- law dawg
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- Attorney says no proof Tupac murder suspect was in Vegas at time of killing. [RJ]
- Couple sentenced in animal hoarding case. [8NewsNow]
- FTC votes to ban noncompete agreements for most employees. [KTNV
- Are you in Nevada’s middle class? [8NewsNow]
The problem with defining “middle class” is that the debate is both subjective and circumstantial. The range in this article, 2/3 to 2x, is totally subjective. Let’s say I make $200,000.00 a year here in Las Vegas. If I have four kids, am I really upper class? How does that salary compare to a single, unmarried person without children making the same or less?
And then there’s the whole issue of people regularly conflating income and wealth, a huge pet peeve of mine. We all know plenty of broke-ass attorneys who make $200,000+ and have a negligible net worth because they have no self-discipline.
Exactly my question.
I took a Sociology class at UNLV in the early 90s and grilled (lawyer in training) the TA teaching the class on this issue. She had ZERO substantive answers and I finished the argument with “I guess you just learned that everything you have studied for the past 6 years is bullshit.”
She broke down crying and I felt horrible. Still kind of do I could have been kinder, even though I was not wrong.
That story doesn’t make you as cool as you seem to think it does.
Not trying to sound cool, dick. Way to old to GAF what you think.
Read the post and reference my sincere regret, even 30 years later.
Just demonstrating the dichotomy of the social “sciences” which are not really science.
Sure you don’t “GAF” what other people think, “dick.” Its clear you are “to” old to care at all.
Touche on the typo.
But its not other people I don’t GAF what they think, just you.
You’re the GAF guy who keeps telling the Blog readers that you don’t GAF about this, that, the other thing! You’re the Don’t GAF Guy!
Yes. I am. But its situational . . .
I generally am a very empathetic and generous person, employer and charity supporter.
Believe me or not, IDGAF.
I mean really . . . DILLIGAF?
Way too much effort in detailing your pre-JD ability to make people cry for anyone to truly believe the contrition.
Don’t care.
Still, don’t care.
Yes precisely. And you did not care above even through the crocodile tears (while trying to extoll everyone to believe that you “felt horrible”). You are not only a heartless person but less than honest.
Objection. Assume facts not in evidence.
I have no dog in this fight, but this pretty clearly would fall under admissions against interest.
Which might matter if the objection was hearsay.
I think this short comment might be the best encapsulation of an entire personality that I have ever read.
I feel like I know exactly who you are. It’s profound.
I’d rather re-start the DEI discussion than read this thread.
DEI is reverse discrimination. MLK Jr. would roll over in his grave if he knew the crap the State Bar is pushing their agenda on us.
Stuff That For Sure Happened for 200, Alex.
the middle class inquiry isn’t about spending. regardless of whether someone chooses to have children or blow their money at XS every weekend, their income is just a number. it’s pretty reasonable to say that las vegans making 60-150K are middle class; some of those class members just do a better job of allocating their money
budgeting is racist
@ 9:53 “budgeting is racist”
I think this was intended to be a tongue in check comment. Sadly, its likely because there is someone who regularly comments, and no matter what the topic, finds racism.
People here are more likely to live beyond their means than in any other place I know of. When times are good, some of them can get away with it. But I recall the absolute desperation of 2007-2013, when times were not as good. That’s the downside.
I know a lot of folks who at one time rode high in the real estate and mortgage business. They’ve struggled the past couple years with a cooler real estate market. Can’t help but think that they’d be okay right now had they put some of that bounty away for a rainy day.
As Warren Buffett says: “When the tide goes out, you find out who’s been skinny dipping.”
Warren also stated ” it’s wise for investors “to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”
I lived and worked in NYC, San Diego, and Seattle prior to settling in Las Vegas. Las Vegas, in general, is a place where people would rather look financially successful than be financially successful. It’s caused by multiple factors, including a transient population, relative newness compared with other metropolitan areas, low average educational level, overall low emphasis on education and real culture, and a non-diverse economy.
People with sound money habits can do well in Las Vegas; the cost of living is reasonable and opportunities are available, especially for the educated. But those who succumb to the ubiquitous surface-level demonstration of affluence do not do as well here.
“Las Vegas, in general, is a place where people would rather look financially successful than be financially successful.”
