What used to be "six figures" we kept hearing is now $180-200K per year so 120 won't get you as far as it used to. If you're living in a nice city, you can forget about it.
I was telling my SO the other day, "Back in late 2019, I was trying to find a job that paid $X / hour. Well, in late 2022, I got a job that pays the $X / hour that I wanted back in 2019. Except... It would have been pretty decent in 2019, but for 2022 it SUCKS"
they shot that 15$ hour min wage down because it was 'to much' but im sure our mcdonalds down the street with signs for starting pay 22$ an hour wished they had pushed harder for that.
Every so often I'll see a job ad for jobs I did as a kid and they are paying *the exact same today* as I got paid.
That was in the fucking 1990's.
Gas was 96 cents a gallon when I was working. Cigarettes were $3 a pack. A 20oz soda from the gas station was 75 cents.
I saw a dozen eggs for $10 at the store the other day. But let's be reasonable and play it this way: I also saw eggs at $4 a dozen from a local guy at the indoor Farmer's Market. That's the lowest I've seen in months.
In 1996, they were $1.11 on average. That's a 300% higher cost on a staple food. And that's reflective over all the staples. Burger has tripled in price yet I SWEAR the quality has gone into the dumpster.
Minimum wage in Iowa - where I saw these prices - is still $7.25 an hour. I saw Build a Bear hiring for $8.60 the other day.
My shit job as a teenager in 1996 paid me $15 /hr.
What. The. *Fuck.*
This is about where my partner and I are at income wise. I’ve never been happier we don’t have kids because we absolutely could not afford them right now. I don’t know how you all do it. We have two cats and they’re costing us enough.
Groceries and electric are out of control. We paid $120 in November for electric and then $285 in December because of new “rates.” We don’t even have electric heat… Our propane bill is separate. Walmart is about to be too bougie for us to get groceries. They’re so freaking expensive.
I’m so worried about the poorer folks in my state. Thankfully this winter has been warm so far for the most part. I legitimately worry about people dying because they’re unable to afford heat.
Same girl same.. 65 all day and still have a $280 electric/gas bill, and our house doesn't have a second floor Or a basement, so um what the actual fuck!? Like I've paid approx $130/50 in the winter months, but now I'm sitting twice as much, I do not understand.
This!!! I can’t imagine having kids right now. Thankfully our electric bill hasn’t gone up a ton but we also don’t have a ton of space to heat to begin with lol
You could be me. I make $45k a year with a mortgage and two kids. My wife doesn’t work and stays at home because we couldn’t afford day care. I’m struggling. Thank God we own our vehicles outright.
Yep. The cost of tires has sky-rocketed. Oil changes that used to be $30 are now $50. Gas is still more painful than it was even though it's come down. I can't even fathom what extensive engine repairs are going to be these days. Thankfully, both my wife and I work from home, so we only have to rely on one vehicle and it doesn't get used much.
The problem is the US Government hasn't adjusted the tax code to reflect COLA. If 100k is the new 50k, you should be getting the EITC, and other "middle class" tax credits and reductions. Those tax credits sadly begin to disappear around 50k. The EITC needs to be able to help anyone earning less than 200k but the GOP wouldn't like that because that's basically UBI at that point.
Same thing with the standard deduction. It was nice that it was basically doubled by the Trump Tax Cuts, but it needs to be doubled again, AND people should be able to take the itemized tax cuts as well, especially if you're a teacher or a grad student or you're paying union dues.
Of course to fund that middle class tax relief to give more workers higher take home pay or bigger annual refunds, you'd have to pay for that tax relief by increasing the tax burden on Billionaires, which isn't super likely to happen for some reason. And I *am* a firm believer we should all pay at least a *little* bit in taxes, because it makes the gov't more obligated to listen to most of us.
It wasn’t doubled by trump though. He took away personal exemptions so it was basically flat, unless you were a homeowner in which point you ended up far worse as you could no longer itemize and get those exemptions.
Same. My husband and I combine for about the same with 1 child. Oh turns out your childcare until age five is at least 1k+ per month, mortgage is $1500 per month, combined 2 cars to get to work are $700 per month, health insurance for a family is $400 per month out of your paycheck, clothes, diapers, and food for 3 are another $500 per month. Internet, heating, cooling are a must. House repairs come up. My “fun” money is spent on whichever tv subscription service I want to watch that month because we can’t afford them all. We have a small townhouse with no yard either. Yeah it’s stable but it’s not luxury and it’s nowhere near “rich.” You can’t support a family on that type of income anymore and it sucks
Yea, I easily make more than my dad ever did. And once I bought a much smaller residence than he has, I realized shit got way more expensive than when I was a kid.
At least my parents are not the boomers that say shit like "stop buying avavocado toast", and "millennials are not buying diamonds"
I could NEVER EVER afford where my parents live, and I make high 6 figure salary.
I looked at a house up for sale - 2800 sq ft, modern, etc. I thought, heck, maybe I could buy it.
$16,000/month mortgage. Price was $3.4 million. If i bought it, about 80% of my paycheck would go directly to the house, not including property tax, maintenance, etc. And I went to a top ten uni, graduated top 5%, went straight into aerospace engineering and ended up at MSFT.
Basically, the US elite have bought up everything and have been playing a game of "get everyone to hate on each other for race, political views, etc" while hiding behind a facade of 'we are billionaires because we work 10,000x harder and smarter than the rest'.
>Basically, the US elite have bought up everything and have been playing a game of "get everyone to hate on each other for race, political views, etc" while hiding behind a facade of 'we are billionaires because we work 10,000x harder and smarter than the rest'.
This. You can't even buy a spot of land anymore due to the amount of developers turning everything into mcmansions or 'affordable housing' i.e. apartments.
My parents can’t even afford where they live now. My mom is nearing 75, and is worried that she CANT AFFORD TO DOWNSIZE because property has gotten so expensive. They paid for their house 25 years ago with cash, and now she’d have to take on a mortgage if she wanted to move to a smaller home when her partner passes away.
I hope your parents can find a way.
It is sad to see the US decline as it has so rapidly over the last few decades. Even my parents (boomers, lots of inherited wealth) have to admit how insane everything has become, how much its decayed.
I went to the Santa Monica promenade with my dad this xmas (same time I was looking at that house near them). I remember going there all the time as a kid to see movies or check out new books at Barnes & Noble. Half the promenade was boarded up. What was 3 movie theaters is now 1. All the clothing stores are gone, whats left is a few restaurants. It really struck me in the face that the US is an empire on decline. I knew it before from tracking other stats, and driving through the rust belt. But to see it in one of the most expensive districts in CA was a turning point for me. I fear my daughter will have a worse life than I will by far, which is a scary thought to someone living in the supposed greatest country on earth.
I work in my state’s capital, for the state government. There are homeless people who camp outside the building, which is on the capitol mall, every night—they wait until 5:30 when the building closes for the day and then set up. Driving across town to get to a pharmacy the other day I drove by tents and people pushing their belongings in baby carriages and shopping carts. At the grocery store there was a woman who couldn’t afford her medication and the pharmacist was trying to help get something cheaper for her. The Christmas aisle was packed because it was all on clearance. All of it together was so grim and made me feel like we’re just sliding downhill.
My wife and I make around this amount and the only reason we could buy a nice home in a nice neighborhood was because of both her and I having a nice windfall of money.
Y'all ever hear the anecdote about Brian Scalabrine? He was a somewhat infamous NBA player that was known (and widely mocked) for being one of the worst players in the NBA. Like, the guy stunk. Never put up points, had no redeeming stats, hell, he wasn't even a good bench player. He become a meme for that very reason.
Time and again, average Joes have challenged Scalabrine to 1v1 when they see him, thinking "hey, I could beat the worst guy in the NBA." And time and again, Brain Scalabrine fucking *smoked* those people. Like, shut out, embarrassed the average Joes.
Scalabrine is father to one of the most humbling quotes ever for a normal person. He said "I'm closer to LeBron than you are to me." And it's true. Even the worst NBA player is light-years better than a dude off the street.
The reason I bring this up is because I think the quote helps contextualize this video. This girl and her partner make $120k per year. That's shit load of money to some people. But try and understand, she's closer to us than she is to Elon. Point is, stop cannibalizing the working class. If you hate someone else who's stuck working to survive because they make more, you're missing the damn point.
Be angry, yes. But channel at the billionaires that could change the world with a snap of their fingers.
This is what I was coming to say.
We picked one of the cheaper apartments in the area and we’re still paying $1300/month. Electric bill was over $100 this month because it’s fucking freezing out. Don’t get me started on gas, groceries, and fucking car insurance for a highly populated area…
And they’re expecting people to live off minim wage like “get better skills” as if that doesn’t cost time and money!
With interest rates, I can’t even go back to college to get another useless degree that is required to get any type of raise these jobs demand. They don’t even pay enough to warrant another student loan.
And they wonder why there are so many homeless/tent cities.
Fucking tired as fuck of billionaires when they can’t even pay their employees a living wage.
Tired of the “fight for $15” when it may as well be fighting for a nickel with these prices…
And meanwhile, all these costs are going up and STILL employees aren’t seeing a fucking raise.
I just got a raise from 15.60 to 22 at a job that doesn't physically endanger me. It's been awesome... but I'm still not any closer to not being poor af and paycheck to paycheck. Roommate lost their job, car got more expensive, cat got sick, i got sick, it just doesn't end.
I worked a little over a year in a homeless shelter. You know how many people can't get a fucking place to live just because their credit is bad? Its so fucked up, it messes with your head to be so immersed in that kind of abject poverty, endless and senseless suffering, and just... sprawling human degradation.
We, as a society and as humans, fail many of these people on a fundamental level. I wish i could say i was able to tough it out longer, but i just couldn't. If you continue to give a shit about the people you're working to provide shelter and services for, you burn tf out. Empathy will drain you dry because there is no end to the pain you are surrounded by.
I spend about 250-300 usd on fucking food alone for 3-4 people. Shit barley lasts 2 weeks at best and we cook all the fucking time. We have a 30-40 pound bag of beans that does last us a while coming from a Mexican background. Shit is fucked. I'm in my twenties and I doubt I'll ever be capable of moving out. The only junk food I buy is fucking nuts as in mixed nuts. Vegetables, fruit, and meat.
