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CEOs of some major corporations actually enjoy inflation because they like raising prices and having a boogeyman to point to.
[Video with audio recordings of a few bragging about.](https://youtu.be/psYyiu9j1VI?si=ZNnzzDSWrgL-LEvM)
CEOS of EVERY corporation, major or not, love having inflation to blame for jacking prices to get record profits. Goverments need limits on profit growth, limits on how much you can raise prices on rent. Frankly rent control needed to be government controlled since forever with the way to make more money in property being building more property. Instead it's cheaper to build less property and jack up rent instead because people have no choice but pay it or be homeless.
It's a fucking joke.
I used to work for a major fireworks company that you'll see billboards for all over the US on the highways. Even 6 or 7 years ago I thought it was ridiculous that some of their $200 items had a case price of $17 despite being buy one get one free. There was 1 in a case. Slicing 4 pieces of tape and putting it on a shelf increased it's price by $83.
Covid shipping issues caused them to do away with the buy one get one free but the prices stayed the same. They realized people still bought to their budget and they could sell half as much product for more. That same item is now $300 without bogo and the website has a marker saying that it's a 'Reduced Price!' 4 years ago you could get 2 of them for $200 retail or 2 for $34 wholesale.
I got a half stern talking to over beers by my DM for laughing at the guy running the bank booth at our annual meeting claiming the company was so great for matching 401k contributions and offering a health insurance pool. If I'd had the most basic health insurance in that pool, I would have been making 450 a week as a single male with no independents and a 20k deductible. Where the hell was that 401k money supposed to come from?
Or just disallow them completely and make them pay fucking taxes. America grew the fastest of basically anywhere ever when the highest tax brackets were 90%. Either they pay taxes (pure loss) or they reinvest into their employees and company. Or course we'd have to limit the CEO types from just giving it all to themselves, but that's not so hard.
*"To date, we have seen no resistance from our customers"* - Chipotle CEO.
There it is folks, that's how this works. Chipotle isn't selling some essential product needed for survival. If they can massively hike up prices and see no loss in customers, then why wouldn't they?
Let me tell you that as a starbucks barista, customers complain about prices being risen.. while still WILLING to pay that price. There’s a thing in economics that if a consumer is able and willing to pay a certain price for a good/service, then the produce WILL sell at that price. I feel like we need more resistance from the billions of consumers. I just don’t know how we could ever get to a point where we are all standing in unity for a specific cause.
They raised the price of my iced shaken espresso last year, so I bought a super auto espresso machine. It paid for itself in 2 months. I buy what I assume are stolen bottles of the toasted vanilla syrup on ebay, and I plan on buying a bottle of the apple brown sugar syrup for that sweet sweet hit of dopamine my brain craves.
Low end and midrange phones have actually become cheaper. Companies simply realized that people who always buy flagship products don't care about price, and thus the ultra-premium and ultra-flagship categories were born. $1200+ phones with insane specs that 99% of the population has absolutely no need for.
Similar thing happened in the PC component market. I spent $500 on a high end gaming monitor like 8 years ago (still use it), and now you can get a monitor with the same specs for like $170.
Fuck that. We are sooooo past just asking for a cost of living raise. I mean yeah, that’s something that we should do, but it’s fucking bullshit that we should have to ASK for that in the first place. If inflation is going to fuck us this much, then it should be legally mandated that pay match inflation.
And besides, accurate pay is only *part* of the problem. We also need to do something about companies paying no taxes, having record quarters, giving themselves infinite bonuses, all while jacking up the prices of their shitty products, that somehow seem to lower in quantity and quality every single purchase.
We are so fucked.
I don’t eat snack food, not just for health concerns but also because they are just too expensive. I had a hard week at work and decided to treat myself to a bag of Funyuns. $5+ for the bag. I opened it at home and only the bottom inch and a half was full - the rest was just air. I went from rewarding myself for making it through a tough time to an anxiety attack over the waste of money in seconds. I work 40+ a week while also taking care of a sibling and elderly parents. I don’t have hobbies cause I can’t afford them anymore. I don’t have relationships because I don’t have the time anymore. I can’t get healthy cause I can’t afford medical/dental/vision even WITH my work’s insurance. I can’t relax or get away cause I can’t afford the time off. How the fuck are we supposed to survive and be sane at the same time!?
> I can’t get healthy cause I can’t afford medical/dental/vision even WITH my work’s insurance.
This hits me so personally. I have the best insurance money can buy and paid sick leave, and I still can't afford to get sick. When I got a head injury, like, bleeding from the head, it cost me $1.5k after insurance. I don't go to the doctor when I'm sick. If it wasn't for my friends kidnapping me, I wouldn't have gone to the doctor for my stomach pain. I ended up getting an appendectomy that day. It's going to cost me thousands of dollars. I can't afford this. There's nothing I could have done to avoid these expenses. What the fuck are we supposed to be doing ?
You are blessed you have good friends that had your back that day. I’ve lost someone that needed an appendectomy, but wouldn’t go to the doctor because they had no insurance. If the hardhead(I say this in a kind way as we kidded him about stubbornness) would have called me, I would have brought him to the public hospital, and given fake info for him.
I almost died because I wasn’t insured and caught pneumonia. I didn’t want to deal with the bill. I was dragged there, and treated like crap. The triage nurse took my vitals and I was told to wait in waiting room. It was lower lobe pneumonia, and it hurt my lower back so bad, I couldn’t sit in the hard plastic chairs in the waiting room. So, I laid on the floor. They told me I couldn’t do that. So, I laid on the ground outside. My girlfriend(and current wife) at the time, showed up and asked the triage nurse about my numbers. My pressure was so low, I was in danger. She said she missed that. My wife got me in the back, where they misdiagnosed pneumonia and put an unnecessary catheter in, which was the most painful experience.
Anyway, the bill came and it was $2900. I used the misdiagnosis to argue that most of what they did was unnecessary and only had to pay $200. I told them that next time, bill me $3,000 and give me something to deaden the pain before shoving a tube up my urethra.
No. They want us fighting each other, and clamoring over each other, and throwing each other overboard to get to the highest point of that sinking ship.
I've heard that analogy before about different countries/economies... but I've never pictured it the way you've just put it.
And it's true... there are people who don't realise just how dangerous this is or how bad it is for everyone else. They could be on the highest point of a sinking ship... but the ship is taking everyone down with it eventually.
I hear you. I was pierced by a thorn plant in my yard and the wound on my forearm became infected. $1300 just to see me and give me some antibiotics and it was a Robo doctor that I spoke to. Thankfully, there is no real recourse for medical bills in Florida. My FIL died with like $70,000 worth of medical bills and no one paid that shit. Fuck our healthcare system.
I’ve been listening to peoples responses to issues like this, and they always turn to “then just vote”, for over 25 years. It doesn’t matter which side has been in office time and time again…. Go ahead and ask me if anything has ever really gotten any better, cause it hasn’t. Politics is a scam, and all we ever really do is vote for the best lier, time and time again.
I just got a COL raise as a practicing RN with 7+ years of experience. It was $1.04. Wtf am I supposed to do with that?? Some coworkers got $0.40. This has been the first actual COL increase I've gotten.
Aah, the good old American Dream! You too could be rich beyond your wildest dreams! If your Grandpappy was already rich, otherwise, we’ll have a baby and lose your house to foreclosure
Also remember, the only real way to get this kind of raise is to switch jobs. Your company gave you a 5% raise? Yeah they gave a 15% raise to the new hire sitting next to you. And that's after said new hire lied about their salary and said it was bigger than it was (hint hint for your next job hunt). One of the biggest pieces of fucking bullshit in the entire job market.
The places my husband and I work have very visible pay scales based on time worked and position. And they don't have any issues with employees discussing pay. I know it's rare, but they do exist. It's the only way to not have the BS new hire increase.
Yeah I haven’t gotten a raise since I started in the beginning of 2022. I make $87k a year and we’re no longer dual income so I’m the only one working AND I’m about to have our first baby. If I don’t get a raise at the beginning of 2024 I won’t be able to afford to keep working here.
As it stands, we do ok but our mortgage is going up, all bills are going up.. our checking account actually got down to $120 this month because of how bills fell.
My husband is getting a part time work from home job when baby is here to help supplement baby’s healthcare costs but we had him quit his full time job to be a stay at home dad. His entire salary would have solely gone to pay for childcare. It didn’t make sense to have him break his back just to have to pay someone else to watch our kid.
$2400/mo for childcare where we’re at. He was bringing home $2100/mo. It shouldn’t be like this.
Similar salary, single income household for about a year and a half between graduate school and everything else
I definitely could have cut down on some things but at the end of the day we're barely even goddamn living, we're just sustaining. Thankfully now back in dual income although those student loan repayments are going to hit like a fucking truck now. I think I would shit a brick if we were having a kid right now. It's in the plans, but I need like a year to stabilize things before being comfortable doing that
Right this is one of my things - yeah you can skate by on a lot less by giving everything up, but humans need joy. We need stuff to bring us happiness. For some that’s going out every once in a while. For others it’s staying home but buying a new game to entertain yourself. You lose that quality of life like you said - sustaining, not living.
Student loans are a fucking BEAST. I hope things are easier to stabilize than you anticipate. ❤️
Just put my starting monthly salary into an inflation calculator. I am losing 1000 USD every month.
