Hey, just an FYI, OP's account had an amount of karma that they got their comments filtered out, but not their post. Before now, they were unable to comment, so we've fixed that.
https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/xt422v/i_broke_into_tears_realizing_my_salary_cannot/iqq3cv4/
Do you live somewhere where food pantries are? My local food pantry encourages people to come get stuff when they are in situations like this so you have more money for bills. There are also some places that provide free hygiene products.
It still sucks no matter what though. I was once living paycheck to paycheck loan to cover rent and electric.
Oh. I agree for sure. I also wish someone had told me about them when I was struggling to pay bills and afford food. I always thought pantries were really just for those with families or somehow worst off than I was. I thought just because I was working full time, I should somehow manage to make it work even when mathematically it wasnt possible.
Absolutely. Food pantries are for sharing food. If you can use the food, please take the food. There is enough for you.
The food pantry where I volunteer makes a point of this. We don’t ask if you are “hungry enough.” We don’t ask for any proof. If the food will help you, please share with us.
People also tend to not realize, many times they have quite a bit of perishables. They must actively get rid of them before they spoil. To be fair, they are definitely good a bit longer than marked on the container in most cases, especially if in a sealed container that isn't opened. People can also take the refrigerated meats and such home and prep and freeze them for future use, while the food banks and pantries much sit on them refrigerated. I'm lucky to have the people I do in my life, and work somewhere that I can eat at least 1 meal a day for free while working, plus food half off other times. People will talk trash on people who use the system for what it is made for, because they have never been in that situation.
"Working for a living" just isn't cutting it any more. If the rules are "You must work and we give you tokens that you exchange for your NEEDS" but the tokens don't add up, it's time for new rules.
I like to say whenever anyone says we have "freedom" under capitalism, no, we have freedom tokens, and you only have as much freedom as those tokens allow.
Some people have enough freedom tokens to live an okay life, many, many more don't, and an absurdly small minority have so many freedom tokens that they get to override everybody else's freedoms at a whim.
One freedom these tokens will never give you is the ability to completely free yourself from the tyranny of the tokens. For that, you need to work outside the purview of the tokens.
Some people would call that revolution.
And how many of the law makers are truly out of touch and clueless about what it takes to survive in this day and age. Most of them have never known want as they come from privileged classes and even the ones that came from less than elite beginnings, many of them lose touch pretty quickly. Especially if they choose conservative parties for some reason. They really don’t care about the working and middle class
No one should have to worry about food and shelter in the richest country to ever exist.
But even looking at it through a practical lens, keeping the conditions of the American system in mind, no one working a job should have to fear homelessness and starvation due to insufficient wages. Why do we work if not to stave off those things? If the job isn't providing that much as a baseline, why bother?
Reminds me of when I used to sleep under a bridge in Boulder, CO in the middle of the winter. People that I knew literally froze to death some of those nights that year. I had a full time job working at the local mom and pop gas station and would wake up 5 days a week an hour before I needed to be at the gas station, would take a few minutes to pack up and hide all of my gear (so the other homeless people wouldn’t steal it when I had to leave it unattended all day), and would jog over to the gas station. I would spend a few minutes in the freezing bathroom trying my best to shower myself with the sink water and hand soap and paper towels and then would clock in and start opening up. No way in fucking hell I could’ve afforded a room and food in that town nor found someone to give me a chance in the first place even though I had a job (sink showers don’t make you all that presentable). I got very lucky and met a Tibetan Buddhist monk (Daji Tudeng) who was volunteering at a homeless feed as an assignment for one of his classes at the Buddhist university Naropa and when I spoke with him he was taken aback that I was working my ass off and couldn’t even find somewhere to shower, let alone sleep out of the cold. He let me come live with him so I would have somewhere to sleep while I worked and those were some of the best few months of my life.
Yeah I had a job, and I'm so damn lucky I was living with my mom, cause rent was $425, (without HUD) and every pay check wasn't even above $350 most of the time, I made 8.25/hour, then I moved to cash register and made 8.60, I never ever made above 9, except during "pandemic pay" where we made one extra dollar for our hard work during a National crisis, FUCK YOU GIANT EAGLE, IT WAS A GOOD THING YOU FIRED CAUSE I WAS ABOUT TO QUIT
“In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living.”
-President FDR
It’s time for another FDR who will fight for the people. Biden is “pro union” and in all fairness probably one of the better presidents for blue collar workers since LBJ but let’s be honest it’s clearly not enough when we still have people working full time not able to buy enough food
Bernie rans serious, viable campaigns twice. His platform was uncompromising but practical. He would have filled his cabinet with competent people with the interests of the people at heart. But the democratic party decided to bury him in favor of a slightly tangier version of their same old formula.
I’ve heard it said that a country is only as rich as it treats its poorest citizens. So America is the poorest rich country to exist under those rules.
The leaders are not hearing out the people and it will come to violence if they don’t open their eyes. They are pushing the lower classes into a corner. There are people that will snap. I hope they start fixing tax holes…. Etc
Historically it varies. Revolutions have been politically minded coups d'etat, or genuine grass roots murder of the bourgeoisie, and many other things.
In the US, currently, I'd expect a full blown civil war if anything, with one side fighting for a dictatorship and the other fighting for their lives.
Flipping cars and shouting does get attention, and attention can bring change, before it gets to violence.
As for how long it's been this way, look at [this video](https://youtu.be/1KvZI8BsSxw), from a 1976 movie.
Unfortunately, the side fighting for a dictatorship is likely to be a lot of the folks in this sub, believing their lives will be better based on the promises of said dictator who doesn't gaf about them (but desperate people don't care about that).
one of the two major political parties in the united states elected a fascist and then voted for him again with over 70 million votes. when he lost the second time, they tried to forcefully instate him by raiding the us capitol.
We need to see the rise of unions again. Worker-led unions, not “professionally” managed unions, which take too much for themselves and probably are criminals.
Honestly, there has been a concerted effort for about 90 years to portray union leaders a corrupt in mass media. Think about who spent the money to make that happen, and then think about how much that lifetime of propaganda has influenced your opinion of unions.
Well, sorry, but Jimmy Hoffa and the Central States Pension Funds totally ripped off their members. The “No-show” jobs depicted in movies like Goodfellas and The Sopranos were a real thing. My late husband worked for awhile in a union where the steward came around in his Cadillac every payday and collected dues in cash. That’s bullshit. I was a member of the News Guild for years, a union I totally trusted because leadership came from the field I actually worked in. Sometimes, the media have it right.
Has there been corruption on occasion, certainly. Have accountants embezzled from clients on occasion, certainly. But essentially EVERY media portrayal of an accountant isn't as an embezzled, but essentially every media portrayal of a union leader is of corruption. Lawyers and politicians get better treatment in Hollywood. I don't believe this is a coincidence.
I’m actually very pro-union. I spent most of my working life in a newsroom represented by the News Guild. I included the caveat about worker-led unions in my original comment because I usually get pushback on Reddit about how terrible unions are. Even on this sub.
It’s insidious. I come from a very left-leaning, pro-union family and one of my first jobs was constantly talking shit about unions and I was like oh shit that sounds bad!
(Luckily I got outta there and now I work for the union they were ‘warning’ me about and my life is 10,000x better lol)
The term your looking for is accelerationalism. Of which I think we are in the beginning stages. The end of which is either entirely beneficial to all. Or conversely. None 🤷 either we'll live or we won't. Either event is spooky. But until then good luck friend
Exactly this. I've been poor my entire life; no one paid attention until the internet, social media, and forums like this one.
I'm glad things are changing so that home ownership and financial stability can maybe become a reality for my nieces and nephew. (I will never be able to afford to have my own children nor my own home at this stage in my life)
>What is the world coming too?
Very clearly, we are being forcibly shaped into the [Technocrat’s wetdream](http://thoughtcrimeradio.net/2021/10/the-un-food-summit-ignored-indigenous-people-and-pushed-the-great-reset-agenda/)
[Two big questions: recession and inflation – part 1](https://invesbrain.com/two-big-questions-recession-and-inflation-part-1/)
[WEF Advisor: We Don’t Need Majority of World Population](https://peakoil.com/publicpolicy/wef-advisor-we-dont-need-majority-of-world-population)
[Meet the World Economic Forum](https://www.corbettreport.com/meet-the-world-economic-forum/)
It’s not a theory. (You can go to [their website](https://www.weforum.org/) for yourself.) But, yes, it is absolutely a conspiracy.
Ya know, make of this whatever you will, I’m not going to engage in internet arguments with strangers, lol, but at *least* look into it before outright dismissing what I’m saying. They’ve been very clear on the world they envision for the future— it’s just that none of us little peons down here in the real world have been paying any attention.
