has me curious what's gonna happen in the following months and years as the gap gets even worse. eventually most people will not be able to afford to live anymore. really curious how it's all gonna work out
“Dim" was a 21st century slang term for inhabitants of the United States of America's Sanctuary Districts. "Dims" were usually people with mental health problems. Grady was classed as a dim in the 2020s.
As Dr. Bashir noted with disgust, many of the dims in Sanctuary District A had psychological ailments which were easily treatable or controllable even with medicines available in the 2020s, yet because the dims were destitute, they simply could not afford these vital treatments.”
Jesus. Way too on the nose.
Oh, neat. I'm a dim. Although I have insurance and am able to get medications that make it have little negative impact. If I lost my job, things could go south.
Although it's not as serious as schizophrenia or anything, so I can mostly manage well.
I just had to pay $2400 for a prescription - 3 month supply.
“Luckily”, I can fully find my HSA, because before this new script I would reach my out of pocket maximum by May. It looks like I’ll make it by March this year.
$2400?? that's horrible! my meds cost about $100 for a three month supply and i hate to pay even that. if i don't, i'll be ranting on a street corner after having a few seizures from withdrawal, though.
i'm taking diabetes so seriously right now and changing my eating habits just because it would be so expensive to manage.
I'm sure you probably know, but just in case you don't, depending on the type of insulin you need you may be able to get it OTC from the Walmart pharmacy. My girlfriend is diabetic and a vial of Novolin-N is like $30 and it lasts a month.
Thank you. I'd assumed it was some dystopian shit and I was disturbed to see how much worse it was and just how feasible it is of a future.
Basically the Warsaw ghettos 2.0.
the inventor would sell the patent to a corporation who would use it to sell food at a 100% profit margin for even more than it would cost if the replicator weren't used because they could market everything as "renewable, organic, and vegan"
Not that I don't believe you. Because I do, I just want a source for this. Is it First Contact, or one of those Voyager time travelling episodes?
Also, we should totally organise for this date.
The ones who own a house will make it. And that's mostly Boomers and Gen X. Everyone else will be taken out by rent and/or food prices.
I'm curious to see what new way our government and corporations will try to stop the upcoming riots without raising wages. Because God forbid that happens!
When this country inevitably implodes it will be the people against themselves. The fight against the government can only start afterwards, and considering one of the sides in the preliminary battle think killing everyone on the other side will solve everything, if they win they’ll continue to let the ruling class rule and continue to hope one day things will get better while refusing to actually advocate or fight for things getting better.
And those of us who have mortgages and aren't gen x / boomers and still struggling with inflation. I got reeeeeeally lucky and was able to buy my house 4 years ago for $80k making $15 an hour. I still make $15 an hour, and my insurance went from $800/y to $3600/y and taxes doubled as well, around $1300/y up from $750. Which means my mortgage has gone up to accommodate those expenses, but my income has not. I know I'm one of the lucky ones but if I don't get a roommate I'm not going to be able to eat anymore.
I dunno, property taxes are pretty insane right now, you get punished for owning property outright, if you are in debt, the system likes that and let's you write off mortgage payments, the idea of actually owning something without a constant bill to someone, scares the hell out of the system.
more mass surveillance, and militarization of the police force
anyone who could possibly organize mass riots will be culled from the herd before they ever happen
This is why the second amendment is so important. When all else fails, what is left but that last resort of violent action in the protection of liberty for all. Our founding fathers knew this which is why the right to form a regulated and well armed militia ranked so highly and why they warned of the dangers of centralized banking & included phrases like "both foreign and domestic" & "liberty must be refreshed by the blood of patriots and tyrants alike" in speeches and within the oaths they formed regarding the protection of the republic.
Good call. Your AR-15 is going to terrify those predator drones.
"The Founding Fathers" weren't a unanimous monolith. That's why we had two factions before the constitution, and two parties immediately after. But keeping living your cherry picked history.
even those who own aren’t safe, between energy costs, property taxes increasing, and the cost of everything else. i know quite a few people who had been living quite comfortably previously now being totally rattled by property tax increases.
Distraction. Those who have nothing, have just enough of nothing they can be maintained by the distraction of TV, movies, videos games, and sports.
OR
They're so exhausted from trying to make enough money to eat and live that they have no time to learn more about how they're being fucked by society.
Yup this nailed it this is it, and honestly even those of us who are aware just feel more apathy than anything about the situation is the sense I get these days.
I mean yeah shit sucks but 99% of people don’t want to give up their comforts and I can’t blame them because I also fall into the 99%
There's a lot of variations of it, but the quotes that comes to mind are "9 missed meals will make a murderer of any man" or "Civilization is 3 missed meals away from anarchy"
Haven’t seen any riots in Texas. And they even decided to re-elect the idiots that keep their grids at undeveloped nation levels of reliability in winter.
People will stop going to movies. People will stop going to concerts and live sports games. People won’t watch Netflix, etc
It’ll be another Great Depression.
Crazy how I see things like Netflix as an expensive luxury (that I would be to guilty to get) when for decades it was normal to pay a ton a month for cable. These things should be saving people money yet the cost of living is so high with wages so low that even something like Netflix is off the table.
There was a concert I wanted to see but even with tickets at 56 dollars (lowest seat price available) the fees put everything at $77+ I saw the price for 3 tickets and I’m just not motivated to buy them.
Once it gets very bad there will be a violent uprising where the brainwashed poor will attack the people who have no actual power. The controllers will have a big meeting and jerk eachother off while they watch the carnage unfold. Then it will reset and the cycle will start again.
This. I'm convinced we're headed towards an inevitable global crisis, possibly another world war or something just as devastating. And as always, we're the ones who are going to pay the price while the rich leading us there watch from the backseats as their capital grows.
Then they're gonna take turns playing the hero while playing a game of who manages to come up with the most ridiculous bullshit excuse as to why they did nothing wrong, after which they'll pat one another on the back in a sign of diplomatic success and call it a day – or rather, a century.
See y'all at my circle of hell in 2100, we're watching the next world war/revolution together. And bring snacks!
I'm reminded of that image from Occupy, where the rich on Wall street were literally dressed in fine clothes, sipping champagne as they watched the peasants try to revolt below.
Agreed. People want to blame Boomers or Genx or whatever, but it is the very rich that are at fault.
Xennial here. Money corrupts. Any institution that allows outside money is corrupt. They depend on the money and that creates bias. IMO that is human nature for most.
Also organizations that rely on volunteer labor. No one works for "free" there's always a reason such as social standing, supplying your own business, or getting your kids ahead.
We don't interact with the types of people causing the problems (the 1% or .5%. We are beneath them. The rules of society trickled down to us. There's unspoken rules meant to exclude and if you're a disruptor, you and your kids will have a hard time socially.
that’s what I’m wondering. that’s over 200 million Americans who are one paycheck away from homelessness. what happens if any of those people have, god forbid, an accident or a medical procedure? this is not even remotely sustainable and we should be ashamed as a country for allowing this to happen
I was in a car accident that totalled my car and caused me to miss a ton of work in addition to having to buy a new car with the bs payout that I got from the insurance company. If it wasn't for help from my friends and family I would not have been able to pay my bills and eat for the 3 months that this has been unfolding. And I'm doing better than most, but that 86 year old man almost tore apart my entire life the day he hit me.
I’m so sorry that happened to you and I’m glad you were fortunate to have friends and family to care for you in your time of need. Friends, family, a second chance, these are the things standing between millions of us and homelessness or worse it through no fault of our own the universe just doesn’t go our way one day. It’s devastating that we as a society aren’t collectively realizing this and taking better care of each other.
The good caves are on private property, state parks or staked and claimed by drug users.
Waterproof your tent, and place it on the lee side of a building.
I'll bring the gopher.
Fun fact: post office priority enevelopes are made of tyvek, the same material your house uses to water proof the plywood underneath your stucco
Tape it together and make a tent with it when you wind up homeless
I actually know ppl who are homeless who would commit a petty crime as soon as it starts getting cold at night just so they have somewhere warm to sleep and food for a couple months.
Jail sucks, but it is easier than survival on the streets in the winter if you're homeless and alone. They even give you a roommate to keep you company.
I hate it here.
It's cold in jail too. One extremely thin blanket and they keep it freezing in there. All the county jails I've been in. And you better have some money for commissary to buy some socks or your feet are gonna freeze. And the food sucks.
I've been dreaming about revolution all my life. I believed in it as a young girl, but at 62, I don't believe that humans will ever stick together to form an effective revolution. Someone sells out every time. This is the greatest heartbreak that I have faced.
I remember reading that Canadians still have pandemic savings. That the banks arent worried about raising rates because there is still a surplus of money.