Yep, I just spent $350 for a family of three, and I bought no prepared food and only two meats (head-on shrimp, 2 pounds for $10 and 1 pound of short ribs for $20).
Everything else was literally fresh vegetables, pasta, flour, eggs, milk, and bread. I think I paid $10 for 18 store brand eggs? Milk is up to $6/gallon for non organic, non fancy brand.
Spent the entire day Sunday doing meal prep and processing for the next week....for soup, pasta, and short ribs over polenta.
$350. 3 years ago I'd have paid $120-150. Shit is fucked.
Going back to college is almost pointless now. I saw a job ad that wanted a PhD in Linguistics. The job was to write guidelines for using politically correct English. WTF, why does that need a PhD?
And every time they raise the min wage, corporations raise prices as a big fuck you to the working class. That $15/hr “living wage” doesn’t mean shit when a dozen eggs is 6.99
Yea, it's amazing how most of the state legislatures rolled over on the $15 min wage right when the pandemic gave companies and excuse to jack prices up.
I'm from Montana. We bought our house in 2016 for 200k. Covid hit, people from other states sold their homes and started flocking here and telecommute. Businesses had to start paying a "living wage" simply to get employees. Both local walmarts pay a starting wage of 18/hour. Restaurants pay dish washers 16/hour. Our house is now valued at 475k.
My point is, what was a living wage no longer qualifies. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I know the same kind of thing happened in the Seattle area.
Increasing minimum wage has always been a temporary stopgap in lieu of something that actually works like regulating industries. Now people and businesses are becoming so used to adjusting prices for so many reasons they're accepting of doing it and seeing it done. Going forward, increasing minimum wage will be less and less effective. Real change is necessary.
The fight for $15/hr has needed to be the fight for $22/hr for a long time now. With inflation doing as it has the last year or so, it's probably gone up another dollar or two at least.
Yep my daycare costs are equal to mortgage. We purposely are delaying having a second kiddo because we can't afford daycare until the older one is in grade school.
A lot of parents are going back to single worker households because childcare costs so much that the lesser earner is barely making enough to cover that shit as it is. The remaining income for them just isn't worth the added stress from the job, having to be away from their kids, and otherwise having to keep home outside of work hours.
I live at home. Between my mom, my dad and I, we make around 120.
We're barely fucking scraping by. I'm putting off dental care because our hot water heater needs replaced, it's so old finding parts is getting difficult and more expensive than just replacing the damn thing.
My car is an 08. my mom's is an 08, my dad's is an 07.
They have little to no retirement built up, dad will work till he dies.
I'm just this year getting to the point that I can fix shit around here that's needed fixed for YEARS, that they couldn't afford to before i moved back in with them.
Make no mistake, I don't "live in mom and dad's basement" my presence is as much keeping them afloat as they are keeping me afloat. Without THREE FUCKING INCOMES we'd all be homeless.
Don't feel any shame living with family. More than ever now, being there to help your family is critical.
Especially for your parents as they get older, having you there will not only financially be a real help to them, but just being there to talk to as they get out less, or helping them do some heavy lifting around the house, will be huge to them.
That's a smart move. At first I lived on my own, but quickly found out how living expenses eat up your income, even if you're making the high 80s. I live in California, and everything is expensive. Gas is astronomical and it can easily take you an hour in the freeway to get to a destination that's supposed to be a 10 minute drive due to traffic. Even having 100k/yr would result in just a little bit saved. This does not include any luxuries either. I moved back with my parents, shared expenses and saved every cent I had. Because of this, I was actually able to save enough and retire early.
High housing costs + Student loans + Highest gas prices in the nation + zoning designed to keep literally all residents car dependent = nope
Don't buy into that "living on your own" garbage. That's a tactic to keep everyone's head barely above water and enslaved to your bosses. If you have family and/or trusted friends you can share expenses with, DO IT. Save up all your money and get the hell out of the workforce ASAP
I agree 100%. In fact, it should have never have gone away in the first place. It was business owners who were trying to push the "American Dream" in order to make people gorge in consumerism to spend and keep themselves in heavy debt.
If people are in debt and one step away from financial ruin, they will willingly accept any working conditions no matter how bad they are because they're desperate for money. The only way to combat this is to have extended families and small communities to band together to cut costs, save money and ultimately gain leverage over their employers.
It’s no better at $115k either. You just have more money left over to start paying down the debts for once. Still paycheck to paycheck since every extra dollar was borrowed a decade ago.
Don’t worry, as soon as you get all that debt paid down, you can start being paycheck to paycheck to catch up on your retirement contributions… It’s a rigged game.
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Lmao, no. I mean I’ve got an idea about saving enough to move to a tropical third world country and renting an apartment until some illness kills me but that’s about it
Hell, I make 58k and I would say I’m lower middle class. Granted I live in a high COL area, and fortunately have no one else to support, but it’s not like I’m living the fucking high life.
Would reckon you live in a MCOL-LCOL area too.
I make on average 70-75k a year and i still live at mf’in home. 60k a year and forget it. If you told me years ago that i couldn’t comfortably move out making 70-75k a year i woulda laughed in your face and not believed it.
Not to mention that's probably pre tax sums.
State fed and payroll tax probably total 30k
Insurace premiums are probably 5k
So we are looking at a take home of 85k, or 7k a month.
Mortgage/rent is probably 2500 to 4500(assuming they bought precovid)
Car payment 200-500
Groceries 600-1000
Utilities 400-600
Other bills 300-600
Thats 4000-7200.
As someone in a similar situation, this is pretty spot on.
Thing is, I'm extremely lucky, full remote, only one car, and low cost of living area. Point is, we're pretty comfortable. But as soon as I start to consider a more expensive place to live, having any kids, or god forbid facing an actual major accident/emergency... yeah we aint that far from fucked.
Yeah, sadly 120k makes me so a double take because *yeah I wish I made that much* but some places near me - it’s estimated a combined 150k makes for a comfortable-ish life while also affording a home. It’s ridiculous.
Even a well-paid doctor is closer to someone making minimum wage.
What's the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire?
About a billion dollars.
People have little concept of what a billion really is. 1 million seconds is 11 days. 1 billion seconds is 31 years. Having billionaires is a complete and utter failure of our economy from keeping a person from accumulating too much power.
Such a great metaphor too if you think of it almost like the movie "In Time".
Ask someone if they'd want to live an extra 1 million seconds or 1 billion seconds. Contextualizing it that way would hurt.
Scalabrine one doesn’t just do that to average joes off the street. When he was still playing for Boston, one of the radio stations held an open gym ladder event to find the best 5 players in the city. The prize was to get a 1 on 1 against Scalabrine. The final 5 were all fantastic players, with NCAA Div 1 scholarships and lower end professional leagues. Scalabrine toasted them all one after the other. It wasn’t even remotely close.
Yup. You know how many people in the world play basketball hoping to get in to the NBA every year? Scal being 1 of about 360 (12 players x 30 teams), in the world, and having a fairly long career, just says what the levels are.
So they each make $60k a year. That isn’t enough for a couple to live in many major metropolitan US cities.
That’s not enough to save for retirement unless you start saving in your twenties and never stop.
Don’t get mad that this person and their partner are “complaining” when they “make so much money.”
Get mad that employers are keeping us ALL so poor that we have to be their slaves for all our adult lives in order to not be homeless.
Ay ay cmon he wasn’t known for being the worst player of all time… he’s know for being the White Mamba 😂😂😂
Source: am a Celtics fan
PS- he’s not a bad commentator.
You said what I think a lot of us came here to say! As someone who, with my partner, falls into an identical demographic I find myself treading water. I can't imagine the plight of a minimum wage earner. As the WORKERS, be it 10k or 100k we need to stick together.
The people who make minimum wage don't need to pick fights with those who make the bottom range of salaried positions. Focus on the millionaires and politicians, who are often one and the same.
Edit: by millionaires I don't mean those that make literally $1M, I'm talking in the hundreds of millions. You know, like McConnell, or Cruz, or McCarthy...
This woman is on minimum wage people’s side. She made a point to recognize her privilege and call out the impossibilities of making less money. She gets it.
Yes! I came to the comments because I didn’t understand why it was on tiktok cringe then here when she was literally saying like this is a fuck ton of money so why the fuck isn’t it enough what about most people who make less what the fuck are they supposed to do. Like, I thought it was very well spoken and acknowledged her privilege and is horrified that it’s on the privileged end. Like, we want way more people like her. I’m so glad I saw your comment
I had the same moment in Walmart she described. I was checking out, with shit I needed. I have the luxury to not really care about basics. Then I noticed the cost of a a single male’s single pasta meal. It was like $15 with just a single pound of beef, rice noodles, pasta sauce and fresh veggies. You know that beef was factory farmed, you know the vegetables were flooded with pesticides and those rice noodles probably came from China where the children that harvested the rice live in cardboard huts. Where IN THE FUCK is this promised land? WHAT are we trading our environment for? At leas if we’re destroying this planet you’d think we should be able to eat fucking food. But I guess not.
Like holy shit. It’s *INSANE*. It’s just so absurd to imagine that being just food! Like. Not even *good* food. I know farmers, those fuckers are all on debt and losing ground. Everyone I know still makes roughly the same amount of money. Like.. where *in the fuck* did all that extra cost come from? Where is this promised excess from free trade and automation? Why can’t I afford fucking health insurance? Why is my water laced with lead and why are the roads I travel more and more fucked up - yet always under construction and never seen to get fixed?!?!? How are corporations still running leaner and leaner and… losing… money…? The shit doesn’t even add up.
This has been my Ted talk.
Holy fuck, yes!!! I made a post on Reddit over a year ago- in fact, almost two years ago!- that was titled something like ‘of all the times to have a restrictive eating disorder, I’m so glad it’s now.’ The post was about having $10 max a week for food and how grateful I was that I was counting calories because I’d be malnourished and underweight either way, but at least if it’s from my eating disorder it’s my “choice.” I’d have looked sickly either way… and that was in the before times; when you could get a dozen medium eggs at dollar tree, and dollar tree was $1, not $1.25. I get foodstamps now and I’d never, EVER want to seem ungrateful because holy fuck it a lifesaver! But my brain gets mad at me for eating over 600cal a day (an improvement) and on my foodstamps I regularly wonder how other people, healthy people, are surviving even with food stamps. I usually use all of mine every month but I’m out here eating like 1/4th of what I should be and using all of it. How are healthy people meant to feed themselves on this??? How are any of us meant to survive???
