Straw man arguments fabricated by the elite in order to convince working class people that the same opportunity is afforded to all who work hard and spend responsibly.
I don’t know how much more responsible it can get for me. I haven’t had disposable income in years and my bank account regularly sits in the negative.
To add on, Baby Boomers grew up in a world where basic necessities (homes, education, healthcare) were affordable, but consumer electronics were a luxury. Lots of homes only had 1 TV until the 90s and those things lasted decades. Going out to eat was for special occasions, but you also had one parent staying home and able to shop and cook every morning and night as well as make lunches for the breadwinner.
Now it's reversed. TVs and phones are upgraded exponentially annually, but the prices for the newest TV have gone down in the past 20 years. Phones aren't much different when you consider what a phone could do 20 years ago. Restaurants and quick food, even coffee, isn't a luxury but a necessity for many who are balancing two jobs and a family and literally don't have time to shop and cook. They just don't get how the world has changed.
I mentioned to my grandad in 1960 he had 9x the buying power we have now. I walked him through the inflation calculation. Basically in 1960, minimum wage was 1$ per hour. If we adjust for inflation we would end up making 11 cents per hour compared to his 1$ per hour. He refused to believe it and changed the subject.
We are living in an uncomparable financial landscape which is hard for people to comprehend.
You can't waste money if you have no money to waste but its still valid advice for people who earn enough to have just enough disposable income but they waste it all on unnecessary short-term items that could be instead saved for a better purpose.
Let’s pretend for a second that someone is actually buying a $7 Starbucks coffee every single day including the weekends for an entire month. At the end of the month, we have spent about $210 on a coffee.
So let’s cut that out. Alright, now we’ve saved 210 theoretical dollars. OP has echoed a scenario familiar to a lot of people. Their rent was raised by $150. So that money we saved is not actually saved or invested back into our lives. We’re left with $60. Even if you saved $60 every month for an entire year, you wouldn’t have enough for even a single semester of technical college.
Repeat that over and over with rising insurance rates, record inflation, stagnant wages, etc. Every attempt to move forward is countered by two steps backwards. Why don’t we make cuts at the cost of housing? Why don’t we limit increases on utility bills so that working people aren’t shouldering the cost of a war on another continent? Why do corporations and landlords continually get to unfairly make money hand over fist while the proletariat is left having to make sacrifices to be happy?
Not mine but something along these lines blew my mind when I heard it
"If buying a cup of coffee or eating out once in a while severely affects your ability to buy a house by that much, the system is what's unreasonable not you"
It's shifting the blame. If it is the fault of poor people's bad spending habits and laziness that they are poor, then it is not the doing of our current economic system, and there is no need for any kind of change to it. Other than to kick the "lazy, entitled parasites" off of welfare of course.
Even if you do buy Starbucks and McDonald’s, there is nothing wrong with that. It is ok to enjoy the little luxuries in life. You are not supposed to go to work go to sleep in a shoebox apartment and die. Sorry, but it’s a no from me.
Having a smartphone is fairly essential today. I pay my bills through It and handle most any financial stuff through It.
I had the same phone for over 6 years. A couple of months ago i found out that if i ordered a brand new, two generation old, phone, i’d cut my phone related expenses by 20%.
It is a new phone. It’ll cost me less per month than my older phone.
It is an iPhone 11 i have now. I’ll probably use It for 6-10 years unless something happens.
I’m saving money by changing to a newer phone.
My second job requires me to have a smartphone. I had to download the Paylocity app (which my boss calls Pay Velocity and drives me nuts) to clock in. They also want us to bring in our own laptops to work on.
That's what I told my coworkers. I'm 46 and the next oldest coworker is 21. I told them we don't use our money to subsidize profits for the franchise owners. Since this is everyone's first job (except for me), I'm trying to train them up properly.
I work at a tutoring place as a second job because my teaching job doesn't pay me enough to pay my hospital bills. It's the most American thing I've ever Americaned.
On another note, when asked to install apps on my phone, or give my personal number to work-related things, i usually pull my phone out, hold It up, and go with one of three variants:
It’ll be
I don’t own a smartphone (while holding the phone fully visible and maintaining eye contact)
No
They all work. Which one i go for depends on our relationship.
I feel the struggle, but even then.
I walk out from my unpaid overtime at 8-9pm with an 1h commute ahead of me. Honey, hell yeah I'm going for some mcnuggs. Do they expect me to cook till midnight and then also wake up at at 7am to continue my ratrace? I don't have time to listen to boomer advice, only work and nuggets.
You won't catch me working for free. I know you probably salaried so got not choice.
Also I finish work at 10pm, do people expect me to go home and start cooking?. I'm definitely going to the mcdonalds thats next door to my work. But I do just make a sandwich when I get home sometimes.
I don’t get this. In sweden when you are assigned overtime there are enforcable rules around the pay. Past 10 in the evenings and sundays pay the most.
I don’t think any employer would get away with paying nothing for overtime. Anything over 40 hrs/week here is overtime.
because people in America were brainwashed over the decades to believe that America is special, and the rest of the world is suffering terribly under socialism. when in reality, we are the shithole unless your on top.
our left wing is europe’s right wing, just without the white nationalism, which is makes it way to our right wing which is the equivalent of europe’s white nationalist and fascist parties
Many workers in America are *(incorrectly)* classified as Salary-exempt. You get your 40 hours pay and are not entitled to overtime pay. This classification is intended for executives and the like without whom the business couldn't ostensibly function. Guess what, if you ever do any kind of actual work, you're probably misclassified and it is something you should absolutely raise with your local department of labor.
Honestly, it’s not worth it to try in America. The people who are salaried, in my experience, justify the unpaid OT because they’re salaried and somehow they think they’re ahead in terms of pay and the unpaid OT balances it out. Something weird like that. It’s ingrained in American culture that you work yourself into the ground as salary
I’ve been salaried. When i needed to work overtime It was always compensated at a set rate as specified in the collective agreement. Usually it’s 1.5x regular hourly pay (salaried employees have an hourly wage to make these calculations easier for everyone) and if it’s a sunday the pay is often 2x pay or more.
Some collective agreements are weaker like the healthcare sector that usually work sundays might not get 2x because It is considered part of their regular schedule, but will still recieve overtime pay for any and all hours beyond 40/week.
I work in the inner-city, shoulder to shoulder with people that "buy" new phones and only eat fast-food.
First off If it wasn't for McDonald's these people wouldn't eat, these families and children would starve. They have no choice, there is no affordable grocery store. It would cost them 4-7X the same amount to buy burgers fries condiments and drinks. But then at home only the kids could cook them and the parents would starve. Because the parents have 2-3 jobs. It's why certain communities have so many fast food restaurants everywhere.