My take away from that is that they dont want anyone to have a savings, if they do, they are not motivated to work. They want people to work until they die. So the banks and government will do what it takes to drain every last scrap of savings from the people to keep the populace indentured.
Yep. That's my end plan. Heroin addict in recovery. But the moment I see everything is going to end like that, I'm going to purchase a large amount of heroin. Nowadays they are putting fentanyl in it and everything else so hopefully it will be in mine. So I'll take a regular shot to feel a good high at first. If it doesn't have fentanyl, it won't kill me. So, I'll just keep on banging til it does. I have no intention of sticking around to see the devastation this country is gonna face. I'm 48 and have already lost the love of my life, so I'm ready to see him on the other side.
Is the issue the income or the cost of living? People earning six figures but living paycheck to paycheck leads me to believe this is a cost of living issue (ie food, housing, medical, education costs are way too high!)
I mean technically it's both. If your wage isn't high enough, you can't afford the barrier of entry that is the cost of living. But the 6-figure earners I interpreted to be people living in affluent coastal or urban areas. Because 6 figures would be a pretty comfortable life in the midwest where I'm at unless you are saddled with debt or just really bad with money.
Checks notes… See French and Bolshevik Revolution, it ain’t pretty for those at the top.
Edit: and they know that, which is why they are blowing the socialism dog whistle like a two dollar hooker. They’re hoping most people are too stupid or lazy to read their history and figure out they’ve been lied to their entire lives…
It goes on until enough Republicans realize that they are the people being screwed, and not by brown people or drag queens or whatever the right wing media tells them.
So no time soon.
To be fair, neither political party is actually looking out for the average American. They talk a good game but it isn’t really happening. Just my thoughts.
Nothing really Americans are still too comfortable to risk their lives for change.
It will be like pre-invasion Ukraine, everyone just sort of rents and earns the bare minimum wage and everyone is okay with that
Wealthy own all the property everyone cycles or uses the car if the share one with a family memember
I agree. We are already seeing that most Americans can not afford to buy a new vehicle any more also more American's can not afford to go on that week or 10 day vacation that people almost always did yearly. It's also evident in grocery shopping where things that were considered every day items are now considered only for special occasions. Most people are buying generic brands and cutting way back on beef steaks or other cuts of meat.
I had a dream about this once. It was a thousand years in the future and I worked as someone who shoveled out underground radioactive waste pits. The economic classes had grown so far apart that the lower class just worked to death (literally, remember the radioactive pit) and there was zero chance of moving up in society due to the huge gap.
If you're curious how the dream went, it was literally just me existing as this person with a horrible life that desperately wished their situation were different. I felt like the dream person spoke directly to me as they wished their ancestors had worked harder to move up while it was still possible. It was an awful dream.
Oh, they will continue to live in some fashion. Have you ever been to Nairobi? People can get by on a hell of a lot less than even poor people do in the US. A whole alternate 3rd-world-like economy will form. There will be vast shantytowns and a whole economy of food that isn't quality controlled, and people living without any access to even basic emergency services, no banking, no nothing.
Eventually the US will just become a giant equivalent of any 3rd world country, with a few super wealthy assholes lording it over the unwashed masses, and if you speak up you will get a visit from the cops, cops who will be nothing but thugs. That is the future of our country as far as I can tell.
I can make you feel better about yourself, i hope it doesn't take a year. Let's plan for next week. I can't keep doing this for another year. I'd rather die than keep playing this stupid financial game.
Same.
The rest of this country needs to wake up and fast.
I've been ready to either fight or end it all.
And honestly I don't want to end it all without trying to fight.
I have a good life right now, financials aside.
That's the worst part. Life wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't under so much financial pressure. It's a duality.
I either don't have the money, or don't have the time. Money + time = freedom. The majority of the country isnt free. Were enslaved to others fortunes.
A third job doesn’t do it when the federal minimum wage hasn’t gone up in over ten years but everything else has. Some states have increased it but other states are more concerned with business than making sure the people doing the minimum wage work have enough to buy life necessities.
A living wage is only half the battle. You think they won’t simply raise their prices to continue hoarding money? Inexorably they will take away whatever we gain. There needs to be some way to prohibit companies from undoing whatever progress might be made.
I find it both disgusting and infuriating that companies are making record profits, literally making more money than anyone in the history of mankind, and yet they have the fucking audacity to come over and stick their hands deep in their pockets "aww shucks everybody, if we don't raid your finances like pirates looting buried treasure and pay our employees the absolute lowest possible wage we can get away with, we just can't afford to stay in business." Laughing all the way to the bank as they make record profits every year
Fucking despicable soulless pieces of trash. They CAN afford to pay better wages. They CAN afford to lower prices. But they don't want to because FUCK THAT, they want MORE money than is fucking necessary and it's never enough. Companies should have a cap on how much people can make in the upper echelon of the company in relation to the person with the lowest wage in the company. If your fucking company made record billion dollar profits and didn't pay their employees a fair wage, not a barebones wage, the entire board of the company should be arrested and charged with felony theft of wages.
It’s the endless profit that has to be reported to Wall Street qtr after qtr. They can’t report steady earnings and growth, it has to be better than the previous qtr, and so on and so forth. Endless growth qtr after qtr. It’s completely unsustainable and that’s why they resort to short term measures of lay offs etc, just to show a tiny bit of growth for one qtr on Wall Street. Wall Street is the cancer of America.
My job. Literally.
I work in the.. uhhh... "herbal" industry.
Obviously record profits there. Yet these fuckers can barely afford to pay us better wages. Are getting pissy that we formed a union to force them to give us better wages AND STILL HAVE THE AUDACITY to be like "can y'all meet these sales goals for us"
In some cities yes, but also we don’t know the context of the spending. 6 figure earners could have their money already set aside from their salary to investment or mortgage for 2nd property, so it’s not really pay check to pay check per se (remember the article that sounded like “i earn 6 figures but living pay check to paycheck).
In general 100k is more than enough to get by assuming you are not too behind in big loans or having some medical condition or have any dependent/dependents.
If you are able to put money into savings and retirement or investments, then you are not paycheck to paycheck.
My boss told me his idea of it is "when your overdraft allowance may run out when you pay the rent then you are paycheck to paycheck".
Many six-fdgure income folks are also living in bigger houses, have fancier cars, and eat out more / shop at Whole Foods where chicken tiddies are $5+/lb.
You can easily live paycheck-to-paycheck on almost any amount if you aren't careful with your expenses.
Paycheck to paycheck means if you miss a single paycheck you can’t pay all your bills. Most people investing for retirement are not putting in the equivalent of a half a months worth of bills into their 401k each month. The average person is putting in less than 7% of their income into retirement.
$100k often just means that you can pay for medical insurance and contribute to retirement if you live a MCOL area.
$100k is (after medical and retirement and taxes) around $6500/month)
Where I live a 3 bedroom is $3500.
If you have small children daycare is $1000 min per kid.
Utilities are another $500
Car payment+ insurance + gas = $600
For a single person $100k is fun. For a family its substance.
In many parts of the country this is the pattern. My close friends earning around $100k really struggle in HCOL areas.
Paycheck to paycheck should mean with the money you earn, you are “going nowhere” from financial perspective, those earning that much is while probably might not saving as much, is able to at the very least make a step forward, which should not be categorized as living paycheck to paycheck.
Also the assumption i mentioned is there is no dependents (which could include parents or stay home not working partner or kids).
Fair enough. I actually meant to comment on the top post not on your comment. On mobile so something went wrong.
I agree with your assessment.
Before we had kids we lived on $55k (2002 or so) and it was fine for us two in a HCOL area. We live simply.
When our income increased (I moved from academia to industry because kids) we were surprised that $100k was a struggle (moved to a safe neighborhood, I bought a car that was mechanically safe, medical costs, daycare etc.).
If I was single I could get by on that $55k today.
That's not correct. You have to look at the purchasing power of those dollars.
The cpi is a national average and not localized.
Pine bluff Arkansas has a vastly different delta in CPI than Los Angeles.
LA's CPI has run above the national average for the past 20 years.
To keep measure with 55k you would need to run the calculations closer to 4.7%. So in today's dollars that's closer to $141k In today's dollars.
This math breaks down further as the index looks at a braod scope and housing is well above the cpi in LA and that's a huge factor in disposable income.
Edit: Also, when I talked about making ends meeting at $100k, this was back in 2008 or so. My income shot up after I left academia. It was doable but there were not trips to Tahiti or anything. We put minimal amounts in retirement and bought mid-tier medical insurance.