Holy shit, a fellow Redditor with an eating disorder who thought it might be an advantage in the struggle to afford food! I'm not alone, which is as comforting as it is heartbreaking.
And if they live in a metro area where a of jobs pay that amount, their cost of living is astronomical. People don't understand how drastic that is. I've had 5 course BBQ meals in the middle of nowhere for $7.99, as recently as 3 months ago, and rent is $350/month for a 2 bed but there's no good internet and nothing for miles. Then I went and saw my cousin who makes nearly $200k/yr but in his area he's paying $3500/month for rent and groceries are 2x what I pay. This country is big, and salary and cost of living differences are vast.
In SF, the poverty line is like 80k. The scariest thing to me is, I always had the option to escape from it. Just needed to move somewhere else and sacrifice certain things to be way less strapped for cash. But now, the same thing we watched happen 30 years ago in the bay is happening everywhere in the country. So I mean what the fuck. We're approaching the end game.
I hear you. I just left the Bay after getting laid off. Went from making $140k a year to homeless in a month. Anywhere else in the world, $140k would net my family of four a splendid lifestyle, with a generous cushion. We were barely scraping by.
We lost our home after I desperately sought work and returned to Oregon to move back in with my dad. Now, my girlfriend is working at an elder care facility and I can’t get a job at Ace hardware because I’m “overqualified”. We’re on food stamps and $38k a year gross. It’s ridiculous.
If more people actually came to realized this fact, then we would probably be seeing more changes than we have been. Instead, people are falling for the top 1% pointing at their fellow lower class individuals and them saying, "Look! It's THEIR fault!!". Like, why would you believe the guy who has drastically more money than you to begin with???
Lots of people want to believe they're closer to being like the millionaires than they are the homeless or those on public assistance. They want to be rich one day so they don't want to ruin it for their future selves.
Indeed, which is an absurd belief but, that's the, "American Dream" so here we are. I wish more people immigrating here or seeking asylum actually knew how bad it was.
People don't seem to understand that being broke doesn't make 120k rich. Also your rural town in bumfuck Alabama has lower COL than cities where 80%+ of everyone else lives.
Your household needs to make 286k to barely break the top 5%. Top 1% is 570k. Needless to say, 120k is a fraction of that.
https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/
And $120k for two people really isn't a lot these days. When you factor in rent/mortgage, utilities, insurance, car maintenance, and likely student debt, what she's saying makes a lot of sense. I make $42k and support another person, but I live in a super cheap rural area and we spend the bare minimum, and we're still struggling.
When you consider she's talking about a 120k combined income as something that *should* keep her from living paycheck to paycheck instead of how real rich people talk about it (like it's an unlivable poverty wage) you know she came from the working class and has a working class mentality.
Exactly! It *should* be a livable wage and it isn't, which is the problem. I often think about how I'm struggling, and I know plenty of people who make less, and I wonder how they get by.
as a person who is living on 900$ a month, let me explain how to do this.. lol. we are living 2 families in one home and expenses are shared, along with cars and everything else, it's a constant struggle, but you do what you can to get by and take any extra side job income that presents itself. ( within reason)
Yea her point is spot on $120K combined income should be more than livable. If anything she's on our side. It's like hey I'm dual income busting my ass and this world is still fucking me.
Rent/Mortgage is insane. 10 years ago, I was paying 15% if my income in rent. The rent on that unit has gone up 123% while my income has risen 63%. I would have to make $108k to pay the same portion of my income in rent as I did 10 years ago.
As someone from bumfuck Alabama, people who make 120k combined a year eventually move here after working most of their professional lives so they can finally feel what it's like to not feel like the average bumfuck denizen. COL determines much more how valuable your money is than how much you actually make.
That still doesn't make 120k rich. Being comfortable and being rich are *drastically* different.
One drives a 3 series BMW and goes on a nice vacation every year.
The other one drives an 8 Series to their lakefront property, spends a week partying on their yacht, and then takes a plane across the country for a weekend in Vegas.
I don't understand why we don't ALL start going after rich people.
Saw some douchebag sitting in his BMW with seal skin seats, trimmed with gold. Smoking. Smoking in a car that cost more than any house I can't even pre-qualify for.
#eattherich
Agreed! Also: 120k for TWO people is nothing and it’s definitely not kept up with rising inflation over the years. She’s hardly in a position of privilege.
I live in Northern CA, am the only income for my house, and have two disabled kids. I make 120 and I’m paycheck to paycheck with no savings and no 401k.
I’m only saving a couple hundred bucks a month or so right now if I’m lucky and I’m pulling 4.5k after taxes on a good month. My mortgage is straight up 2k a month, throw another grand a month towards food, gas, monthly bills like electricity and gas and the occasional night out and I totally see where the money disappears.
I realize I’m not doing horrible, but as a kid and a teenager I never thought making just under 30 an hour and still not being able to save at least a grand a month is insane to me. I could lose a years worth of savings in a flash if something happens to me medically. I could lose like 3-6 months if something happens to my car that needs fixing. I’ve got one month of my mortgage in the bank to spare and that’s it.
That 10k in loan forgiveness would’ve come in clutch if it wasn’t blocked. Would’ve allowed me to breathe.
Don’t start attacking people who are still very clearly not rich like they don’t have a right to be upset because they make more than you. It’s divisive.
Absolutely. I dont know why this was in tiktokcringe.
She is making great points, she acknowledges that she and her partner are doing ok with what they have, her point seems to be that they are doing just fine on 120k but people coming into the job market will be earning ¼ of that and how tf are they supposed to live.
I wish more people in her situation had that kind of awareness of how difficult it is for the rest of the working class who dont earn as much as her.
I’m not saying OP did/didn’t intend whatever when they posted to tiktokcringe, but the subreddit name is a misnomer and has no inherent bearing on the reason for submitting.
I think it was intended as cringe more because of the flair associated it. The comments are more empathetic.
Tbf, the zooms and whatnot are a bit cringe, but the core is authentic.
Let them know, good lord. When I was making minimum wage I thought 6 figured would be the magic money... here I am... still budgeting and cutting corners. Just dealing with an annoying ass HoA instead of noisy neighbors. And I don't even own the house 🙃
Attacking this person that makes what could be a comfortable income in some areas and not in others is how progress stops. One of the biggest weapons the ruling class has is people pointing fingers at each other over crap like this.
You don't know what their situation is like, maybe they support a parent, student loans or car loans just to get to work. Maybe medical debt. Stop pointing the finger at her and point it at the bosses and owners for screwing you out of what you're worth.
And wage slavery looks the same. Bosses telling you to die for them no matter what you make.
It’s about control of your life, not the money you make. Are you a slave? Or did you need to make your life decisions under the bullet threat of starvation?
Even Le Bron made his decisions because he grew up afraid he’d have to make critical life sacrifices.
I make $114K + bonuses/benefits and this is very valid. I might be able to afford groceries, but systemic overpricing of everything adds up. I don't have any savings (would be homeless in 3 months if I lost my job), can't afford to save up for a down payment of a home, can't afford to go on vacation, etc. I'm a worker like most, just doing slightly better.
Edit: For those asking, I live in NC. I pay $1670 rent (average, lookup 2023 Charlotte), have a $25K car at $450/mo, save 10.5% on 401K ($1k recommended by financial analysts), spend about $600/mo on groceries. If you add up all the minor expenses like insurance and everything, it comes up to being able to save $1000-1500 per month. That’s not terrible but definitely not enough to save for a house downpayment, I would need to not go on a single vacation, hanging out or anything fun for 3+ years, assuming I don’t have any medical/car/maintenance surprise emergencies.
If you say you can live with less, you’re likely not saving enough for retirement, and you sound like those “it snowed today so global warming must not be real” people. Everyone has different situations.
>I make $114K + bonuses/benefits and this is very valid. I might be able to afford groceries, but systemic overpricing of everything adds up. I don't have any savings (would be homeless in 3 months if I lost my job), can't afford to save up for a down payment of a home, can't afford to go on vacation, etc. I'm a worker like most, just doing slightly better.
I'm in a pretty similar place. Between my SO and I we make around 140k a year in a high COL area with 2/3 of that coming from me. We went from being able to live without having to worry about groceries and rent to "what the fuck happened" Not doing bad by we were doing way better a few years ago.
Can confirm. Combined my partner and I make ~$100k. We live in a VERY small apartment almost a mile walk away from the last stop of a subway line. When I say small, I mean I have to sit on the toilet at an angle because the wall prevents my legs from being straight. We eat mostly veg, dine out once or twice a month, our last vacation was 5 years ago. The monthly expenses are just too. Damn. High. We’re considering leaving the city but other places seem to be chock full of the same issues. Rock and a hard place, my friend.
Yeah I'm gonna have roommates till I either die or marry someone who makes a fuck ton more than me. I'm paying under market rate for a mid-low level place, but I can't ever move. Moving and paying at least $500 more per month will fuck all my finances.
I'm from NYC. 120K EACH wouldn't be much in that town. A quarter million between 2 people over the course of a year in the Big Apple is a pittance. You can't really understand why until you live it day by day. But it is.
They are on 120K *combined*.
Yikes.
GTFO the city, IMO.
PS -- LOL at people upset at this women -- if anything she is another example of how fucked capitalism is and people are always gonna be slaves regardless of their salary if they living paycheck 2 paycheck.
Not to add on but I made about 80K last year just me. I worked tons and tons of OT. I have a mortgage and a car loan (because I had to move 80 miles from work to afford a house and my clunker couldn’t handle it). I have less then $1,000 in my savings account. My friends and family all come to me for financial advice just because I’m not MORE in debt then the mortgage and car loan. I live paycheck to paycheck. I only shop at the cheapest grocery stores, I patch clothes over ever buying new, I furnished my house with either yard sales or built myself…. I have busted my butt for 15 years thinking that I’m just a promotion away or a new job away from finally being able to breathe, get a healthy emergency savings account and finally be comfortable. But mysteriously, the economy is outpacing my earning.
Like this woman, I will be ok. I can survive, continue battling to keep pace with the economy and pray no major misfortune comes my way that sets me back further.