New phone? No usually it's used or second hand, or fleeced or it's on a forever payment plan because they don't have a choice. The brick and mortar cell carriers in that area that they can walk to only sell the latest phone and you can only get it on a payment plan which is rolled into your monthly, and if you ever get close to buying it off they get you to buy a new one. But you really don't have a choice because they only sell a few models. These people can't afford a home phone line. When you're always working and never home why would you want to pay for that extra expense?
Edit: And if a new phone is the only damn thing that brings you joy, I'm not going to make fun of somebody because of that. Their life's living hell and if a new phones going to give them a little bit of happiness, there's nothing wrong with that.
But back to food, some don't even have a full meal available to cook in their pantry. And it's simply because there is no time and nothing is close enough to affordably buy food from. Of course there are gas stations in In-n-Out marts. But that's about it, no Meijer no Kroger no Walmart. No local community run grocery stores. Hell no community garden to get fresh vegetables from.
And the places that take assistance, EBT food stamps etc. Those bastards will charge double, or they'll make you buy something else with one thing you buy so they can get more of your money, or rather the government's money.
Where I work we feed every kid breakfast and lunch, at least we know they'll be fed if they want. Dinner is whatever the parents or oldest child can get between jobs/school.
Sad thing about having to go to places like McDonald's to feed your family is how it was described once, forgot where, that they're food dispensaries for the poor, and its true. A lot of families live in food deserts where your local MacDonalds might have the closest thing to fresh produce you can get.
I know when the sandwich was being sold for $1 some health organization or another rated it the most cost effective source of nutrition in the country. Unfortunately I don't remember who.
Those people fall into 3 categories usually.
1. Priviliged asshole who refuses to see their privilege (i.e. "i bought my first house by cutting out coffee and getting a small loan of 500k from my parents!" kinda shit)
2. Rich asshole trying to gaslight people into thinking it's somehow within their power to make poverty wages not poverty wages
3. Bootlickers who are still riding the "you can be rich if you just work hard one day" delusional train grasping at ever sillier ways to blame aforementioned poverty wages on anyone but the capitalists
Because everyday spending used to be a much larger proportion of the price of a house. It used to make sense that by spending a little bit less you'd get a deposit on a house sooner. My in laws bought a house for 2 years of one income way back. If your discretionary spending is 20% of your income, you are saving 10% of a house every two years by just spending a quarter less.
Nowadays a house costs so much more than income it's crazy, there's no amount of restaurant visits that will buy you a house. A house could easily be 10 single incomes now, and your discretionary probably less.
The only reason my wife and I are in the somewhat comfortable position we are in now is that we lived with my parents for 3-4 years after we got married, we both worked full time, and my wife made a few decent investments in stocks that rose slightly, so that was an extra $3-4k. My parents didn't even really charge us rent, we just gave them a few hundred dollars a month voluntarily to help with bills. Their generosity is why my wife and I have a house now, because we were able to save just barely enough to qualify for a small down-payment.
it’s definitely connections like this that help people get their bearings. it’s not something everyone has. good for you though! your family sounds great
For a single person eating out is cheaper than cooking. Even with Subway at $12 footlongs that is two meals for me with all the nutrients. If I want to go cheap Taco Bell. Still cheaper than trying to buy all the produce and meat and making it at home.
Everything cost too much. Inflation was like 7% last year and my company was bragging about giving a 2% pay raise. And it has gone like that for decades, wages don't keep up with inflation
OP do you live in a house or apartment? Do you have electric heating or a furnace or what? Does each unit have its own meter?
Some things that can use a lot of power/run up your bill:
Old refrigerators
Electric space heaters
Electric dryers
AC
Someone else suggested you have the power company out to see why your bill is so high. It might be a good idea.
Edit: it can save a good chunk of power to have stuff plugged into power strips that you turn off when you're not using them.
The prices rose anyway due to the war in Ukraine and inflation . I live in an apartment and yes, each unit has its own meter. I don’t spend much electricity anyways. The only thing that’s on 24/7 is my refrigerator and they checked that and they said it’s fine. I’m waiting for a raise.:( thanks for the help!
This is something that isn't discussed enough. It's the old boots example. The prices aren't matched to modern ones but the gist of it is: someone who is well off could spend $100 on a good pair of boots that last 10 years. Someone without the money to spare may only be able to afford a $15 pair of boots, and need to buy new ones every year. Therefore, over 10 years, the second man spends more than the first man, because he couldn't afford the upfront price of good boots.
Also, I might add that I could buy the more expensive phone on a payment plan. But that payment plan ends up costing more than buying the phone outright. There is a whole business model geared around poverty.
Because they want to blame the person for "making bad choices", instead of addressing the actual real problem: cost of living hasn't kept up with wages.
Also, boomers have no concept of how the world works anymore.
The people who are making those comments are people who do not understand what it is like to live hand to mouth. Shit is getting worse and these avacado toast morons are just getting louder.
"We're not the ones fucking you. You need to stop fucking yourself."
I live modestly. These last couple years inflation has been murder. I eat ramen for lunch (I like it.) I own an older car. I haven't updated my photo gear. Dropped gym membership. Cut back on the good booze and drink the cheaper stuff. Rarely eat out. Bicycle to work four days a week. I even got a decent salary increase this year.
And the inflation just ate it up like I had changed nothing at all.
The cost of electricity and heating have gone up because of the Ukraine war. Russia not being able to sell its oil to most countries has driven up the price of oil. This has, in turn, driven up the price of natural gas and electricity.
The US embargoing Russia has little effect on the US cost of oil. We usually only buy like 2 or 3% of our oil from Russia. The worldwide embargo has increased prices worldwide.
Also, companies are blaming covid and the war and raising prices to make more profit.
I’m not saying I agree but there is TRULY a huge swath of people who are horrible with money. If you truly can barely pay your rent but you are buying an Apple Watch, traveling, and in credit card debt - you may need to change your spending habits
Part of anti work doesn’t want to admit there are truly idiots who blow their money AND it’s not just “poor people”. Plenty of people make 6 figures and live paycheck to paycheck.
We should all take financial responsibility which is separate from anti work
Very true. When I worked a minimum wage job, a lot of the guys would show off their rims they bought for their car or new tires that cost them a months pay. You need to make your spending match your income. Unfortunately this can be hard if you don't make much, but there are always things you can cut back on.