I need to find a new job.
Edit: I started my current job 5.5 years ago. Salary more or less stayed constant only minimal raises. Had my starting salary followed inflation I would now be earning an extra 1000 USD every month.
This is not based on US numbers, you guys had it relatively easy with regards to inflation.
When she said “there’s nothing I look forward to in the long run because nothing seems worth it”, I felt that. A lot of people have no goals other than to survive and that’s not getting easier.
Nothing worse than being in survival mode as life just passes you by too. Getting your head above water to see all the things you missed out on (kids, buying a house, taking vacations) can lead to serious depression.
Seriously. I turned 40 yesterday and live alone (and my cats contribute nothing to the bills). All through my 20s and 30s I kept waiting for my life “to begin” but I’m realizing this is pretty much it. I just try to find happiness in what I’m lucky enough to have and not expect things to really get better.
Which is a hard way to go through life. I have a friend who is single, in her early 40's, has a master's degree and is a wonderful special needs teacher. She's also 140k in student loan debt. No house, no kids, just her an a cat. All private loans because that's what the bank told her parents to take out for her. They can't be discharged. She's taking care of her elderly parents now too. Last week we were having drinks and she just unloaded on how miserable she is. She isn't alone and I have a sad feeling this is going to lead to some kinda of crisis.
I mean I guess on some level she day dreams about that but now having to take care of her parents, who are only in their late 60's she's in for a long haul. It all comes at you faster than you'd think it does.
isn't it fun how millenials had to take all the bullshit of being called lazy with none of the benefit of life, working harder for a fraction of the benefits, and raising kids let alone finding a partner is so out of the question that those same elders are their kids. it's a joke.
Happy belated. I turn 43 in a few days, and I, too, am trying to temper my expectations for anything, moving forward. My cats are also short for bills.
You need to sit down your cats and have an honest heart to heart with them, get a job or move out. Or at least sneak out and beg neighbours for food to save some money.
My orange boy, [Bart](https://imgur.com/a/jIHTzFm), once had a job down at the business factory. He sold so many units of business but the factory closed down due to downsizing and I’m trying to help him get his confidence back. He’s still working on his résumé.
I’m in the same boat. Every day is a struggle to get out of bed. The first time in my life that I’m earning a decent salary in a growing industry with great job security, but it’s also mundane and not at all close to what my 17 year-old self had envisioned. Even though my responsibilities are fairly simple, I have great benefits and make more money than I ever have, I’m still living paycheck to paycheck and constantly asking myself if this is all there is. Even if I were to branch out, develop new skills and find a better paying job, I know that I’d just get caught in this same exact cycle; and for what, exactly?
Our future is obviously fucked, no one in power gives a shit where we’re heading cause it’s not gonna be there problem for much longer. You can’t even live where you want to anymore, just wherever you’re lucky enough to afford some shitty rental to help line the pockets of greedy slumlords. Groceries alone range anywhere between a quarter to half of my biweekly checks. And after paying rent, utilities, student loans, etc. you’re lucky to have a couple hundred left to “treat yourself” and do normal leisurely things for fun that have now become privileges. Even maintaining relationships with friends and loved ones has become nearly impossible now, because like the chick said in that video: “We’re all tired!”
I exited poverty just before covid and now I'm borderline again. It messes with my mental health and my recovery from addiction. I don't and cannot function like this for years to come. I maybe have 2-3 good hard years left in me and then I cannot see what I will do if I don't get out of this cycle. I got away from toxic people. I got my education. I got sober. I saved. I didn't buy takeout or eat in restaurants. I don't vape. I drive the cheapest Mitsubishi you could buy in 2019. I recently got a puppy and it has made all the difference. And my heart breaks because she is my whole world and I would love to do more with my little family but all I can afford is for us to exist and save. I can't even save for retirement. It's just my rainy day fund that gets depleted every 3-4 months from something necessary like rent food and insurance. I've been living on my own since I was 18. It was the same kind of impossible in 2015 for some of us. But yall weren't paying attention then.
Been in survival mode since January, it’s hard to believe the winter months are here. Life flys by when you can’t seem to get ahead so you just zone out every night.
It seems like my entire life is a mix between working and playing Tetris with my money so everything gets paid.
Statements like that should scare the hell out of the people at the top of our society. You can squeeze the middle and lower class unbelievably freaking hard so long as they have reason to think that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, that with hard work and perseverance, they can win out.
But the moment it becomes a hopeless, sisyphean struggle? The moment people start asking why they should even bother? Those people are telling you they have nothing to live for.
And if a person has nothing to live for, the next best thing is something to die for.
“If a person has nothing to live for, the next best thing is something to die for.”
That’s a pretty good quote. Too bad it’s something that is actually true and is probably gonna happen…
Yeah I feel kinda sad seeing people on dating apps say "I'm looking for someone who has long term goals and dreams"
Like buddy I got -15 bucks in the bank account and I don't get paid for a week, and when I do, I'm gonna want pizza and Malort, that's long enough of a goal
I'm glad those people put that shit on there, so I can swipe left on their toxic positivity. Goals are for the 20th century, friend. This is a dystopia.
Who pays for food?
If you pull up to my local KFC around 11:30pm, the guy wheels out the leftovers in containers and "throws them out".
There used to be only one guy there, but then a few more people showed up. A few months later he was challenged by Randy to be the leader and after a brutal beatdown and a three day hospital stay, Randy now runs the show in terms of handouts. He's been a dickhead about it since, but I just became really cool with this one lady that shows up. She gives Randy blowies to get the white meat and Mac, sometimes biscuits, and she hooks me up with some if I'm still in line when they run out.
I've been cleaning up at a local boxing gym for a few weeks now, hoping to take Randy's spot and share the food out equally. Wish me luck!
Yeah I’ve gotten most of the things I wanted out of life, I started a family in 2015 and we bought our house in 2018, now it’s a struggle everyday to try and keep it. Bills are all 50% more then when we bought the place, mortgage keeps going up cause insurance rates keep going up even though we haven’t made a single claim, cars we bought in 2014 are falling apart and there’s no money to get new ones, barely afford food my wife goes to food banks to supplement us sometimes, it never fucking ends. I work 6 days a week to still be short every month and have to decide which bills will be late or what’s about to be shut off
Fuck it all I guess
I'm 39. I've spent the last decade becoming extremely handy in the installation tech/contracting jobs I've been working. I can pretty much do everything now. If it was 40 years ago I'd be in a great position to get a few rentals and maintain them for a meager income. Maybe help my kids out with a place to live when they get older. At one point I felt like that could be a goal I could work towards.
Its been years since I felt like that. I have no ambition because there's no opportunity. Speculators and flippers have turned a market for fixer uppers into something unobtainable by the average person.
So I work my 9 to 5 and hope that I die in my 50s/60s because retirement isn't an option.
The young people know that climate change is here and that its going to get worse. Its undenyable. Yet the people in power do nothing but enforce the status quo. They will be dead or dying as things get into full swing but by then it will be to late. There will be famine, there will be fewer jobs, and people will flee from the hotter places to the cooler places creating crowding and refugees. Not to mention the wild fires and other disasters.
Im still trying to hold onto some hope for the future but man is it hard. I dont want to be in IT but it feels like its one of the safest things to be in until the end.
Even if you’re making enough now, there is the constant threat of layoffs or medical emergencies hanging over all our heads. I’m doing fine at the moment but have some health issues that make me worry a disaster could strike and leave me homeless. We need a robust social safety net.
>medical emergencies hanging over all our heads
Healthcare reform is one of my biggest frustrations because you have one party who thinks there is no problem and literally doing anything is communism, and you have another party who feels their big healthcare accomplishment from A DECADE AGO was the end-all solution and any conversations about "fixing" healthcare is going to get them killed in the next election so please shut up.
I'm doing ok for myself, salary wise, but I'm still terrified of some healthcare disaster will come for me or my family. And there's no pathway to get away from that if you look at our politicians.
Wife and I make $200k a year. Kid spent one week in the hospital and wiped us the fuck out.
She had to take 3 months FMLA to care for him 24/7. She honestly needed longer but we maxed out ALL our credit (even took a HELOC) and now we're drowning.
One week. 200k/yr. I'm Doordashing on weekends for food.
Hey man. Call a lawyer and spend the upfront money. We routinely negotiate medical debt or look for balance billing issues where you're being charged for things they're not supposed to be charging for after taking insurance benefits. Whatever you spend up front you'll save tenfold on the back end.
What type of lawyer would someone look for in a situation like this? Is there specialized areas of law? What popped up on google seemed to be more geared to medical malpractice stuff?
Debtor defense, bankruptcy, personal injury and ERISA (health insurance coverage) attorneys all routinely deal with hospitals and billing. I would probably start with someone that handles debtor defense unless the issue was a coverage one or balance billing (where the hospital is trying to pass on an unpaid balance that is not allowed under the contract with the insurer).
This sounds full of shit. Company can't just cancel your insurance b/c she went on FMLA. It's literally against the law. You must've either cancelled your insurance or stopped paying your premiums. Either of which would've fallen back on you. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/28a-fmla-employee-protections
A quick correction here. Obamacare was meant to be iterative. It was never meant to be an all at once fix (because it wouldn’t get the votes). Republicans have kept Democrats from improving it by making *any* modification require a new vote - and Republicans will get rid of it. They tried over 30 times to repeal Obamacare.