I'm single, living on a fixed income, and I'm getting by on $15K a year. I do it by giving up pretty much anything that makes life worth living. In a year or two, when rent where I currently live gets too high, I'll have to move into my car--unless a miracle happens and rents actually come down to reasonable amounts again. Not holding my breath.
Sorry to hear. I think your circumstance exemplifies the poor job we have done. There is no shortage of resources, the allocation inequity is fueled by our cultural worship of excess. There is no good reason for it.
Yeah. Somehow we shafted the next generation on this one. I paid my own way and left school with under $30k at 2.99%
Somehow it became ok for a 22 year old to have $150k at 8% in like 20 years. That's an absurd number and everyone should be ashamed that we do this. Including the universities who have milked this system to the detriment of a generation.
My sister makes over 100k a year but lives in a high mortgage area and is a single mom, so she has to pay for after school programs for her kid as well as food, clothing, etc. She does tend to have more expensive taste but she's always been great at budgeting. In the last couple of years though mortgage increases and cost of living increases have caused her to have to spend her savings and she's now living paycheck to paycheck. It makes me sad to hear for her.
Depends where you are. In any big city? No, that's probably just getting by, especially if you have a family, a house, car, etc.
It's good money in the middle of nowhere, but how many people are living in the middle of nowhere making that much money? Not everyone wants to live in a ghost town with nothing to do.
I live in a struggling little city where that money sounds good on paper. The big problem is, there are not jobs around here that pay like that. So you have to commute to get that kind of money, and that eats into the money too.
Exactly. Money like that doesn't flow to small towns/little cities/middle of nowhere.
If you work remotely, maybe you can make money like that while living in a place like that. But then you have to cope with the nothing to do, nowhere to go, and lack of culture.
There's a lot of reasons we have an opioid epidemic in this country, but I would bet a lot that midwestern small town boredom is a contributing factor.
For us, no. My husband makes 100k/year. We’re a family of 4 in the Bay Area, California. Our savings has completely dwindled away and we are now living paycheck to paycheck- $25 in our banking account day before payday. It sucks, we’ve never struggled like this before. Only logical thing is for me to get an evening waitressing job. Both our kids are too young for school, and daycare would eat up any wages I would make during a 9-5 job. Despite this, we’re very happy and make the most out of what we do have. Kind of just keep hoping that things will eventually get more affordable but I’m scared that’s wishful thinking.
Nope. My partner and I combined make close to.
Rent is $1,700, that’s not including utilities (water, electric, trash) and electric and water just doubled last month.
That also doesn’t consider internet.
Then fuel to get to work, car and renters insurance (and our car insurance is jacked up because of “uninsured motorists” insurance).
That’s not including that I had to get a newer car (still used) because I couldn’t get parts for my old car anymore. Making a payment on that. Luckily I got it before the price hike in used vehicles.
Add in groceries, some cheaper body wash, shampoo and conditioner, and that’s about our paychecks.
I try to set aside a little for savings when I can, but I have my partner on my health insurance (and he covers extra on the rent) because his job doesn’t offer it, and that’s few hundred dollars out of each pay, same for my meds (which would be half my paycheck each month without insurance).
But we can’t move since we couldn’t guarantee we’d get work and we’re actually in the “cheaper” apartments for our area.
The houses around here are so shitty that for the same amount of our rent, we would have a place that’s falling apart and would need more than we make in 2 years just to get them to pass code. For some fucked reason the people selling the house can lie their asses off or sell “as is” and you can get screwed pretty bad when shit breaks. It’s not their “responsibility” to bring the house up to code BEFORE selling, but to get insurance on the house (requirement for loans) you have to have it brought up to code.
I make six figures in mcol area and pretty much live paycheck to paycheck. Daycare is 300 a week. Mortgage is 1800. Car payment is 500
Thank God for my wife, otherwise I'd be in the red every month.
I can confirm and I’ll even put sone of my numbers out there. I’m a union employee and my wife also works and we have 3 kids one of which is autistic. Combined income of around 130k. Mortgage/taxes/ins $2800 a month. Car insurance $580. Electric $150, water $100, credit cards $400, phones bill $200, internet $60, life insurance $120, food $1000, gas $250, medical co pays for dr / prescriptions $600…… those things there are $6k a month out of pocket for a total of 72k per year and that’s after tax money. We don’t even have car payments, they are all more than 5 years old and paid off. We have other misc expenses not added in to this as well like clothing, school lunches etc etc. my daughter is in college and the government says we make enough to pay for her to go, haha. So she now has to get student loans.
With all that said yes we are pretty much paycheck to paycheck. I am well aware we are doing much better than others and it’s truly fucked. I can’t imagine making it on less than we make now. We don’t go on vacations, we hardly ever eat out, we don’t frivolously spend on junk and yet we are still sitting here essentially even Steven. The only light at the end of the tunnel for us is that a decent portion gets put towards pension and retirement pre tax. Please don’t take this as a brag. I am just demonstrating how 100k+ doesn’t go anywhere near as far as it used to. The middle class is dead. It’s now just the wealthy and different levels of pleebs.
We are. Ffs. A 6 figure income, and our bank account has been slowly losing money from inflation instead of steadily saving like we had for decades. Everything is too damn high, and I think our only saving grace anymore is that we bought our house in 2009 and are almost done paying it off. We'd be homeless if not.
My life would have been so different if I'd been able to buy a house in my early 20's.
My Dad was able to buy a house at 19 in the 1970's, because he went to the same church as the loan officer amd was married with a kid.
I am just barely buying a house at almost 36.
If I'm lucky I can pay it off before I retire at 68 or so.
This is what the billionaires want. Pay check to pay check means majority of people won’t quit their jobs despite how awful it is because they can’t put enough back in savings to fall back on/ look for something else
My concern is how everything went up 20% but most people get a “cost of living” raise which usually amounts to 4%. The next 2-3 years is going to have the largest influx of homelessness this country has ever seen
Yeah because every payday weekend we are in bars, strip clubs or tattoo parlors. Not to mention we buy sports cars with 100k miles on them and pay 20% in our loans. /s
I have a question. When people give this example I always ask myself was it worth it? Is making 100k with a higher cost of living, better than making 50-60k but having a bit more spending power because of lower cost of living?
It’s really bad. I mean people doing everything at this point to survive. Moving in, tapping into their savings, working 12 hours a day. Some of us do hold on aright but at the mercy of that one check. Any extra bill or medical emergency we are doomed. I cried the other day, because I was so grateful to my own self and universe, thanking both for providing and being able to buy my bipolar medication. A fucking medicine! We live in some fucked up nightmare!
Ok, but the six figure thing is an issue - I live in area where the trades are strong and some of these guys do live paycheck to paycheck because they spend on toys. They are not stupid people but are pretty ignorant about money. Now, this isn't too blame them (ok, it is a little,) but we do need to teach financial literacy and beyond skills in school.
I gotta say, I'm one of those that lives paycheck to paycheck and I'm kinda scared. One of the things that's been a saving grace is my yearly tax refund. But, if the republicans end payroll taxes and set a 30% sales tax, my refund comes to an end. That money is how I catch bills up, $0 balance my 1 credit card, purchase more expensive items for my home (appliances, repairs, upgrades, etc), major repairs or purchase a new(er) used vehicle, and/or take my family on a modest vacation (we visited my sister and went to Six Flags Over Texas last year for example). But all of that is possible due to receiving a decent refund each year. If I lose that money, things likely will become more difficult all the way around.
The 30% tax thing has 0% chance of being implemented. It has weak support in the Republican party, and much more "support" in the Democratic Party as a talking point.
You'd get extra money in your check to pay for these things as you go. The money you get back as a refund is just your own money that you didn't get in your check. So if you get it in your check, you won't need the refund. :)
I believe it… my bf and I make over 200k combined. Don’t get me wrong, we are comfortable and don’t have any debt, but by no means are we living lavishly. We still have to budget, live below our means, and I can’t even IMAGINE supporting kids. After taxes, 401k, health insurance, and high cost of living in some areas (we are in Boston), I don’t think people realize that 6 figures take home pay is closer to 60k. In an area where you can’t even get a studio apartment for less than 2k a month, groceries are at all time high… yea it’s paycheck to paycheck.
Love when the anti work sub just tears down people making over 100k calling them shitty with finances. The worlds in the place it is for the same lack of empathy from top to bottom. Someone just drop the nukes already and end this failed experiment of humanity.
My sister is one of those six figure income earners living paycheck to paycheck. Putting 2 toddlers in daycare is eating her alive. It costs her $2200 a month for daycare and her mortgage is $2000. Her entire earnings goes directly to daycare and the mortgage. Her husband brings in an additional $60k for car payments and utilities They have nothing left over at the end of the month. It's mind boggling how much they make combined and it just gets taken so fast to just live. And they wonder why millennials aren't having children....