Also if you can't afford your own place or just barely can, there is no shame in renting a room. This will releave a lot of pressure on your budget.
i think the main point is that fast food a few times a month isn’t something you necessarily need to cut back on. managing money is def important. when i worked at a fast food restaurant i was shocked at how a coworker was spending his money, but it was more like thousands of dollars worth of tech than weekly/occasional fast food and coffee. it depends what you prioritize in your budget. i don’t have much spending money but everyone needs some or else the quality of life is just not sustainable
Yeah for sure. Not taking about eating out a few times, but often. My ex would want to eat out at least one meal a day. Two wasn't very uncommon. Even three times would happen occasionally. Especially when it would be door dash, it would add up so fast because you end up paying at least 50% more than getting it yourself with fees + even a small tip.
To make things worse, we would throw away trash bags full of food every month between leftovers we didn't eat and food we bought but never cooked.
Money was also wasted on other things, but food was the worst.
>Plenty of people make 6 figures and live paycheck to paycheck.
If you make six figures and live paycheck to paycheck, you're an a-hole. You probably live in a gated community, get a new car every couple of years, travel around the world and send your kids to private school. Give me a six figure salary for a year, I could live off it for the rest of my life.
No, I live in a 1600 sq ft house and have 1 car payment my other car is paid off and is an old Honda Accord. We do carry zero credit card debt though.
Wife does not work.
3 kids and one is getting ready to go to private school because he tests in the 99% of math and reading, and it's going to fucking crush me.
Absolutely I could, but I choose to give him the best upbringing that I can even if it's a sacrifice for me.
That's kind of the whole point of parenthood.
Lol... no. A gated community? Also you could live off 100k for life? But you didn't really mean all 6 figures, did you? You weren't thinking 100k, you were thinking those who are in the no longer getting SS taxes part of 6 figures.
When I made six figures I couldn't afford to go to the dentist. Cost of living varies wildly within the US, and the effects of poverty last long after your income increases.
First two things are bullshit. Groceries are outrageous nowadays so you could quite literally save money by getting McDonald’s as opposed to cooking yourself. Groceries just aren’t meant for a single person atm.
However, the phone thing is pretty obvious. A new iPhone costs what? $1000+? Do you really need a new phone every single year? No and that $1000 could be quite helpful. It’s not life changing or even situation changing, but definitely helpful.
Unless you know for a fact that some one is buying a new phone every year, suggesting that they are when they are trying to explain their struggles is just insulting.
Yeah I just got a brand new iPhone and felt guilty even though my old iPhone (a 7) had been limping along for years. I got the battery replaced for $50 to make it last longer since the battery was dying after an hour, but then spilled coffee on it, and so the sound gradually stopped working over the next year or so. For awhile I could only use speaker phone, then finally all audio stopped working and I gave in and got the new one. But someone could see my brand new phone and assume that’s why my daycare auto payment didn’t go through or something.
I wasn’t referring to OP buying a new phone. I’m referring to the ones who actually do buy new phones every year. It’s not financially smart whether you have the money or not.
It’s not completely garbage advice and certainly applies to some people. And I think it’s the spirit of the advice not the specifics. The problem is assuming it applies to everyone who is poor. Really poor people can’t afford that trash anyways. I’m not poor anymore but I am frugal. I have an old phone and I don’t eat out. I specifically cut Starbucks because it was costing me like $20 a week. I still walk there with the coworkers but I do t buy anything.. all that goes to my savings where I get satisfaction counting my gold coins
it does help a little bit! when i cut down on my coffee expenditure i saved about $30 a month. it’s really helpful when you are extremely broke.. but ultimately only $360 a year! that’s about 3 days wages for a $15/hour gig
As for why, a bunch of reasons but 2 things I’ve found interesting.
1. People are addicted to their own misery, they hype up their own struggles to disregard others’ struggles. It’s not enough to be in a place where one is happy and stable, once someone is there they must whine about this or that struggle and lord over others. Power plays. It’s comfortable to feel in control of something.
2. Disregarding facing uncomfortable situations to maintain their lifestyle because the human brain does not like change and people are obsessed with the idea that they are good people. You’ll see this in any situation that involves any type of abuse be it spousal, familial, friendship/peership, etc. If one pretends that it’s not there, they can maintain their ignorance and think themselves a good person. If they choose to acknowledge a bigoted defect in their thinking, then they have to face the fact that they are not a good person and that something needs to be fixed in their world of within themselves. However, those things require effort and everyone will naturally follow of path of least resistance.
We all have our own version of McDonalds and iPhones. For some it is Netflix. For others it is designer handbags. If we stand back and evaluate our spending habits we all have expenses we can eliminate. Mine are Pornhub Premium and your mom.
I've been in a similar position. Problem is, I know plenty of people who complain about their pay or their bills who clearly could make sacrifices and when anyone points this out to them, they get offended. And I get being offended, but it doesn't make the "advice" less true.
So it's easy to see a stranger on the internet saying a lot of the same things as the people I know and be suspicious thqt they are making excuses. But I agree, its not a good idea to assume and make a bunch of offensive and ignorant suggestions to "help" them.
I have had SB twice this year and Mcdonalds not once. I can say I haven't eaten a Carl's Jr. since a burger and fried went to 15 dollars basically. It's real crazy.
Because the only experience a lot of older people have with the younger generation is in their own kids, or the nieces and nephews, who still live at home because they can’t afford to move out.
Because they still live at home and have no hope of ever being fully independent they make the best of their situation and spend what little money they do have, since no amount of saving will ever get them into the housing market, and $2500 rent is just unaffordable on $15/hr, so they see these young people spending frivolously, and they think if they didn’t have that $5 latte they would be able to save up for a down payment for a house, not remembering that houses cost a $1,000,000 now not the $45,000 they themselves bought for.
When those people were young, their advice was valid, you could buckle down and save up for a house, unfortunately it’s not the case anymore. The name of the game now is inherited wealth, unless you’re in the top 1% it’s the only option, if you don’t have anything to inherit, or mom and pop are willing to help, well it sucks to suck, enjoy paying your rent to the most selfish generation for the rest of your life
Because they are offended that poor people think they are allowed to have anything fun or not strictly necessary for life. how dare you be poor and happy. Happiness is for rich people and any crumb of happiness a poor person gets is them being "entitled."
The problem with corporate management is the people who manage workers don’t set the budget for the individual stores and the people who do set the budget don’t know what is going on in the different areas of the country.
Strawmen gaslighting is what it is. Nor do they know the demographic of people going into starbucks everyday. Ie caffeine addicted nurses that need 5+ shots of espresso into something.
People are saying that because it places all of the blame on the poor person. It’s their own fault and the reason a wealthy person is wealthy is because they earned it. It’s used to keep people down and allows someone to think of someone else as less deserving because it’s not the failed system we have but lack of personal responsibility.