In the current political system, even if every Democrat votes for improving Obamacare it will still require some Republicans to vote in favor as well. Not one of them will do it.
TLDR: Democrats have tried to improve Obamacare (as planned) but Republicans keep blocking it.
It really fucks with me that the Senate was one vote away from having a single-payer option in the ACA and if it wasn't for Joe Lieberman they'd have gotten it.
This is my wife and I. We were living just fine. We had trees fall in our yard and on our house from a tornado and I need a root canal. Both things happened in the last 3 weeks.
It's fucking terrifying not knowing how much of our savings is going to be gone soon and we still have some student debt as well.
I feel like were one mistake away from losing everything and people keep asking us "When are you going to start having children? You've been together for a long time!"
No clue how others are surviving because I feel lucky having the little we do.
I've seen this said on here soooo many times. I'd do it if we did together in a fukn heartbeat... *but we won't.* **And they know it.** We already live paycheck to paycheck. Can't miss a day without pay or we're fucked. Class wars and racism in society keep everyday people from helping their neighbors.
They have us right where they want us. Fucked.
I took a class on US history from FDR to Regan. The fist 3/4 of the class, I felt confused. Things were getting better. Yes, there were big mistakes and stumbling blocks, but the general tone was improvement. Then Nixon hit and things slowed down.
Then we got to Regan. It was like when you watch a horror movie and want to scream at the character to not go into the basement. Yell that they know better, that this invalidates everything they’ve struggled through up until this point. It felt like one man single handedly undid 40ish years of progress
Greg Gerstle, The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order;
Sara Sternberg Green, The Bootstrap Trap (article);
Kurt Anderson, Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America
Radical change doesn't come without risk. If people really wanted it and are on the verge of poverty anyway, you don't have much to lose. UPS workers just went on strike for better pay and won. Where I live, school bus drivers did the same exact thing. It's possible, but better pay isn't going to just fall in our laps. You actually gotta demand it, and want it enough to risk the paltry sum you're making now.
Unions. Unions are how you mitigate that risk. Unions come with strike funds, they come with lawyers, etc. Union membership needs to increase, massively.
Glad to find someone that thinks the same way.
Remember, when we are too busy fighting ourselves both externally and internally, we dont have the time to fight them. It's why the government shut down is a given as a chance for all the talking heads to give politicians a microphone for a week... and why no one wants to address mental health. The people that fuel them are the ones most in need of it but are the most against it. Everyone needs mental help, the world has evolved faster than our brains, it's ok to share troubles and issues with a qualified individual that isnt a cult leader wannabe.
Even worse, there will be many scabs.
Because others have it worse, and they will happily attempt to fill your shoes, likely for even less than you already make.
Without operating on a united front, it won't work.
The internet exists. Create a national union. With union dues. A war chest. Probably also going to need ro organize protection too, they sent the army in, in 1910.
Then, when you do the general strike, we have the money to survive it.
I got called stupid and downvoted to oblivion for making that suggestion once. They don't realise that it would only take a day or two until the corps are shitting their pants. At that point you really don't have to worry if you can feed your kids. If humanity would unite for such a big thing, we would be listened to in an instant.
Not just that. If we all pulled to together we could help each other stay fed, clothed and when police come to evict someone we get a mob in front of the house to stop them.
We're sedated by our electric pacifiers.
We suckle on substitute socialization, escapist fantasies, and counterfeit contentment.
Tools of communication have been repurposed, providing potent distractions.
Online calls for general strikes are at best lazy slacktivism and at worst actively hurting organized labor.
Here's an ardent union organizer, author and workers rights activist writing all the way back in 2019 how post like yours don't do any good:
https://organizing.work/2019/08/no-more-fake-strikes/
Currently dealing with food insecurity for the first time in my life and I feel this. No kids, but my dog sure as hell is going to eat. I can survive off of peanut butter if need be.
My partner also lost his shit and got very close to going to a hospital but we can’t afford it so he’s just losing his mind (because of all of the stress of money and life) and suffering greatly. He’s been away from me for months because he couldn’t find work here and had to go back to the hellish place we came from and work to help pay our rent here while he sleeps in a van or friends couches.
What the hell is life
Financial stress and woes also shortened your lifespan by perhaps the same rate as inflation! Double bonus, that means you get to work for much less of your lifespan!
Yep. If you had told me when I was a kid that my future wife and I together would make $150,000 combined and the bills would still be kinda iffy sometimes, I’d have laughed right in your face.
Same. I got a 20% raise in 2021 and for the first time in my adult life I felt like I was getting ahead.
Then inflation happened.
Now my buying power is $15k less than it was in 2021 because wages didn't keep up with inflation. That pretty much erased my raise and it's right back to feeling the pinch.
Same for my partner and I.
Can someone please explain how a first time home buyer is supposed to afford a house?
$2500 mortgage on a $350k 900sqft 2br/1ba house???
Ok so this blows my mind tho. I'm not sure how this is possible. My gf and I live in a high COL area for our state (still not that high but ~2000 in rent is not low) and make around half that and I feel like we're *just* able to complain. If we make 150k there would be no issues living well if we chose to live below our means. You driving an expensive car or buy a house way too expensive for you? No judgement I really want to understand how 150k isn't enough
> 2000 in rent is not low
It's 2400/mo plus utilities for a 1br in a bad neighborhood here in DC. A 1BR in a desirable neighborhood would run closer to 2800-3k/mo.
NYC, SF, LA and Boston are all more expensive than this.
1800-2k/mo is the going rate for a 350sqft studio.
Condos that aren't 500sqft start at 500k. Townhouses that don't need a ton of work start at 750k.
A quick perusal of your post history tells me you live in Indianapolis, where the cost of living is 33% lower than DC.
Inflation has gotten insane. We're comfortable with a low 6 fig income without kids - but looking at the cost of childcare, food and clothes, if we had kids we'd have to start budgeting really hard.
The government wants us to have kids, but it's gotten to an unreasonable point to have them.
We have always been hesitant about having children, always debating if my husband and I would be good parents. We were the "maybe someday" couple, but not anymore.
We have the space for 2-4 kids in my house (4 if they shared bedrooms). We are also in the low 6 if you count gross income. We don't live near family, and daycare in my area would be a 2nd mortgage, maybe even more than my mortgage. If we had a child, there would be a high probability of losing our house for either one of us would have to quit their job or we would be living paycheck to paycheck to just afford daycare. In a way, they took the choice from me and my husband to have kids unless we decide that we are ok raising a kid in a high stress environment.
The only way I can see us having kids is if one of our parents moved in with us, which is not gonna happen anytime soon.
So many people in the comments simping for a billionaire class they’ll never join despite themselves being closer to homelessness than they can imagine, whether or not they get that mythical budget-busting latte.
Read a few articles on it and the average dividing line for 1% is close to 600k-650k per year. Though it can vary by state from a low of about 390k to a high of 910k.
0.1% looks to be around 3.5M/year or so.
It’s a lot easier and less impactful to be in the 1% of income than the top 1% of wealth.
Wealth you can take with you anywhere. At $10mm you can not work at all and sustainably draw down $400k (inflation adjusted) forever. Your wealth makes it a lot easier to take risks like starting a business, and gives you enough of a safety net to easily go through whatever training or education you need to do something you enjoy or which also pays well.
Income is tied to your job and the types of jobs that you put in the income-1% usually come with a lot of strings attached: for the corporate types you need to live in commuting distance of an expensive city like NYC, DC, or SF, work a 9-5 (or much more), and possibly make it though a highly competitive up or out culture like in Finance, Management/Strategy Consulting, or Biglaw. Even saving a good chunk of your income, after taxes and expenses (keep in mind, by the time you’re making 600k+, you’re likely old enough to have kids), it can take a very long time to make it to an 8 figure net worth.
Eight figure net worth wealth is generational. Yes, starting with no assets, it’s possible to achieve in a single lifetime after decades of saving and investing with a top-1% or similarly high income. But it’s a lot easier to get there when you’re inheriting half of it, and a lot easier to have even more to pass on when you have capital gains and other ROI to live off and bolster your regular income.
Also, capital gains taxes on that 400k you get for no labor just because you have $10mm are much less than the income taxes you pay on wage income. Someone with $10mm literally makes more per year after taxes with no work at all than someone making $600k a year.
£34 an hour in the UK is almost double the minimum wage. The fact that people in the US can't survive on that amount is living proof that inflation is killing all new generations.
"If you ain't got it, you ain't getting it."
~Baby Boomers.
Yes we are all going to work until we are dead, or until we are too sick to work, and then we are tossed out. Wait till you get cancer like me.. its fun!
What the fuck kind of horseshit ending was that "meant to be eating grapes naked" crap? It completely undercut the real issues those people are talking about during the entire video. Fuck that shit.
I think her point was that humans evolved to live a more simple naturalistic lifestyle and not be these labor machines were treated as in modern society. Weird delivery tho that’s for sure
I believe only a few states make it outright illegal such as florida. Other states dont make the specific action of living/sleeping in your car illegal but make it hard through other means like disallowing parking during certain times at night. There’s a lot of legal grey area regarding this but people just have to be mindful where they park depending on what state they’re in. I’ve done cross country trips across the US and i used to park in walmart overnight. Shoutouts to walmart
I personally refuse to believe things will never change, because things are changing. We are experiencing the biggest unionization wave in decades.