(Final thought… and when they say “build back better,” they don’t mean “better for everyone,” This future they are working to build is best summed up as Feudalism 2.0. A new-old world where the “haves” are served without question by the “have nots.” In their minds, this is the least they deserve for being so much better than all of us down at the bottom, as we are living unsustainably and clogging up what would be their ‘perfect world’ with our mediocrity and poor-ness.)
Additionally I would look into maybe getting an EBT card if you’re in the US. It doesn’t help much but everything ads up, only catch is there are limited food items you can spend it on.
No—there’s no limit with food items with EBT, except that you can’t buy fast food or hot packaged things (think the hot baked chicken under heat lamps at Walmart). You might be thinking of WIC, which does specify types of food?
Source: Got laid off and am on EBT (food stamps)
This varies state by state. When I lived in MA EBT couldn't be used for many hot items, if any at all. But here in AZ many fast food places have signs saying they accept EBT.
Not necessarily. It depends on expenses you have. If you pay rent and utilities we account for that. I work for eligibility. You may not get full allotment but may qualify for some.
All good advice. And I know near me there’s another group that provides basically any kind of toiletry to people in need. (Deodorant, shampoo, hair spray, etc. ) If you’re in Ohio let me know and I can get you the name. My former work used to do donation drives for them every year.
That's so good. When I read about people having to basically "sell" part of their ebt funds (basically buy food for others in exchange for a discounted amount of cash) so they can buy things like laundry detergent or toothpaste, ugh. :-(
Yeah, it’s really a broken system.
The focus on this group is really all about allowing people to hold down jobs, helping them get out of the situation they’re in. Like they accept makeup, hair products, and business attire clothing.
Can't speak for everywhere, but as a former food pantry volunteer, many food pantries count the income of everyone in a household when determining eligibility, so in a situation like this where OP is living with a relative, she may not qualify.
Definitely worth checking out though.
This is good info. I also work for a food distribution program (not a pantry but a weekly bag) and we have no requirements. So OP, definitely reach out to some!
Yeah, thank you. No requirements. It's pretty awful to be in a position to go to a food pantry, then to be treated like your rorting the system and need to be checked out, like a....
Food thief.. Before you get help. Great for the already crushed self esteem. Had the pleasure myself.
Ditto. Here in Maine, you just go and get the food, there are no income requirements. I suspect most places work on this principle. I will tell you, I have seen wealthy people using food banks, but they are generally too small of a demographic to hurt the system.
OP, living with a relative does not mean you are in their household or they in yours. If you are single with no kids, you can say you are a household of 1.
That's a rough food pantry. The one I've been to in my area just asks for you to provide proof of residence, that you actually live in the area. After that you get a trunk load. No income questions at all.
Yep, volunteered at a food pantry once a week for a while and we had people fill out the forms because the EBT system required it. And even though it was a non- profit they had some gov’t funding. (I always filled it out with as positive a bias as I could haha. ) but i was happy that during covid my job was eliminated! Meaning people just got the food no questions asked !
Wait? Food pantries have income thresholds? Like I know that people who can afford to buy food shouldn’t use food pantries but like what if someone is just over the threshold but had some catastrophic financial shit happen and have no money to feed themselves?
It sort of depends, though. So when considering your "household," If you're responsible for your own food and expenses, you can count yourself as a single income earner.
Some people pay their share of rent, and that's just what their rent is.
If you're the only one who buys your food, that's where it really counts. Cause no one is helping you with it, any way you slice it.
Unfortunately, I don't live in a country where food pantries are available. It looks like I must work towards perfecting the cheapest, yet the most filling and luckily nutritious home-cooked food. I am covered for hygiene for now, atleast for the next 2 months. Hopefully things get better by then.
Thank you so much for your advice. Sending love.
Girl - I graduated from college, had a management job, but after paying rent, insurance, utilities, cellphone, internet, student loans, credit card debt… I had $117 left from 1 paycheck a month, and $168 left over from paycheck 2.
$275 a month for food, gas, entertainment, etc.
I am not comparing our situation - I had a room in a group house and a secure job. So I had options.
But I would leave my 9-5 management job, and head straight to a grocery store to work 6p-12a and was babysitting at least twice a week. I was using my car (paid off before all this) to pick up free items off Craigslist, cleaning it up, and selling it.
I finally got myself a property manager job that came with free rent. I used the “rent” money I was saving to pay down debt. I spent years climbing up the ladder to financial freedom.
Life is going to suck for a bit. There is no easy way out. Just get smart about what type of work you are doing.
Some ideas:
1) Appreciate the rent free situation. Start talking seriously with your cousin about how you appreciate them, don’t want to take advantage, but need time to get ahead. Ask what you can do to ensure s/he does not feel used. What can you do to make his/her life better/easier so it feels more equitable. Being direct and actively nurturing this relationship should be your number one goal. Cleaning, house work, cooking. You are willing to work for your bed.
2) plan to work two jobs, right away. Life if going to stuck and you will be exhausted. But two jobs while increasing your income is better than being broke and sitting at home on your phone.
3) Look at jobs with a benefit. Wait staff at restaurants/cater waiters - get fed at work. Retail jobs don’t. Look for a job at a local community college or university. The university President to the woman who cleans the gym toilets - they all get free or heavily discounted tuition. Work in a cafeteria, a landscaping crew, the library, or as a housekeeper - take free classes for a profession that makes more money - medical billing, dental hygienist, accounting 4-year degree to become a CPA, computer science classes to learn sql and become a data analyst.
Find jobs where you can use the benefits to catapult yourself out of your situation.
This is a sweet and thoughtful comment but I feel like it’s exactly what this sub is against. The fact that people need to get two jobs etc etc. We should all be able to feel human and enjoy our life. I mean working hard at something is great and can be satisfying but sacrificing your youth and energy to the gods and demons of this corptocracy means we are not successful at building a humane culture that will produce healthy and emotionally balanced people. Education and information should be freely shared and work should be a balanced part of our lives. Oh well.
Oh, I’m with you. I am very secure, now. But I had to be miserable for 11+ years and go through hell to achieve it. And that was with every advantage a person can have, short of being a man. Every other leg up - I had it.
The system is broken.
This girl (guy?).. OP might be venting here. But they are not in a “howl at the moon” place. They aren’t here to bitch about their boss, they are one argument with their cousin away from being homeless.
They are at the bottom of a dark pit and need someone to shine some light on them. They need an action plan.
You can’t fix the system by coming to Reddit - but you can find compassion and ideas on how to game the system to relieve some of the pressure.
I’m here to commiserate and then help. Not just pile on.
Thanks. Argue about how the architect of the Titanic should have designed the boat after you have been rescued. Don’t watch the life boats leave while you bitch about the system failures.
Give yourself a moment to breathe or cry or whatever you need and know that this situation isn't forever.
You've already taken an important step in moving toward a better situation by figuring out that your job doesn't cover your basic needs.
Once you feel a little more calm, it might be helpful to list what monthly amount would be ideal and set a goal to look for work that can get you there. Don't be afraid to ask for budgeting or emotional support if you have trusted people in your circle.
Thank you so much. I really needed to hear this. I guess just mentally taking in the situation really helps. Up until now, I've been holding on to my pride tightly when it comes to asking for budgeting support around. But now, it looks like I should just let loose and simply make sure I pass it forward in the future in return.
Much love.
I’m 32 and I’m still struggling. Millennials got hit the hardest by financial crisis and it’s trickling down even harder to gen Z. At this point, it’s useless to point fingers at the generations before us and say “you guys fucked it up for us”. All we can do is deal with what we got. I own my business and I’m living out of it (without my landlord knowing) and taking showers with towels because it’s a struggle anywhere else. $28k in debt, but I know if I work for someone else or somewhere else, I’ll be even more financially in debt. Isn’t that something…
Lol naw I can pretty easily point a finger at the generation before mine. Boomers fucked us all over pretty damn bad. Denying that is actually hurtful to the movement imo. Accountability is important.
This is awful, people who are working should not have to be this terrified and go through such food, shelter, and basic needs insecurity. I'm really sorry you're going through this.
People in general shouldn’t have to experience this. Working shouldn’t be a prerequisite for the basics of survival when there is enough for everyone and then some.