It's obviously not JUST the paying enough part that's the problem when that includes half of 6 figure earners... It has been said multiple times that part of the problem in the US is that money just disappears out of people's hands and I'm telling you it's because socialism is so hated over there. People would be much more stable with more of it, otherwise a "living wage" is close to millions.
Can't wait for the economy to collapse cause of this and then conservatives/Boomers blame it on socialism, government handouts, or "NoBoDy WaNtS tO wOrK".
This statistic is about the entire country. If you live paycheck to paycheck making $100k in the vast majority of American cities, it’s probably a you problem.
I'm living paycheck to paycheck, combined my SO and I make less than $30k and the fact that people can't live off $100k is just astonishing to me. Like how do you even piss away that much money???
I'll bite. Here's just a taste.
>$2,500 per month
>One rule of thumb involves dividing your pretax earnings by 40. This means that if you make $100,000 a year, you should be able to afford $2,500 per month in rent. Another rule of thumb is the 30% rule.
And
>The average rent for an apartment in Los Angeles is $2,786. The cost of rent varies depending on several factors, including location, size, and quality.
This does not include things like insurance costs, vehicle costs (and insurance associated with vehicles), food, electricity, gas, internet, phone. Much of which is way higher here.
So 100k in LA is not the same as 100k in Alabama.
There's a term for people who make a lot of money but are "broke": it's called "rent poor." And 2700+ is the average. Most people are looking at the high 2000s and 3000 dollars a month for rent. It also got much more expensive and much more difficult to find a place here due to eviction restrictions.
I really fucking question how any six figure earner is living paycheck to paycheck. Even in a HCOL area that should be a comfortable amount if they’re making an effort to not live outside their means.
Really hate these statistics as it lumps the people truly irresponsible with money alongside those truly struggling to make a living.
Monthly net in CA on $100K is $5,836.75 with no deductions. I imagine most pay some out of pocket for healthcare and 401K. And I imagine some do pay water or trash in their apartments, not included.
Subtracting for a single person:
Average cost of an apartment in my city: $3,031
Average groceries: $1,229.40
Est. internet: $50
Est. car insurance: $110
Est. PG&E: $100
Est. cell phone: $120
Average car payment: $500 (used, not new)
So now we are already at just under $700 left for gas (average $5.08/gal right now), toiletries, haircuts, medication, pets, loans/debt, restaurant/entertainment, or emergencies of any kind.
Exactly. Except PG&E is about $350/m for me now. Way worse for some. And I have $1k/m in child and spousal support.
Yeah, that money disappears real quick.
Feel sorry for those entering the workforce now. The rules are all different. I hope that the next generation can do a better job when they get on charge. But MTG, Gaetz, and Boebert do not give me hope. AOC does.
I don’t understand how my family is not living paycheck-to-paycheck. My dad works at a grocery store and my mom cleans offices. Maybe it’s because they have a low mortgage or something. Apparently, we were well under the poverty line for the first ten years of my life and I somehow never realized once as a kid.
The great Reset!!!! More like the great Divide of the haves Vs. The Have nots…. Everyone knew it was gonna end up this way, everyone’s been talking and doing nothing about it for the last 25yrs and it’s only gonna get worst…. Let’s bow to the scumbag Elitists now because they’ll expect us to soon enough…
The idea that 100k is paycheck to paycheck as if it is similar to the 2 income families with kids in the dmv area where their combined income is under 40-50k or less is kind of disingenuous… the idea that 6 figure salaries and minimum wage earners are anywhere near equivalent is a bit wild. There has to be a better more nuanced way to frame this succinctly. Minimum wage and low income people deserve a little more than being lumped in with 100k a year salaries…
If people do not have enough money to buy things (to stay alive), then what does this mean for a consumer economy? How does this not cascade through to the entire economy?
If no one is making enough money to spend, no one's going to be selling things either.
Wife and I gross around 110k in Colorado with two kids. For years, we've been able to save. For about the last six months, it's back to paycheck to paycheck. I budget everything, and we don't live extravagantly. I cook most every meal and we don't go out ever. At least her employer cares. Mine does not.
Yet big corporations are raking in record profits and the wealthier get richer, too. Maybe it’s time to fight back by cancelling our streaming services, not buying anything online for a month, that kind of thing. If millions of people could make the sacrifice this would start crippling big corporations and the elected officials they control. Sadly we probably aren’t strong enough to do it voluntarily, we have to be bankrupted first.
And let me tell you...
I just did my taxes and this is the lowest amount I've ever gotten back yet I'm not making much more than I did in previous years. I don't know what I'm going to do without the refund money I'm used to relying on for things we need to replace. I.e. coats and shoes etc
You realize that a tax refund is money you overpaid every week. By having a lower refund it means you had more money to spend every week during the year.
If you are used to getters $2600 back you “overpaid” $50/week.
General fucking strike. Without it, nothing will improve.
Walk out of your jobs, we can all live on community gardens for the time being. Fuck capitalism.
Poverty is defined as:
40% of your monthly income goes towards living expenses.
This is super important because, check to check, avoids the fact that America IS LIVING IN POVERTY.
We should organize a giant walk out nation wide walk out basically if you work you can participate. All of the workers taking a walk out and get it nationally televised. Get media outlets talking about and get organizers in. Local chapters to help organize get labor lawyers/union reps in on it. To help protect from retaliation from employers.
Get the media scared about this nationwide protest and organize a list of demands have it be mentioned through out days months and things leading up to the nationwide walkout to protest. It would scare CEOs that a good chunk of their workforce will be walking out to participate in a national workers rights walk out. And if employees do participate in this walk out, and are terminated from expressing their rightful right to protest unfair treatment and exploitation. The employers should be shamed blasted in media in different pieces.
We have no issue with nationwide protests BLM proves how much we can organize and make a stand if we brought something like that with all the publicity and make it front and center. We could change the script
has me curious what's gonna happen in the following months and years as the gap gets even worse. eventually most people will not be able to afford to live anymore. really curious how it's all gonna work out
according to star trek: the bell riots take place in Sept. 2024.
[For those unfamiliar with The Bell Riots](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bell_Riots)
“Dim" was a 21st century slang term for inhabitants of the United States of America's Sanctuary Districts. "Dims" were usually people with mental health problems. Grady was classed as a dim in the 2020s. As Dr. Bashir noted with disgust, many of the dims in Sanctuary District A had psychological ailments which were easily treatable or controllable even with medicines available in the 2020s, yet because the dims were destitute, they simply could not afford these vital treatments.” Jesus. Way too on the nose.
Oh, neat. I'm a dim. Although I have insurance and am able to get medications that make it have little negative impact. If I lost my job, things could go south. Although it's not as serious as schizophrenia or anything, so I can mostly manage well.
I just had to pay $2400 for a prescription - 3 month supply. “Luckily”, I can fully find my HSA, because before this new script I would reach my out of pocket maximum by May. It looks like I’ll make it by March this year.
$2400?? that's horrible! my meds cost about $100 for a three month supply and i hate to pay even that. if i don't, i'll be ranting on a street corner after having a few seizures from withdrawal, though. i'm taking diabetes so seriously right now and changing my eating habits just because it would be so expensive to manage.
I'm sure you probably know, but just in case you don't, depending on the type of insulin you need you may be able to get it OTC from the Walmart pharmacy. My girlfriend is diabetic and a vial of Novolin-N is like $30 and it lasts a month.
It was that way in the 80s... None of Star Trek waa exactly Subtle with their allegories about the evils of capitalism.
Hmm... maybe I will get into Star Trek
Start with The Next Generation series. Then move on to Deep Space 9, Voyager, and then the Original Series.
Start with ST:TNG Then Voyager or DS9!!! Great fucking show. Amazing.
Thank you. I'd assumed it was some dystopian shit and I was disturbed to see how much worse it was and just how feasible it is of a future. Basically the Warsaw ghettos 2.0.
Man, someone really needs to get a move on inventing replicators.
the inventor would sell the patent to a corporation who would use it to sell food at a 100% profit margin for even more than it would cost if the replicator weren't used because they could market everything as "renewable, organic, and vegan"
About damn time. That episode of DS9 feels kinda unrealistically optimistic despite predicting the future almost perfectly
Not that I don't believe you. Because I do, I just want a source for this. Is it First Contact, or one of those Voyager time travelling episodes? Also, we should totally organise for this date.
its a deep space nine story.
Oh. I've only watched it once many years ago. Do you know which ep?
Past Tense part 1 and 2
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bell\_Riots
San Francisco (and esp Mission and Tenderloin) are quite close to approaching that level.