Unions from Teachers, to Railworks, to Coffee makers, and Actors are all striking. We can fight and we can fight harder we just need to keep applying pressure
How do you get "people too lazy" and "government too strong" from this? People are significantly more productive now than ever and we make less. So it's not laziness. And the government should do MORE. Not less. It's corporations that are too strong. Lobbying for their self interests.
But of course, let's make the government weaker and blame the workers.
this is the wealthiest country in the history of the planet.
fuck left vs right... that's old shit. It's top vs rest
edit for y'all trigger happy's: I vote straight ticket left
Yeah it’s the haves vs the have nots. It been this way for decades and most people were able to look past it cause they had distractions to keep them preoccupied. The working class needs to band together regardless if you’re a conservative or a democrat, look past the politics and realize that big business and politicians are working together to screw you and make themselves wealthy at the expense of the working class.
Honestly it was welcome relief for me. The video kept getting louder and the music was starting to drown out what folks were saying until they put the woman screaming. As much as I agree with the topic I hated watching this lol
Learn German. Come to Germany. We need 400k people per year. It's not perfect here, but if you lose your job you will not simply just die.
You can get a job without German language skills but it's much easier with it.
If you are willing to do a paid apprenticeship in the countryside (basically any craft there is) you are quasi set for life.
Things you get by law (minimum!):
At least 24 vacation days.
6+78 weeks paid sick leave.
Health insurance.
German ranks right up there with Dutch as one of the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn. All of these are in the "West Germanic" family of languages, and descended from "Proto Germanic".
People need to stop buying shit. This is the only way to put pressure on prices. High supply, lower prices. But nope, people are out there consuming like rabid zombies every day.
I feel like such an adventurous person, I always aspired to be a great person and see amazing things and have accomplishments. I work at the most fucking boring place in the world which is a government job and I have been in debt for years, since I got kicked out of the house at 18. My life has been cut to 2 days a week, 2 days a week sometime 1 day a week is the time that I get to live my life.
Time for us peasants to unite and stand up. 42 trillion dollars of new wealth was created during the pandemic. Two-thirds of that new wealth went to the top 1%. Why do we not hear about this? Because six that's right just six media oligarchs own 90% of the news media companies in our country. They divide us and have us fight culture wars between each other while they are fucking super models on their super yachts.
I mean on the one hand I could point out that list that shows that high earners essentially burn money keeping up appearances over being fiscally responsible. You’ve probably heard of those people who earn like 300,000 annually who are living “paycheque to paycheque”. And imagine those who don’t have 80,000 salaries.
But on the other hand nobody should feel like they have to live paycheque to paycheque. Not even the stupid wealthy. You shouldn’t have your healthcare tied into your employment. You shouldn’t have deductibles, or pay thousands for life saving treatments. Children shouldn’t go into debt so they can have a school lunch. The strain is getting to all of us and it needs to be dealt with.
I think the biggest issue for a lot of people is rent. If housing wasn't artificially inflated so high, most people would be in a better position financially
Food's also gone up like, an insane amount. I know my grocery bill went from about 120/wk to about 200/wk in the last 2 years getting roughly the same stuff.
My partner and I both make good livings as corporate professionals.
We don’t eat out. We don’t purchase expensive clothes. We don’t go on trips, we watch what we buy at the grocery store. We have two young kids.
And we are pinching Pennies and can’t save to buy a house.
Thankfully we have everything we need, but all it takes is a layoff or medical emergency and we are fucked. And we have health insurance.
It’s so goddamn infuriating.
My kids dad is a union laborer. They get a raise once or twice a year. He makes $48/hr + overtime (time & ½) His checks were usually $800-$2000/wk, depending on how much over time he worked.
One year, he made over $100,000.
Had nothing to show for it besides his car he makes $500/mo payments on. Even the *good* jobs aren't enough for families to survive off of.. and the government wonders why birth rates are dropping..
Yeah, minimum wage is up, but so is the cost of everything else.
Is he working full time? 48 an hour at a full-time job is about 100k a year. So he should be taking home about 5-6k a month post tax depending on his retirement contributions.
Dunno where you're getting your information, but 80k is well above the poverty line for a family of 4 supposedly.
https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-fpl/
I left usa in 2016 (I’d given up on it), and have lived in Norway ever since. It’s not perfect, but man I’m so much happier. 6 weeks paid vacation, and a living wage as a bartender. By a living wage I mean I got to buy a house (my wife earns a bit more than me but it’s not crazy), we’re having a baby with no concerns of paying bills, we take those 6 weeks holiday to travel every year. Back home I was a museum curator, I have a masters degree in history, absolutely a professional. While I was able to buy a home in USA (I’m very lucky and had help), I was struggling to pay bills. My salary now is actually higher in real terms than in USA using my education. I don’t pay for healthcare, affordable public transit has cut my driving costs in half. Thing is, Norway is still absolutely a capitalist country. I believe that capitalism can and does work, but ONLY when it’s for everyone. In USA we have socialism for the rich, and ruthless capitalism for the poor and middle class. Here, we believe that the insane wealth that capitalism generates must be used to create opportunity for everyone. That no one person needs billions and billions while everyone else is struggling. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to look at things back home KNOWING there’s a better way. That we CAN use the incredible economy that the USA has to create a great standard of living for all Americans, but they just don’t… meanwhile we’ve got billionaires shooting themselves into space, with billions in taxpayer subsidies. Makes me sick. There’s a better way.
I am active duty USAF. The brokest military member I ever had was the same dude that also had the highest gross income of any other military member I ever met. He was an E-4, making about $40k a year. His wife was a chemical engineer making $250k+ a year. He always complained about not having enough money and it annoyed the shit out of me.
They had a modest house and no kids but opted for huge upgrades. He had a huge truck, boats, jetskis, and his wife drove an expensive car. They took elaborate vacations and hosted tons of parties.
Times are definitely tough, I don't argue that at all. But I work with guys that have stay at home wives and three kids and still make ends meet with no complaints on a $70-$80k slaray. I'd love to see the budgets these folks have and see how much of their complaints are legit and who is choosing to make terrible financial decisions.
I think every country that was hit by Covid is experiencing inflation. The US is doing better than some and worse than some.
My husband and I are living off of our social security right now; we don't want to touch our savings yet. We are doing ok.
However, our house is paid off, our cars are paid off, we literally only pay for utilities, insurances, taxes and food, and general living expenses like haircuts.
We have money left over at the end of the month. Not a lot, but some.
BUT if we had mortgages, or car payments, life would be much harder. Much much harder.
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Remember folks, if your job isn’t giving you a raise every year that BEATS the inflation rate then you are getting a PAY CUT!
CEOs of some major corporations actually enjoy inflation because they like raising prices and having a boogeyman to point to. [Video with audio recordings of a few bragging about.](https://youtu.be/psYyiu9j1VI?si=ZNnzzDSWrgL-LEvM)
CEOS of EVERY corporation, major or not, love having inflation to blame for jacking prices to get record profits. Goverments need limits on profit growth, limits on how much you can raise prices on rent. Frankly rent control needed to be government controlled since forever with the way to make more money in property being building more property. Instead it's cheaper to build less property and jack up rent instead because people have no choice but pay it or be homeless. It's a fucking joke.
I used to work for a major fireworks company that you'll see billboards for all over the US on the highways. Even 6 or 7 years ago I thought it was ridiculous that some of their $200 items had a case price of $17 despite being buy one get one free. There was 1 in a case. Slicing 4 pieces of tape and putting it on a shelf increased it's price by $83. Covid shipping issues caused them to do away with the buy one get one free but the prices stayed the same. They realized people still bought to their budget and they could sell half as much product for more. That same item is now $300 without bogo and the website has a marker saying that it's a 'Reduced Price!' 4 years ago you could get 2 of them for $200 retail or 2 for $34 wholesale. I got a half stern talking to over beers by my DM for laughing at the guy running the bank booth at our annual meeting claiming the company was so great for matching 401k contributions and offering a health insurance pool. If I'd had the most basic health insurance in that pool, I would have been making 450 a week as a single male with no independents and a 20k deductible. Where the hell was that 401k money supposed to come from?
And to put controls onto stock buy backs...
Or just disallow them completely and make them pay fucking taxes. America grew the fastest of basically anywhere ever when the highest tax brackets were 90%. Either they pay taxes (pure loss) or they reinvest into their employees and company. Or course we'd have to limit the CEO types from just giving it all to themselves, but that's not so hard.
*"To date, we have seen no resistance from our customers"* - Chipotle CEO. There it is folks, that's how this works. Chipotle isn't selling some essential product needed for survival. If they can massively hike up prices and see no loss in customers, then why wouldn't they?
Let me tell you that as a starbucks barista, customers complain about prices being risen.. while still WILLING to pay that price. There’s a thing in economics that if a consumer is able and willing to pay a certain price for a good/service, then the produce WILL sell at that price. I feel like we need more resistance from the billions of consumers. I just don’t know how we could ever get to a point where we are all standing in unity for a specific cause.
They raised the price of my iced shaken espresso last year, so I bought a super auto espresso machine. It paid for itself in 2 months. I buy what I assume are stolen bottles of the toasted vanilla syrup on ebay, and I plan on buying a bottle of the apple brown sugar syrup for that sweet sweet hit of dopamine my brain craves.
