
In 2010, a single person living in a large city paying for a bedroom, minimal transportation, hygiene items like shampoo and bodywash, and food from inexpensive restaurants required $20k to $24k a year with nearly $0 left over for going out and have fun. These were mostly adults at the ages of 17 to 32 trying to find dates, work, form friendships, and talk about retirement and the future of the US.
Rooms, cost on average $325 to $500 in big cities and as little as $150 in rural areas but averaging $200 to $300 in most places that were rural to urban and not a big city.
Food prices were less than $20 per day and closer to $10 to $15 with $15 being an expensive day. For example a large 20 ounce whipped ice coffee for breakfast and a $6 veggie sandwich for dinner with only office coffee for lunch. This is about $4,380 per year at only $12 per day, $5,400 per year for room that includes electricity, shower, and Wi-Fi; $960 per year for an $80 per month bus pass, and bare minimal clothing of 2-3 jeans and a handful of shirts costing less than $300 for the year. This yearly budget of $11,040 after taxes, no write offs, no refunds was not economically sustainable and did not include shoes, body wash, deodorant, shampoo, or haircuts.
When adding in a pair of shoes every 6 months of less than $60 each and as low as $10 to $20 at a fashion discounter. The budget increased by about $500 to include underwear and at least a few $10 hair cuts. However, the diet of (1) 20 ounce coffee and (1) veggie sandwich at approximately 4 PM towards the end of each work day; was not sustainable by most working adults past 90 days.
Adding an additional $8 per day for 1 meal, like a fast food combo or bag of chips to keep in a bedroom, added $2,920 to the yearly personal budget and brought the budget to $14,460 including shoes and hygiene items, and the rest of the money for the $20k per year budget was spent on income taxes, additional food, a few socialization outings, and a personal item like a camera, laptop, tablet or watch. Some people were able to buy a small gift for a friend or family member but many people with up to $24k in budget went without having money for outing or gifts, mostly because they required more food, went to the gym, or had a hobby that they were only able to participate in a few times a year instead of every weekend or every month.
Today rooms in smaller areas average $500 per month and big cities sell rooms to live in for $800 to $1,100 per month. Food prices have remained somewhat stable for most people over the last 15 years. Food purchases without a kitchen average $15 to $25 per day in semi-rural to sub-urban areas.
Measurement Standards
The federal poverty guidelines are based on raising a family of 4 on the Standard American Diet with working class wages and were likely developed between 1850 and 1930. Being finalized in the 1930s, they were considered severely outdated by 1950.
Consider that a newspaper boy from the 1850s made 5¢ per paper and could sell over 100 papers by lunchtime or by the end of the day and would take home $5 each day for his parents to keep in a piggy bank. In California, those same $5 weren't available for a minimum wage worker until 1943 and they were still .40¢ short of $5 plus their employer likely took taxes out right away in case they quit their job before the end of the year. They were most likely not allowed to pay off employee taxes if they no longer worked there.
In 2024, Federal Poverty Guidelines state a family or friendship group of 8 people can survive in the US on $52k per year and increases this number to $60k to $65k per year in Alaska or Hawaii. These are unrealistic numbers to most adults planning on living in developed nations for most or the entirety of their lives.
Realistically, economic modeling uses the cost of a 20 to 40 year old adult as a baseline for human overhead in an area, region, or geographical coordinate. Costs of 0 to 20 year olds are adjusted based on smaller food portions but modified based on clothing costs. Teenagers can also occasionally eat more than adults during growth spurts or during development in physical education classes.
The goal with economic modeling is often humane living conditions for all or most of its citizens, and using these models as qualifiers for migrating friends or family members, and as a required reporting baseline for inhabitants needing humanitarian aid while in a developed nations under the care of government or the local population.
So far this is still a $0 economy as humans in developed nations will be malnourished, unhealthy, and likely face mental health debilitations due to temperature exposure, isolation and poor socialization opportunities, and non existent opportunities for things like gifts, transportation to nearby areas, in addition to bare minimal food supplies. If the money is not already available and in circulation, it must be printed and if it is not printed correctly or if its provided through unauthorized means, it can mark a whole geographical area as engaged in adverse behaviors.
In raising a family or living together as a friendship group in a developed nation, the minimum income for a family or group of 4 is around $80k, and this is fairly consistent in most developed nations. Its important to note, that this is to live at home and mostly, not go out very often and have the bare minimum amount of clothing, much of it saved over the years once the body stops growing.
Realistically, $85k to $150k per year for an adult working in a professional area is not absurd, greedy, or selfish as it takes into account diminishing and winding down of government services, reduced interest in work within developed nations, and increased instances of adverse events when a geographic area runs out of money for the most essential necessities.