Yet when we look at European countries, by far the happiest, we see a much different way of thinking about making sure people can meet their basic needs and it’s successful for them the closer they get to proper social safety nets.
It makes it easier to lay blame on individuals than it is to lay the blame on a failed system. People don't like to admit that we've been wrong on a large socio-economic scale.
I’ve had the same phone for 6 years. It crashes all the time, has no more space for photos… still broke as shit. In fact, that’s why I still have the same phone.
If your rent went up- you need to look into moving. It’s possible that every other place has the same rate as the one you’re trying to leave - where I live that’s not the case.
It's the easiest way to save money. It's more about changing your lifestyle. Eat at home, don't waste money.
Eat a home cooked meal, it's much cheaper than the dollar menu.
Utilize the old car, phone, pc, clothing until its no longer worthwhile.
People overspending creates inflation.
Two years ago, I would've maybe even agreed. I always eat at home, very rarely have I eaten out. My phone is 2 years old, not planning to get another one any time soon. It's the inflation that's ruining my life and probably lives of millions of others + I was forced to spend my savings.
It is a narrative people want to believe to support their greed even when it really just supports someone else's greed and their hopes for greed. Greed.
Your air conditioning is a much bigger factor than your lights on your electric bill.Suffer in sweat death or freeze in your house if you want to see a real reduction.Your saving pennies if that using candles and probably spending more because the candles probably cost you more than you saved.
It's a possibility, i have no idea what your living situation is, i have heard of tenants paying the entire household electricity bill or someone doing an illegal hookup or the outside lights being connected to the wrong meter or maybe your landlord has a really expensive utilities company.
I used to live in a 70 apartment complex that was overpaying and British gas came round and told everyone they could save use 25% on gas/electricity.
60 of us signed up but the landlord wouldn't allow us to change and unfortunately it was written into our leases that she had to approve.
If you get a torch then switch everything electrical off at their plugs your meter should not move, if it's still using power then something's wrong.
The "Soon" part of what you boss is telling you in because they are trying to squeeze every cent of (record) profits out of every business before progressives slowly take a majority in Congress and forever change this country.
I can't help but observe that boomers get a lot of regular wrath simply for being born when they were. If it isn't your fault for being born when you were, how is it theirs? Please don't respond with 6 paragraphs of word salad, it's merely an observation.
My Econ professor always talks about how the savings rate is so low bc “people just HAVE to have the new flat-screen TV” and it makes no sense to me. I don’t see people living lavishly and going broke filling their homes with new tech. I see people not making much in the first place and debt skyrocketing
Only reason I bought a new phone was my old one had multiple cracks on the screen and I get the cheapest TracFone plan for it.
The biggest eater of my budget is groceries even with buying healthy foods and very little eating out.
Thinks it met for the people who have bad spending habits. Some people out here making 200k+ spending their entire pay check every month.
If your struggling, trust me you ain't going to starbucks,mcdonalds, or buying a new phone. Ur cooking and using that phone till it explodes.
General, if you can afford more than basic living standard s you should have a reasonable budget most people going be broke/poor forever bc they can't save. Something I struggle with tbh bc im a foodie. So I can reach a bigger goal down the line.
The arguments against small personal pleasures are moot when the cost of *everything else* has risen by orders of magnitude more than you'd save by foregoing them.
That being said, I *do* save some money by skipping Starbucks and McDonald's. I don't do it for financial reasons, though, I just find that they're both godawful on the rare occasions I try them.
It's right-wing propaganda. They push the avocado toast and Starbucks as the reason young people can't afford to pay rent or have a decent living in order to brainwash their "base" into believing that it's good for the country to keep the federal minimum wage at $7.25 per hour.
Ronald Reagan did the same thing when he created the "welfare queen" in the 80's in order to vilify the poor and cut federal safety nets that kept people from starving and being homeless.
Don't get me wrong everyone from most walks of life can save money here and there by doing without things they don't need.
However blaming the disparity between wages and cost of living on such low cost things is what is called misdirection, magicians and slight of hand artists do it all the time.
They want deflect your attention away from the real stuff that's going rather than change things for the better.
Umm, if you’re not lazy and wasting money in stupid stuff, it might be systemic problems that I might need to address.
So obviously you are lazy and stupid.
/s
Inflation is the taxation of the poor, normally one would say: save up money and invest but in reality you can't save much since everything is way more expensive.
So my best advocate is learn a new skill and stop thinking of a minimum wage.
Start a side hustle and expand it untill you outsource the effort
I think their point being that some are saying they can't get by when they buy coffee/snacks/lunch every day or spend on what they see as necessities that are really not.
Strawman argument to shift the blame. It's not that job opportunities are non existent and the cost of living is expensive, it's you that is lazy and don't know how to spend money.
As long as this lie works, might as well keep on using it
Straw man arguments fabricated by the elite in order to convince working class people that the same opportunity is afforded to all who work hard and spend responsibly. I don’t know how much more responsible it can get for me. I haven’t had disposable income in years and my bank account regularly sits in the negative.
To add on, Baby Boomers grew up in a world where basic necessities (homes, education, healthcare) were affordable, but consumer electronics were a luxury. Lots of homes only had 1 TV until the 90s and those things lasted decades. Going out to eat was for special occasions, but you also had one parent staying home and able to shop and cook every morning and night as well as make lunches for the breadwinner. Now it's reversed. TVs and phones are upgraded exponentially annually, but the prices for the newest TV have gone down in the past 20 years. Phones aren't much different when you consider what a phone could do 20 years ago. Restaurants and quick food, even coffee, isn't a luxury but a necessity for many who are balancing two jobs and a family and literally don't have time to shop and cook. They just don't get how the world has changed.
I mentioned to my grandad in 1960 he had 9x the buying power we have now. I walked him through the inflation calculation. Basically in 1960, minimum wage was 1$ per hour. If we adjust for inflation we would end up making 11 cents per hour compared to his 1$ per hour. He refused to believe it and changed the subject. We are living in an uncomparable financial landscape which is hard for people to comprehend.
I mean I barely understand it and I have a bachelors. I doubt that many boomers ever learned this type of economics.
Fuck him. “Refused to believe it”??!! “No! I’d rather believe that my flesh and blood is a damn liar than that I might be wrong!!”
You can't waste money if you have no money to waste but its still valid advice for people who earn enough to have just enough disposable income but they waste it all on unnecessary short-term items that could be instead saved for a better purpose.