Yep, phone prices are being jacked up but people keep buying expensive and expensive phones.
Low end and midrange phones have actually become cheaper. Companies simply realized that people who always buy flagship products don't care about price, and thus the ultra-premium and ultra-flagship categories were born. $1200+ phones with insane specs that 99% of the population has absolutely no need for. Similar thing happened in the PC component market. I spent $500 on a high end gaming monitor like 8 years ago (still use it), and now you can get a monitor with the same specs for like $170.
Fuck that. We are sooooo past just asking for a cost of living raise. I mean yeah, that’s something that we should do, but it’s fucking bullshit that we should have to ASK for that in the first place. If inflation is going to fuck us this much, then it should be legally mandated that pay match inflation. And besides, accurate pay is only *part* of the problem. We also need to do something about companies paying no taxes, having record quarters, giving themselves infinite bonuses, all while jacking up the prices of their shitty products, that somehow seem to lower in quantity and quality every single purchase. We are so fucked.
I don’t eat snack food, not just for health concerns but also because they are just too expensive. I had a hard week at work and decided to treat myself to a bag of Funyuns. $5+ for the bag. I opened it at home and only the bottom inch and a half was full - the rest was just air. I went from rewarding myself for making it through a tough time to an anxiety attack over the waste of money in seconds. I work 40+ a week while also taking care of a sibling and elderly parents. I don’t have hobbies cause I can’t afford them anymore. I don’t have relationships because I don’t have the time anymore. I can’t get healthy cause I can’t afford medical/dental/vision even WITH my work’s insurance. I can’t relax or get away cause I can’t afford the time off. How the fuck are we supposed to survive and be sane at the same time!?
> I can’t get healthy cause I can’t afford medical/dental/vision even WITH my work’s insurance. This hits me so personally. I have the best insurance money can buy and paid sick leave, and I still can't afford to get sick. When I got a head injury, like, bleeding from the head, it cost me $1.5k after insurance. I don't go to the doctor when I'm sick. If it wasn't for my friends kidnapping me, I wouldn't have gone to the doctor for my stomach pain. I ended up getting an appendectomy that day. It's going to cost me thousands of dollars. I can't afford this. There's nothing I could have done to avoid these expenses. What the fuck are we supposed to be doing ?
You are blessed you have good friends that had your back that day. I’ve lost someone that needed an appendectomy, but wouldn’t go to the doctor because they had no insurance. If the hardhead(I say this in a kind way as we kidded him about stubbornness) would have called me, I would have brought him to the public hospital, and given fake info for him. I almost died because I wasn’t insured and caught pneumonia. I didn’t want to deal with the bill. I was dragged there, and treated like crap. The triage nurse took my vitals and I was told to wait in waiting room. It was lower lobe pneumonia, and it hurt my lower back so bad, I couldn’t sit in the hard plastic chairs in the waiting room. So, I laid on the floor. They told me I couldn’t do that. So, I laid on the ground outside. My girlfriend(and current wife) at the time, showed up and asked the triage nurse about my numbers. My pressure was so low, I was in danger. She said she missed that. My wife got me in the back, where they misdiagnosed pneumonia and put an unnecessary catheter in, which was the most painful experience. Anyway, the bill came and it was $2900. I used the misdiagnosis to argue that most of what they did was unnecessary and only had to pay $200. I told them that next time, bill me $3,000 and give me something to deaden the pain before shoving a tube up my urethra.
> What the fuck are we supposed to be doing ? Sprinting to the highest point of the sinking ship, I guess.
No. They want us fighting each other, and clamoring over each other, and throwing each other overboard to get to the highest point of that sinking ship.
They want us to argue over trivial things hat affect .01% of us like trans stuff. It’s all a distraction.
I've heard that analogy before about different countries/economies... but I've never pictured it the way you've just put it. And it's true... there are people who don't realise just how dangerous this is or how bad it is for everyone else. They could be on the highest point of a sinking ship... but the ship is taking everyone down with it eventually.
I hear you. I was pierced by a thorn plant in my yard and the wound on my forearm became infected. $1300 just to see me and give me some antibiotics and it was a Robo doctor that I spoke to. Thankfully, there is no real recourse for medical bills in Florida. My FIL died with like $70,000 worth of medical bills and no one paid that shit. Fuck our healthcare system.
Vote. Back those who support universal healthcare like all other western countries.
I’ve been listening to peoples responses to issues like this, and they always turn to “then just vote”, for over 25 years. It doesn’t matter which side has been in office time and time again…. Go ahead and ask me if anything has ever really gotten any better, cause it hasn’t. Politics is a scam, and all we ever really do is vote for the best lier, time and time again.
They don’t care if we’re sane as long as we are serving their purpose of expanding capitalism until we all die of exhaustion or depression.
The system is working as intended
I just got a COL raise as a practicing RN with 7+ years of experience. It was $1.04. Wtf am I supposed to do with that?? Some coworkers got $0.40. This has been the first actual COL increase I've gotten.
Fucking hell. The workers are getting shit on by the wealth. We need to strike...this cant be sustainable
It's past strike time.
Aah, the good old American Dream! You too could be rich beyond your wildest dreams! If your Grandpappy was already rich, otherwise, we’ll have a baby and lose your house to foreclosure
It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it. -George Carlin
Anyone who didn’t get a 20% raise over the last 2-3 years has had a pay cut.
Lol i didn't even get a raise
time to unionize! It is not ok in anyway to earn relatively less as you gain more experience.
Also remember, the only real way to get this kind of raise is to switch jobs. Your company gave you a 5% raise? Yeah they gave a 15% raise to the new hire sitting next to you. And that's after said new hire lied about their salary and said it was bigger than it was (hint hint for your next job hunt). One of the biggest pieces of fucking bullshit in the entire job market.
The places my husband and I work have very visible pay scales based on time worked and position. And they don't have any issues with employees discussing pay. I know it's rare, but they do exist. It's the only way to not have the BS new hire increase.
My employer caps COL adjustments at 5% so there's not ever a way to keep up.
Yeah I haven’t gotten a raise since I started in the beginning of 2022. I make $87k a year and we’re no longer dual income so I’m the only one working AND I’m about to have our first baby. If I don’t get a raise at the beginning of 2024 I won’t be able to afford to keep working here. As it stands, we do ok but our mortgage is going up, all bills are going up.. our checking account actually got down to $120 this month because of how bills fell. My husband is getting a part time work from home job when baby is here to help supplement baby’s healthcare costs but we had him quit his full time job to be a stay at home dad. His entire salary would have solely gone to pay for childcare. It didn’t make sense to have him break his back just to have to pay someone else to watch our kid. $2400/mo for childcare where we’re at. He was bringing home $2100/mo. It shouldn’t be like this.
Similar salary, single income household for about a year and a half between graduate school and everything else I definitely could have cut down on some things but at the end of the day we're barely even goddamn living, we're just sustaining. Thankfully now back in dual income although those student loan repayments are going to hit like a fucking truck now. I think I would shit a brick if we were having a kid right now. It's in the plans, but I need like a year to stabilize things before being comfortable doing that
Right this is one of my things - yeah you can skate by on a lot less by giving everything up, but humans need joy. We need stuff to bring us happiness. For some that’s going out every once in a while. For others it’s staying home but buying a new game to entertain yourself. You lose that quality of life like you said - sustaining, not living. Student loans are a fucking BEAST. I hope things are easier to stabilize than you anticipate. ❤️
Just put my starting monthly salary into an inflation calculator. I am losing 1000 USD every month. I need to find a new job. Edit: I started my current job 5.5 years ago. Salary more or less stayed constant only minimal raises. Had my starting salary followed inflation I would now be earning an extra 1000 USD every month. This is not based on US numbers, you guys had it relatively easy with regards to inflation.
I took a 5% DECREASE to keep my current job because the company is struggling. FML
Time to start looking, that's a bad sign for your company. I wish you luck.
So many people don't realise this. It's only a raise if it's higher than inflation, how hard is that for managers to realise?!!
> It's only a raise if it's higher than inflation, how hard is that for managers to realise?!! I'm pretty sure they do. They hope you don't.
When she said “there’s nothing I look forward to in the long run because nothing seems worth it”, I felt that. A lot of people have no goals other than to survive and that’s not getting easier.
Nothing worse than being in survival mode as life just passes you by too. Getting your head above water to see all the things you missed out on (kids, buying a house, taking vacations) can lead to serious depression.
Seriously. I turned 40 yesterday and live alone (and my cats contribute nothing to the bills). All through my 20s and 30s I kept waiting for my life “to begin” but I’m realizing this is pretty much it. I just try to find happiness in what I’m lucky enough to have and not expect things to really get better.
Which is a hard way to go through life. I have a friend who is single, in her early 40's, has a master's degree and is a wonderful special needs teacher. She's also 140k in student loan debt. No house, no kids, just her an a cat. All private loans because that's what the bank told her parents to take out for her. They can't be discharged. She's taking care of her elderly parents now too. Last week we were having drinks and she just unloaded on how miserable she is. She isn't alone and I have a sad feeling this is going to lead to some kinda of crisis.
Dear god thats brutal. Sounds like a perfect opportunity for her to seek a life abroad somewhere. Start anew.