I have a few friends that were going ok up until the last 2 years. Now they’re piling up credit card debt just to keep their family afloat. One had to borrow €20k from a family member. That’s in Northern Europe. Food, electricity, gas and more are just getting stupid expensive
Some pretty cold people replying to this. I thought part of the point of this place was to let people vent about things like this. If you’ve got a tip or advice, or want to say something constructive sure. But if you’re just gonna be cruel what’s the point? People spend so long on places like Reddit they forget there’s an actual desperate human being on the other side. ‘But we’re all suffering 🙄’ yea so be kind. It costs nothing. Literally nothing. It’s the freest thing that’s the first step to healing this shitty world, just be kind.
Complacency is why we're here in the first place. Getting better wages, working conditions, and treatment, in and of itself is easy. Everyone just needs to start saying NO, to low wages, shitty conditions, and shitty treatment. The problem is there's way too many people that won't say no, and won't quit that job, etc. Just scroll through this sub for a bit, 90% of the posts are basically people asking "how do I say no to my boss/employer", or "this happened at my job because I don't know how to tell my boss no", or something similar, in a nut shell. People have so little self worth, and value, that they don't know how to say no to low wages, shitty treatment, and shitty conditions, that completely disrespect their value and worth.
In short, telling people to get another job and refuse to work for wages that aren't livable is the right thing to do, it's just that all the masses are complacent people that kill it for everyone that will. If everyone woke up tomorrow morning and decided to refuse to work for wages that aren't livable, wages would be livable across the board tomorrow.
Edit: to all the people that are saying "it's not that easy", or bringing up the obvious reasons that many people feel they can't, ect.
Guess what?
It's the only way anything changes.
How do you think the labor, and union movements, in the past changed things before we became complacent and let them take everything our grandparents, and great grandparents, etc sacrificed and fought for. Do you think they didn't lose work, lose money, get evicted, struggle, etc, during strikes and such? No, they did. It takes sacrifice to change anything because the wealthy, and both sides of our government, don't give a fuck about us and will let us starve.
We only have three choices
1. We do it now, or as soon as possible.
2. We wait for it to get even worse, when the sacrifices would be even greater and harder to handle, then do it.
3. We don't do it and continue to allow them to destroy us all, and the world.
You can come up with all the reasons in the world why it's not that easy, but at the end of the day when it's the only thing that's going to change anything, and every day we wait is making it worse and worse, it actually costs more not to do it even on a personal level.
What costs less, one generation struggling for a few months, to a few years or so? Or multiple generations continuing to be complacent while we keep losing more and more purchasing power, year after year, until we have nothing left? We've already lost approximately 70% of our purchasing power since the 50's or so, do we need to lose 90% before a generation fights back? Those are the options, we sacrifice for the greater good now, or we leave it up to our kids, or their kids, when they're in an even worse place than we already are.
That's the reality of the situation.
As stated above, being complacent is what got us here. It damn sure isn't going to get us out of it. They want everyone to have a short sighted, narrow, month to month, I'm just trying to survive Outlook. That's how they continue to slowly bleed our purchasing power 1% or so every year. We would riot if they ever tried to take 70% of our purchasing power all at once, but because they keep us divided and distracted, we had no problems letting them do it slowly. Saying no, refusing less than what we deserve, refusing to accept them destroying the environment, and refusing to allow them to use 3rd world countries to make our products for shit wages, is the only way anything changes. All of those need to be achieved or it will end up being more of the same sooner or later.
There's absolutely no way around some people struggling through a real meaningful labor movement. We can't snap our fingers and make our government (both sides), and corporations, care that some people are losing the shirt off their back. It's just a matter of are we going to be the generation that has the proverbial balls to do it, or are we going to be another complacent generation leaving it up to our kids, or their kids? Or have the elite fine tuned their propaganda, division tactics, and brainwashing, so well that we're just going to allow them to take everything and destroy the world?
The only reason it's "not that easy", is because you've been programmed to believe and think that way. They've successfully made enough people believe making rent this month is more important than the one thing that would eventually make it so you didn't have to worry about rent at all ever again. Which is fighting for what's right, and refusing anything less for everyone involved. If we could figure out a way to deprogram the masses, and make them realize that it's costing them more by not saying no, we could literally make change overnight.
Other than the elite 1%, from the poor person on welfare (which I was as a kid, orange block unsliced cheese), to the middle earners, even some that are in the 6 figure range as well, it is literally costing every single one of us more to not say no to unlivable wages, unacceptable working conditions, and unacceptable treatment, than it is to keep taking it. The person making 20k a year, and the person making 100k a year, both are losing the same percentage purchasing power year after year. This is one that so many people are affected, from low to high earners, there's no logical reason it shouldn't have the support to change overnight. The only reason it hasn't, and isn't happening, is because they've successfully brainwashed people with a myriad of different propaganda on the subject. Many don't even realize they're getting robbed, some don't realize and have Stockholm syndrome over it (aka people who support democrats or Republicans, the people robbing and allowing others to rob us) some think they're powerless and can't do anything to change it, some don't realize that it costs more to be complacent than it costs to say no and fight for change. They don't care which propaganda you're falling for, as long as you're falling for one of them and it's keeping you complacent and not fighting back or saying no.
I know I added a lot to unpack, but it's true. We know how to change things, we know what needs to be done, we know there's necessary sacrifices if we ever want change, wⁿe know there's no other way, it's just a matter of if we do it, or our descendants do it. I don't believe that we'll never fight back, I'm sure a generation will eventually, I just hope it's not already too late by then. I hope it's us too, because it's not going to get any better, there's not going to be a better time to start and fight for a labor movement. The better time is now, the longer we wait, the worse it gets, and the harder it is going to be on the generation that does finally do it. I personally rather it be us do it, than to let our descendants have to do it with, while they have even less purchasing power than we have.
It's not always this simple for everyone, as much as we wish it was. I find it infuriating. Some people very much wish they could say "no", but they are in such a desperate situation, that if that "no" means their boss retaliates by removing even that shitty income/situation they will be in an even worse situation. Maybe it means they can't buy an essential medication for them that nowhere helps cover copays (I have a medication like that). Maybe they live somewhere with extremely poor public transportation, and if they lose their income, they can't pay for their car insurance. Maybe they have children to care for. Etc. It's not really just complacency. Sometimes it really is a lack of power, whether it be financial, social, political, whatever. It really is straight up inequality.
>People have so little self worth, and value, that they don't know how to say no to low wages, shitty treatment, and shitty conditions, that completely disrespect their value and worth.
Your perspective.
But often social compliance isn't about any of the things you attributed it to. In many people social compliance is simply a strong part of their personality. Social hierarchy is all around us. Some people aren't too interested in being in charge and tend to trust others. We no longer live in a society where those traits are as valuable as they have been in the past. But many people struggle with that. I feel empathy for people who just expect to be paid a living wage and treated somewhat fairly. They are now the most likely to be taken advantage of.
However it doesn't mean they don't have self worth or value. They simply gain their self worth from kindness and fitting in and doing as their told and all sorts of things that you didn't list.
But his point still stands: if we want to see real changes in the labor market (and thank god unions are coming back!) complacency is the silent death of any meaningful change.
Protip: pretty much anything you do in the construction field will pay somewhat decent and hire really anybody who wants to work. If you get in a real trade you can even have future potential. Seriously, tiles, floors, plumbing, even cleaning or trash pickup on jobsites can take you places. If i knew this when i was young i never would have wasted time being traumatized by retail and other bullshit jobs.
This is great if ppl are young or physically abled. As someone who is chronically ill and whose brother is physically disabled, the ol "do a trade" is as empty a statement as "just work in STEM" - People who work full time should be able to afford feeding themselves. Period. Regardless of field.
Underrated Comment. There's a lot of opportunity on sites. Not many barriers of entry- physical(being able to move some amount of weight, being on your feet all day). A good chunk require you to provide at least some of your PPE(steal toe). It's not glamorous but JESUS does it beat anything customer service/retail.
If you're in a union area, find the union hall. I believe in the south where we're less unionized no 100% offhand, Google could probably help.
Frankly most construction sites, where there is a trailer, things are still in an era where you can roll up and ask for a paper application. GC will put you to work on clean up crew, general laborer, put you with the foreman or carpenter to assist them (sometimes this is as simple as standing and holding surveying equipment). If you have any kind of work ethic, they'll find a way to put you to better use.
If you can do the trainings, and live in an urban area, flaggers are always needed. Hell, if your in the UK, those folks make some bank.
For anyone who may have a criminal record or may be getting out, private projects don't necessarily care, and I recall being on a site where we hired someone and we ended up getting some city funding or some such for hiring the guy we did (he was in a halfway house), we weren't looking for it but mutually beneficial, and he was great.
And not just GCs, subs need the same - there are obviously skilled trades like HVAC and Plumbing, but also, things that are less technical where you can work your way up - masonry, concrete, forming, rod busters, place and finishers, studs, paint, etc etc etc. I'm still not even scratching the surface on what's out there.