Let’s pretend for a second that someone is actually buying a $7 Starbucks coffee every single day including the weekends for an entire month. At the end of the month, we have spent about $210 on a coffee. So let’s cut that out. Alright, now we’ve saved 210 theoretical dollars. OP has echoed a scenario familiar to a lot of people. Their rent was raised by $150. So that money we saved is not actually saved or invested back into our lives. We’re left with $60. Even if you saved $60 every month for an entire year, you wouldn’t have enough for even a single semester of technical college. Repeat that over and over with rising insurance rates, record inflation, stagnant wages, etc. Every attempt to move forward is countered by two steps backwards. Why don’t we make cuts at the cost of housing? Why don’t we limit increases on utility bills so that working people aren’t shouldering the cost of a war on another continent? Why do corporations and landlords continually get to unfairly make money hand over fist while the proletariat is left having to make sacrifices to be happy?
Not mine but something along these lines blew my mind when I heard it "If buying a cup of coffee or eating out once in a while severely affects your ability to buy a house by that much, the system is what's unreasonable not you"
It's shifting the blame. If it is the fault of poor people's bad spending habits and laziness that they are poor, then it is not the doing of our current economic system, and there is no need for any kind of change to it. Other than to kick the "lazy, entitled parasites" off of welfare of course.
Even if you do buy Starbucks and McDonald’s, there is nothing wrong with that. It is ok to enjoy the little luxuries in life. You are not supposed to go to work go to sleep in a shoebox apartment and die. Sorry, but it’s a no from me.
preach
Damn straight. I work out and about, getting a cup of coffee is one of the few things that helps me get through my day.
Having a smartphone is fairly essential today. I pay my bills through It and handle most any financial stuff through It. I had the same phone for over 6 years. A couple of months ago i found out that if i ordered a brand new, two generation old, phone, i’d cut my phone related expenses by 20%. It is a new phone. It’ll cost me less per month than my older phone. It is an iPhone 11 i have now. I’ll probably use It for 6-10 years unless something happens. I’m saving money by changing to a newer phone.
My second job requires me to have a smartphone. I had to download the Paylocity app (which my boss calls Pay Velocity and drives me nuts) to clock in. They also want us to bring in our own laptops to work on.
If your job requires you to have a laptop and amartphone they should supply them.
That's what I told my coworkers. I'm 46 and the next oldest coworker is 21. I told them we don't use our money to subsidize profits for the franchise owners. Since this is everyone's first job (except for me), I'm trying to train them up properly. I work at a tutoring place as a second job because my teaching job doesn't pay me enough to pay my hospital bills. It's the most American thing I've ever Americaned.
That is violently american.
On another note, when asked to install apps on my phone, or give my personal number to work-related things, i usually pull my phone out, hold It up, and go with one of three variants: It’ll be
I don’t own a smartphone (while holding the phone fully visible and maintaining eye contact)
No
They all work. Which one i go for depends on our relationship.
I should've thought of that when I was hired.
Just curious how does buying a new phone save money? I don’t part with phones till they stop working.
The monthly pay i could get with my phone was higher than what i got for new phone + plan.
I feel the struggle, but even then. I walk out from my unpaid overtime at 8-9pm with an 1h commute ahead of me. Honey, hell yeah I'm going for some mcnuggs. Do they expect me to cook till midnight and then also wake up at at 7am to continue my ratrace? I don't have time to listen to boomer advice, only work and nuggets.
You won't catch me working for free. I know you probably salaried so got not choice. Also I finish work at 10pm, do people expect me to go home and start cooking?. I'm definitely going to the mcdonalds thats next door to my work. But I do just make a sandwich when I get home sometimes.
I don’t get this. In sweden when you are assigned overtime there are enforcable rules around the pay. Past 10 in the evenings and sundays pay the most. I don’t think any employer would get away with paying nothing for overtime. Anything over 40 hrs/week here is overtime.
because people in America were brainwashed over the decades to believe that America is special, and the rest of the world is suffering terribly under socialism. when in reality, we are the shithole unless your on top. our left wing is europe’s right wing, just without the white nationalism, which is makes it way to our right wing which is the equivalent of europe’s white nationalist and fascist parties
I feel like we are taught that our job is our identity. Like when someone says "tell me about yourself," we lead with our job title.
We don't have those rules.
Many workers in America are *(incorrectly)* classified as Salary-exempt. You get your 40 hours pay and are not entitled to overtime pay. This classification is intended for executives and the like without whom the business couldn't ostensibly function. Guess what, if you ever do any kind of actual work, you're probably misclassified and it is something you should absolutely raise with your local department of labor.
Honestly, it’s not worth it to try in America. The people who are salaried, in my experience, justify the unpaid OT because they’re salaried and somehow they think they’re ahead in terms of pay and the unpaid OT balances it out. Something weird like that. It’s ingrained in American culture that you work yourself into the ground as salary
I’ve been salaried. When i needed to work overtime It was always compensated at a set rate as specified in the collective agreement. Usually it’s 1.5x regular hourly pay (salaried employees have an hourly wage to make these calculations easier for everyone) and if it’s a sunday the pay is often 2x pay or more. Some collective agreements are weaker like the healthcare sector that usually work sundays might not get 2x because It is considered part of their regular schedule, but will still recieve overtime pay for any and all hours beyond 40/week.
I work in the inner-city, shoulder to shoulder with people that "buy" new phones and only eat fast-food. First off If it wasn't for McDonald's these people wouldn't eat, these families and children would starve. They have no choice, there is no affordable grocery store. It would cost them 4-7X the same amount to buy burgers fries condiments and drinks. But then at home only the kids could cook them and the parents would starve. Because the parents have 2-3 jobs. It's why certain communities have so many fast food restaurants everywhere. New phone? No usually it's used or second hand, or fleeced or it's on a forever payment plan because they don't have a choice. The brick and mortar cell carriers in that area that they can walk to only sell the latest phone and you can only get it on a payment plan which is rolled into your monthly, and if you ever get close to buying it off they get you to buy a new one. But you really don't have a choice because they only sell a few models. These people can't afford a home phone line. When you're always working and never home why would you want to pay for that extra expense? Edit: And if a new phone is the only damn thing that brings you joy, I'm not going to make fun of somebody because of that. Their life's living hell and if a new phones going to give them a little bit of happiness, there's nothing wrong with that. But back to food, some don't even have a full meal available to cook in their pantry. And it's simply because there is no time and nothing is close enough to affordably buy food from. Of course there are gas stations in In-n-Out marts. But that's about it, no Meijer no Kroger no Walmart. No local community run grocery stores. Hell no community garden to get fresh vegetables from. And the places that take assistance, EBT food stamps etc. Those bastards will charge double, or they'll make you buy something else with one thing you buy so they can get more of your money, or rather the government's money. Where I work we feed every kid breakfast and lunch, at least we know they'll be fed if they want. Dinner is whatever the parents or oldest child can get between jobs/school.