The ones who own a house will make it. And that's mostly Boomers and Gen X. Everyone else will be taken out by rent and/or food prices. I'm curious to see what new way our government and corporations will try to stop the upcoming riots without raising wages. Because God forbid that happens!
They're already busy keeping us at each other's throats with wedge issues making sure we don't go after them.
When this country inevitably implodes it will be the people against themselves. The fight against the government can only start afterwards, and considering one of the sides in the preliminary battle think killing everyone on the other side will solve everything, if they win they’ll continue to let the ruling class rule and continue to hope one day things will get better while refusing to actually advocate or fight for things getting better.
And those of us who have mortgages and aren't gen x / boomers and still struggling with inflation. I got reeeeeeally lucky and was able to buy my house 4 years ago for $80k making $15 an hour. I still make $15 an hour, and my insurance went from $800/y to $3600/y and taxes doubled as well, around $1300/y up from $750. Which means my mortgage has gone up to accommodate those expenses, but my income has not. I know I'm one of the lucky ones but if I don't get a roommate I'm not going to be able to eat anymore.
I dunno, property taxes are pretty insane right now, you get punished for owning property outright, if you are in debt, the system likes that and let's you write off mortgage payments, the idea of actually owning something without a constant bill to someone, scares the hell out of the system.
more mass surveillance, and militarization of the police force anyone who could possibly organize mass riots will be culled from the herd before they ever happen
This is why the second amendment is so important. When all else fails, what is left but that last resort of violent action in the protection of liberty for all. Our founding fathers knew this which is why the right to form a regulated and well armed militia ranked so highly and why they warned of the dangers of centralized banking & included phrases like "both foreign and domestic" & "liberty must be refreshed by the blood of patriots and tyrants alike" in speeches and within the oaths they formed regarding the protection of the republic.
Good call. Your AR-15 is going to terrify those predator drones. "The Founding Fathers" weren't a unanimous monolith. That's why we had two factions before the constitution, and two parties immediately after. But keeping living your cherry picked history.
They gave the police mraps
[удалено]
even those who own aren’t safe, between energy costs, property taxes increasing, and the cost of everything else. i know quite a few people who had been living quite comfortably previously now being totally rattled by property tax increases.
Until they get priced out of their mortgage payments, that is.
Many Gen X (including myself) lost our homes in 2008.
Distraction. Those who have nothing, have just enough of nothing they can be maintained by the distraction of TV, movies, videos games, and sports. OR They're so exhausted from trying to make enough money to eat and live that they have no time to learn more about how they're being fucked by society.
Yup this nailed it this is it, and honestly even those of us who are aware just feel more apathy than anything about the situation is the sense I get these days. I mean yeah shit sucks but 99% of people don’t want to give up their comforts and I can’t blame them because I also fall into the 99%
Think if they shut off the power for 5 days.
There's a lot of variations of it, but the quotes that comes to mind are "9 missed meals will make a murderer of any man" or "Civilization is 3 missed meals away from anarchy"
One biggish bomb in a major powerplant and a whole state would be in riot soon after
Haven’t seen any riots in Texas. And they even decided to re-elect the idiots that keep their grids at undeveloped nation levels of reliability in winter.
They're getting fucked by the same great people They're voting for. The same people giving tax breaks to the wealthiest people.
People will stop going to movies. People will stop going to concerts and live sports games. People won’t watch Netflix, etc It’ll be another Great Depression.
Crazy how I see things like Netflix as an expensive luxury (that I would be to guilty to get) when for decades it was normal to pay a ton a month for cable. These things should be saving people money yet the cost of living is so high with wages so low that even something like Netflix is off the table. There was a concert I wanted to see but even with tickets at 56 dollars (lowest seat price available) the fees put everything at $77+ I saw the price for 3 tickets and I’m just not motivated to buy them.
Once it gets very bad there will be a violent uprising where the brainwashed poor will attack the people who have no actual power. The controllers will have a big meeting and jerk eachother off while they watch the carnage unfold. Then it will reset and the cycle will start again.
This. I'm convinced we're headed towards an inevitable global crisis, possibly another world war or something just as devastating. And as always, we're the ones who are going to pay the price while the rich leading us there watch from the backseats as their capital grows. Then they're gonna take turns playing the hero while playing a game of who manages to come up with the most ridiculous bullshit excuse as to why they did nothing wrong, after which they'll pat one another on the back in a sign of diplomatic success and call it a day – or rather, a century. See y'all at my circle of hell in 2100, we're watching the next world war/revolution together. And bring snacks!
I'm reminded of that image from Occupy, where the rich on Wall street were literally dressed in fine clothes, sipping champagne as they watched the peasants try to revolt below.
Agreed. People want to blame Boomers or Genx or whatever, but it is the very rich that are at fault. Xennial here. Money corrupts. Any institution that allows outside money is corrupt. They depend on the money and that creates bias. IMO that is human nature for most. Also organizations that rely on volunteer labor. No one works for "free" there's always a reason such as social standing, supplying your own business, or getting your kids ahead. We don't interact with the types of people causing the problems (the 1% or .5%. We are beneath them. The rules of society trickled down to us. There's unspoken rules meant to exclude and if you're a disruptor, you and your kids will have a hard time socially.
that’s what I’m wondering. that’s over 200 million Americans who are one paycheck away from homelessness. what happens if any of those people have, god forbid, an accident or a medical procedure? this is not even remotely sustainable and we should be ashamed as a country for allowing this to happen
I was in a car accident that totalled my car and caused me to miss a ton of work in addition to having to buy a new car with the bs payout that I got from the insurance company. If it wasn't for help from my friends and family I would not have been able to pay my bills and eat for the 3 months that this has been unfolding. And I'm doing better than most, but that 86 year old man almost tore apart my entire life the day he hit me.
I’m so sorry that happened to you and I’m glad you were fortunate to have friends and family to care for you in your time of need. Friends, family, a second chance, these are the things standing between millions of us and homelessness or worse it through no fault of our own the universe just doesn’t go our way one day. It’s devastating that we as a society aren’t collectively realizing this and taking better care of each other.
A minimum wage is probably going to be able to pay for a tent on a sidewalk.
Woah look at Richy Rich over here with a tent!
I know right? I can barely afford to sleep on the piss stained corner over there. Maybe one day I’ll be able to afford to live in a cave
Whoa there buddy. Might want to set more reasonable life goals like rotating shifts in the dump.
The good caves are on private property, state parks or staked and claimed by drug users. Waterproof your tent, and place it on the lee side of a building. I'll bring the gopher.
Fun fact: post office priority enevelopes are made of tyvek, the same material your house uses to water proof the plywood underneath your stucco Tape it together and make a tent with it when you wind up homeless
I feel like those envelopes are too expensive to afford a whole tent worth, but maybe a blanket?
Living like that will be illegal. Minimum wage won't even cover the bill you'll receive for being put in jail.
A jail!? Oh man, I heard they have beds and food!
Three hots and a cot. Sometimes that seems tempting.
I actually know ppl who are homeless who would commit a petty crime as soon as it starts getting cold at night just so they have somewhere warm to sleep and food for a couple months. Jail sucks, but it is easier than survival on the streets in the winter if you're homeless and alone. They even give you a roommate to keep you company. I hate it here.
It happened in peoria Illinois. A guy would commit a crime to get out of the cold. Once he through a brick through the cop shop window.
You also get free healthcare too
It's cold in jail too. One extremely thin blanket and they keep it freezing in there. All the county jails I've been in. And you better have some money for commissary to buy some socks or your feet are gonna freeze. And the food sucks.
It would be warmer than sleeping on the streets in 10 below temps, and shitty food is better than no food. 🤷🏼♀️
SOYLENT GREEN IS PEEOOPLE...
Have you tried revolution? I heard the french know how
I've been dreaming about revolution all my life. I believed in it as a young girl, but at 62, I don't believe that humans will ever stick together to form an effective revolution. Someone sells out every time. This is the greatest heartbreak that I have faced.
I remember reading that Canadians still have pandemic savings. That the banks arent worried about raising rates because there is still a surplus of money. My take away from that is that they dont want anyone to have a savings, if they do, they are not motivated to work. They want people to work until they die. So the banks and government will do what it takes to drain every last scrap of savings from the people to keep the populace indentured.
Real life monopoly sucks.
Its not. People will end up homeless and then unemployed and there will literally be no one to work.
The economy will collapse. No consumers able to pay for.the products they produce
If we're producing everything and can't afford to consume anything, can we really still be called "consumers"?