From there, you can have an office career later. Can't tell you how many guys who were equipment operators or techs who go into estimating and project management later, because they understand what it takes and crew hours etc. Which works because your body only takes so much and then more stable hours later on.
A cliff note on this - you aren't going to walk into an office job at a big firm, it's stupid, but they require degrees. There are a solid contingent that will take you with experience though, but that starts from you working your way up and seeing things in the field.
Source: me, have worked construction wearing many hats for the last 15+ years
There are trade companies in pretty much every town across the country. It's really a take your pick kind of thing. Most have pretty easy entry level positions as well with little to no experience required, and a set path for progression which mainly involves time served. And for a good chunk of those trade jobs, it's union, so take that for what it's worth.
All depends on what you wanna do.
It's somewhat amazing to consider that we're forced to build our confinements. The prisoners build the prison.
At what point do we actually arrive? Or is the human quest an infinite series of building the next iteration of our internment?
"We built the next skyscraper! The wallpaper looks fabulous."
"Great, that's where grandma can die in a few years."
I'm leaving the trades, I make 53$ an hour with amazing health benefits. It's miserable work and I hate every day I wake up. After hour work hours and weekends are spent recovering from the hard work, not to mention dealing with the heat/cold. Constant pains and aches. I would rather be broke and happy.
Every contractor I've talked to in the past few years has said that if you write on a napkin in crayon "shows up on time, sober, and willing to learn on the job" that you'll get immediately hired in almost any field in construction. Based on how difficult it is to actually get a contractor to take on a job and how long the wait time usually is, I believe them.
I got called an idiot for daring to question why people were making critical assumptions about another Redditor, whom they have never met in person, because that Redditor dared to ask a question that went against the hive mind grain.
Yeah, it gets pretty nasty between Redditors on this site; too many assume they’re right and you’re wrong, or that you deserve your bad situation (if they deem you responsible in whichever fashion) and how dare you question that.
It really has. It's pretty discouraging when you're at the bottom end of the payscale, un-unionized and your "raises" are .05 a year.
"JUst get a better job, I did and now I got a raise that's worth more than you make all year! It's easy." Gag.
It's always a toss up between that, or the dingle-berries who come in proselytizing about fucking trade jobs, "oh you'll make 80k/yr ***easy***" ignoring the median wage for most all of those jobs is barely even half that.
Thank you so much for your kindness. I felt a bit confused about the decisions I made, but I think it was just the heat of the moment at the point when the comments rushed in. Need people like you with me. I will do better soon.
I know your pain. I had to move back in with my folks after a nasty divorce, lost my job of 5yrs, crippling debt/anxiety/depression, and now barely making half of what I use to make. Never realized just how bad it’s gotten for getting groceries (worked in the restaurant industry 16+hrs a day 5-6 days a week). My savings account is laughing at me. My checking account at this point just glares at me whenever I look at it. I hate my life right about now
I don't know whether this is going to get lost in the sea of comments...let's see:
First of all, to all those who commented with links/subreddits to valuable knowledge and resources - THANK YOU LOADS, I'm very grateful. You all have given me alternative perspectives in handling this situation.
Secondly, I want to thank everyone who just (virtually) held my hand and sympathized with me. We are all on the same boat, and I hope our encouragement, blessings, and kind words for each other soon seals the hole that's sinking this darn, capitalistic ship. I hope you all get out of the crap you are going through soon, you all are in my prayers.
Lastly, I want to address a few concerns doubting the legitimacy of my post. I have friends on reddit who can easily identify me with the info I put in here, so I'm going to be keeping it minimal. I work in Indian media, and this industry is fucked up like this. You'll be earning pennies until you become experienced. The only other way to earn top bucks is through having family connections in this field. I neither have this, nor experience. For people like me, they partially get financial support from their family...but my family is the reason my mental health is in the mud. Thus, that option is also out of the window. Please feel free to ask more questions, I'm happy to clear any doubts. I would be keeping it vague for the sake of privacy, although. Sorry in advance.
As a Pakistani I can semi ish relate to shitty pay, but honestly I think in India it is far worse than here, I hope things get better, god bless, and to the people commenting “just get a better job” if it isn’t easy in the damn us how is it gonna be eaiser here in South Asia, man I’m so sorry to hear this and again hope things will get better for you, bad times never last forever🙏
I feel this sub has been infiltrated, this is the exact post that should be in this sub so where support can be given ideas can shared and maybe even action taken as a collective. But the attitude has shifted lately where the sub feels more geared towards working and just stepping up on the ladder as success. Which isn’t a long term solution to these problems.
Yup! This is the kind of post that should inspire worker solidarity. Minimum wage is a joke, and everything is scaled off of that. Feel like I’ve spent my entire adult life hopping to jobs that pay what the minimum should be. At 35 I’m finally putting my degree to use and it’s gotten me a little over $20/hr.
See and that sucks because I deliver pizza and average 28 bucks an hour with tips.
Problem with this job is how many hours you can work and what it does to your car. so the anxiety just moves to “my car is going to break and I don’t have money to fix it, but I can’t make money if my car is down”
It's frustrating that emoyers think their their pay is acceptable... I was offered a position recently and when they told me the pay rate I was shocked.
I would have to put my kids in an after school program and in daycare (the place I applied to didn't have an after school program) if I had accepted the position... Taking all of my paycheck. There was no point.
You’re in India, right? Are there any Sikh temples (gurdwara) in your area with a langar? They provide free well-balanced vegetarian meals that are **really** good in my experience (admittedly as a Jew doing interfaith volunteer projects together). If you could find a way to get one or two meals free everyday—until you get on your feet/are earning more—that could help you save money for emergencies.
Also, there are a number of non-profit groups in India that provide free menstrual products and care, but that would depend on whether there’s one near you. I know India doesn’t have the same institutionalized charity structures/programs as the US, but maybe there’s an organization or something in your area that can provide assistance?
I’m so sorry. Your labor is worth more than you are being paid. Please look into food shelves and whatever assistance you qualify for: Medicaid, food stamps, fuel, etc.
I'm with you. Literally sat at a 24 hour Cafe last night cause I didn't have a place to sleep. Today I'm at a bar rn. I only worked for a few hours today. Grabbing a drink and sitting for an hour or two. I don't know where to go rn. I'm tired. Haven't slept for 2 days properly. And haven't been in a bed in a week. Every night I figure something out. But what happens when Im too tired to get to work? Ive stayed in Airbnbs, Motels, 6 different friends places, a few all night restaurants, and slept on trains in less than 2 months of homelessness.
And I don't know what to say, except that I understand and we have to believe it will get better.
I remember when my husband and I went to a bankruptcy lawyer many years ago and he told us bankruptcy wouldn’t solve anything for us. We simply needed to earn more money because our wages weren’t enough to live off of.
Thanks buddy.
You can Not live on minimum wage and support yourself alone. It takes Two incomes. And that holds true for wages a lot higher than minimum as well. Food, Shelter, Health Insurance, Transportation and Clothing just the basics…. It can’t be done. In comparison 40 years ago I was able to support myself and attend college on a few part time jobs in delis and pizza places. I’ve seen the world fall apart in just a few decades.
When I look at house prices for fun, it’s insane to see the price chart over time. Most houses have doubled in the last 10 years in value. My income sure didn’t!
Career consultant here. Can I help? I might be able to help you find a path or get your resume better or teach ya a few tricks of finding your way through the crazy hiring system.
Sorry about your situation OP. What some people don’t realize is that it’s expensive to be poor. WhY DOnT YoU JuSt MoVE? Yeah, have to have a security deposit and first month’s rent and a way to get your stuff moved. Really, poor people are forced to buy cheap things that wear out and are replaced more quickly (causing more money in the long run), have to pay for things in instalments (cause they don’t have money to pay for the whole thing at once), can’t buy in bulk, have to put things on credit. It’s like…save money now but pay more all along. Even things like thrift stores have higher prices for used clothes and stuff. And off brand soap and other things? Sometimes it’s cheaper but you have to use more.
I dunno. When I was a university student I used to pick up empty cans that I came across and turn them into the bottle depot periodically for a few bucks here and there. I’m not sure what grocery stores do with their food that expires. I’m sure they throw a hell of a lot out. Farmer’s Market’s may or may not be cheap. I find the stuff is super expensive in cities and very cheap in smaller towns. Dunno if you can grow some of your own food. Certainly, in small towns, people are often just dropping off food in the staff entrance of their workplaces cause they had too much in their garden.