YES. The upside of this is that recognizing that it’s all veneer makes it easier to not GAF and just focus on actual financial health regardless of what others see or think.
Is this the “Don’t GAF Guy,” yet again!
No. This is the DGAF guy. I don’t really much care about who is or isn’t middle class or why.
I am just over here doing me. . . and apparently that makes me a dick.
Self doing. Go figure.
I think we all were pretty certain that DGAF guy was doing himself regularly and kinkily on weekends.
He doesn’t give, he just takes.
I’ve started to see bankruptcy clients come back for real estate agents who drive a 160k mile higher end BMW or Mercedes with a $800/m payment at 18% interest who live in a two bedroom apartment. These were prominent 10 years ago as well. (car payment “only” $600/m back then.)
We struggle to identify “middle class” because we are very limited in our concept of what is normal or usual or standard.
I don’t have any concept of how many families are living in this city trying to get by on so little.
“Average,” to me, in a statistical sense, is heavily weighted.
What did a median household income sustain 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, etc. years ago? What does it sustain today?
^absolutely. I don’t mean we struggle to measure it socio-economically, just that I think a lot of people think they’re middle classes because they don’t know how far below them the real lower-middle and middle class are.
When I started this career, (late 90s) my first year salary was 48K and I had just bought a $156k $br 2 1/2 bath, 2,200 sq.ft. home. A new SUV and comfortably made all my bills every month, including my student loan payments.
Imagine tying to do that now.
Since you didn’t specify year, I used 1997. Adjusting for inflation, salary would be $94,229 annually. house would be $306,000. Assuming 20% down, at historic rate of 7% payment would be equivalent to 1645 in 2024 dollars (838 in 1997). This would have represented 41% of your salary, a bit high, but would have left you with approx $2000 per month in 2024 dollars for your other expenses.
Median law school tuition in 1997 was approx. 6,000/18,000 (public/private). Now it is 30,000/56,000. That represents a 500%/311% increase, beating inflation of 200%.
Yeah, its the avocado toast.
Of course car prices have far outstripped inflation,
802am here
My mortgage was $1120 and was 28% of my income.
Law school was $18k (the year I graduated) but my wife was employed by the University which got me a 50% discount for my 2L and 3L.
SUV was $32k and payment was $335/mo
What possesses people to have dozens of animals in the first place? Then, to ride around with dead animals in the car. I can’t even wrap my head around that one.
Yesterday you were talking about advice for female solos. How about advice for women in firms? Don’t assume anyone is really your friend? Don’t assume the women are for you and the men are against you, it may be the opposite? Don’t confide your personal issues in subordinates or co-workers? Don’t sleep with the managing partner? What else?
I’m the managing partner and I’m totally okay with it if you want to sleep with me.
Advice for women in firms. Stop being so mean to each other and especially the support staff. New young male attorney? Treated like gold. New young female attorney? Treated like garbage. Feels like a constant.
-Mediocre male attorney who has always been treated better than I deserve
And if you share a legal assistant and/or paralegal with a male, his work gets completed first.
I struggle every day with female staffers that talk back, argue or slow walk tasks from mid and upper level female supervisors. But when I ask these same female staffers, my shit gets done with lightening speed.
I just don’t get it and I hate it. I even lobbied these same supervisors to fire these staffers (one offender in particular) and get better ones. Boggles the effin mind!
Probably because you treat the staff like trash. This is the norm for female attorneys.
@3:33 you’re a white knight gamma loser. You’re fighting a fight that isn’t yours and hoping to get the attention of women who will never care about you, and look at you with contempt.
@1:26 you’re also a gamma loser. The girl you like will never like you. She likes the asshole across from you because he’s not a pussy. If you’re “treated better than you deserve” quit your job and give it to someone else.
Dude you are posting on a law blog at 11:51 pm on a Friday night. You have no room to call anyone else gamma losers.
@ 1:00 How about advice for women in firms?
I started in a large LA firm. There were two groups, those that were climbing and would stab you in the back anytime they could, and those that just viewed their work as a job. Gender didn’t have much to do with it.
“Middle class” is a scam sold to you by the bourgeoisie.
There was a solid middle class from after WWII into the late 60’s. Most did not have a lot of debt, saved money, could buy a house and still drive to Florida for an annual vacation.
For thought:
$100 in 1966 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $963.99 today, an increase of $863.99 over 58 years.