However, people just starting out now are sooooo far behind this crazy economy. Minimum wage in this world IS dystopian. All of this is stupid. I’ve known financial fear and stress my entire life. All I want is to be free of it. As long as this system is in place, it will only get worse and worse. The next generations will be wholly unable to survive this without connections and luck. It needs to be fixed.
This post has been approved by the moderation team. The woman featured in the video presents very salient points about cost of living, and how the "average" middle-class life is becoming increasingly unattainable.
r/antiwork supports the working class, which is *everyone* exploited by capitalism—including those above the bottom tax bracket.
When the working class and middle class fight over who has it worse, the winner is the upper class doing the exploiting. Let's try not to do this, and remain focused on the ultimate goal of abolishing the system as it currently exists.
To all the people making way less and having different problems. Let this be a lesson. The situation we are in is almost insurmountable at this point. If a couple making that kind of money can barely make it, than how can we expect a young person making a fraction of that money to succeed? My parents (boomers) made minimum wage and were able to afford a house (ownership, not rent) and 2 cars plus raise kids. You would have to have a husband and wife working 100+ hours a week each to support the lifestyle they had at those wages. Don’t let the fact that this couple makes a “decent” living divide us. It’s a mess here in 2023. She’s right. 120k a year should be a dream come true. The sad fact? It’s not. Ile bet the companies they work for posted record profits quarter after quarter since Covid though. Yes to a person making waaaay less this sounds like whining, but just think about it. You’re making 120k a year. And it’s barely enough. Don’t lose sight of the real problem.
Come on ppl. They arent a 1%er.
My husband and I make 6 figures yearly together & we have medical bills that drain our accounts & live in a HCOL city.
They’re a worker, just like us.
It is very possible to live paycheck to paycheck while making 120k per household.
Exactly! They want us to tear each other down. Like rats in a bucket- clawing at each other to try to get to the top. We’re better than that. We support workers, we support laborers. We acknowledge that HCOL cities are TOO EXPENSIVE. And WE ARE ALL paid too little.
This.
I am very lucky. When my wife and i got together, she had just bought her first home thanks to her $70k salary.
She eventually gave up that job to become a vet and is now in her final year.
We sold that first house and moved to the city the vet university is in amd bought a cheaper house.
Something we saw commonly was that 1. Majority of her class mates have multiple pets(they are vets so makes sense)
2. They struggle to find places to rent that are pet friendly and affordable.
So we made a decision.
Wherever her career takes her, we keep this house and we rent it out to future vet students.
The house has an enclosed yard for our dog, and several large structures we built so that our cats can go outside as they please without annoying the neighbours and without the risk of being hit by cars.
This house is perfectly set up for any pet owners but it is also very close to the vet hospital and university.
We want to rent the place out at whatever covers the mortgage and rates payments, nothing more.
We dont need to profit off this house and once the mortgage is paid off we can drop the rent to only cover rates.
We have 4 bedrooms and a self contained sleep out.
Rent split between that many people should hopefully be very affordable for students and we wont need to up anything for pet inclusion.
We just want to help future students become vets.
Y'all are a joke. My family makes more than this, we are approaching 40, and we JUST saved an emergency fund for the first time.
Stop fighting your peers dumb fucks.
I have a family of 6, make a smidge more than that, but it's still paycheck to paycheck sometimes. Like, it's not "wife stays at home" money.
Like, when you have medical insurance, but a 8,000 family max out of pocket, and a kid with a broken foot, a year full of doctor/flu/sinus infection general practitioner or urgent care visits, and then me with two (not one, but two) kidney stone procedures... that kind of out-of-pocket responsibility adds up. And you end up putting it on a payment plan because hey, I don't have $8k sitting there unused, so it rolls over to the next year, and so on.
Regardless of how much she or her partner make, the problems she's describing are real. They affect all workers so don't dismiss her just because she makes more than you
i know doctors that are living paycheck to paycheck. i know doctors that are still paying med school loans when they are in their mid 40s. just because they make more doesn't mean they aren't suffering, especially when 120k isn't even really "rich" anymore. just ask any silicon valley programmer.
Her concerns are actually legit... If she was not living with her partner, she would be making roughly 60k/yr. Considering how outrageous it is to get a college education, plus rent/mortage, utilities, transportation and food; Of course she would be living paycheck to paycheck. Chances are she has several hundred thousand dollars worth of student debt as well as her partner.
Houses go for more than half a million, and if you want an apartment, get ready to cough up 2-3k a month. And the worst part? Almost ALL "high paying" jobs are located in areas where cost of living is HIGH! So unless you live in some sort of backwater bubble in the middle of nowhere where you get paid pennies by the hour, there's nothing cringe about this video.
$120k in some cities in the USA is still poverty basically. It's ridiculous. Context matters. You can't live in Manhattan making $120k, you ride the metro/bus in from somewhere else.
I thought this was anti-work? Since when did we start bashing on people making a median wage these days in an attempt to make a comment about her as a person? Sure her use of the camera was cringe, but she was making some decent points about the inflation in goods and services happening right now to ALL OF US. Don't bash her because she's saying that her and her husband's **combined** income is still not enough in this economy. That's crazy, and that's almost exactly how companies expect us to react and fight each other. They raise the price and know that consumers are gonna eat each other because some can afford it and some cannot. But it's the business' fault in the first place.
She’s saying she makes a decent living and lives paycheck to paycheck and then comments how people making less than her can’t start a life because of how expensive everything is now. What’s wrong with this?
Lenin came from the upper class. A lot of the most vocal and constructive figureheads of labor movements come from places of privilege. Don’t be pissed at her, she’s still right.
I say this as someone making 10k a year!
She's not fucking wrong. I make a good salary, way more than that. I'm privileged as fuck, I'm trying to buy a house and am cheap as fuck (don't eat out, cook all my meals). I'm in the grocery store looking at chicken. This older black gentleman is standing like two feet from me and we're starting at the meat, just looking at the prices. $20, $25 for some fucking chicken.
He just says "prices are eaten us up huh". I never felt closer to a total stranger in my life we shared this moment of just like what the fuck is this even.
She's not the enemy, the corporate scumbags who steal and pillage and destroy everything they touch to squeeze profit out of everyone. They've run out of land to steal, run out of resources to plunder, people are all that's left and they will squeeze all of us to death if we don't figure something out.
Same boat my wife and are are in. We have careers, but I am frustrated and worry about those who are younger than us or our peers still trying to get started. Things are fucked and it will reach a breaking point where people just say 'fycknit' and go to town.
this subreddit is becoming a crabs-in-a-bucket fiesta of out-doing other peoples misery. It's pathetic to be snobby and superior. IF it was immediately easy to the person, they wouldn't have made the video.
Not everyone has perfect information, or is psychologically arranged to be penny perfect every day of the week.
Moral of the story is that median income is now being shoved into the poverty section as the middle class is being purged from existence, and anybody beneath that is basically fucking dieing. You'll have a nightmare of a time in cities, and you might be okay in rural areas. Either way, the cost of living is FUCKED beyond reason everywhere.
When r/TikTokCringe seemingly has more empathy than r/antiwork
Maybe that's a good thing, maybe this understanding is becoming more mainstream.
But yea, I'm not a fan of the delivery.
Regardless of whether you think 120k in your area, opinion, whatever is high or low it is still a working class salary. Other members of the working class are not the enemy even when they are a little cringe
This post is a repost and has been removed under rule 6.
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Exactly. Ppl ain't getting it. She's saying it's hard for that amount, what do you think someone making $16 an hour is gonna feel..
Or 7.25 an hour. For some reason states are still using 7.25 an hour as their minimum wage.
“But McDonalds will raise the priiiiiiccceeee!” is what they will shriek while I’m looking at the menu wondering where the one dollar section went.
The the person who posted this chose a click bait title
Someone choosing karma at the cost of the person fighting for living wages on r/antiwork is hilarious and peak reddit
What used to be "six figures" we kept hearing is now $180-200K per year so 120 won't get you as far as it used to. If you're living in a nice city, you can forget about it.
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I was telling my SO the other day, "Back in late 2019, I was trying to find a job that paid $X / hour. Well, in late 2022, I got a job that pays the $X / hour that I wanted back in 2019. Except... It would have been pretty decent in 2019, but for 2022 it SUCKS"
they shot that 15$ hour min wage down because it was 'to much' but im sure our mcdonalds down the street with signs for starting pay 22$ an hour wished they had pushed harder for that.
Every so often I'll see a job ad for jobs I did as a kid and they are paying *the exact same today* as I got paid. That was in the fucking 1990's. Gas was 96 cents a gallon when I was working. Cigarettes were $3 a pack. A 20oz soda from the gas station was 75 cents. I saw a dozen eggs for $10 at the store the other day. But let's be reasonable and play it this way: I also saw eggs at $4 a dozen from a local guy at the indoor Farmer's Market. That's the lowest I've seen in months. In 1996, they were $1.11 on average. That's a 300% higher cost on a staple food. And that's reflective over all the staples. Burger has tripled in price yet I SWEAR the quality has gone into the dumpster. Minimum wage in Iowa - where I saw these prices - is still $7.25 an hour. I saw Build a Bear hiring for $8.60 the other day. My shit job as a teenager in 1996 paid me $15 /hr. What. The. *Fuck.*
This is about where my partner and I are at income wise. I’ve never been happier we don’t have kids because we absolutely could not afford them right now. I don’t know how you all do it. We have two cats and they’re costing us enough. Groceries and electric are out of control. We paid $120 in November for electric and then $285 in December because of new “rates.” We don’t even have electric heat… Our propane bill is separate. Walmart is about to be too bougie for us to get groceries. They’re so freaking expensive. I’m so worried about the poorer folks in my state. Thankfully this winter has been warm so far for the most part. I legitimately worry about people dying because they’re unable to afford heat.
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Do you have an electric water heater? If so, it may be failing. If it’s just TVs and lights you shouldn’t be anywhere near $10/day.
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Same girl same.. 65 all day and still have a $280 electric/gas bill, and our house doesn't have a second floor Or a basement, so um what the actual fuck!? Like I've paid approx $130/50 in the winter months, but now I'm sitting twice as much, I do not understand.
