Cost of living in VI too high- Doug Wheatley
This is according to the host of the Speak Out BVI show on ZBVI 780 AM, Mr Doug Wheatley, who was addressing the topic ‘Income inequality and poverty gap’ last night, September 20, 2016.
Mr Wheatley said the cost of living in the territory is too high and the need to maintain a proper standard of living has now become an anthem on everyone’s lips.
He said whenever he hears that both mother and father in a family have to be working more than one job to make ends meet it hurts his ears since the children are the ones suffering the most. Wheatley said the Virgin Islands needs to take another look to see whether the policies that it has been following over the last several years are beneficial to it as thought and that changes need to be made if they are not so that the people of the Virgin Islands will benefit.
Families struggling to make ends meet
“Sometimes you have the father, the husband in the house working two or three jobs and, additionally, the woman of the house is working one or two jobs. And they are doing that in order to make ends meet because living in the BVI is at a high cost…and in order to meet your rent and your mortgage and all the other things that you have to meet you have to have a certain amount of income and if you are living here and you want to be able to meet those then you will have to do extraordinary things such as having two or three jobs,” he lamented. “Now this is not a good state of affairs.”
He pointed out that for the man who has to work so much his time with his family is cut low, his relaxing time is very limited and similarly it is not good for the woman either and the children are severely disadvantaged because they are not getting the quality time that they should have with their parents.
“… and sometimes the televisions what rears the children and we know what the results are by and large have been,” he remarked.
The talk show host said he chose to address the matter since it is not only unique to the Virgin Islands, but worldwide.
He, however, noted that a certain section of the territory lives life luxuriously and others choose to go the illegal and “underground” way to survive.
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36 Responses to “Cost of living in VI too high- Doug Wheatley”
how much we spend a month. $1,350.00 rent. $200-$300 lights. $125-$175 water. $300.00-$400 LOL groceries every 2 weeks if we can't get to ST.Thomas to shop. Plus other household needs. So you can sit there and talk smack about $25.00 per day for housing.
There are some people who struggle with the basics despite working their a$*es off but make no mistake, we have far too many ppl working towards a new $800 phone, sneakers, cars, bikes and not family/kids. Some people eyes too $%^& long and want to put on a show so their family suffer. How many dads we see in strip clubs and bars nightly spending big but wife and child mother home with kids and not even rice or bread. Our attitude towards values is whats killing us. How many parents willing to give their child a sandwich and snack in a bag to go to school? Again some people are genuinely hurting but too many chasing lives that their pockets cannot support.
oh boy (22/09/2016, 09:32) Like (10) Dislike (0)
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did you not hear me say i have bills? what happen, i need to list them all for you? ok! i am the highest paid person in my household and so, I pay all the bills to give my parents some ease on the little bit of money they make. i pay the light bills, cable, internet, i provide food for all of us, i have to pay back fees for my student FOR MY BACHELORS since that is what you need to know too. i have a lil affordable car but i have a LOAN that i need to pay as well because i need to get to work. I have an 80+ year old grandfather who lives with us has medical needs as well. we all provide for him but the portion i assist with is also an addition to what i already spend. I need gas for my vehicle. i do laundry on weekends, i am in partner hand because the banks even refuse to borrow you $1200.00. what else do you need to know! because unless you live in my situation, just understand when i say it is hard. i have applied myself which is why i was able to obtain a Bachelors degree so that i can come back home and hopefully make good enough money. i am always at work on time and i get good reviews at the end of each quarter. there are just a lot of us out here really doing what we got to do but the cost of living and the pay we make just does not cut it!
the "we" to which you refer ?
Seems to me that $100 monthly and no rent should have you living and saving nice!
Typical "good to great "product.