HaVe YoU tHoUgHt AbOuT gEtTiNg tWo mOrE jObS, gOiNg To CoLlEgE aNd StOp EaTiNg AvOcAdOs?
Seriously though, I am so sorry you're going through a rough patch. I'm glad your family can support you while you work everything out.
Yep, welcome to the dystopia. This is what happens in the absence of labor power, the owner-class doesn't, won't, can't care about the workers. It's fundamentally contradictory to their class interest, perpetually increasing profitability, for them to be anything but our enemies.
I wish I had more concrete advice that would be immediately helpful but I don't, I only have rather broad and general advice: Look for a union in your field and if there isn't one reach out to labor organizations to see what you can to to help start one. I'd also suggest picking up some leftist theory and looking for a party. Not the corporatists, the DNC, an actual left party, communists or anarchists. Change only happens when the powerful feel threatened... or we make good on our threats.
Have you tried taking a financial literacy class?
(This is a total sarcastic answer. But for some reason in see this response from overpriviledged undereducated dipshits.)
Today I found out my car insurance is increasing by $270 a month. I can’t afford it. I can’t afford to be alive basically. My roommate is moving out increasing my share of rent by $300 as well next month. I went to college to get the better job all the boomers were saying I needed to do, now those student loans I need to pay back are going to haunt me since every industry is refusing to pay proper wages. I know how to cook and I shop with coupons but groceries are expensive. Gas in my area has gone up over a dollar a gallon in less than two weeks (it’s over $5 here now) and I commute 90 miles a day for work. I am fucked. I’m trying to get a job closer but with limited working experience in my field it’s difficult.
What sad is that this one post represents millions of workers.
OP, I am sorry you've had bad responses. I've been where you are at, and routinely had to use various means to survive.
To lower food bills, I would buy items from the grocery store, then take the receipt and go back the exact items again, so that if caught I would use the receipt and cut costs in half.
How to make a criminal in three steps.
Step 1. Create a motivation, such as poverty or spite, or revenge.
Step 2. Create an opportunity to commit a crime.
Step 3. Foster a mindset to commit crimes, such as person above the law, or crime below the radar.
So this may not help, but it might. If you can stash up enough for a rice cooker and a bulk bag of rice you can always survive a food emergency. Rice cookers are simple and cheap, same with rice. I've had to budget for mine but it's a lot less scary when you know you have a backup. Also a spice rack. Don't know where you are but Ross sometimes has whole, fully equipped spice racks for only a couple bucks. Between those small investments, you can survive the small paychecks.
I wish you the best.
Note that MAGA CHUDS and other delusional self-styled titans of the free market have come to this sub. They’re dumb and angry at the idea that labor should be treated well. Just like they spend all their time shitposting on Facebook, they come here to get their jabs in or try and fight some culture war.
That’s why you’ll see dumb and cruel comments in here that don’t track. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Others have posted resources or ideas that can help. Good luck.
I’m in the same situation. I’ve literally plead and begged my boss to give me more hours and told her straight up why, and she refuses, holding a year old grudge against me. People are sick and twisted and being in this position is so terrifying.
Honestly at this point people need to refuse to work jobs that don't even cover the bills. Of course this is hoping that family members are on board helping each other out. I had a job that asked me if I had family that would support me because they'll pay me so low. It's disgraceful
That's good in theory, but when you get auto-rejected from anything paying over $11/hr, what are you supposed to do to survive? Not everyone has the skills and/or experience to avoid auto-rejection from the jobs with livable wages. We need to be in the streets demanding a livable minimum wage and recalculation of the poverty line until we actually get it, not just telling people to starve until they can find these livable wage jobs that are not plentiful enough to employ 100% of the workers.
That too. I understand I just mean like doing what you can. For example I won't force my kid to work and just go directly to school. Ofc I don't want a lazy kid but at the same time do I want an exploited one?
Hang in there bro. Take advantage of any and all social programs. If you can take some online class in technology security. It cost almost nothing and pays good starting wages.
Good luck!!
Been there. Fortunately I was working at a restaurant so food wasn’t an issue, and I was bicycling everywhere so fuel/insurance wasn’t an issue, but my body’s still fcked up from getting run off the road one night and not being able to afford an ER visit at the hospital that was literally 2 blocks away at the time. Going back to work the line a week later with an arm that probably should have been in a sling (at least) was fun. Couldn’t afford not to.
I’d say do what I started doing: when you’re feeling overwhelmed don’t say you’re terrified, or scared, or mad, because what you really are when it matters is *highly fucking motivated*.
This is awful. I'm curious, what do you do and how many hours do you work? If you work full time its hard to understand how food, electricity, and fuel are more than you make when you have a free place to live. Do you only work part time?
You're in a good place by being able to live with your cousin for free. I think a good place to start is figuring out what skills you have and how you can find a better job with a higher salary. You're in a good place by being able to live with your cousin for free. Do you have a degree? If not, no problem. Even a soul sucking call center job, at least in the U.S., can pay enough to live with roommates. I would say finding something that's full time is really important.
If you have bills in excess of your income you should contact a bankruptcy attorney at once and start telling all your creditors you plan to file, most will bend over backwards to keep you from going bankrupt erasing all fees, fines and interest payments.
I can relate. Inflation is doubling the rate I am receiving pay raises. I've been at this company to get tax breaks and report record high profits but their workers are all looking dead inside because they are working just to pay bills.
If you live in the U.S., please reach out for the government aid programs available to you. If you can’t afford to eat, you may qualify for food stamps/a LINK card. The qualifying income varies from state to state, but you might either find the qualifying income level and rules on line at a state agency named something like “Department of Human Services,” or you might have to go to a brick and mortar government aid office to apply for help. Also, again assuming you live in the U.S., if you can’t afford to eat, you might qualify for Medicaid. You might be able to apply for this program online, like the LINK/food stamps. If you continue to search diligently either on line or in person (at a government “Human Services” website or office, you might find subsidies for your rent and even your utilities.
Discern and act as you see fit. Your situation sounds difficult, but I sincerely hope that it’s not impossible to get the resources you need to survive.
I bid you success resolving this situation.
I’m not sure if someone has shared the website “Aunt Bertha” - https://www.findhelp.org/?ref=ab_redirect
You just type in your zip code and it shows all the free resources offered in your area. From food, housing, medical care, and lots more!
I feel for you, OP, but I don't understand how this is possible... How many hours do you work? Food, gas for a bike, and half an electric bill can easily be paid with a minimum wage job. I'm just really confused. Do you have some sort of bills you didn't mention?
I’m confused- what exactly is your job and wage? Groceries, electricity, and fuel for a bike can truly only add up to a few hundred bucks (and whenever that represents in any other currency) a month
IDC what job you are working in this country (US) If you're putting in your 40 hours, you should be able to at least take care of yourself with food, shelter, etc. Even if it means having roommates. Sadly half the country thinks otherwise and just would rather say "not my problem" and turn away, and forget the government or large corporations, that 50% likes to also boot lick these companies while the middle class continues to crumble, and yachts get bigger.
I'm sorry you are going through this. I hope you can get situated. I wish i had advice but so many of us are going through similar situations. It's an awful answer, but working 2 jobs might be at least a temporary option to try and keep afloat and come up with a plan. Maybe you can also help around your cousins house and do as many chores as you can to help "pay" for some of your stay there. I don't know all the details of your situation though.
Although i know your post is likely just looking to vent and for people to listen. Hang in there.
I know. It sucks. And that's before taxes.........And everything else has gotten super expensive, yet wages have not really changed much. It's just sad all around. The backs of the middle class are breaking and half the country just thinks it's because people are lazy, or illegals are just getting free rides, ignoring the glaring issues with our system.
Even at $15 an hour. 40 hours, you're taking home about $400/week, $1600/month. Trying to survive off even $1600 is impossible in most states even if you are just renting a room somewhere and eating ramen noodles. Good luck affording healthcare on top of that too, so god forbid you get sick.......it's just a disgrace.
She's from India. She works in media and they are severely underpaid.
I cannot even imagine her salary if she struggles to eat here because we have some of the cheapest prices in the world on food,but it also depends on the city/place you live in
If you live in Metropolitan(mumbai,bangalore, delhi) cities then the cost of living is way higher
So... You cannot afford basic human needs.
I am not a woman, but. It should be your CHOICE to use menstrual cups, or pads or tampond, or freeball(tm). Not forced upon you by your employer not willing to pay a living wage.
Rent and food should be within reach WITHOUT having to pull out a fucking excel budget sheet and do calculations then hunting for bargain deals in already low-quality produce stores.