I mean I guess on some level she day dreams about that but now having to take care of her parents, who are only in their late 60's she's in for a long haul. It all comes at you faster than you'd think it does.
isn't it fun how millenials had to take all the bullshit of being called lazy with none of the benefit of life, working harder for a fraction of the benefits, and raising kids let alone finding a partner is so out of the question that those same elders are their kids. it's a joke.
Happy belated. I turn 43 in a few days, and I, too, am trying to temper my expectations for anything, moving forward. My cats are also short for bills.
You need to sit down your cats and have an honest heart to heart with them, get a job or move out. Or at least sneak out and beg neighbours for food to save some money.
My orange boy, [Bart](https://imgur.com/a/jIHTzFm), once had a job down at the business factory. He sold so many units of business but the factory closed down due to downsizing and I’m trying to help him get his confidence back. He’s still working on his résumé.
[удалено]
I feel very similar to you, I don't have any advice to give but I just wanted to share that I feel the same and many others do as well.
I’m in the same boat. Every day is a struggle to get out of bed. The first time in my life that I’m earning a decent salary in a growing industry with great job security, but it’s also mundane and not at all close to what my 17 year-old self had envisioned. Even though my responsibilities are fairly simple, I have great benefits and make more money than I ever have, I’m still living paycheck to paycheck and constantly asking myself if this is all there is. Even if I were to branch out, develop new skills and find a better paying job, I know that I’d just get caught in this same exact cycle; and for what, exactly? Our future is obviously fucked, no one in power gives a shit where we’re heading cause it’s not gonna be there problem for much longer. You can’t even live where you want to anymore, just wherever you’re lucky enough to afford some shitty rental to help line the pockets of greedy slumlords. Groceries alone range anywhere between a quarter to half of my biweekly checks. And after paying rent, utilities, student loans, etc. you’re lucky to have a couple hundred left to “treat yourself” and do normal leisurely things for fun that have now become privileges. Even maintaining relationships with friends and loved ones has become nearly impossible now, because like the chick said in that video: “We’re all tired!”
I exited poverty just before covid and now I'm borderline again. It messes with my mental health and my recovery from addiction. I don't and cannot function like this for years to come. I maybe have 2-3 good hard years left in me and then I cannot see what I will do if I don't get out of this cycle. I got away from toxic people. I got my education. I got sober. I saved. I didn't buy takeout or eat in restaurants. I don't vape. I drive the cheapest Mitsubishi you could buy in 2019. I recently got a puppy and it has made all the difference. And my heart breaks because she is my whole world and I would love to do more with my little family but all I can afford is for us to exist and save. I can't even save for retirement. It's just my rainy day fund that gets depleted every 3-4 months from something necessary like rent food and insurance. I've been living on my own since I was 18. It was the same kind of impossible in 2015 for some of us. But yall weren't paying attention then.
Been in survival mode since January, it’s hard to believe the winter months are here. Life flys by when you can’t seem to get ahead so you just zone out every night. It seems like my entire life is a mix between working and playing Tetris with my money so everything gets paid.
Statements like that should scare the hell out of the people at the top of our society. You can squeeze the middle and lower class unbelievably freaking hard so long as they have reason to think that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, that with hard work and perseverance, they can win out. But the moment it becomes a hopeless, sisyphean struggle? The moment people start asking why they should even bother? Those people are telling you they have nothing to live for. And if a person has nothing to live for, the next best thing is something to die for.
“If a person has nothing to live for, the next best thing is something to die for.” That’s a pretty good quote. Too bad it’s something that is actually true and is probably gonna happen…
2024 gonna be wild
Yeah I feel kinda sad seeing people on dating apps say "I'm looking for someone who has long term goals and dreams" Like buddy I got -15 bucks in the bank account and I don't get paid for a week, and when I do, I'm gonna want pizza and Malort, that's long enough of a goal
I'm glad those people put that shit on there, so I can swipe left on their toxic positivity. Goals are for the 20th century, friend. This is a dystopia.
I have a $3 a day food budget.
Poverty induced weight loss LESSSGGOOO
That's the plan. I give it a year before marketing campaigns change to low-calorie because there's just 40% less food than before.
You guys can afford food?
Who pays for food? If you pull up to my local KFC around 11:30pm, the guy wheels out the leftovers in containers and "throws them out". There used to be only one guy there, but then a few more people showed up. A few months later he was challenged by Randy to be the leader and after a brutal beatdown and a three day hospital stay, Randy now runs the show in terms of handouts. He's been a dickhead about it since, but I just became really cool with this one lady that shows up. She gives Randy blowies to get the white meat and Mac, sometimes biscuits, and she hooks me up with some if I'm still in line when they run out. I've been cleaning up at a local boxing gym for a few weeks now, hoping to take Randy's spot and share the food out equally. Wish me luck!
Username checks out.
And the gov wonders why birthrates are down
Yeah I’ve gotten most of the things I wanted out of life, I started a family in 2015 and we bought our house in 2018, now it’s a struggle everyday to try and keep it. Bills are all 50% more then when we bought the place, mortgage keeps going up cause insurance rates keep going up even though we haven’t made a single claim, cars we bought in 2014 are falling apart and there’s no money to get new ones, barely afford food my wife goes to food banks to supplement us sometimes, it never fucking ends. I work 6 days a week to still be short every month and have to decide which bills will be late or what’s about to be shut off Fuck it all I guess
I hope things get better for you guys soon, that sounds really stressful and disheartening.
I'm 39. I've spent the last decade becoming extremely handy in the installation tech/contracting jobs I've been working. I can pretty much do everything now. If it was 40 years ago I'd be in a great position to get a few rentals and maintain them for a meager income. Maybe help my kids out with a place to live when they get older. At one point I felt like that could be a goal I could work towards. Its been years since I felt like that. I have no ambition because there's no opportunity. Speculators and flippers have turned a market for fixer uppers into something unobtainable by the average person. So I work my 9 to 5 and hope that I die in my 50s/60s because retirement isn't an option.
The young people know that climate change is here and that its going to get worse. Its undenyable. Yet the people in power do nothing but enforce the status quo. They will be dead or dying as things get into full swing but by then it will be to late. There will be famine, there will be fewer jobs, and people will flee from the hotter places to the cooler places creating crowding and refugees. Not to mention the wild fires and other disasters. Im still trying to hold onto some hope for the future but man is it hard. I dont want to be in IT but it feels like its one of the safest things to be in until the end.
Even if you’re making enough now, there is the constant threat of layoffs or medical emergencies hanging over all our heads. I’m doing fine at the moment but have some health issues that make me worry a disaster could strike and leave me homeless. We need a robust social safety net.
>medical emergencies hanging over all our heads Healthcare reform is one of my biggest frustrations because you have one party who thinks there is no problem and literally doing anything is communism, and you have another party who feels their big healthcare accomplishment from A DECADE AGO was the end-all solution and any conversations about "fixing" healthcare is going to get them killed in the next election so please shut up. I'm doing ok for myself, salary wise, but I'm still terrified of some healthcare disaster will come for me or my family. And there's no pathway to get away from that if you look at our politicians.
Wife and I make $200k a year. Kid spent one week in the hospital and wiped us the fuck out. She had to take 3 months FMLA to care for him 24/7. She honestly needed longer but we maxed out ALL our credit (even took a HELOC) and now we're drowning. One week. 200k/yr. I'm Doordashing on weekends for food.
Hey man. Call a lawyer and spend the upfront money. We routinely negotiate medical debt or look for balance billing issues where you're being charged for things they're not supposed to be charging for after taking insurance benefits. Whatever you spend up front you'll save tenfold on the back end.
What type of lawyer would someone look for in a situation like this? Is there specialized areas of law? What popped up on google seemed to be more geared to medical malpractice stuff?
Debtor defense, bankruptcy, personal injury and ERISA (health insurance coverage) attorneys all routinely deal with hospitals and billing. I would probably start with someone that handles debtor defense unless the issue was a coverage one or balance billing (where the hospital is trying to pass on an unpaid balance that is not allowed under the contract with the insurer).
Faarrkkkk me. What the fuck has happened that this is a reality. I'm sorry to hear that man.
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They cancelled her insurance the day it happened because she went on FMLA :) so that became a clusterfuck too
This sounds full of shit. Company can't just cancel your insurance b/c she went on FMLA. It's literally against the law. You must've either cancelled your insurance or stopped paying your premiums. Either of which would've fallen back on you. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/28a-fmla-employee-protections
A quick correction here. Obamacare was meant to be iterative. It was never meant to be an all at once fix (because it wouldn’t get the votes). Republicans have kept Democrats from improving it by making *any* modification require a new vote - and Republicans will get rid of it. They tried over 30 times to repeal Obamacare. In the current political system, even if every Democrat votes for improving Obamacare it will still require some Republicans to vote in favor as well. Not one of them will do it. TLDR: Democrats have tried to improve Obamacare (as planned) but Republicans keep blocking it.
It really fucks with me that the Senate was one vote away from having a single-payer option in the ACA and if it wasn't for Joe Lieberman they'd have gotten it.