If you think that inflation is bad, just wait until you see what the coming years bring. Our political system is incapable of proactively addressing the national debt. That debt will be paid by all of us through insane inflation.
. . . .or we default.
This inflation issue alone is why we need a new president. I am not a huge fan of the Donald, but times were better for me and everyone else from 2016 – 2020. This turkey in the White House has got to go into the retirement home or out to pasture.
Yeah, and the pig who occupied the Oval Office from Jan. 20, 2017, to Jan. 20, 2021, didn’t make inflation any worse due to his bungled response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bleach and light injections, y’all!
Give me a break.
And PPP “loans” and the associated fraud (that many of the firms in town profited off of)
Hey! Those PPP “loans” were the best tax refund I ever got.
The war against the middle class started pre WW1 and has raged since then. The elites could not stand proles having good lives. Useless eaters.
My dad earned $20,000 per year in 1963 which was considered a lot. Our 4 bedroom 3 bath house mortgage was less than $150.00 per month. We had 2 cars and took a 2 week vacation to a lake or beach each year.
A 4-bedroom, 3-bath house at 9 percent annual household income, with 2 cars and a 2-week vacation. Those days are long gone for more and more Americans. But hey, tax cuts for billionaires.
And the top tax bracket was around 90% or so, and there were lots of good union jobs with defined-benefit pension plans. You can blame Ronald Reagan and the trickle-down scam that he sold to voters for the beginning of the end of the middle class in this country.
Your comment is so ignorant I can only assume you are being sarcastic.
I am convinced that there is a schlub that is simultaneously from his desk, liking and disliking comments from multiple mobile devices (or using a vpn) to up the likes on his own comments and dislikes on this criticisms.
@ 4:33 Trickle down.
Sorry to inform, maybe you didn’t take a Econ class in college. The economy is now and always has been “trickle down”. You hire someone, they spend money, the recipient business uses it to pay their employees, who spend money…. .
The adverse “trickle down” moniker is a political tool because to the uneducated, it sounds condescending.
You are absolutely correct.
That’s not true at all. Our economy is based on consumer spending. If anything, it’s a trickle up economy. Trickle down economics, aka voodoo economics, is why wealth has concentrated during the last 40 years, eroding the middle class.
Preach, 4:33!
In 1969 we bought a house in San Diego for $28,000. It is currently appraised for $1million. How can a normal family survive?
The demise of the middle class began under Ronnie Ray-gun. And to those well-to-do folks who vote [r]epublican, i.e. who vote for the continuation and exacerbation of the great divide in this country in terms of income, wealth, and opportunity, I say this: You cannot reasonably expect you will be forever immune from the consequences.
Every comment below is racist.
In a 4-3 decision, the New York court determined that the original trial judge had made an error in allowing women to testify who were not part of the case.
‘We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes,’ the decision read.
Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape and sexual assault convictions have been dramatically overturned after an appeals court ruled the judge made a ‘crucial’ error in his handling of the case. ‘It is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys a defendant’s character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them.’
A new trial has been ordered which could see accusers take to the stand once again.
Weinstein, 72, was jailed in New York for the two attacks in 2006 and 2013.
Well they can’t let him rot in prison. He knows way too much about way too many people.
Story time. I was in Department 15 this morning when something I don’t want to even try to describe was broadcast through zoom. It was absolutely nuts. You name it. Sexually explicit, racist, the whole package. It was on the screen for close to a minute, with everyone trying to figure out what was going on and how to stop it. And it didn’t only happen once. About 10 minutes after the first time, it happened again, but somehow the images were even worse.
The worst part was, it was bring your kid to work day.
I just needed to vent. That was level 1000 weird and disturbing.
I hope those a.holes don’t ruin Zoom for the rest of us.
The attorney who was arguing during the incident handled the situation with the utmost grace and professionalism.
Who was it? Let’s give that person credit by name.
This is a deliberate attempt to disrupt hearings, Zoom bombing. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened in court previously. Unfortunately, it will keep happening unless something is done to stop it. Hopefully, getting rid of Zoom hearings or making them more difficult to use will not be necessary.
Happened a few weeks ago in North Las Vegas. https://news3lv.com/news/local/porn-imagery-in-zoom-bombing-during-public-meeting-with-young-adults-nevada-secretary-of-state-north-las-vegas-city-hall