This means that traditional low wage jobs would pay around $22 per hour for an adult living in a friendship group or with family, and teenagers still studying life survival requirements in high school would be making $12 to $18 per hour in most developed nations.
If these costs can remain stable for the next 50 to 60 years, that would go a long way in returning developed nations to a leadership role in modern civilization and allow their citizens to regain respect for their corresponding government administration.
In most modern nations, money is used as a counter and governments can print as much of it as they need or remove some of it from an area to keep the counters accurate and relevant to what they are being used for.
Economic Data Points
The USA traditionally measures its economy in GDP or the amount of products it produces each year. It has set this enormous number at 20 Trillion dollars.
China and the UK Commonwealth, each also have a 20 trillion dollar economy in corresponding Yuan or Pound Sterling. Its worth noting that most of the GDP from the USA ends up in warehouses, thrift stores, recycling centers, and landfills. This is because the USA has a drive to always have something new, fresh, greatest, latest, trendy, and modern.
In other countries, functionality and practicality have a higher importance, so a core2dou from 2006 would have the same or similar value than a 2015 i5 if all its being used for is typing documents, printing mail, and an occasional email, or profile update.
The main difference in other countries would be preference and requirements in most purchases such as having a 1950s winter coat vs having a 2012 Burberry that is still in like new condition. Or, owning a 1989 fully modified and street legal Honda CRX vs owning a 2025 Ford Taurus that will be kept in a garage for the next 25 to 40 years.
GDP, is looked at like a cute number for most people that deal with economics and has little interest to people outside of manufacturing, engineering, or resource distribution. Other data points that were trialed include PPP or purchase power parity, and meta data analysis on privacy protected financial records.
An example of economic modeling that is often available to bankers and economists is payroll costs for a regional area. In this example, not to include benefits, perks, bonuses, or performance data.
Considering there are around 100 million workers that went to at least some college and obtained a bachelor degree or less as part of the College Completion Grant Act of 2000 and the College Completion Fund Act of 2022, the following numbers used for contemporary economic modeling don't seem so absurd:
$60k per year salary
90,000 workers in an area
5.4 Billion in pretax payroll
4.2 Billion in take home pay
1.18 Billion in Taxes
$85k per year (3 zeros)
25 Million workers (6 zeros)
2125 plus 9 zeros
2,125,000,000,000 (2.1 Trillion pre tax, no benefits)
$60k per year (3 zeros)
60 million workers (6 zeros)
3600 plus 9 zeros
3,600,000,000,000 (3.6 Trillion payroll)
Considering $50k to $60k or $25 to $30 per hour is about the minimum wage for an adult college graduate or attendee that is a low performer and there are 100 million workers that attended at least some college, 60k times 100 million would yield the following number
60 times 100 = 6,000
plus 9 zeros = 6,000,000,000,000 [6 trillion in pre tax payroll]
Economic modeling would use these bare minimum costs for meeting the yearly college payroll requirement to ensure there is enough money in circulation. This does not take into account that some college graduates will be making $85k to $150k, $160k to $210k, and it doesn't take into account the approximately 100 million workers that did not attend college or have a degree higher than a bachelors.
Conclusion
Economic modeling is essential to ensuring that developed nations and its citizens are not in need of domestic humanitarian aid or that its open market economy is comparable to a slave market. A slave on a plantation had a place to stay, food, beverages, and work tools.
Modern work conditions should not attempt to base economies on old assumptions or based on injustices that have already been corrected, made right, and paid for.
A developed nation personal budget should have savings for 2 to 5 years of living expenses in a recession, money for socialization, personal development, professional development, and changing jobs. Getting into a legal dispute or confrontation should also not result in the person going to court as the accused, suspect, or perpetrator requiring humanitarian aid for the rest of their lives.
This still does not include retirement savings, home purchase rather than lifelong financing of personal use premises, transportation ownership such as a vehicle, and access to travel budgets for assessment of migration or new families, nor money for gifts, rituals, cultural participation, and religious inclusion.
Economic modeling begins with a personal budget and goes from there before modeling for open market economies, businesses, community organizations, and votes on use of tax budgets as part of civic inclusion. Most tax budgets go back into the community as small business opportunities or cultural participation grants when governments are able to print enough money to properly manage their administrative areas.
Referenced Data
Federal Poverty Guidelines
https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines
California Minimum Wage History
https://www.dir.ca.gov/iwc/minimumwagehistory.htm?os=win&ref=app
BLS by State and Occupation
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm
pick a state, sort by median hourly