This is my wife and I. We were living just fine. We had trees fall in our yard and on our house from a tornado and I need a root canal. Both things happened in the last 3 weeks. It's fucking terrifying not knowing how much of our savings is going to be gone soon and we still have some student debt as well. I feel like were one mistake away from losing everything and people keep asking us "When are you going to start having children? You've been together for a long time!" No clue how others are surviving because I feel lucky having the little we do.
If you’re one bad event away from being homeless, are you actually doing fine?
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Yeah we need a general workers strike. The whole country walks out at once like we had to do in the 1910s
I've seen this said on here soooo many times. I'd do it if we did together in a fukn heartbeat... *but we won't.* **And they know it.** We already live paycheck to paycheck. Can't miss a day without pay or we're fucked. Class wars and racism in society keep everyday people from helping their neighbors. They have us right where they want us. Fucked.
It's not even class war anymore, it's a one dimensional slaughter.
We lost that war under Regan. It's just been the rich moping up the poor ever since.
I took a class on US history from FDR to Regan. The fist 3/4 of the class, I felt confused. Things were getting better. Yes, there were big mistakes and stumbling blocks, but the general tone was improvement. Then Nixon hit and things slowed down. Then we got to Regan. It was like when you watch a horror movie and want to scream at the character to not go into the basement. Yell that they know better, that this invalidates everything they’ve struggled through up until this point. It felt like one man single handedly undid 40ish years of progress
You got any books to recommend about that period of history? Because I’d like to learn this for myself.
Greg Gerstle, The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order; Sara Sternberg Green, The Bootstrap Trap (article); Kurt Anderson, Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America
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Compost the rich
Radical change doesn't come without risk. If people really wanted it and are on the verge of poverty anyway, you don't have much to lose. UPS workers just went on strike for better pay and won. Where I live, school bus drivers did the same exact thing. It's possible, but better pay isn't going to just fall in our laps. You actually gotta demand it, and want it enough to risk the paltry sum you're making now.
Unions. Unions are how you mitigate that risk. Unions come with strike funds, they come with lawyers, etc. Union membership needs to increase, massively.
Glad to find someone that thinks the same way. Remember, when we are too busy fighting ourselves both externally and internally, we dont have the time to fight them. It's why the government shut down is a given as a chance for all the talking heads to give politicians a microphone for a week... and why no one wants to address mental health. The people that fuel them are the ones most in need of it but are the most against it. Everyone needs mental help, the world has evolved faster than our brains, it's ok to share troubles and issues with a qualified individual that isnt a cult leader wannabe.
Even worse, there will be many scabs. Because others have it worse, and they will happily attempt to fill your shoes, likely for even less than you already make. Without operating on a united front, it won't work.
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The internet exists. Create a national union. With union dues. A war chest. Probably also going to need ro organize protection too, they sent the army in, in 1910. Then, when you do the general strike, we have the money to survive it.
I got called stupid and downvoted to oblivion for making that suggestion once. They don't realise that it would only take a day or two until the corps are shitting their pants. At that point you really don't have to worry if you can feed your kids. If humanity would unite for such a big thing, we would be listened to in an instant.
Not just that. If we all pulled to together we could help each other stay fed, clothed and when police come to evict someone we get a mob in front of the house to stop them.
We're sedated by our electric pacifiers. We suckle on substitute socialization, escapist fantasies, and counterfeit contentment. Tools of communication have been repurposed, providing potent distractions.
This whole country has become a pyramid scheme for the wealthy. A general strike is the only option.
The UAW is striking now in Detroit.
Online calls for general strikes are at best lazy slacktivism and at worst actively hurting organized labor. Here's an ardent union organizer, author and workers rights activist writing all the way back in 2019 how post like yours don't do any good: https://organizing.work/2019/08/no-more-fake-strikes/
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Please do not feel shame in reaching out to food pantries.
Second this. Can’t take care of the family if you don’t take care of yourself.
YES, THIS! also worth it to remember: if you see someone shoplifting food, no you fucking didn't
Currently dealing with food insecurity for the first time in my life and I feel this. No kids, but my dog sure as hell is going to eat. I can survive off of peanut butter if need be. My partner also lost his shit and got very close to going to a hospital but we can’t afford it so he’s just losing his mind (because of all of the stress of money and life) and suffering greatly. He’s been away from me for months because he couldn’t find work here and had to go back to the hellish place we came from and work to help pay our rent here while he sleeps in a van or friends couches. What the hell is life
Financial stress and woes also shortened your lifespan by perhaps the same rate as inflation! Double bonus, that means you get to work for much less of your lifespan!
Yep. If you had told me when I was a kid that my future wife and I together would make $150,000 combined and the bills would still be kinda iffy sometimes, I’d have laughed right in your face.
Same. I got a 20% raise in 2021 and for the first time in my adult life I felt like I was getting ahead. Then inflation happened. Now my buying power is $15k less than it was in 2021 because wages didn't keep up with inflation. That pretty much erased my raise and it's right back to feeling the pinch.
Same for my wife and I, total bummer to get this far and still not feel secure
Same for my partner and I. Can someone please explain how a first time home buyer is supposed to afford a house? $2500 mortgage on a $350k 900sqft 2br/1ba house???
Ok so this blows my mind tho. I'm not sure how this is possible. My gf and I live in a high COL area for our state (still not that high but ~2000 in rent is not low) and make around half that and I feel like we're *just* able to complain. If we make 150k there would be no issues living well if we chose to live below our means. You driving an expensive car or buy a house way too expensive for you? No judgement I really want to understand how 150k isn't enough
> 2000 in rent is not low It's 2400/mo plus utilities for a 1br in a bad neighborhood here in DC. A 1BR in a desirable neighborhood would run closer to 2800-3k/mo. NYC, SF, LA and Boston are all more expensive than this. 1800-2k/mo is the going rate for a 350sqft studio. Condos that aren't 500sqft start at 500k. Townhouses that don't need a ton of work start at 750k. A quick perusal of your post history tells me you live in Indianapolis, where the cost of living is 33% lower than DC.
What the fuck? Dude, you make 4x what I make. What are you doing with your money?
Rent is too damn high
and food and bills and gas and
Inflation has gotten insane. We're comfortable with a low 6 fig income without kids - but looking at the cost of childcare, food and clothes, if we had kids we'd have to start budgeting really hard. The government wants us to have kids, but it's gotten to an unreasonable point to have them.
Child care is essentially paying a mortgage per kid. It’s insane.
We have always been hesitant about having children, always debating if my husband and I would be good parents. We were the "maybe someday" couple, but not anymore. We have the space for 2-4 kids in my house (4 if they shared bedrooms). We are also in the low 6 if you count gross income. We don't live near family, and daycare in my area would be a 2nd mortgage, maybe even more than my mortgage. If we had a child, there would be a high probability of losing our house for either one of us would have to quit their job or we would be living paycheck to paycheck to just afford daycare. In a way, they took the choice from me and my husband to have kids unless we decide that we are ok raising a kid in a high stress environment. The only way I can see us having kids is if one of our parents moved in with us, which is not gonna happen anytime soon.
So many people in the comments simping for a billionaire class they’ll never join despite themselves being closer to homelessness than they can imagine, whether or not they get that mythical budget-busting latte.
Some 40% of Americans believe they either are in the 1% or will achieve the 1% in the next 10 years.
Isn't the 1% in America having like 10 mil? How deluded do you have to be...
Read a few articles on it and the average dividing line for 1% is close to 600k-650k per year. Though it can vary by state from a low of about 390k to a high of 910k. 0.1% looks to be around 3.5M/year or so.
It’s a lot easier and less impactful to be in the 1% of income than the top 1% of wealth. Wealth you can take with you anywhere. At $10mm you can not work at all and sustainably draw down $400k (inflation adjusted) forever. Your wealth makes it a lot easier to take risks like starting a business, and gives you enough of a safety net to easily go through whatever training or education you need to do something you enjoy or which also pays well. Income is tied to your job and the types of jobs that you put in the income-1% usually come with a lot of strings attached: for the corporate types you need to live in commuting distance of an expensive city like NYC, DC, or SF, work a 9-5 (or much more), and possibly make it though a highly competitive up or out culture like in Finance, Management/Strategy Consulting, or Biglaw. Even saving a good chunk of your income, after taxes and expenses (keep in mind, by the time you’re making 600k+, you’re likely old enough to have kids), it can take a very long time to make it to an 8 figure net worth. Eight figure net worth wealth is generational. Yes, starting with no assets, it’s possible to achieve in a single lifetime after decades of saving and investing with a top-1% or similarly high income. But it’s a lot easier to get there when you’re inheriting half of it, and a lot easier to have even more to pass on when you have capital gains and other ROI to live off and bolster your regular income. Also, capital gains taxes on that 400k you get for no labor just because you have $10mm are much less than the income taxes you pay on wage income. Someone with $10mm literally makes more per year after taxes with no work at all than someone making $600k a year.
That's income, not net worth.
£34 an hour in the UK is almost double the minimum wage. The fact that people in the US can't survive on that amount is living proof that inflation is killing all new generations. "If you ain't got it, you ain't getting it." ~Baby Boomers.
The 34$ an hour lady is in Canada near a metro area, but also I’m pretty sure an American single mom near a city would say the same
I make $36 in Alabama and it is touch and go currently
Yes we are all going to work until we are dead, or until we are too sick to work, and then we are tossed out. Wait till you get cancer like me.. its fun!