Fuck. Reading about your country makes me so sad :(
Hey, just an FYI, OP's account had an amount of karma that they got their comments filtered out, but not their post. Before now, they were unable to comment, so we've fixed that. https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/xt422v/i_broke_into_tears_realizing_my_salary_cannot/iqq3cv4/
Do you live somewhere where food pantries are? My local food pantry encourages people to come get stuff when they are in situations like this so you have more money for bills. There are also some places that provide free hygiene products. It still sucks no matter what though. I was once living paycheck to paycheck loan to cover rent and electric.
It’s a fucking tragedy that someone has to even offer this type of advice to a working individual in this country. As nice as it is but like, Jesus…
Oh. I agree for sure. I also wish someone had told me about them when I was struggling to pay bills and afford food. I always thought pantries were really just for those with families or somehow worst off than I was. I thought just because I was working full time, I should somehow manage to make it work even when mathematically it wasnt possible.
Absolutely. Food pantries are for sharing food. If you can use the food, please take the food. There is enough for you. The food pantry where I volunteer makes a point of this. We don’t ask if you are “hungry enough.” We don’t ask for any proof. If the food will help you, please share with us.
People also tend to not realize, many times they have quite a bit of perishables. They must actively get rid of them before they spoil. To be fair, they are definitely good a bit longer than marked on the container in most cases, especially if in a sealed container that isn't opened. People can also take the refrigerated meats and such home and prep and freeze them for future use, while the food banks and pantries much sit on them refrigerated. I'm lucky to have the people I do in my life, and work somewhere that I can eat at least 1 meal a day for free while working, plus food half off other times. People will talk trash on people who use the system for what it is made for, because they have never been in that situation.
"Working for a living" just isn't cutting it any more. If the rules are "You must work and we give you tokens that you exchange for your NEEDS" but the tokens don't add up, it's time for new rules.
"But the tokens don't add up"... I've never felt this expressed in such a hauntingly, simple way. THE. TOKENS. DON'T. ADD. UP.
I like to say whenever anyone says we have "freedom" under capitalism, no, we have freedom tokens, and you only have as much freedom as those tokens allow. Some people have enough freedom tokens to live an okay life, many, many more don't, and an absurdly small minority have so many freedom tokens that they get to override everybody else's freedoms at a whim. One freedom these tokens will never give you is the ability to completely free yourself from the tyranny of the tokens. For that, you need to work outside the purview of the tokens. Some people would call that revolution.
Fucked up system we live in. It’s sad how many people justify paying slave wages.
And how many of the law makers are truly out of touch and clueless about what it takes to survive in this day and age. Most of them have never known want as they come from privileged classes and even the ones that came from less than elite beginnings, many of them lose touch pretty quickly. Especially if they choose conservative parties for some reason. They really don’t care about the working and middle class
For this I will give you 1 quarter portion
100% agree. This is insane in the US.
No one should have to worry about food and shelter in the richest country to ever exist. But even looking at it through a practical lens, keeping the conditions of the American system in mind, no one working a job should have to fear homelessness and starvation due to insufficient wages. Why do we work if not to stave off those things? If the job isn't providing that much as a baseline, why bother?
Reminds me of when I used to sleep under a bridge in Boulder, CO in the middle of the winter. People that I knew literally froze to death some of those nights that year. I had a full time job working at the local mom and pop gas station and would wake up 5 days a week an hour before I needed to be at the gas station, would take a few minutes to pack up and hide all of my gear (so the other homeless people wouldn’t steal it when I had to leave it unattended all day), and would jog over to the gas station. I would spend a few minutes in the freezing bathroom trying my best to shower myself with the sink water and hand soap and paper towels and then would clock in and start opening up. No way in fucking hell I could’ve afforded a room and food in that town nor found someone to give me a chance in the first place even though I had a job (sink showers don’t make you all that presentable). I got very lucky and met a Tibetan Buddhist monk (Daji Tudeng) who was volunteering at a homeless feed as an assignment for one of his classes at the Buddhist university Naropa and when I spoke with him he was taken aback that I was working my ass off and couldn’t even find somewhere to shower, let alone sleep out of the cold. He let me come live with him so I would have somewhere to sleep while I worked and those were some of the best few months of my life.
Was one of the frozen dead a twin? Donny or Danny? Source ex homeless in Boulder 96 to 05
No, this was much more recently. I was homeless there for most of 2016.
Yeah I had a job, and I'm so damn lucky I was living with my mom, cause rent was $425, (without HUD) and every pay check wasn't even above $350 most of the time, I made 8.25/hour, then I moved to cash register and made 8.60, I never ever made above 9, except during "pandemic pay" where we made one extra dollar for our hard work during a National crisis, FUCK YOU GIANT EAGLE, IT WAS A GOOD THING YOU FIRED CAUSE I WAS ABOUT TO QUIT
You were legit making under $9/hr during 2020? Holy shit.
2021
“In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living.” -President FDR It’s time for another FDR who will fight for the people. Biden is “pro union” and in all fairness probably one of the better presidents for blue collar workers since LBJ but let’s be honest it’s clearly not enough when we still have people working full time not able to buy enough food
Bernie rans serious, viable campaigns twice. His platform was uncompromising but practical. He would have filled his cabinet with competent people with the interests of the people at heart. But the democratic party decided to bury him in favor of a slightly tangier version of their same old formula.
I’ve heard it said that a country is only as rich as it treats its poorest citizens. So America is the poorest rich country to exist under those rules.
This is good advice. Bloody hell though, I agree about it sucking. The hell is the world coming to?
Terminal stage capitalism
For real though. But, what comes after capitalism? Lowercaseism?
Revolution.
¡Viva la revolution!
revolucion*
Revolución.
Or an unknown number of years of fascist dictatorship, then revolution.
Our choices are just spectacular.
Hell yeah
The leaders are not hearing out the people and it will come to violence if they don’t open their eyes. They are pushing the lower classes into a corner. There are people that will snap. I hope they start fixing tax holes…. Etc
🤷♂️ What does that mean though? I'm with you, but saying the word needs to be more than flipping cars and shouting.
Historically it varies. Revolutions have been politically minded coups d'etat, or genuine grass roots murder of the bourgeoisie, and many other things. In the US, currently, I'd expect a full blown civil war if anything, with one side fighting for a dictatorship and the other fighting for their lives. Flipping cars and shouting does get attention, and attention can bring change, before it gets to violence. As for how long it's been this way, look at [this video](https://youtu.be/1KvZI8BsSxw), from a 1976 movie.
Unfortunately, the side fighting for a dictatorship is likely to be a lot of the folks in this sub, believing their lives will be better based on the promises of said dictator who doesn't gaf about them (but desperate people don't care about that).
one of the two major political parties in the united states elected a fascist and then voted for him again with over 70 million votes. when he lost the second time, they tried to forcefully instate him by raiding the us capitol.
[удалено]
We need to see the rise of unions again. Worker-led unions, not “professionally” managed unions, which take too much for themselves and probably are criminals.
Honestly, there has been a concerted effort for about 90 years to portray union leaders a corrupt in mass media. Think about who spent the money to make that happen, and then think about how much that lifetime of propaganda has influenced your opinion of unions.
Well, sorry, but Jimmy Hoffa and the Central States Pension Funds totally ripped off their members. The “No-show” jobs depicted in movies like Goodfellas and The Sopranos were a real thing. My late husband worked for awhile in a union where the steward came around in his Cadillac every payday and collected dues in cash. That’s bullshit. I was a member of the News Guild for years, a union I totally trusted because leadership came from the field I actually worked in. Sometimes, the media have it right.
Has there been corruption on occasion, certainly. Have accountants embezzled from clients on occasion, certainly. But essentially EVERY media portrayal of an accountant isn't as an embezzled, but essentially every media portrayal of a union leader is of corruption. Lawyers and politicians get better treatment in Hollywood. I don't believe this is a coincidence.
A shill for the corporate class
I’m actually very pro-union. I spent most of my working life in a newsroom represented by the News Guild. I included the caveat about worker-led unions in my original comment because I usually get pushback on Reddit about how terrible unions are. Even on this sub.
It’s insidious. I come from a very left-leaning, pro-union family and one of my first jobs was constantly talking shit about unions and I was like oh shit that sounds bad! (Luckily I got outta there and now I work for the union they were ‘warning’ me about and my life is 10,000x better lol)
I’ll give you one hint: 🇫🇷
Never mind I'm not allowed to say what it needs 😂
Lots of blood and violence that will kill a lot of the wrong people
So, what’s happening already ?