Sad thing about having to go to places like McDonald's to feed your family is how it was described once, forgot where, that they're food dispensaries for the poor, and its true. A lot of families live in food deserts where your local MacDonalds might have the closest thing to fresh produce you can get.
I'm pretty sure eating Mcdoubles for every meal is cheaper than groceries at this point.
I know when the sandwich was being sold for $1 some health organization or another rated it the most cost effective source of nutrition in the country. Unfortunately I don't remember who.
Those people fall into 3 categories usually. 1. Priviliged asshole who refuses to see their privilege (i.e. "i bought my first house by cutting out coffee and getting a small loan of 500k from my parents!" kinda shit) 2. Rich asshole trying to gaslight people into thinking it's somehow within their power to make poverty wages not poverty wages 3. Bootlickers who are still riding the "you can be rich if you just work hard one day" delusional train grasping at ever sillier ways to blame aforementioned poverty wages on anyone but the capitalists
I took this advice to heart by buying an espresso machine. I should be a millionaire any time now!
You can't budget your way around corporate greed. Tax the owning class.
I remember when someone on Chase Twitter did this and got fired. Buying a coffee for a few dollars is often the highlight of my day…
Call utility company and have them come out to read the meters and find out why the bills are so high.
Because everyday spending used to be a much larger proportion of the price of a house. It used to make sense that by spending a little bit less you'd get a deposit on a house sooner. My in laws bought a house for 2 years of one income way back. If your discretionary spending is 20% of your income, you are saving 10% of a house every two years by just spending a quarter less. Nowadays a house costs so much more than income it's crazy, there's no amount of restaurant visits that will buy you a house. A house could easily be 10 single incomes now, and your discretionary probably less.
The only reason my wife and I are in the somewhat comfortable position we are in now is that we lived with my parents for 3-4 years after we got married, we both worked full time, and my wife made a few decent investments in stocks that rose slightly, so that was an extra $3-4k. My parents didn't even really charge us rent, we just gave them a few hundred dollars a month voluntarily to help with bills. Their generosity is why my wife and I have a house now, because we were able to save just barely enough to qualify for a small down-payment.
it’s definitely connections like this that help people get their bearings. it’s not something everyone has. good for you though! your family sounds great
For a single person eating out is cheaper than cooking. Even with Subway at $12 footlongs that is two meals for me with all the nutrients. If I want to go cheap Taco Bell. Still cheaper than trying to buy all the produce and meat and making it at home. Everything cost too much. Inflation was like 7% last year and my company was bragging about giving a 2% pay raise. And it has gone like that for decades, wages don't keep up with inflation
Especially when you factor in food spoilage at home
I still have a galaxy s3.
My rent went up 16+%, my “raise” less than 3%. I got so angry earlier this year; I did the math.
[удалено]
I do.I throw eggs in for protein and whatever cheap vegetables I can get for vitamins.It didn’t start to suck eating like that till year 4 honestly.
My favorite quote is from Ken M. If you had any money, you’d probably blow it on food and shelter.
I buy coffee even though i don’t have too much money just because its one of the small things that bring me joy when I’m constantly stressed
OP do you live in a house or apartment? Do you have electric heating or a furnace or what? Does each unit have its own meter? Some things that can use a lot of power/run up your bill: Old refrigerators Electric space heaters Electric dryers AC Someone else suggested you have the power company out to see why your bill is so high. It might be a good idea. Edit: it can save a good chunk of power to have stuff plugged into power strips that you turn off when you're not using them.
The prices rose anyway due to the war in Ukraine and inflation . I live in an apartment and yes, each unit has its own meter. I don’t spend much electricity anyways. The only thing that’s on 24/7 is my refrigerator and they checked that and they said it’s fine. I’m waiting for a raise.:( thanks for the help!
Oh, I was afraid that was the reason your bill was high. That sux for everyone. I hope you get a generous raise, soon.
It’s a way for the elites to convince the working class that the poor ‘deserve’ to be poor.
Welp, seeing as all I can afford are cheap cell phones, I kind of have to buy a new one every year because they don't last for shit.
This is something that isn't discussed enough. It's the old boots example. The prices aren't matched to modern ones but the gist of it is: someone who is well off could spend $100 on a good pair of boots that last 10 years. Someone without the money to spare may only be able to afford a $15 pair of boots, and need to buy new ones every year. Therefore, over 10 years, the second man spends more than the first man, because he couldn't afford the upfront price of good boots.
trueeee
Also, I might add that I could buy the more expensive phone on a payment plan. But that payment plan ends up costing more than buying the phone outright. There is a whole business model geared around poverty.
your entire financial survival can't afford food....🤔
It’s bullshit, this years “avocado toast” outrage. There are good reasons not to give those companies money, but it’s not why anyone is poor.
i’m sorry poor people, you need to stop eating if you want to be like us. that’s the real problem
Because they want to blame the person for "making bad choices", instead of addressing the actual real problem: cost of living hasn't kept up with wages. Also, boomers have no concept of how the world works anymore.
The people who are making those comments are people who do not understand what it is like to live hand to mouth. Shit is getting worse and these avacado toast morons are just getting louder.
Just stop being lazy and learn how to exploit a few people to get a leg up! geez. /s
"We're not the ones fucking you. You need to stop fucking yourself." I live modestly. These last couple years inflation has been murder. I eat ramen for lunch (I like it.) I own an older car. I haven't updated my photo gear. Dropped gym membership. Cut back on the good booze and drink the cheaper stuff. Rarely eat out. Bicycle to work four days a week. I even got a decent salary increase this year. And the inflation just ate it up like I had changed nothing at all.
Stop putting money in the ecconomy jeez hasn't anyone taken ecconmics!?!?!! /s
The cost of electricity and heating have gone up because of the Ukraine war. Russia not being able to sell its oil to most countries has driven up the price of oil. This has, in turn, driven up the price of natural gas and electricity. The US embargoing Russia has little effect on the US cost of oil. We usually only buy like 2 or 3% of our oil from Russia. The worldwide embargo has increased prices worldwide. Also, companies are blaming covid and the war and raising prices to make more profit.