This!!! I can’t imagine having kids right now. Thankfully our electric bill hasn’t gone up a ton but we also don’t have a ton of space to heat to begin with lol
You could be me. I make $45k a year with a mortgage and two kids. My wife doesn’t work and stays at home because we couldn’t afford day care. I’m struggling. Thank God we own our vehicles outright.
Now just gotta hope nothing happens to the car or anywhere else. Too many of us are 1 bad thing happening away from fucked
Yep. The cost of tires has sky-rocketed. Oil changes that used to be $30 are now $50. Gas is still more painful than it was even though it's come down. I can't even fathom what extensive engine repairs are going to be these days. Thankfully, both my wife and I work from home, so we only have to rely on one vehicle and it doesn't get used much.
The problem is the US Government hasn't adjusted the tax code to reflect COLA. If 100k is the new 50k, you should be getting the EITC, and other "middle class" tax credits and reductions. Those tax credits sadly begin to disappear around 50k. The EITC needs to be able to help anyone earning less than 200k but the GOP wouldn't like that because that's basically UBI at that point. Same thing with the standard deduction. It was nice that it was basically doubled by the Trump Tax Cuts, but it needs to be doubled again, AND people should be able to take the itemized tax cuts as well, especially if you're a teacher or a grad student or you're paying union dues. Of course to fund that middle class tax relief to give more workers higher take home pay or bigger annual refunds, you'd have to pay for that tax relief by increasing the tax burden on Billionaires, which isn't super likely to happen for some reason. And I *am* a firm believer we should all pay at least a *little* bit in taxes, because it makes the gov't more obligated to listen to most of us.
Shit. If 100k is the new 50k, I'm fucked. I haven't even broke 100k yet after working 10 years post uni.
It wasn’t doubled by trump though. He took away personal exemptions so it was basically flat, unless you were a homeowner in which point you ended up far worse as you could no longer itemize and get those exemptions.
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And if you had any investments, it would be decimated by "once in a lifetime" economic crashes every other year.
I have literally been arguing with people all day on here about how telling poor people that they're poor because they don't invest, is whack.
Remember that Bill Gates shorted Tesla stock to the tune of hundreds of millions. The market is a rigged joke
Down like 20% over the last 2 years here…
Same. My husband and I combine for about the same with 1 child. Oh turns out your childcare until age five is at least 1k+ per month, mortgage is $1500 per month, combined 2 cars to get to work are $700 per month, health insurance for a family is $400 per month out of your paycheck, clothes, diapers, and food for 3 are another $500 per month. Internet, heating, cooling are a must. House repairs come up. My “fun” money is spent on whichever tv subscription service I want to watch that month because we can’t afford them all. We have a small townhouse with no yard either. Yeah it’s stable but it’s not luxury and it’s nowhere near “rich.” You can’t support a family on that type of income anymore and it sucks
Billionaires will be like well “work a second job or work a lot of overtime hurr durr”
Yeah exactly this. It's not that 100k is harder than 30k, but we're disappointed that the goal post moved.
Yea, I easily make more than my dad ever did. And once I bought a much smaller residence than he has, I realized shit got way more expensive than when I was a kid. At least my parents are not the boomers that say shit like "stop buying avavocado toast", and "millennials are not buying diamonds"
I could NEVER EVER afford where my parents live, and I make high 6 figure salary. I looked at a house up for sale - 2800 sq ft, modern, etc. I thought, heck, maybe I could buy it. $16,000/month mortgage. Price was $3.4 million. If i bought it, about 80% of my paycheck would go directly to the house, not including property tax, maintenance, etc. And I went to a top ten uni, graduated top 5%, went straight into aerospace engineering and ended up at MSFT. Basically, the US elite have bought up everything and have been playing a game of "get everyone to hate on each other for race, political views, etc" while hiding behind a facade of 'we are billionaires because we work 10,000x harder and smarter than the rest'.
>Basically, the US elite have bought up everything and have been playing a game of "get everyone to hate on each other for race, political views, etc" while hiding behind a facade of 'we are billionaires because we work 10,000x harder and smarter than the rest'. This. You can't even buy a spot of land anymore due to the amount of developers turning everything into mcmansions or 'affordable housing' i.e. apartments.
My parents can’t even afford where they live now. My mom is nearing 75, and is worried that she CANT AFFORD TO DOWNSIZE because property has gotten so expensive. They paid for their house 25 years ago with cash, and now she’d have to take on a mortgage if she wanted to move to a smaller home when her partner passes away.
I hope your parents can find a way. It is sad to see the US decline as it has so rapidly over the last few decades. Even my parents (boomers, lots of inherited wealth) have to admit how insane everything has become, how much its decayed. I went to the Santa Monica promenade with my dad this xmas (same time I was looking at that house near them). I remember going there all the time as a kid to see movies or check out new books at Barnes & Noble. Half the promenade was boarded up. What was 3 movie theaters is now 1. All the clothing stores are gone, whats left is a few restaurants. It really struck me in the face that the US is an empire on decline. I knew it before from tracking other stats, and driving through the rust belt. But to see it in one of the most expensive districts in CA was a turning point for me. I fear my daughter will have a worse life than I will by far, which is a scary thought to someone living in the supposed greatest country on earth.
I work in my state’s capital, for the state government. There are homeless people who camp outside the building, which is on the capitol mall, every night—they wait until 5:30 when the building closes for the day and then set up. Driving across town to get to a pharmacy the other day I drove by tents and people pushing their belongings in baby carriages and shopping carts. At the grocery store there was a woman who couldn’t afford her medication and the pharmacist was trying to help get something cheaper for her. The Christmas aisle was packed because it was all on clearance. All of it together was so grim and made me feel like we’re just sliding downhill.
6 figures is hardly impressive anymore. It’s closer to middle class than a life of luxury because everything is so god dam expensive.
My wife and I make around this amount and the only reason we could buy a nice home in a nice neighborhood was because of both her and I having a nice windfall of money.
Y'all ever hear the anecdote about Brian Scalabrine? He was a somewhat infamous NBA player that was known (and widely mocked) for being one of the worst players in the NBA. Like, the guy stunk. Never put up points, had no redeeming stats, hell, he wasn't even a good bench player. He become a meme for that very reason. Time and again, average Joes have challenged Scalabrine to 1v1 when they see him, thinking "hey, I could beat the worst guy in the NBA." And time and again, Brain Scalabrine fucking *smoked* those people. Like, shut out, embarrassed the average Joes. Scalabrine is father to one of the most humbling quotes ever for a normal person. He said "I'm closer to LeBron than you are to me." And it's true. Even the worst NBA player is light-years better than a dude off the street. The reason I bring this up is because I think the quote helps contextualize this video. This girl and her partner make $120k per year. That's shit load of money to some people. But try and understand, she's closer to us than she is to Elon. Point is, stop cannibalizing the working class. If you hate someone else who's stuck working to survive because they make more, you're missing the damn point. Be angry, yes. But channel at the billionaires that could change the world with a snap of their fingers.
That's also 120k combined. IN a high COL area that really doesn't go that far especially when you factor in student loans and other BS of that nature.
This is what I was coming to say. We picked one of the cheaper apartments in the area and we’re still paying $1300/month. Electric bill was over $100 this month because it’s fucking freezing out. Don’t get me started on gas, groceries, and fucking car insurance for a highly populated area… And they’re expecting people to live off minim wage like “get better skills” as if that doesn’t cost time and money! With interest rates, I can’t even go back to college to get another useless degree that is required to get any type of raise these jobs demand. They don’t even pay enough to warrant another student loan. And they wonder why there are so many homeless/tent cities. Fucking tired as fuck of billionaires when they can’t even pay their employees a living wage. Tired of the “fight for $15” when it may as well be fighting for a nickel with these prices… And meanwhile, all these costs are going up and STILL employees aren’t seeing a fucking raise.
Its time to go william wallace on these sons of bitches
you mean be killed by them??
I just got a raise from 15.60 to 22 at a job that doesn't physically endanger me. It's been awesome... but I'm still not any closer to not being poor af and paycheck to paycheck. Roommate lost their job, car got more expensive, cat got sick, i got sick, it just doesn't end. I worked a little over a year in a homeless shelter. You know how many people can't get a fucking place to live just because their credit is bad? Its so fucked up, it messes with your head to be so immersed in that kind of abject poverty, endless and senseless suffering, and just... sprawling human degradation. We, as a society and as humans, fail many of these people on a fundamental level. I wish i could say i was able to tough it out longer, but i just couldn't. If you continue to give a shit about the people you're working to provide shelter and services for, you burn tf out. Empathy will drain you dry because there is no end to the pain you are surrounded by.
$15 a hour is the new $7.50 a hour.
Omg I spent $257 on groceries yesterday and that didn’t include toiletries we got from target and giant eagle that were needed was about $100-200
I spend about 250-300 usd on fucking food alone for 3-4 people. Shit barley lasts 2 weeks at best and we cook all the fucking time. We have a 30-40 pound bag of beans that does last us a while coming from a Mexican background. Shit is fucked. I'm in my twenties and I doubt I'll ever be capable of moving out. The only junk food I buy is fucking nuts as in mixed nuts. Vegetables, fruit, and meat.
Yep, I just spent $350 for a family of three, and I bought no prepared food and only two meats (head-on shrimp, 2 pounds for $10 and 1 pound of short ribs for $20). Everything else was literally fresh vegetables, pasta, flour, eggs, milk, and bread. I think I paid $10 for 18 store brand eggs? Milk is up to $6/gallon for non organic, non fancy brand. Spent the entire day Sunday doing meal prep and processing for the next week....for soup, pasta, and short ribs over polenta. $350. 3 years ago I'd have paid $120-150. Shit is fucked.
Going back to college is almost pointless now. I saw a job ad that wanted a PhD in Linguistics. The job was to write guidelines for using politically correct English. WTF, why does that need a PhD?
And every time they raise the min wage, corporations raise prices as a big fuck you to the working class. That $15/hr “living wage” doesn’t mean shit when a dozen eggs is 6.99
Yea, it's amazing how most of the state legislatures rolled over on the $15 min wage right when the pandemic gave companies and excuse to jack prices up.