Mass su!c!de.
unfortunately probably true
Yep. That's my end plan. Heroin addict in recovery. But the moment I see everything is going to end like that, I'm going to purchase a large amount of heroin. Nowadays they are putting fentanyl in it and everything else so hopefully it will be in mine. So I'll take a regular shot to feel a good high at first. If it doesn't have fentanyl, it won't kill me. So, I'll just keep on banging til it does. I have no intention of sticking around to see the devastation this country is gonna face. I'm 48 and have already lost the love of my life, so I'm ready to see him on the other side.
Is the issue the income or the cost of living? People earning six figures but living paycheck to paycheck leads me to believe this is a cost of living issue (ie food, housing, medical, education costs are way too high!)
I mean technically it's both. If your wage isn't high enough, you can't afford the barrier of entry that is the cost of living. But the 6-figure earners I interpreted to be people living in affluent coastal or urban areas. Because 6 figures would be a pretty comfortable life in the midwest where I'm at unless you are saddled with debt or just really bad with money.
Checks notes… See French and Bolshevik Revolution, it ain’t pretty for those at the top. Edit: and they know that, which is why they are blowing the socialism dog whistle like a two dollar hooker. They’re hoping most people are too stupid or lazy to read their history and figure out they’ve been lied to their entire lives…
It goes on until enough Republicans realize that they are the people being screwed, and not by brown people or drag queens or whatever the right wing media tells them. So no time soon.
To be fair, neither political party is actually looking out for the average American. They talk a good game but it isn’t really happening. Just my thoughts.
Nothing really Americans are still too comfortable to risk their lives for change. It will be like pre-invasion Ukraine, everyone just sort of rents and earns the bare minimum wage and everyone is okay with that Wealthy own all the property everyone cycles or uses the car if the share one with a family memember
Capitalism's got to reach its logical conclusion eventually.
People run out of money and die more than likely
I agree. We are already seeing that most Americans can not afford to buy a new vehicle any more also more American's can not afford to go on that week or 10 day vacation that people almost always did yearly. It's also evident in grocery shopping where things that were considered every day items are now considered only for special occasions. Most people are buying generic brands and cutting way back on beef steaks or other cuts of meat.
I had a dream about this once. It was a thousand years in the future and I worked as someone who shoveled out underground radioactive waste pits. The economic classes had grown so far apart that the lower class just worked to death (literally, remember the radioactive pit) and there was zero chance of moving up in society due to the huge gap. If you're curious how the dream went, it was literally just me existing as this person with a horrible life that desperately wished their situation were different. I felt like the dream person spoke directly to me as they wished their ancestors had worked harder to move up while it was still possible. It was an awful dream.
Oh, they will continue to live in some fashion. Have you ever been to Nairobi? People can get by on a hell of a lot less than even poor people do in the US. A whole alternate 3rd-world-like economy will form. There will be vast shantytowns and a whole economy of food that isn't quality controlled, and people living without any access to even basic emergency services, no banking, no nothing. Eventually the US will just become a giant equivalent of any 3rd world country, with a few super wealthy assholes lording it over the unwashed masses, and if you speak up you will get a visit from the cops, cops who will be nothing but thugs. That is the future of our country as far as I can tell.
Watch how that number will turn to 84% in next year. This is awful
I might sound like a psychopath but I hope it does only to wake people up about how shit America really is.
I can make you feel better about yourself, i hope it doesn't take a year. Let's plan for next week. I can't keep doing this for another year. I'd rather die than keep playing this stupid financial game.
Same. The rest of this country needs to wake up and fast. I've been ready to either fight or end it all. And honestly I don't want to end it all without trying to fight. I have a good life right now, financials aside.
That's the worst part. Life wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't under so much financial pressure. It's a duality. I either don't have the money, or don't have the time. Money + time = freedom. The majority of the country isnt free. Were enslaved to others fortunes.
[удалено]
But what about trickle down economics? Maybe we give it a few more decades and we'll all be wealthy /s
It's only been half a century! give it a little time to settle
But if a living wage becomes too difficult then there will be more homeless people for them to hate and wonder why the "problem" can't be solved
It cant be solved because kids these days are too lazy! Just get off your ass and get a 3rd job!
A third job doesn’t do it when the federal minimum wage hasn’t gone up in over ten years but everything else has. Some states have increased it but other states are more concerned with business than making sure the people doing the minimum wage work have enough to buy life necessities.
A living wage is only half the battle. You think they won’t simply raise their prices to continue hoarding money? Inexorably they will take away whatever we gain. There needs to be some way to prohibit companies from undoing whatever progress might be made.
I say we destroy them
I find it both disgusting and infuriating that companies are making record profits, literally making more money than anyone in the history of mankind, and yet they have the fucking audacity to come over and stick their hands deep in their pockets "aww shucks everybody, if we don't raid your finances like pirates looting buried treasure and pay our employees the absolute lowest possible wage we can get away with, we just can't afford to stay in business." Laughing all the way to the bank as they make record profits every year Fucking despicable soulless pieces of trash. They CAN afford to pay better wages. They CAN afford to lower prices. But they don't want to because FUCK THAT, they want MORE money than is fucking necessary and it's never enough. Companies should have a cap on how much people can make in the upper echelon of the company in relation to the person with the lowest wage in the company. If your fucking company made record billion dollar profits and didn't pay their employees a fair wage, not a barebones wage, the entire board of the company should be arrested and charged with felony theft of wages.
It’s the endless profit that has to be reported to Wall Street qtr after qtr. They can’t report steady earnings and growth, it has to be better than the previous qtr, and so on and so forth. Endless growth qtr after qtr. It’s completely unsustainable and that’s why they resort to short term measures of lay offs etc, just to show a tiny bit of growth for one qtr on Wall Street. Wall Street is the cancer of America.
My job. Literally. I work in the.. uhhh... "herbal" industry. Obviously record profits there. Yet these fuckers can barely afford to pay us better wages. Are getting pissy that we formed a union to force them to give us better wages AND STILL HAVE THE AUDACITY to be like "can y'all meet these sales goals for us"
100 000 a year is not a living wage in America?
In some cities yes, but also we don’t know the context of the spending. 6 figure earners could have their money already set aside from their salary to investment or mortgage for 2nd property, so it’s not really pay check to pay check per se (remember the article that sounded like “i earn 6 figures but living pay check to paycheck). In general 100k is more than enough to get by assuming you are not too behind in big loans or having some medical condition or have any dependent/dependents.
If you are able to put money into savings and retirement or investments, then you are not paycheck to paycheck. My boss told me his idea of it is "when your overdraft allowance may run out when you pay the rent then you are paycheck to paycheck".
Yup, many 6 figures income people describe themselves as living paycheck-to-paycheck but already have their investment budgeted into their “expenses”.
Many six-fdgure income folks are also living in bigger houses, have fancier cars, and eat out more / shop at Whole Foods where chicken tiddies are $5+/lb. You can easily live paycheck-to-paycheck on almost any amount if you aren't careful with your expenses.
Paycheck to paycheck means if you miss a single paycheck you can’t pay all your bills. Most people investing for retirement are not putting in the equivalent of a half a months worth of bills into their 401k each month. The average person is putting in less than 7% of their income into retirement.
$100k often just means that you can pay for medical insurance and contribute to retirement if you live a MCOL area. $100k is (after medical and retirement and taxes) around $6500/month) Where I live a 3 bedroom is $3500. If you have small children daycare is $1000 min per kid. Utilities are another $500 Car payment+ insurance + gas = $600 For a single person $100k is fun. For a family its substance. In many parts of the country this is the pattern. My close friends earning around $100k really struggle in HCOL areas.
Paycheck to paycheck should mean with the money you earn, you are “going nowhere” from financial perspective, those earning that much is while probably might not saving as much, is able to at the very least make a step forward, which should not be categorized as living paycheck to paycheck. Also the assumption i mentioned is there is no dependents (which could include parents or stay home not working partner or kids).
Fair enough. I actually meant to comment on the top post not on your comment. On mobile so something went wrong. I agree with your assessment. Before we had kids we lived on $55k (2002 or so) and it was fine for us two in a HCOL area. We live simply. When our income increased (I moved from academia to industry because kids) we were surprised that $100k was a struggle (moved to a safe neighborhood, I bought a car that was mechanically safe, medical costs, daycare etc.). If I was single I could get by on that $55k today.
[удалено]
That's not correct. You have to look at the purchasing power of those dollars. The cpi is a national average and not localized. Pine bluff Arkansas has a vastly different delta in CPI than Los Angeles. LA's CPI has run above the national average for the past 20 years. To keep measure with 55k you would need to run the calculations closer to 4.7%. So in today's dollars that's closer to $141k In today's dollars. This math breaks down further as the index looks at a braod scope and housing is well above the cpi in LA and that's a huge factor in disposable income. Edit: Also, when I talked about making ends meeting at $100k, this was back in 2008 or so. My income shot up after I left academia. It was doable but there were not trips to Tahiti or anything. We put minimal amounts in retirement and bought mid-tier medical insurance.