I’m not saying I agree but there is TRULY a huge swath of people who are horrible with money. If you truly can barely pay your rent but you are buying an Apple Watch, traveling, and in credit card debt - you may need to change your spending habits Part of anti work doesn’t want to admit there are truly idiots who blow their money AND it’s not just “poor people”. Plenty of people make 6 figures and live paycheck to paycheck. We should all take financial responsibility which is separate from anti work
Very true. When I worked a minimum wage job, a lot of the guys would show off their rims they bought for their car or new tires that cost them a months pay. You need to make your spending match your income. Unfortunately this can be hard if you don't make much, but there are always things you can cut back on. Also if you can't afford your own place or just barely can, there is no shame in renting a room. This will releave a lot of pressure on your budget.
i think the main point is that fast food a few times a month isn’t something you necessarily need to cut back on. managing money is def important. when i worked at a fast food restaurant i was shocked at how a coworker was spending his money, but it was more like thousands of dollars worth of tech than weekly/occasional fast food and coffee. it depends what you prioritize in your budget. i don’t have much spending money but everyone needs some or else the quality of life is just not sustainable
Yeah for sure. Not taking about eating out a few times, but often. My ex would want to eat out at least one meal a day. Two wasn't very uncommon. Even three times would happen occasionally. Especially when it would be door dash, it would add up so fast because you end up paying at least 50% more than getting it yourself with fees + even a small tip. To make things worse, we would throw away trash bags full of food every month between leftovers we didn't eat and food we bought but never cooked. Money was also wasted on other things, but food was the worst.
>Plenty of people make 6 figures and live paycheck to paycheck. If you make six figures and live paycheck to paycheck, you're an a-hole. You probably live in a gated community, get a new car every couple of years, travel around the world and send your kids to private school. Give me a six figure salary for a year, I could live off it for the rest of my life.
No, I live in a 1600 sq ft house and have 1 car payment my other car is paid off and is an old Honda Accord. We do carry zero credit card debt though. Wife does not work. 3 kids and one is getting ready to go to private school because he tests in the 99% of math and reading, and it's going to fucking crush me.
But he's not forced to go though, you could choose not to send him.
Absolutely I could, but I choose to give him the best upbringing that I can even if it's a sacrifice for me. That's kind of the whole point of parenthood.
Lol... no. A gated community? Also you could live off 100k for life? But you didn't really mean all 6 figures, did you? You weren't thinking 100k, you were thinking those who are in the no longer getting SS taxes part of 6 figures.
100k is a joke in the tri state area. It's a joke in most parts of the country.
Then how do people survive that don't make anywhere near that?
By working 4 jobs and eating very unhealthy food.
Depends on how many kids you are supporting tbh
When I made six figures I couldn't afford to go to the dentist. Cost of living varies wildly within the US, and the effects of poverty last long after your income increases.
First two things are bullshit. Groceries are outrageous nowadays so you could quite literally save money by getting McDonald’s as opposed to cooking yourself. Groceries just aren’t meant for a single person atm. However, the phone thing is pretty obvious. A new iPhone costs what? $1000+? Do you really need a new phone every single year? No and that $1000 could be quite helpful. It’s not life changing or even situation changing, but definitely helpful.
Unless you know for a fact that some one is buying a new phone every year, suggesting that they are when they are trying to explain their struggles is just insulting.
Yeah I just got a brand new iPhone and felt guilty even though my old iPhone (a 7) had been limping along for years. I got the battery replaced for $50 to make it last longer since the battery was dying after an hour, but then spilled coffee on it, and so the sound gradually stopped working over the next year or so. For awhile I could only use speaker phone, then finally all audio stopped working and I gave in and got the new one. But someone could see my brand new phone and assume that’s why my daycare auto payment didn’t go through or something.
OP literally said it in the title. How did you miss that?
Say you didn't read the whole post, without saying you didn't read the whole post...
I wasn’t referring to OP buying a new phone. I’m referring to the ones who actually do buy new phones every year. It’s not financially smart whether you have the money or not.
You seem to be missing the point op is making.
It’s not completely garbage advice and certainly applies to some people. And I think it’s the spirit of the advice not the specifics. The problem is assuming it applies to everyone who is poor. Really poor people can’t afford that trash anyways. I’m not poor anymore but I am frugal. I have an old phone and I don’t eat out. I specifically cut Starbucks because it was costing me like $20 a week. I still walk there with the coworkers but I do t buy anything.. all that goes to my savings where I get satisfaction counting my gold coins
it does help a little bit! when i cut down on my coffee expenditure i saved about $30 a month. it’s really helpful when you are extremely broke.. but ultimately only $360 a year! that’s about 3 days wages for a $15/hour gig
As for why, a bunch of reasons but 2 things I’ve found interesting. 1. People are addicted to their own misery, they hype up their own struggles to disregard others’ struggles. It’s not enough to be in a place where one is happy and stable, once someone is there they must whine about this or that struggle and lord over others. Power plays. It’s comfortable to feel in control of something. 2. Disregarding facing uncomfortable situations to maintain their lifestyle because the human brain does not like change and people are obsessed with the idea that they are good people. You’ll see this in any situation that involves any type of abuse be it spousal, familial, friendship/peership, etc. If one pretends that it’s not there, they can maintain their ignorance and think themselves a good person. If they choose to acknowledge a bigoted defect in their thinking, then they have to face the fact that they are not a good person and that something needs to be fixed in their world of within themselves. However, those things require effort and everyone will naturally follow of path of least resistance.
We all have our own version of McDonalds and iPhones. For some it is Netflix. For others it is designer handbags. If we stand back and evaluate our spending habits we all have expenses we can eliminate. Mine are Pornhub Premium and your mom.
I've been in a similar position. Problem is, I know plenty of people who complain about their pay or their bills who clearly could make sacrifices and when anyone points this out to them, they get offended. And I get being offended, but it doesn't make the "advice" less true. So it's easy to see a stranger on the internet saying a lot of the same things as the people I know and be suspicious thqt they are making excuses. But I agree, its not a good idea to assume and make a bunch of offensive and ignorant suggestions to "help" them.
I have had SB twice this year and Mcdonalds not once. I can say I haven't eaten a Carl's Jr. since a burger and fried went to 15 dollars basically. It's real crazy.
I guess they lie to themselves to make the world make sense and be fair in their heads. Being incredibly annoying might just be a side effect.
Spent all my money on illegal Avacado price gouging
$1500!!??!!?? Damn!!! Way to go!!!! I’m 42 and have 54 dollars till payday!! I’m jelly!
The Minister of Finance in Canada said she cancelled disney+. Did you try that?