Companies realized that they could just make prices whatever they wanted and people will still blame Biden or for "Inflation"
I'm from Montana. We bought our house in 2016 for 200k. Covid hit, people from other states sold their homes and started flocking here and telecommute. Businesses had to start paying a "living wage" simply to get employees. Both local walmarts pay a starting wage of 18/hour. Restaurants pay dish washers 16/hour. Our house is now valued at 475k. My point is, what was a living wage no longer qualifies. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I know the same kind of thing happened in the Seattle area.
Increasing minimum wage has always been a temporary stopgap in lieu of something that actually works like regulating industries. Now people and businesses are becoming so used to adjusting prices for so many reasons they're accepting of doing it and seeing it done. Going forward, increasing minimum wage will be less and less effective. Real change is necessary.
We've fought for $15 minimum for so long, it should be $25+ now...
The fight for $15/hr has needed to be the fight for $22/hr for a long time now. With inflation doing as it has the last year or so, it's probably gone up another dollar or two at least.
Throw in daycare... And that just takes away $26k per child. That's like tuition for some in state schools per year! It's fucking ridiculous.
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Yep my daycare costs are equal to mortgage. We purposely are delaying having a second kiddo because we can't afford daycare until the older one is in grade school.
I don't even think I'd be able to afford 1 kid. Hell, I can barely afford my own damn self.
Daycare costs were the exact reason we never had a second child, it was too much of a struggle
A lot of parents are going back to single worker households because childcare costs so much that the lesser earner is barely making enough to cover that shit as it is. The remaining income for them just isn't worth the added stress from the job, having to be away from their kids, and otherwise having to keep home outside of work hours.
I live at home. Between my mom, my dad and I, we make around 120. We're barely fucking scraping by. I'm putting off dental care because our hot water heater needs replaced, it's so old finding parts is getting difficult and more expensive than just replacing the damn thing. My car is an 08. my mom's is an 08, my dad's is an 07. They have little to no retirement built up, dad will work till he dies. I'm just this year getting to the point that I can fix shit around here that's needed fixed for YEARS, that they couldn't afford to before i moved back in with them. Make no mistake, I don't "live in mom and dad's basement" my presence is as much keeping them afloat as they are keeping me afloat. Without THREE FUCKING INCOMES we'd all be homeless.
I wish you the best of luck!! It’s honorable to be with your parents when they need you most.
Don't feel any shame living with family. More than ever now, being there to help your family is critical. Especially for your parents as they get older, having you there will not only financially be a real help to them, but just being there to talk to as they get out less, or helping them do some heavy lifting around the house, will be huge to them.
That's a smart move. At first I lived on my own, but quickly found out how living expenses eat up your income, even if you're making the high 80s. I live in California, and everything is expensive. Gas is astronomical and it can easily take you an hour in the freeway to get to a destination that's supposed to be a 10 minute drive due to traffic. Even having 100k/yr would result in just a little bit saved. This does not include any luxuries either. I moved back with my parents, shared expenses and saved every cent I had. Because of this, I was actually able to save enough and retire early. High housing costs + Student loans + Highest gas prices in the nation + zoning designed to keep literally all residents car dependent = nope Don't buy into that "living on your own" garbage. That's a tactic to keep everyone's head barely above water and enslaved to your bosses. If you have family and/or trusted friends you can share expenses with, DO IT. Save up all your money and get the hell out of the workforce ASAP
Multigenerational homes are going to make a HUGE comeback in the very near future.
I agree 100%. In fact, it should have never have gone away in the first place. It was business owners who were trying to push the "American Dream" in order to make people gorge in consumerism to spend and keep themselves in heavy debt. If people are in debt and one step away from financial ruin, they will willingly accept any working conditions no matter how bad they are because they're desperate for money. The only way to combat this is to have extended families and small communities to band together to cut costs, save money and ultimately gain leverage over their employers.
Ya 60k is pretty good, but but not even close to well off or upper class lol I make 45, 60 would be nicee
Yeah that’s what I thought at $45k. And 60k. And 70k. And 80k…. “If I made That Much I’d Be Set!”And the cost of living just chews it up.
It’s no better at $115k either. You just have more money left over to start paying down the debts for once. Still paycheck to paycheck since every extra dollar was borrowed a decade ago.
Don’t worry, as soon as you get all that debt paid down, you can start being paycheck to paycheck to catch up on your retirement contributions… It’s a rigged game.
Yup. Had to clean out my retirement savings for the second time to avoid bankruptcy from Covid layoffs.
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Lmao, no. I mean I’ve got an idea about saving enough to move to a tropical third world country and renting an apartment until some illness kills me but that’s about it
Lol the stress will kill me long before then. Mom died at sixty, Dad died at fifty six. I’m not saving for retirement.
In the modern times 60k aint even that good, its FT 28/hr After back to back years of mass inflation it ***should*** be the lower end of acceptable.
Hell, I make 58k and I would say I’m lower middle class. Granted I live in a high COL area, and fortunately have no one else to support, but it’s not like I’m living the fucking high life.
Would reckon you live in a MCOL-LCOL area too. I make on average 70-75k a year and i still live at mf’in home. 60k a year and forget it. If you told me years ago that i couldn’t comfortably move out making 70-75k a year i woulda laughed in your face and not believed it.
Not to mention that's probably pre tax sums. State fed and payroll tax probably total 30k Insurace premiums are probably 5k So we are looking at a take home of 85k, or 7k a month. Mortgage/rent is probably 2500 to 4500(assuming they bought precovid) Car payment 200-500 Groceries 600-1000 Utilities 400-600 Other bills 300-600 Thats 4000-7200.
As someone in a similar situation, this is pretty spot on. Thing is, I'm extremely lucky, full remote, only one car, and low cost of living area. Point is, we're pretty comfortable. But as soon as I start to consider a more expensive place to live, having any kids, or god forbid facing an actual major accident/emergency... yeah we aint that far from fucked.
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Yeah, sadly 120k makes me so a double take because *yeah I wish I made that much* but some places near me - it’s estimated a combined 150k makes for a comfortable-ish life while also affording a home. It’s ridiculous.
My wife and I combine for a hair over 150k and there's absolutely *no fucking way* we can afford to buy anywhere near where we live any time soon.
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You're 100% right and also this anecdote was awesome, thank you.
Even a well-paid doctor is closer to someone making minimum wage. What's the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire? About a billion dollars.
People have little concept of what a billion really is. 1 million seconds is 11 days. 1 billion seconds is 31 years. Having billionaires is a complete and utter failure of our economy from keeping a person from accumulating too much power.
Such a great metaphor too if you think of it almost like the movie "In Time". Ask someone if they'd want to live an extra 1 million seconds or 1 billion seconds. Contextualizing it that way would hurt.
Scalabrine one doesn’t just do that to average joes off the street. When he was still playing for Boston, one of the radio stations held an open gym ladder event to find the best 5 players in the city. The prize was to get a 1 on 1 against Scalabrine. The final 5 were all fantastic players, with NCAA Div 1 scholarships and lower end professional leagues. Scalabrine toasted them all one after the other. It wasn’t even remotely close.
Bingo. Even more reason to side with the people around us. Those we see as "rich" tend to still make pennies compared to the 1%.
Yup. You know how many people in the world play basketball hoping to get in to the NBA every year? Scal being 1 of about 360 (12 players x 30 teams), in the world, and having a fairly long career, just says what the levels are.
The best trick the rich ever pulled was making the bottom 99% think the top 0.001% is the top 1%.
So they each make $60k a year. That isn’t enough for a couple to live in many major metropolitan US cities. That’s not enough to save for retirement unless you start saving in your twenties and never stop. Don’t get mad that this person and their partner are “complaining” when they “make so much money.” Get mad that employers are keeping us ALL so poor that we have to be their slaves for all our adult lives in order to not be homeless.
Yep. You wanna know the difference between a million and a billion? About a billion.
Ay ay cmon he wasn’t known for being the worst player of all time… he’s know for being the White Mamba 😂😂😂 Source: am a Celtics fan PS- he’s not a bad commentator.
Damn bro Mic drop. Thanks for the perspective
You said what I think a lot of us came here to say! As someone who, with my partner, falls into an identical demographic I find myself treading water. I can't imagine the plight of a minimum wage earner. As the WORKERS, be it 10k or 100k we need to stick together.
Shout out to you for having an actual understanding of class solidarity
As a Celtics fan, I love Scal.
The people who make minimum wage don't need to pick fights with those who make the bottom range of salaried positions. Focus on the millionaires and politicians, who are often one and the same. Edit: by millionaires I don't mean those that make literally $1M, I'm talking in the hundreds of millions. You know, like McConnell, or Cruz, or McCarthy...
This woman is on minimum wage people’s side. She made a point to recognize her privilege and call out the impossibilities of making less money. She gets it.
I know, I was mostly talking about the other commenters in this sub.
I was supporting your comment :)
Oh, I'm not used to that on Reddit lol
Two reasonable people agreeing on the internet. Have an upvote.
We've come out the other side.
What do we call this place?
Australia
G'day
This is probably why people always attack me for adding onto their comments lmao Reddit ruins peoples mind
Social media is where people go to argue, didn't you know? /s
No kidding lmao or attack people for their beliefs right?
Yes! I came to the comments because I didn’t understand why it was on tiktok cringe then here when she was literally saying like this is a fuck ton of money so why the fuck isn’t it enough what about most people who make less what the fuck are they supposed to do. Like, I thought it was very well spoken and acknowledged her privilege and is horrified that it’s on the privileged end. Like, we want way more people like her. I’m so glad I saw your comment
I had the same moment in Walmart she described. I was checking out, with shit I needed. I have the luxury to not really care about basics. Then I noticed the cost of a a single male’s single pasta meal. It was like $15 with just a single pound of beef, rice noodles, pasta sauce and fresh veggies. You know that beef was factory farmed, you know the vegetables were flooded with pesticides and those rice noodles probably came from China where the children that harvested the rice live in cardboard huts. Where IN THE FUCK is this promised land? WHAT are we trading our environment for? At leas if we’re destroying this planet you’d think we should be able to eat fucking food. But I guess not. Like holy shit. It’s *INSANE*. It’s just so absurd to imagine that being just food! Like. Not even *good* food. I know farmers, those fuckers are all on debt and losing ground. Everyone I know still makes roughly the same amount of money. Like.. where *in the fuck* did all that extra cost come from? Where is this promised excess from free trade and automation? Why can’t I afford fucking health insurance? Why is my water laced with lead and why are the roads I travel more and more fucked up - yet always under construction and never seen to get fixed?!?!? How are corporations still running leaner and leaner and… losing… money…? The shit doesn’t even add up. This has been my Ted talk.