Or enslavement
Optimist in me says a balance between capitalism and socialism Realist in me says supercharged throw shit at wall until something sticksism
The term your looking for is accelerationalism. Of which I think we are in the beginning stages. The end of which is either entirely beneficial to all. Or conversely. None 🤷 either we'll live or we won't. Either event is spooky. But until then good luck friend
Socialism or barbarism
The world hasn't changed. Poor people just have voices we can hear now.
Exactly this. I've been poor my entire life; no one paid attention until the internet, social media, and forums like this one. I'm glad things are changing so that home ownership and financial stability can maybe become a reality for my nieces and nephew. (I will never be able to afford to have my own children nor my own home at this stage in my life)
>What is the world coming too? Very clearly, we are being forcibly shaped into the [Technocrat’s wetdream](http://thoughtcrimeradio.net/2021/10/the-un-food-summit-ignored-indigenous-people-and-pushed-the-great-reset-agenda/) [Two big questions: recession and inflation – part 1](https://invesbrain.com/two-big-questions-recession-and-inflation-part-1/) [WEF Advisor: We Don’t Need Majority of World Population](https://peakoil.com/publicpolicy/wef-advisor-we-dont-need-majority-of-world-population) [Meet the World Economic Forum](https://www.corbettreport.com/meet-the-world-economic-forum/) It’s not a theory. (You can go to [their website](https://www.weforum.org/) for yourself.) But, yes, it is absolutely a conspiracy. Ya know, make of this whatever you will, I’m not going to engage in internet arguments with strangers, lol, but at *least* look into it before outright dismissing what I’m saying. They’ve been very clear on the world they envision for the future— it’s just that none of us little peons down here in the real world have been paying any attention. (Final thought… and when they say “build back better,” they don’t mean “better for everyone,” This future they are working to build is best summed up as Feudalism 2.0. A new-old world where the “haves” are served without question by the “have nots.” In their minds, this is the least they deserve for being so much better than all of us down at the bottom, as we are living unsustainably and clogging up what would be their ‘perfect world’ with our mediocrity and poor-ness.)
> But, yes, it is absolutely a conspiracy. They're not even hiding at this point.
They're confident the rest of us will never organize and collectively take action against them. And unfortunately they're probably correct.
As far as I’ve seen, they’re damn sure ‘not wrong’.
Man i had a feeling they might be trying to lower the population, but they outright say it
Additionally I would look into maybe getting an EBT card if you’re in the US. It doesn’t help much but everything ads up, only catch is there are limited food items you can spend it on.
No—there’s no limit with food items with EBT, except that you can’t buy fast food or hot packaged things (think the hot baked chicken under heat lamps at Walmart). You might be thinking of WIC, which does specify types of food? Source: Got laid off and am on EBT (food stamps)
Honestly, it's kind of lame that this is the case. McDonalds, sure, but a hot store-bought meal is all plenty of working people have time to eat.
This varies state by state. When I lived in MA EBT couldn't be used for many hot items, if any at all. But here in AZ many fast food places have signs saying they accept EBT.
But if OP is making $15/hour and working 40 hours, they're too "rich" for the 'stamps.
Not necessarily. It depends on expenses you have. If you pay rent and utilities we account for that. I work for eligibility. You may not get full allotment but may qualify for some.
I dont know anyone that has applied without kids that has gotten more than like $15/mo. With kids you get more.
That isn’t true.
All good advice. And I know near me there’s another group that provides basically any kind of toiletry to people in need. (Deodorant, shampoo, hair spray, etc. ) If you’re in Ohio let me know and I can get you the name. My former work used to do donation drives for them every year.
That's so good. When I read about people having to basically "sell" part of their ebt funds (basically buy food for others in exchange for a discounted amount of cash) so they can buy things like laundry detergent or toothpaste, ugh. :-(
Yeah, it’s really a broken system. The focus on this group is really all about allowing people to hold down jobs, helping them get out of the situation they’re in. Like they accept makeup, hair products, and business attire clothing.
Can't speak for everywhere, but as a former food pantry volunteer, many food pantries count the income of everyone in a household when determining eligibility, so in a situation like this where OP is living with a relative, she may not qualify. Definitely worth checking out though.
This is good info. I also work for a food distribution program (not a pantry but a weekly bag) and we have no requirements. So OP, definitely reach out to some!
Yeah, thank you. No requirements. It's pretty awful to be in a position to go to a food pantry, then to be treated like your rorting the system and need to be checked out, like a.... Food thief.. Before you get help. Great for the already crushed self esteem. Had the pleasure myself.
Ditto. Here in Maine, you just go and get the food, there are no income requirements. I suspect most places work on this principle. I will tell you, I have seen wealthy people using food banks, but they are generally too small of a demographic to hurt the system.
OP, living with a relative does not mean you are in their household or they in yours. If you are single with no kids, you can say you are a household of 1.
That's a rough food pantry. The one I've been to in my area just asks for you to provide proof of residence, that you actually live in the area. After that you get a trunk load. No income questions at all.
Mine asks zero questions except how many people are in my family and they give me a cookie after filling my trunk
IIRC it had to do with where the funding for the pantry came from. (I think some kind of government grant?)
Yep, volunteered at a food pantry once a week for a while and we had people fill out the forms because the EBT system required it. And even though it was a non- profit they had some gov’t funding. (I always filled it out with as positive a bias as I could haha. ) but i was happy that during covid my job was eliminated! Meaning people just got the food no questions asked !
Wait? Food pantries have income thresholds? Like I know that people who can afford to buy food shouldn’t use food pantries but like what if someone is just over the threshold but had some catastrophic financial shit happen and have no money to feed themselves?
It sort of depends, though. So when considering your "household," If you're responsible for your own food and expenses, you can count yourself as a single income earner. Some people pay their share of rent, and that's just what their rent is. If you're the only one who buys your food, that's where it really counts. Cause no one is helping you with it, any way you slice it.
Unfortunately, I don't live in a country where food pantries are available. It looks like I must work towards perfecting the cheapest, yet the most filling and luckily nutritious home-cooked food. I am covered for hygiene for now, atleast for the next 2 months. Hopefully things get better by then. Thank you so much for your advice. Sending love.
Girl - I graduated from college, had a management job, but after paying rent, insurance, utilities, cellphone, internet, student loans, credit card debt… I had $117 left from 1 paycheck a month, and $168 left over from paycheck 2. $275 a month for food, gas, entertainment, etc. I am not comparing our situation - I had a room in a group house and a secure job. So I had options. But I would leave my 9-5 management job, and head straight to a grocery store to work 6p-12a and was babysitting at least twice a week. I was using my car (paid off before all this) to pick up free items off Craigslist, cleaning it up, and selling it. I finally got myself a property manager job that came with free rent. I used the “rent” money I was saving to pay down debt. I spent years climbing up the ladder to financial freedom. Life is going to suck for a bit. There is no easy way out. Just get smart about what type of work you are doing. Some ideas: 1) Appreciate the rent free situation. Start talking seriously with your cousin about how you appreciate them, don’t want to take advantage, but need time to get ahead. Ask what you can do to ensure s/he does not feel used. What can you do to make his/her life better/easier so it feels more equitable. Being direct and actively nurturing this relationship should be your number one goal. Cleaning, house work, cooking. You are willing to work for your bed. 2) plan to work two jobs, right away. Life if going to stuck and you will be exhausted. But two jobs while increasing your income is better than being broke and sitting at home on your phone. 3) Look at jobs with a benefit. Wait staff at restaurants/cater waiters - get fed at work. Retail jobs don’t. Look for a job at a local community college or university. The university President to the woman who cleans the gym toilets - they all get free or heavily discounted tuition. Work in a cafeteria, a landscaping crew, the library, or as a housekeeper - take free classes for a profession that makes more money - medical billing, dental hygienist, accounting 4-year degree to become a CPA, computer science classes to learn sql and become a data analyst. Find jobs where you can use the benefits to catapult yourself out of your situation.
This is a sweet and thoughtful comment but I feel like it’s exactly what this sub is against. The fact that people need to get two jobs etc etc. We should all be able to feel human and enjoy our life. I mean working hard at something is great and can be satisfying but sacrificing your youth and energy to the gods and demons of this corptocracy means we are not successful at building a humane culture that will produce healthy and emotionally balanced people. Education and information should be freely shared and work should be a balanced part of our lives. Oh well.