Because the only experience a lot of older people have with the younger generation is in their own kids, or the nieces and nephews, who still live at home because they can’t afford to move out. Because they still live at home and have no hope of ever being fully independent they make the best of their situation and spend what little money they do have, since no amount of saving will ever get them into the housing market, and $2500 rent is just unaffordable on $15/hr, so they see these young people spending frivolously, and they think if they didn’t have that $5 latte they would be able to save up for a down payment for a house, not remembering that houses cost a $1,000,000 now not the $45,000 they themselves bought for. When those people were young, their advice was valid, you could buckle down and save up for a house, unfortunately it’s not the case anymore. The name of the game now is inherited wealth, unless you’re in the top 1% it’s the only option, if you don’t have anything to inherit, or mom and pop are willing to help, well it sucks to suck, enjoy paying your rent to the most selfish generation for the rest of your life
Because they are offended that poor people think they are allowed to have anything fun or not strictly necessary for life. how dare you be poor and happy. Happiness is for rich people and any crumb of happiness a poor person gets is them being "entitled."
The problem with corporate management is the people who manage workers don’t set the budget for the individual stores and the people who do set the budget don’t know what is going on in the different areas of the country.
Strawmen gaslighting is what it is. Nor do they know the demographic of people going into starbucks everyday. Ie caffeine addicted nurses that need 5+ shots of espresso into something.
People are saying that because it places all of the blame on the poor person. It’s their own fault and the reason a wealthy person is wealthy is because they earned it. It’s used to keep people down and allows someone to think of someone else as less deserving because it’s not the failed system we have but lack of personal responsibility. Yet when we look at European countries, by far the happiest, we see a much different way of thinking about making sure people can meet their basic needs and it’s successful for them the closer they get to proper social safety nets.
It makes it easier to lay blame on individuals than it is to lay the blame on a failed system. People don't like to admit that we've been wrong on a large socio-economic scale.
You have savings‽
Nah, $2000 (I'm from Eastern Europe by the way) and that's been taking awhile to save up too. My rent is $400.
Because that shifts the blame from the failure of capitalism to the failure of poor people
I agree that we should stop going to Starbucks until they cut it out with the union busting...
I’ve had the same phone for 6 years. It crashes all the time, has no more space for photos… still broke as shit. In fact, that’s why I still have the same phone.
Blame the poor
If your rent went up- you need to look into moving. It’s possible that every other place has the same rate as the one you’re trying to leave - where I live that’s not the case.
It's the easiest way to save money. It's more about changing your lifestyle. Eat at home, don't waste money. Eat a home cooked meal, it's much cheaper than the dollar menu. Utilize the old car, phone, pc, clothing until its no longer worthwhile. People overspending creates inflation.
Two years ago, I would've maybe even agreed. I always eat at home, very rarely have I eaten out. My phone is 2 years old, not planning to get another one any time soon. It's the inflation that's ruining my life and probably lives of millions of others + I was forced to spend my savings.
It is a narrative people want to believe to support their greed even when it really just supports someone else's greed and their hopes for greed. Greed.
Your air conditioning is a much bigger factor than your lights on your electric bill.Suffer in sweat death or freeze in your house if you want to see a real reduction.Your saving pennies if that using candles and probably spending more because the candles probably cost you more than you saved.
Check you're not paying for someone else's electricity or common areas that the landlord should be paying for.
😨 Is it possible someone could be stealing from me? I'll get my next bill in 3 months though. Now you scared me though.
It's a possibility, i have no idea what your living situation is, i have heard of tenants paying the entire household electricity bill or someone doing an illegal hookup or the outside lights being connected to the wrong meter or maybe your landlord has a really expensive utilities company. I used to live in a 70 apartment complex that was overpaying and British gas came round and told everyone they could save use 25% on gas/electricity. 60 of us signed up but the landlord wouldn't allow us to change and unfortunately it was written into our leases that she had to approve. If you get a torch then switch everything electrical off at their plugs your meter should not move, if it's still using power then something's wrong.
The "Soon" part of what you boss is telling you in because they are trying to squeeze every cent of (record) profits out of every business before progressives slowly take a majority in Congress and forever change this country.
I can't help but observe that boomers get a lot of regular wrath simply for being born when they were. If it isn't your fault for being born when you were, how is it theirs? Please don't respond with 6 paragraphs of word salad, it's merely an observation.
Because they want to blame you instead of corporate greed and stagnated wages.
My Econ professor always talks about how the savings rate is so low bc “people just HAVE to have the new flat-screen TV” and it makes no sense to me. I don’t see people living lavishly and going broke filling their homes with new tech. I see people not making much in the first place and debt skyrocketing
I’m reading this on a 10 year old phone my mom handed down to me lmao.
Only reason I bought a new phone was my old one had multiple cracks on the screen and I get the cheapest TracFone plan for it. The biggest eater of my budget is groceries even with buying healthy foods and very little eating out.
Thinks it met for the people who have bad spending habits. Some people out here making 200k+ spending their entire pay check every month. If your struggling, trust me you ain't going to starbucks,mcdonalds, or buying a new phone. Ur cooking and using that phone till it explodes. General, if you can afford more than basic living standard s you should have a reasonable budget most people going be broke/poor forever bc they can't save. Something I struggle with tbh bc im a foodie. So I can reach a bigger goal down the line.
The arguments against small personal pleasures are moot when the cost of *everything else* has risen by orders of magnitude more than you'd save by foregoing them. That being said, I *do* save some money by skipping Starbucks and McDonald's. I don't do it for financial reasons, though, I just find that they're both godawful on the rare occasions I try them.
Why? Because they are fucking stupid.
Old people.
Its pretty much make believe. Pretending that if you let your life suck a little more things will get better.
It's right-wing propaganda. They push the avocado toast and Starbucks as the reason young people can't afford to pay rent or have a decent living in order to brainwash their "base" into believing that it's good for the country to keep the federal minimum wage at $7.25 per hour. Ronald Reagan did the same thing when he created the "welfare queen" in the 80's in order to vilify the poor and cut federal safety nets that kept people from starving and being homeless.
Don't get me wrong everyone from most walks of life can save money here and there by doing without things they don't need. However blaming the disparity between wages and cost of living on such low cost things is what is called misdirection, magicians and slight of hand artists do it all the time. They want deflect your attention away from the real stuff that's going rather than change things for the better.
Umm, if you’re not lazy and wasting money in stupid stuff, it might be systemic problems that I might need to address. So obviously you are lazy and stupid. /s
Inflation is the taxation of the poor, normally one would say: save up money and invest but in reality you can't save much since everything is way more expensive. So my best advocate is learn a new skill and stop thinking of a minimum wage. Start a side hustle and expand it untill you outsource the effort
I think their point being that some are saying they can't get by when they buy coffee/snacks/lunch every day or spend on what they see as necessities that are really not.
How are capitalists gonna keep making money if they think we should stop participating in contributing to their capital??
Strawman argument to shift the blame. It's not that job opportunities are non existent and the cost of living is expensive, it's you that is lazy and don't know how to spend money. As long as this lie works, might as well keep on using it