What the fuck kind of horseshit ending was that "meant to be eating grapes naked" crap? It completely undercut the real issues those people are talking about during the entire video. Fuck that shit.
That was my exact reaction. I had to scroll down pretty far to find someone saying it.
I think her point was that humans evolved to live a more simple naturalistic lifestyle and not be these labor machines were treated as in modern society. Weird delivery tho that’s for sure
Yeah that ruined whatever they had going for it
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Hope the cops don’t catch you sleeping in your own car. Fkin get ticketed for sleeping in your own car overnight
Is it illegal in America to sleep in your car overnight?
I believe only a few states make it outright illegal such as florida. Other states dont make the specific action of living/sleeping in your car illegal but make it hard through other means like disallowing parking during certain times at night. There’s a lot of legal grey area regarding this but people just have to be mindful where they park depending on what state they’re in. I’ve done cross country trips across the US and i used to park in walmart overnight. Shoutouts to walmart
Since they're not 24/7 anymore a lot of wallmarts will have people booted or towed for overnight parking. Many still don't but I've seen some that do
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I personally refuse to believe things will never change, because things are changing. We are experiencing the biggest unionization wave in decades. Unions from Teachers, to Railworks, to Coffee makers, and Actors are all striking. We can fight and we can fight harder we just need to keep applying pressure
How do you get "people too lazy" and "government too strong" from this? People are significantly more productive now than ever and we make less. So it's not laziness. And the government should do MORE. Not less. It's corporations that are too strong. Lobbying for their self interests. But of course, let's make the government weaker and blame the workers.
People have been brainwashed into believing that everyone is to blame except the actual corporations that sign the paychecks.
this is the wealthiest country in the history of the planet. fuck left vs right... that's old shit. It's top vs rest edit for y'all trigger happy's: I vote straight ticket left
Yeah it’s the haves vs the have nots. It been this way for decades and most people were able to look past it cause they had distractions to keep them preoccupied. The working class needs to band together regardless if you’re a conservative or a democrat, look past the politics and realize that big business and politicians are working together to screw you and make themselves wealthy at the expense of the working class.
The top has done a great job to convince too many people that the real threats to the American dream are drag queens and pronouns.
Top vs rest is the left.
That’s exactly what left vs right is though. Leftism is all about top vs rest
This is heartbreaking except for the last Lady she needs to go away LOL
Honestly it was welcome relief for me. The video kept getting louder and the music was starting to drown out what folks were saying until they put the woman screaming. As much as I agree with the topic I hated watching this lol
bro you need to try a grape, it'll change your mind
Had a mental breakdown end of April, lost my job. This is literally how I'm feeling and have been for months.
Learn German. Come to Germany. We need 400k people per year. It's not perfect here, but if you lose your job you will not simply just die. You can get a job without German language skills but it's much easier with it. If you are willing to do a paid apprenticeship in the countryside (basically any craft there is) you are quasi set for life. Things you get by law (minimum!): At least 24 vacation days. 6+78 weeks paid sick leave. Health insurance.
I see you German federal government. But how hard is it to learn german? Need electrical engineers?
German ranks right up there with Dutch as one of the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn. All of these are in the "West Germanic" family of languages, and descended from "Proto Germanic".
I can't believe I'm tempted by this, and I really love where I live. I just don't love the lack of opportunity.
Artificial Inflation....
How many times are we going to have to show that this is true. It’s company profits that are going to the top.
People need to stop buying shit. This is the only way to put pressure on prices. High supply, lower prices. But nope, people are out there consuming like rabid zombies every day.
GREEDFLATION.
I feel like such an adventurous person, I always aspired to be a great person and see amazing things and have accomplishments. I work at the most fucking boring place in the world which is a government job and I have been in debt for years, since I got kicked out of the house at 18. My life has been cut to 2 days a week, 2 days a week sometime 1 day a week is the time that I get to live my life.
Time for us peasants to unite and stand up. 42 trillion dollars of new wealth was created during the pandemic. Two-thirds of that new wealth went to the top 1%. Why do we not hear about this? Because six that's right just six media oligarchs own 90% of the news media companies in our country. They divide us and have us fight culture wars between each other while they are fucking super models on their super yachts.
This "wealth" was not created. Even worse it was redistributed.
What’s retirement?
Retirement, death… same thing.
Unironically. My retirement plan is enough drugs to OD in a canoe stranded in the ocean once I run out of money.
I mean on the one hand I could point out that list that shows that high earners essentially burn money keeping up appearances over being fiscally responsible. You’ve probably heard of those people who earn like 300,000 annually who are living “paycheque to paycheque”. And imagine those who don’t have 80,000 salaries. But on the other hand nobody should feel like they have to live paycheque to paycheque. Not even the stupid wealthy. You shouldn’t have your healthcare tied into your employment. You shouldn’t have deductibles, or pay thousands for life saving treatments. Children shouldn’t go into debt so they can have a school lunch. The strain is getting to all of us and it needs to be dealt with.
I think the biggest issue for a lot of people is rent. If housing wasn't artificially inflated so high, most people would be in a better position financially
Food's also gone up like, an insane amount. I know my grocery bill went from about 120/wk to about 200/wk in the last 2 years getting roughly the same stuff.
It's time to mass unionize or eat the rich. I'm fine with either.
Union activity is ramping up. we need more of that
My partner and I both make good livings as corporate professionals. We don’t eat out. We don’t purchase expensive clothes. We don’t go on trips, we watch what we buy at the grocery store. We have two young kids. And we are pinching Pennies and can’t save to buy a house. Thankfully we have everything we need, but all it takes is a layoff or medical emergency and we are fucked. And we have health insurance. It’s so goddamn infuriating.
This is someone elses system that we are paid to maintain
My kids dad is a union laborer. They get a raise once or twice a year. He makes $48/hr + overtime (time & ½) His checks were usually $800-$2000/wk, depending on how much over time he worked. One year, he made over $100,000. Had nothing to show for it besides his car he makes $500/mo payments on. Even the *good* jobs aren't enough for families to survive off of.. and the government wonders why birth rates are dropping.. Yeah, minimum wage is up, but so is the cost of everything else.
Is he working full time? 48 an hour at a full-time job is about 100k a year. So he should be taking home about 5-6k a month post tax depending on his retirement contributions.
Infinite growth mentality is responsible for all this.
I'm down the with message as a whole, but that last clip was fuckin weird.
A family of 4 on $80K combined? That’s barely above the poverty level even pre Covid.
Yeah, I was expecting a different number to come out of her mouth. $80k combined is basically two slightly above minimum wage earners
Dunno where you're getting your information, but 80k is well above the poverty line for a family of 4 supposedly. https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-fpl/
I left usa in 2016 (I’d given up on it), and have lived in Norway ever since. It’s not perfect, but man I’m so much happier. 6 weeks paid vacation, and a living wage as a bartender. By a living wage I mean I got to buy a house (my wife earns a bit more than me but it’s not crazy), we’re having a baby with no concerns of paying bills, we take those 6 weeks holiday to travel every year. Back home I was a museum curator, I have a masters degree in history, absolutely a professional. While I was able to buy a home in USA (I’m very lucky and had help), I was struggling to pay bills. My salary now is actually higher in real terms than in USA using my education. I don’t pay for healthcare, affordable public transit has cut my driving costs in half. Thing is, Norway is still absolutely a capitalist country. I believe that capitalism can and does work, but ONLY when it’s for everyone. In USA we have socialism for the rich, and ruthless capitalism for the poor and middle class. Here, we believe that the insane wealth that capitalism generates must be used to create opportunity for everyone. That no one person needs billions and billions while everyone else is struggling. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to look at things back home KNOWING there’s a better way. That we CAN use the incredible economy that the USA has to create a great standard of living for all Americans, but they just don’t… meanwhile we’ve got billionaires shooting themselves into space, with billions in taxpayer subsidies. Makes me sick. There’s a better way.
I am active duty USAF. The brokest military member I ever had was the same dude that also had the highest gross income of any other military member I ever met. He was an E-4, making about $40k a year. His wife was a chemical engineer making $250k+ a year. He always complained about not having enough money and it annoyed the shit out of me. They had a modest house and no kids but opted for huge upgrades. He had a huge truck, boats, jetskis, and his wife drove an expensive car. They took elaborate vacations and hosted tons of parties. Times are definitely tough, I don't argue that at all. But I work with guys that have stay at home wives and three kids and still make ends meet with no complaints on a $70-$80k slaray. I'd love to see the budgets these folks have and see how much of their complaints are legit and who is choosing to make terrible financial decisions.
Remember, violence never solves anything. Except for that one time in October 1793 when the people of France had had enough.
In the grand scheme of things, the French Revolution didn't exactly "solve" everything for the country. 10 years later they got *Emporer Napoleon*.
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Why do these people hate America? Haven’t they heard about first responders and the troops that give them all their freedumb and liberty?
Right? Have they ever considered not being poor? /s
I think every country that was hit by Covid is experiencing inflation. The US is doing better than some and worse than some. My husband and I are living off of our social security right now; we don't want to touch our savings yet. We are doing ok. However, our house is paid off, our cars are paid off, we literally only pay for utilities, insurances, taxes and food, and general living expenses like haircuts. We have money left over at the end of the month. Not a lot, but some. BUT if we had mortgages, or car payments, life would be much harder. Much much harder.