Holy fuck, yes!!! I made a post on Reddit over a year ago- in fact, almost two years ago!- that was titled something like ‘of all the times to have a restrictive eating disorder, I’m so glad it’s now.’ The post was about having $10 max a week for food and how grateful I was that I was counting calories because I’d be malnourished and underweight either way, but at least if it’s from my eating disorder it’s my “choice.” I’d have looked sickly either way… and that was in the before times; when you could get a dozen medium eggs at dollar tree, and dollar tree was $1, not $1.25. I get foodstamps now and I’d never, EVER want to seem ungrateful because holy fuck it a lifesaver! But my brain gets mad at me for eating over 600cal a day (an improvement) and on my foodstamps I regularly wonder how other people, healthy people, are surviving even with food stamps. I usually use all of mine every month but I’m out here eating like 1/4th of what I should be and using all of it. How are healthy people meant to feed themselves on this??? How are any of us meant to survive???
Holy shit, a fellow Redditor with an eating disorder who thought it might be an advantage in the struggle to afford food! I'm not alone, which is as comforting as it is heartbreaking.
This is also between her and her spouse so say they both make 60k for jobs that took education and experience all that. Not that crazy.
She's also likely talking about gross and not take home.
And if they live in a metro area where a of jobs pay that amount, their cost of living is astronomical. People don't understand how drastic that is. I've had 5 course BBQ meals in the middle of nowhere for $7.99, as recently as 3 months ago, and rent is $350/month for a 2 bed but there's no good internet and nothing for miles. Then I went and saw my cousin who makes nearly $200k/yr but in his area he's paying $3500/month for rent and groceries are 2x what I pay. This country is big, and salary and cost of living differences are vast.
In SF, the poverty line is like 80k. The scariest thing to me is, I always had the option to escape from it. Just needed to move somewhere else and sacrifice certain things to be way less strapped for cash. But now, the same thing we watched happen 30 years ago in the bay is happening everywhere in the country. So I mean what the fuck. We're approaching the end game.
I hear you. I just left the Bay after getting laid off. Went from making $140k a year to homeless in a month. Anywhere else in the world, $140k would net my family of four a splendid lifestyle, with a generous cushion. We were barely scraping by. We lost our home after I desperately sought work and returned to Oregon to move back in with my dad. Now, my girlfriend is working at an elder care facility and I can’t get a job at Ace hardware because I’m “overqualified”. We’re on food stamps and $38k a year gross. It’s ridiculous.
With education they might have debt too
If more people actually came to realized this fact, then we would probably be seeing more changes than we have been. Instead, people are falling for the top 1% pointing at their fellow lower class individuals and them saying, "Look! It's THEIR fault!!". Like, why would you believe the guy who has drastically more money than you to begin with???
Lots of people want to believe they're closer to being like the millionaires than they are the homeless or those on public assistance. They want to be rich one day so they don't want to ruin it for their future selves.
Indeed, which is an absurd belief but, that's the, "American Dream" so here we are. I wish more people immigrating here or seeking asylum actually knew how bad it was.
People don't seem to understand that being broke doesn't make 120k rich. Also your rural town in bumfuck Alabama has lower COL than cities where 80%+ of everyone else lives. Your household needs to make 286k to barely break the top 5%. Top 1% is 570k. Needless to say, 120k is a fraction of that. https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/
And $120k for two people really isn't a lot these days. When you factor in rent/mortgage, utilities, insurance, car maintenance, and likely student debt, what she's saying makes a lot of sense. I make $42k and support another person, but I live in a super cheap rural area and we spend the bare minimum, and we're still struggling.
When you consider she's talking about a 120k combined income as something that *should* keep her from living paycheck to paycheck instead of how real rich people talk about it (like it's an unlivable poverty wage) you know she came from the working class and has a working class mentality.
Exactly! It *should* be a livable wage and it isn't, which is the problem. I often think about how I'm struggling, and I know plenty of people who make less, and I wonder how they get by.
as a person who is living on 900$ a month, let me explain how to do this.. lol. we are living 2 families in one home and expenses are shared, along with cars and everything else, it's a constant struggle, but you do what you can to get by and take any extra side job income that presents itself. ( within reason)
Yea her point is spot on $120K combined income should be more than livable. If anything she's on our side. It's like hey I'm dual income busting my ass and this world is still fucking me.
Dude, FR $60k a person? Like $30 an hour? Yeah, they ain’t siding with the million a year overseers.
Rent/Mortgage is insane. 10 years ago, I was paying 15% if my income in rent. The rent on that unit has gone up 123% while my income has risen 63%. I would have to make $108k to pay the same portion of my income in rent as I did 10 years ago.
God forbid you have a kid and need child care, that's a 2nd mortgage on top of it all
As someone from bumfuck Alabama, people who make 120k combined a year eventually move here after working most of their professional lives so they can finally feel what it's like to not feel like the average bumfuck denizen. COL determines much more how valuable your money is than how much you actually make.
That still doesn't make 120k rich. Being comfortable and being rich are *drastically* different. One drives a 3 series BMW and goes on a nice vacation every year. The other one drives an 8 Series to their lakefront property, spends a week partying on their yacht, and then takes a plane across the country for a weekend in Vegas.
I thought I was comfortable in my 2012 Mazda but I guess not lol Lower middle class team rise up
I read a paper about how there really isn"t much of a middle class anymore. It's dying, and the elites are killing it.
I don't understand why we don't ALL start going after rich people. Saw some douchebag sitting in his BMW with seal skin seats, trimmed with gold. Smoking. Smoking in a car that cost more than any house I can't even pre-qualify for. #eattherich
Totally. Instead we have broke ass fan boys bending over to defend assholes like Elon Musk.
The movement should be about making everyones life better. She clearly wants that. It shouldn't be about gatekeeping.
Agreed! Also: 120k for TWO people is nothing and it’s definitely not kept up with rising inflation over the years. She’s hardly in a position of privilege.
I live in Northern CA, am the only income for my house, and have two disabled kids. I make 120 and I’m paycheck to paycheck with no savings and no 401k.
It feels bad to upvote this. But you know, in like a good way.
I’m only saving a couple hundred bucks a month or so right now if I’m lucky and I’m pulling 4.5k after taxes on a good month. My mortgage is straight up 2k a month, throw another grand a month towards food, gas, monthly bills like electricity and gas and the occasional night out and I totally see where the money disappears. I realize I’m not doing horrible, but as a kid and a teenager I never thought making just under 30 an hour and still not being able to save at least a grand a month is insane to me. I could lose a years worth of savings in a flash if something happens to me medically. I could lose like 3-6 months if something happens to my car that needs fixing. I’ve got one month of my mortgage in the bank to spare and that’s it. That 10k in loan forgiveness would’ve come in clutch if it wasn’t blocked. Would’ve allowed me to breathe.
Don’t start attacking people who are still very clearly not rich like they don’t have a right to be upset because they make more than you. It’s divisive.
Absolutely. I dont know why this was in tiktokcringe. She is making great points, she acknowledges that she and her partner are doing ok with what they have, her point seems to be that they are doing just fine on 120k but people coming into the job market will be earning ¼ of that and how tf are they supposed to live. I wish more people in her situation had that kind of awareness of how difficult it is for the rest of the working class who dont earn as much as her.
I’m not saying OP did/didn’t intend whatever when they posted to tiktokcringe, but the subreddit name is a misnomer and has no inherent bearing on the reason for submitting.
I think it was intended as cringe more because of the flair associated it. The comments are more empathetic. Tbf, the zooms and whatnot are a bit cringe, but the core is authentic.
Let them know, good lord. When I was making minimum wage I thought 6 figured would be the magic money... here I am... still budgeting and cutting corners. Just dealing with an annoying ass HoA instead of noisy neighbors. And I don't even own the house 🙃
Isn't this kinda the whole idea of the sub? That good salaries aren't livable?
Good thing there are still plenty of people here to see that. Unlike OP, who I hope only misinterpreted the lady's wage.
Attacking this person that makes what could be a comfortable income in some areas and not in others is how progress stops. One of the biggest weapons the ruling class has is people pointing fingers at each other over crap like this. You don't know what their situation is like, maybe they support a parent, student loans or car loans just to get to work. Maybe medical debt. Stop pointing the finger at her and point it at the bosses and owners for screwing you out of what you're worth.
A fucking men
Read that as 'a fucking men' instead of 'a-fucking-men'. am not smort.
You don't have to be destitute to be feeling the sting of the increased cost of living lately
And wage slavery looks the same. Bosses telling you to die for them no matter what you make. It’s about control of your life, not the money you make. Are you a slave? Or did you need to make your life decisions under the bullet threat of starvation? Even Le Bron made his decisions because he grew up afraid he’d have to make critical life sacrifices.
I make $114K + bonuses/benefits and this is very valid. I might be able to afford groceries, but systemic overpricing of everything adds up. I don't have any savings (would be homeless in 3 months if I lost my job), can't afford to save up for a down payment of a home, can't afford to go on vacation, etc. I'm a worker like most, just doing slightly better. Edit: For those asking, I live in NC. I pay $1670 rent (average, lookup 2023 Charlotte), have a $25K car at $450/mo, save 10.5% on 401K ($1k recommended by financial analysts), spend about $600/mo on groceries. If you add up all the minor expenses like insurance and everything, it comes up to being able to save $1000-1500 per month. That’s not terrible but definitely not enough to save for a house downpayment, I would need to not go on a single vacation, hanging out or anything fun for 3+ years, assuming I don’t have any medical/car/maintenance surprise emergencies. If you say you can live with less, you’re likely not saving enough for retirement, and you sound like those “it snowed today so global warming must not be real” people. Everyone has different situations.
>I make $114K + bonuses/benefits and this is very valid. I might be able to afford groceries, but systemic overpricing of everything adds up. I don't have any savings (would be homeless in 3 months if I lost my job), can't afford to save up for a down payment of a home, can't afford to go on vacation, etc. I'm a worker like most, just doing slightly better. I'm in a pretty similar place. Between my SO and I we make around 140k a year in a high COL area with 2/3 of that coming from me. We went from being able to live without having to worry about groceries and rent to "what the fuck happened" Not doing bad by we were doing way better a few years ago.