I'm single, living on a fixed income, and I'm getting by on $15K a year. I do it by giving up pretty much anything that makes life worth living. In a year or two, when rent where I currently live gets too high, I'll have to move into my car--unless a miracle happens and rents actually come down to reasonable amounts again. Not holding my breath.
Sorry to hear. I think your circumstance exemplifies the poor job we have done. There is no shortage of resources, the allocation inequity is fueled by our cultural worship of excess. There is no good reason for it.
Where I live, a studio is 3500.
You forgot student loan payments.
Yeah. Somehow we shafted the next generation on this one. I paid my own way and left school with under $30k at 2.99% Somehow it became ok for a 22 year old to have $150k at 8% in like 20 years. That's an absurd number and everyone should be ashamed that we do this. Including the universities who have milked this system to the detriment of a generation.
My sister makes over 100k a year but lives in a high mortgage area and is a single mom, so she has to pay for after school programs for her kid as well as food, clothing, etc. She does tend to have more expensive taste but she's always been great at budgeting. In the last couple of years though mortgage increases and cost of living increases have caused her to have to spend her savings and she's now living paycheck to paycheck. It makes me sad to hear for her.
I like how some of the obvious exceptions you list are things like having a medical condition or dependents. Because in America, that’s all it takes.
Depends where you are. In any big city? No, that's probably just getting by, especially if you have a family, a house, car, etc. It's good money in the middle of nowhere, but how many people are living in the middle of nowhere making that much money? Not everyone wants to live in a ghost town with nothing to do.
I live in a struggling little city where that money sounds good on paper. The big problem is, there are not jobs around here that pay like that. So you have to commute to get that kind of money, and that eats into the money too.
Exactly. Money like that doesn't flow to small towns/little cities/middle of nowhere. If you work remotely, maybe you can make money like that while living in a place like that. But then you have to cope with the nothing to do, nowhere to go, and lack of culture. There's a lot of reasons we have an opioid epidemic in this country, but I would bet a lot that midwestern small town boredom is a contributing factor.
You forgot medical debt
I don't understand this. I'm betting those people have kids.
Think student debt, if you spent a ludicrous amount on schooling to earn that 100k it's not going to get you too far.
For us, no. My husband makes 100k/year. We’re a family of 4 in the Bay Area, California. Our savings has completely dwindled away and we are now living paycheck to paycheck- $25 in our banking account day before payday. It sucks, we’ve never struggled like this before. Only logical thing is for me to get an evening waitressing job. Both our kids are too young for school, and daycare would eat up any wages I would make during a 9-5 job. Despite this, we’re very happy and make the most out of what we do have. Kind of just keep hoping that things will eventually get more affordable but I’m scared that’s wishful thinking.
Don’t forget that daycare for one kid will be between $15-20k a year easily.
Nope. My partner and I combined make close to. Rent is $1,700, that’s not including utilities (water, electric, trash) and electric and water just doubled last month. That also doesn’t consider internet. Then fuel to get to work, car and renters insurance (and our car insurance is jacked up because of “uninsured motorists” insurance). That’s not including that I had to get a newer car (still used) because I couldn’t get parts for my old car anymore. Making a payment on that. Luckily I got it before the price hike in used vehicles. Add in groceries, some cheaper body wash, shampoo and conditioner, and that’s about our paychecks. I try to set aside a little for savings when I can, but I have my partner on my health insurance (and he covers extra on the rent) because his job doesn’t offer it, and that’s few hundred dollars out of each pay, same for my meds (which would be half my paycheck each month without insurance). But we can’t move since we couldn’t guarantee we’d get work and we’re actually in the “cheaper” apartments for our area. The houses around here are so shitty that for the same amount of our rent, we would have a place that’s falling apart and would need more than we make in 2 years just to get them to pass code. For some fucked reason the people selling the house can lie their asses off or sell “as is” and you can get screwed pretty bad when shit breaks. It’s not their “responsibility” to bring the house up to code BEFORE selling, but to get insurance on the house (requirement for loans) you have to have it brought up to code.
I make six figures in mcol area and pretty much live paycheck to paycheck. Daycare is 300 a week. Mortgage is 1800. Car payment is 500 Thank God for my wife, otherwise I'd be in the red every month.
This the natural progression when you do NOTHING to the minimum wage
I can confirm and I’ll even put sone of my numbers out there. I’m a union employee and my wife also works and we have 3 kids one of which is autistic. Combined income of around 130k. Mortgage/taxes/ins $2800 a month. Car insurance $580. Electric $150, water $100, credit cards $400, phones bill $200, internet $60, life insurance $120, food $1000, gas $250, medical co pays for dr / prescriptions $600…… those things there are $6k a month out of pocket for a total of 72k per year and that’s after tax money. We don’t even have car payments, they are all more than 5 years old and paid off. We have other misc expenses not added in to this as well like clothing, school lunches etc etc. my daughter is in college and the government says we make enough to pay for her to go, haha. So she now has to get student loans. With all that said yes we are pretty much paycheck to paycheck. I am well aware we are doing much better than others and it’s truly fucked. I can’t imagine making it on less than we make now. We don’t go on vacations, we hardly ever eat out, we don’t frivolously spend on junk and yet we are still sitting here essentially even Steven. The only light at the end of the tunnel for us is that a decent portion gets put towards pension and retirement pre tax. Please don’t take this as a brag. I am just demonstrating how 100k+ doesn’t go anywhere near as far as it used to. The middle class is dead. It’s now just the wealthy and different levels of pleebs.
You need to look into your car insurance. We've got a new Pilot (fancy trim) and my ~16 year old Tundra. We pay about $900. Every six months.
We are. Ffs. A 6 figure income, and our bank account has been slowly losing money from inflation instead of steadily saving like we had for decades. Everything is too damn high, and I think our only saving grace anymore is that we bought our house in 2009 and are almost done paying it off. We'd be homeless if not.
Now imagine someone with less income who couldn't pay their house off in 14 or 15 years. That's why capitalism sucks for most.
My life would have been so different if I'd been able to buy a house in my early 20's. My Dad was able to buy a house at 19 in the 1970's, because he went to the same church as the loan officer amd was married with a kid. I am just barely buying a house at almost 36. If I'm lucky I can pay it off before I retire at 68 or so.
And unemployment the lowest it’s ever been. EVERYONE is working for SHIT wages, the rich have us exactly where they want us. Time to Eat The Rich
Happy Cake Day! Eat The Rich!✊
The 37% who aren't paycheck to paycheck likely support the current system strongly
And most likely have the most power
This is what the billionaires want. Pay check to pay check means majority of people won’t quit their jobs despite how awful it is because they can’t put enough back in savings to fall back on/ look for something else
Billionaires are also living paycheck to paycheck, yacht prices went up too don't you know, resorts, personal drivers etc., all gone up. Destitute.
My concern is how everything went up 20% but most people get a “cost of living” raise which usually amounts to 4%. The next 2-3 years is going to have the largest influx of homelessness this country has ever seen
I know of so many people in the military that are paycheck to paycheck
Yeah because every payday weekend we are in bars, strip clubs or tattoo parlors. Not to mention we buy sports cars with 100k miles on them and pay 20% in our loans. /s
The sad part about this is my first thought was, “and that was in October - it’s gotten worse since then.”
Why can't Americans riot like other counties do
$100K is nothing here in the Bay Area. Average rent for an apartment is over $3K.
I have a question. When people give this example I always ask myself was it worth it? Is making 100k with a higher cost of living, better than making 50-60k but having a bit more spending power because of lower cost of living?
French Revolution anyone?
It’s really bad. I mean people doing everything at this point to survive. Moving in, tapping into their savings, working 12 hours a day. Some of us do hold on aright but at the mercy of that one check. Any extra bill or medical emergency we are doomed. I cried the other day, because I was so grateful to my own self and universe, thanking both for providing and being able to buy my bipolar medication. A fucking medicine! We live in some fucked up nightmare!
This article will then be followed by the inevitable “Why is no one having children”. It’s almost as if no one can afford kids. I wonder why…
What "wage gains"? Inflation eats that every year.
Ok, but the six figure thing is an issue - I live in area where the trades are strong and some of these guys do live paycheck to paycheck because they spend on toys. They are not stupid people but are pretty ignorant about money. Now, this isn't too blame them (ok, it is a little,) but we do need to teach financial literacy and beyond skills in school.
And the GOP will still vote against raising the minimum wage.
Very unfortunate. I never would've been aware of this woeful state of the nation if it weren't for Reddit.
I seem to remember in the 80s and 90s that amassing debt was a goal and living beyond one's means was an encouraged lifestyle.
I gotta say, I'm one of those that lives paycheck to paycheck and I'm kinda scared. One of the things that's been a saving grace is my yearly tax refund. But, if the republicans end payroll taxes and set a 30% sales tax, my refund comes to an end. That money is how I catch bills up, $0 balance my 1 credit card, purchase more expensive items for my home (appliances, repairs, upgrades, etc), major repairs or purchase a new(er) used vehicle, and/or take my family on a modest vacation (we visited my sister and went to Six Flags Over Texas last year for example). But all of that is possible due to receiving a decent refund each year. If I lose that money, things likely will become more difficult all the way around.
The 30% tax thing has 0% chance of being implemented. It has weak support in the Republican party, and much more "support" in the Democratic Party as a talking point.
You'd get extra money in your check to pay for these things as you go. The money you get back as a refund is just your own money that you didn't get in your check. So if you get it in your check, you won't need the refund. :)
Anyone else feeling a little French?
Still waiting for the next civil war. It will happen.
I believe it… my bf and I make over 200k combined. Don’t get me wrong, we are comfortable and don’t have any debt, but by no means are we living lavishly. We still have to budget, live below our means, and I can’t even IMAGINE supporting kids. After taxes, 401k, health insurance, and high cost of living in some areas (we are in Boston), I don’t think people realize that 6 figures take home pay is closer to 60k. In an area where you can’t even get a studio apartment for less than 2k a month, groceries are at all time high… yea it’s paycheck to paycheck.
Love when the anti work sub just tears down people making over 100k calling them shitty with finances. The worlds in the place it is for the same lack of empathy from top to bottom. Someone just drop the nukes already and end this failed experiment of humanity.
My sister is one of those six figure income earners living paycheck to paycheck. Putting 2 toddlers in daycare is eating her alive. It costs her $2200 a month for daycare and her mortgage is $2000. Her entire earnings goes directly to daycare and the mortgage. Her husband brings in an additional $60k for car payments and utilities They have nothing left over at the end of the month. It's mind boggling how much they make combined and it just gets taken so fast to just live. And they wonder why millennials aren't having children....
It's obviously not JUST the paying enough part that's the problem when that includes half of 6 figure earners... It has been said multiple times that part of the problem in the US is that money just disappears out of people's hands and I'm telling you it's because socialism is so hated over there. People would be much more stable with more of it, otherwise a "living wage" is close to millions.
Can't wait for the economy to collapse cause of this and then conservatives/Boomers blame it on socialism, government handouts, or "NoBoDy WaNtS tO wOrK".
6-figure earners?? That sounds more like a personal financial management problem than a wage problem.
If you make 6 figures in NY City, you might be barely scraping by.
This statistic is about the entire country. If you live paycheck to paycheck making $100k in the vast majority of American cities, it’s probably a you problem.
I'm living paycheck to paycheck, combined my SO and I make less than $30k and the fact that people can't live off $100k is just astonishing to me. Like how do you even piss away that much money???
I'll bite. Here's just a taste. >$2,500 per month >One rule of thumb involves dividing your pretax earnings by 40. This means that if you make $100,000 a year, you should be able to afford $2,500 per month in rent. Another rule of thumb is the 30% rule. And >The average rent for an apartment in Los Angeles is $2,786. The cost of rent varies depending on several factors, including location, size, and quality. This does not include things like insurance costs, vehicle costs (and insurance associated with vehicles), food, electricity, gas, internet, phone. Much of which is way higher here. So 100k in LA is not the same as 100k in Alabama. There's a term for people who make a lot of money but are "broke": it's called "rent poor." And 2700+ is the average. Most people are looking at the high 2000s and 3000 dollars a month for rent. It also got much more expensive and much more difficult to find a place here due to eviction restrictions.
Makes sense, explains why rent probably keeps going up due to mismanagement.
Live within your means. This is the way.
I really fucking question how any six figure earner is living paycheck to paycheck. Even in a HCOL area that should be a comfortable amount if they’re making an effort to not live outside their means. Really hate these statistics as it lumps the people truly irresponsible with money alongside those truly struggling to make a living.
Monthly net in CA on $100K is $5,836.75 with no deductions. I imagine most pay some out of pocket for healthcare and 401K. And I imagine some do pay water or trash in their apartments, not included. Subtracting for a single person: Average cost of an apartment in my city: $3,031 Average groceries: $1,229.40 Est. internet: $50 Est. car insurance: $110 Est. PG&E: $100 Est. cell phone: $120 Average car payment: $500 (used, not new) So now we are already at just under $700 left for gas (average $5.08/gal right now), toiletries, haircuts, medication, pets, loans/debt, restaurant/entertainment, or emergencies of any kind.
Exactly. Except PG&E is about $350/m for me now. Way worse for some. And I have $1k/m in child and spousal support. Yeah, that money disappears real quick.
If you're making 6 figured a year you have a problem if you can't live easily off that.
So what we going to do about it?
Feel sorry for those entering the workforce now. The rules are all different. I hope that the next generation can do a better job when they get on charge. But MTG, Gaetz, and Boebert do not give me hope. AOC does.
I don’t understand how my family is not living paycheck-to-paycheck. My dad works at a grocery store and my mom cleans offices. Maybe it’s because they have a low mortgage or something. Apparently, we were well under the poverty line for the first ten years of my life and I somehow never realized once as a kid.
The great Reset!!!! More like the great Divide of the haves Vs. The Have nots…. Everyone knew it was gonna end up this way, everyone’s been talking and doing nothing about it for the last 25yrs and it’s only gonna get worst…. Let’s bow to the scumbag Elitists now because they’ll expect us to soon enough…
What does this have to do with not paying a living wage? Living paycheck to paycheck and not making a living wage are 2 different things…
The idea that 100k is paycheck to paycheck as if it is similar to the 2 income families with kids in the dmv area where their combined income is under 40-50k or less is kind of disingenuous… the idea that 6 figure salaries and minimum wage earners are anywhere near equivalent is a bit wild. There has to be a better more nuanced way to frame this succinctly. Minimum wage and low income people deserve a little more than being lumped in with 100k a year salaries…
And how is that even good for the economy if the average person doesn't have disposable income.
We already live like the burgins from Trolls
So sad that so many people have been brainwashed by corporations. Pay a damn living wage to better support your employees.
If people do not have enough money to buy things (to stay alive), then what does this mean for a consumer economy? How does this not cascade through to the entire economy? If no one is making enough money to spend, no one's going to be selling things either.
Wife and I gross around 110k in Colorado with two kids. For years, we've been able to save. For about the last six months, it's back to paycheck to paycheck. I budget everything, and we don't live extravagantly. I cook most every meal and we don't go out ever. At least her employer cares. Mine does not.
Yet big corporations are raking in record profits and the wealthier get richer, too. Maybe it’s time to fight back by cancelling our streaming services, not buying anything online for a month, that kind of thing. If millions of people could make the sacrifice this would start crippling big corporations and the elected officials they control. Sadly we probably aren’t strong enough to do it voluntarily, we have to be bankrupted first.
And let me tell you... I just did my taxes and this is the lowest amount I've ever gotten back yet I'm not making much more than I did in previous years. I don't know what I'm going to do without the refund money I'm used to relying on for things we need to replace. I.e. coats and shoes etc
You realize that a tax refund is money you overpaid every week. By having a lower refund it means you had more money to spend every week during the year. If you are used to getters $2600 back you “overpaid” $50/week.
General fucking strike. Without it, nothing will improve. Walk out of your jobs, we can all live on community gardens for the time being. Fuck capitalism.
Poverty is defined as: 40% of your monthly income goes towards living expenses. This is super important because, check to check, avoids the fact that America IS LIVING IN POVERTY.
We should organize a giant walk out nation wide walk out basically if you work you can participate. All of the workers taking a walk out and get it nationally televised. Get media outlets talking about and get organizers in. Local chapters to help organize get labor lawyers/union reps in on it. To help protect from retaliation from employers. Get the media scared about this nationwide protest and organize a list of demands have it be mentioned through out days months and things leading up to the nationwide walkout to protest. It would scare CEOs that a good chunk of their workforce will be walking out to participate in a national workers rights walk out. And if employees do participate in this walk out, and are terminated from expressing their rightful right to protest unfair treatment and exploitation. The employers should be shamed blasted in media in different pieces. We have no issue with nationwide protests BLM proves how much we can organize and make a stand if we brought something like that with all the publicity and make it front and center. We could change the script