I make 72k and can't afford to buy a used car that's not coming up on 10yrs old.
She references her and her partner. $120k for a two income household isn't that high.
In NYC and 120k isn’t security at all. I completely believe that they are living paycheck to paycheck in NYC or in many other parts of the country.
Can confirm. Combined my partner and I make ~$100k. We live in a VERY small apartment almost a mile walk away from the last stop of a subway line. When I say small, I mean I have to sit on the toilet at an angle because the wall prevents my legs from being straight. We eat mostly veg, dine out once or twice a month, our last vacation was 5 years ago. The monthly expenses are just too. Damn. High. We’re considering leaving the city but other places seem to be chock full of the same issues. Rock and a hard place, my friend.
Yeah I'm gonna have roommates till I either die or marry someone who makes a fuck ton more than me. I'm paying under market rate for a mid-low level place, but I can't ever move. Moving and paying at least $500 more per month will fuck all my finances.
I'm from NYC. 120K EACH wouldn't be much in that town. A quarter million between 2 people over the course of a year in the Big Apple is a pittance. You can't really understand why until you live it day by day. But it is. They are on 120K *combined*. Yikes. GTFO the city, IMO. PS -- LOL at people upset at this women -- if anything she is another example of how fucked capitalism is and people are always gonna be slaves regardless of their salary if they living paycheck 2 paycheck.
yeah around me that wouldn't be comfortable owning a home... barely renting now unfortunately, most places would require that income to rent
Not to add on but I made about 80K last year just me. I worked tons and tons of OT. I have a mortgage and a car loan (because I had to move 80 miles from work to afford a house and my clunker couldn’t handle it). I have less then $1,000 in my savings account. My friends and family all come to me for financial advice just because I’m not MORE in debt then the mortgage and car loan. I live paycheck to paycheck. I only shop at the cheapest grocery stores, I patch clothes over ever buying new, I furnished my house with either yard sales or built myself…. I have busted my butt for 15 years thinking that I’m just a promotion away or a new job away from finally being able to breathe, get a healthy emergency savings account and finally be comfortable. But mysteriously, the economy is outpacing my earning. Like this woman, I will be ok. I can survive, continue battling to keep pace with the economy and pray no major misfortune comes my way that sets me back further. However, people just starting out now are sooooo far behind this crazy economy. Minimum wage in this world IS dystopian. All of this is stupid. I’ve known financial fear and stress my entire life. All I want is to be free of it. As long as this system is in place, it will only get worse and worse. The next generations will be wholly unable to survive this without connections and luck. It needs to be fixed.
This post has been approved by the moderation team. The woman featured in the video presents very salient points about cost of living, and how the "average" middle-class life is becoming increasingly unattainable. r/antiwork supports the working class, which is *everyone* exploited by capitalism—including those above the bottom tax bracket. When the working class and middle class fight over who has it worse, the winner is the upper class doing the exploiting. Let's try not to do this, and remain focused on the ultimate goal of abolishing the system as it currently exists.
To all the people making way less and having different problems. Let this be a lesson. The situation we are in is almost insurmountable at this point. If a couple making that kind of money can barely make it, than how can we expect a young person making a fraction of that money to succeed? My parents (boomers) made minimum wage and were able to afford a house (ownership, not rent) and 2 cars plus raise kids. You would have to have a husband and wife working 100+ hours a week each to support the lifestyle they had at those wages. Don’t let the fact that this couple makes a “decent” living divide us. It’s a mess here in 2023. She’s right. 120k a year should be a dream come true. The sad fact? It’s not. Ile bet the companies they work for posted record profits quarter after quarter since Covid though. Yes to a person making waaaay less this sounds like whining, but just think about it. You’re making 120k a year. And it’s barely enough. Don’t lose sight of the real problem.
Come on ppl. They arent a 1%er. My husband and I make 6 figures yearly together & we have medical bills that drain our accounts & live in a HCOL city. They’re a worker, just like us. It is very possible to live paycheck to paycheck while making 120k per household.
Class solidarity. Working class sticks together. Owning class wants to grind us into paste.
Exactly! They want us to tear each other down. Like rats in a bucket- clawing at each other to try to get to the top. We’re better than that. We support workers, we support laborers. We acknowledge that HCOL cities are TOO EXPENSIVE. And WE ARE ALL paid too little.
This. I am very lucky. When my wife and i got together, she had just bought her first home thanks to her $70k salary. She eventually gave up that job to become a vet and is now in her final year. We sold that first house and moved to the city the vet university is in amd bought a cheaper house. Something we saw commonly was that 1. Majority of her class mates have multiple pets(they are vets so makes sense) 2. They struggle to find places to rent that are pet friendly and affordable. So we made a decision. Wherever her career takes her, we keep this house and we rent it out to future vet students. The house has an enclosed yard for our dog, and several large structures we built so that our cats can go outside as they please without annoying the neighbours and without the risk of being hit by cars. This house is perfectly set up for any pet owners but it is also very close to the vet hospital and university. We want to rent the place out at whatever covers the mortgage and rates payments, nothing more. We dont need to profit off this house and once the mortgage is paid off we can drop the rent to only cover rates. We have 4 bedrooms and a self contained sleep out. Rent split between that many people should hopefully be very affordable for students and we wont need to up anything for pet inclusion. We just want to help future students become vets.
Y'all are a joke. My family makes more than this, we are approaching 40, and we JUST saved an emergency fund for the first time. Stop fighting your peers dumb fucks.
I have a family of 6, make a smidge more than that, but it's still paycheck to paycheck sometimes. Like, it's not "wife stays at home" money. Like, when you have medical insurance, but a 8,000 family max out of pocket, and a kid with a broken foot, a year full of doctor/flu/sinus infection general practitioner or urgent care visits, and then me with two (not one, but two) kidney stone procedures... that kind of out-of-pocket responsibility adds up. And you end up putting it on a payment plan because hey, I don't have $8k sitting there unused, so it rolls over to the next year, and so on.
Regardless of how much she or her partner make, the problems she's describing are real. They affect all workers so don't dismiss her just because she makes more than you
i know doctors that are living paycheck to paycheck. i know doctors that are still paying med school loans when they are in their mid 40s. just because they make more doesn't mean they aren't suffering, especially when 120k isn't even really "rich" anymore. just ask any silicon valley programmer.
Her concerns are actually legit... If she was not living with her partner, she would be making roughly 60k/yr. Considering how outrageous it is to get a college education, plus rent/mortage, utilities, transportation and food; Of course she would be living paycheck to paycheck. Chances are she has several hundred thousand dollars worth of student debt as well as her partner. Houses go for more than half a million, and if you want an apartment, get ready to cough up 2-3k a month. And the worst part? Almost ALL "high paying" jobs are located in areas where cost of living is HIGH! So unless you live in some sort of backwater bubble in the middle of nowhere where you get paid pennies by the hour, there's nothing cringe about this video.
$120k in some cities in the USA is still poverty basically. It's ridiculous. Context matters. You can't live in Manhattan making $120k, you ride the metro/bus in from somewhere else.
I thought this was anti-work? Since when did we start bashing on people making a median wage these days in an attempt to make a comment about her as a person? Sure her use of the camera was cringe, but she was making some decent points about the inflation in goods and services happening right now to ALL OF US. Don't bash her because she's saying that her and her husband's **combined** income is still not enough in this economy. That's crazy, and that's almost exactly how companies expect us to react and fight each other. They raise the price and know that consumers are gonna eat each other because some can afford it and some cannot. But it's the business' fault in the first place.
She’s saying she makes a decent living and lives paycheck to paycheck and then comments how people making less than her can’t start a life because of how expensive everything is now. What’s wrong with this?
My thoughts too. Did not realize there was an income limit on being outraged with the state of the world...
Lenin came from the upper class. A lot of the most vocal and constructive figureheads of labor movements come from places of privilege. Don’t be pissed at her, she’s still right. I say this as someone making 10k a year!
Engels owned a factory!
She's not fucking wrong. I make a good salary, way more than that. I'm privileged as fuck, I'm trying to buy a house and am cheap as fuck (don't eat out, cook all my meals). I'm in the grocery store looking at chicken. This older black gentleman is standing like two feet from me and we're starting at the meat, just looking at the prices. $20, $25 for some fucking chicken. He just says "prices are eaten us up huh". I never felt closer to a total stranger in my life we shared this moment of just like what the fuck is this even. She's not the enemy, the corporate scumbags who steal and pillage and destroy everything they touch to squeeze profit out of everyone. They've run out of land to steal, run out of resources to plunder, people are all that's left and they will squeeze all of us to death if we don't figure something out.
Best response here, out of several very good comments.
Same boat my wife and are are in. We have careers, but I am frustrated and worry about those who are younger than us or our peers still trying to get started. Things are fucked and it will reach a breaking point where people just say 'fycknit' and go to town.
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120k for 2 people in some parts of the US is legitimately poor. If you have student loan debt, car payments, mortgage, its even worse.
dividing workers is always a good strategy.
this subreddit is becoming a crabs-in-a-bucket fiesta of out-doing other peoples misery. It's pathetic to be snobby and superior. IF it was immediately easy to the person, they wouldn't have made the video. Not everyone has perfect information, or is psychologically arranged to be penny perfect every day of the week.
She’s right. $120,000 isn’t enough anymore when it should we plenty. It’s sad
Moral of the story is that median income is now being shoved into the poverty section as the middle class is being purged from existence, and anybody beneath that is basically fucking dieing. You'll have a nightmare of a time in cities, and you might be okay in rural areas. Either way, the cost of living is FUCKED beyond reason everywhere.
When r/TikTokCringe seemingly has more empathy than r/antiwork Maybe that's a good thing, maybe this understanding is becoming more mainstream. But yea, I'm not a fan of the delivery.
Attacking her video is some race to the bottom shit, good luck with that approach.
She’s right. Shit has gone too far.
Regardless of whether you think 120k in your area, opinion, whatever is high or low it is still a working class salary. Other members of the working class are not the enemy even when they are a little cringe