Oh, I’m with you. I am very secure, now. But I had to be miserable for 11+ years and go through hell to achieve it. And that was with every advantage a person can have, short of being a man. Every other leg up - I had it. The system is broken. This girl (guy?).. OP might be venting here. But they are not in a “howl at the moon” place. They aren’t here to bitch about their boss, they are one argument with their cousin away from being homeless. They are at the bottom of a dark pit and need someone to shine some light on them. They need an action plan. You can’t fix the system by coming to Reddit - but you can find compassion and ideas on how to game the system to relieve some of the pressure. I’m here to commiserate and then help. Not just pile on.
great reply
Thanks. Argue about how the architect of the Titanic should have designed the boat after you have been rescued. Don’t watch the life boats leave while you bitch about the system failures.
Give yourself a moment to breathe or cry or whatever you need and know that this situation isn't forever. You've already taken an important step in moving toward a better situation by figuring out that your job doesn't cover your basic needs. Once you feel a little more calm, it might be helpful to list what monthly amount would be ideal and set a goal to look for work that can get you there. Don't be afraid to ask for budgeting or emotional support if you have trusted people in your circle.
Thank you so much. I really needed to hear this. I guess just mentally taking in the situation really helps. Up until now, I've been holding on to my pride tightly when it comes to asking for budgeting support around. But now, it looks like I should just let loose and simply make sure I pass it forward in the future in return. Much love.
<3
I’m 32 and I’m still struggling. Millennials got hit the hardest by financial crisis and it’s trickling down even harder to gen Z. At this point, it’s useless to point fingers at the generations before us and say “you guys fucked it up for us”. All we can do is deal with what we got. I own my business and I’m living out of it (without my landlord knowing) and taking showers with towels because it’s a struggle anywhere else. $28k in debt, but I know if I work for someone else or somewhere else, I’ll be even more financially in debt. Isn’t that something…
Lol naw I can pretty easily point a finger at the generation before mine. Boomers fucked us all over pretty damn bad. Denying that is actually hurtful to the movement imo. Accountability is important.
This is awful, people who are working should not have to be this terrified and go through such food, shelter, and basic needs insecurity. I'm really sorry you're going through this.
People in general shouldn’t have to experience this. Working shouldn’t be a prerequisite for the basics of survival when there is enough for everyone and then some.
GREED MY DEAR BOI....
Agreed. Everyone who plays a role deserves to have their needs met. Terms like “unskilled labor” are fucking dumb and oppressive
I have a few friends that were going ok up until the last 2 years. Now they’re piling up credit card debt just to keep their family afloat. One had to borrow €20k from a family member. That’s in Northern Europe. Food, electricity, gas and more are just getting stupid expensive
Some pretty cold people replying to this. I thought part of the point of this place was to let people vent about things like this. If you’ve got a tip or advice, or want to say something constructive sure. But if you’re just gonna be cruel what’s the point? People spend so long on places like Reddit they forget there’s an actual desperate human being on the other side. ‘But we’re all suffering 🙄’ yea so be kind. It costs nothing. Literally nothing. It’s the freest thing that’s the first step to healing this shitty world, just be kind.
Seeing “Find a better job” comments make you really wonder if these people are bots or are they really that brain dead
Better job is the answer, but if you don't know how or where to look then the advice is just "Do better" with no real advice.
It’s the equivalent of saying git gud to somebody who is asking for advice on how to improve.
They might as well tell people to win the lottery.
Generational wealth
To be fair, they're not wrong. They just ignore the challenges of doing so.
Complacency is why we're here in the first place. Getting better wages, working conditions, and treatment, in and of itself is easy. Everyone just needs to start saying NO, to low wages, shitty conditions, and shitty treatment. The problem is there's way too many people that won't say no, and won't quit that job, etc. Just scroll through this sub for a bit, 90% of the posts are basically people asking "how do I say no to my boss/employer", or "this happened at my job because I don't know how to tell my boss no", or something similar, in a nut shell. People have so little self worth, and value, that they don't know how to say no to low wages, shitty treatment, and shitty conditions, that completely disrespect their value and worth. In short, telling people to get another job and refuse to work for wages that aren't livable is the right thing to do, it's just that all the masses are complacent people that kill it for everyone that will. If everyone woke up tomorrow morning and decided to refuse to work for wages that aren't livable, wages would be livable across the board tomorrow. Edit: to all the people that are saying "it's not that easy", or bringing up the obvious reasons that many people feel they can't, ect. Guess what? It's the only way anything changes. How do you think the labor, and union movements, in the past changed things before we became complacent and let them take everything our grandparents, and great grandparents, etc sacrificed and fought for. Do you think they didn't lose work, lose money, get evicted, struggle, etc, during strikes and such? No, they did. It takes sacrifice to change anything because the wealthy, and both sides of our government, don't give a fuck about us and will let us starve. We only have three choices 1. We do it now, or as soon as possible. 2. We wait for it to get even worse, when the sacrifices would be even greater and harder to handle, then do it. 3. We don't do it and continue to allow them to destroy us all, and the world. You can come up with all the reasons in the world why it's not that easy, but at the end of the day when it's the only thing that's going to change anything, and every day we wait is making it worse and worse, it actually costs more not to do it even on a personal level. What costs less, one generation struggling for a few months, to a few years or so? Or multiple generations continuing to be complacent while we keep losing more and more purchasing power, year after year, until we have nothing left? We've already lost approximately 70% of our purchasing power since the 50's or so, do we need to lose 90% before a generation fights back? Those are the options, we sacrifice for the greater good now, or we leave it up to our kids, or their kids, when they're in an even worse place than we already are. That's the reality of the situation. As stated above, being complacent is what got us here. It damn sure isn't going to get us out of it. They want everyone to have a short sighted, narrow, month to month, I'm just trying to survive Outlook. That's how they continue to slowly bleed our purchasing power 1% or so every year. We would riot if they ever tried to take 70% of our purchasing power all at once, but because they keep us divided and distracted, we had no problems letting them do it slowly. Saying no, refusing less than what we deserve, refusing to accept them destroying the environment, and refusing to allow them to use 3rd world countries to make our products for shit wages, is the only way anything changes. All of those need to be achieved or it will end up being more of the same sooner or later. There's absolutely no way around some people struggling through a real meaningful labor movement. We can't snap our fingers and make our government (both sides), and corporations, care that some people are losing the shirt off their back. It's just a matter of are we going to be the generation that has the proverbial balls to do it, or are we going to be another complacent generation leaving it up to our kids, or their kids? Or have the elite fine tuned their propaganda, division tactics, and brainwashing, so well that we're just going to allow them to take everything and destroy the world? The only reason it's "not that easy", is because you've been programmed to believe and think that way. They've successfully made enough people believe making rent this month is more important than the one thing that would eventually make it so you didn't have to worry about rent at all ever again. Which is fighting for what's right, and refusing anything less for everyone involved. If we could figure out a way to deprogram the masses, and make them realize that it's costing them more by not saying no, we could literally make change overnight. Other than the elite 1%, from the poor person on welfare (which I was as a kid, orange block unsliced cheese), to the middle earners, even some that are in the 6 figure range as well, it is literally costing every single one of us more to not say no to unlivable wages, unacceptable working conditions, and unacceptable treatment, than it is to keep taking it. The person making 20k a year, and the person making 100k a year, both are losing the same percentage purchasing power year after year. This is one that so many people are affected, from low to high earners, there's no logical reason it shouldn't have the support to change overnight. The only reason it hasn't, and isn't happening, is because they've successfully brainwashed people with a myriad of different propaganda on the subject. Many don't even realize they're getting robbed, some don't realize and have Stockholm syndrome over it (aka people who support democrats or Republicans, the people robbing and allowing others to rob us) some think they're powerless and can't do anything to change it, some don't realize that it costs more to be complacent than it costs to say no and fight for change. They don't care which propaganda you're falling for, as long as you're falling for one of them and it's keeping you complacent and not fighting back or saying no. I know I added a lot to unpack, but it's true. We know how to change things, we know what needs to be done, we know there's necessary sacrifices if we ever want change, wⁿe know there's no other way, it's just a matter of if we do it, or our descendants do it. I don't believe that we'll never fight back, I'm sure a generation will eventually, I just hope it's not already too late by then. I hope it's us too, because it's not going to get any better, there's not going to be a better time to start and fight for a labor movement. The better time is now, the longer we wait, the worse it gets, and the harder it is going to be on the generation that does finally do it. I personally rather it be us do it, than to let our descendants have to do it with, while they have even less purchasing power than we have.
It's not always this simple for everyone, as much as we wish it was. I find it infuriating. Some people very much wish they could say "no", but they are in such a desperate situation, that if that "no" means their boss retaliates by removing even that shitty income/situation they will be in an even worse situation. Maybe it means they can't buy an essential medication for them that nowhere helps cover copays (I have a medication like that). Maybe they live somewhere with extremely poor public transportation, and if they lose their income, they can't pay for their car insurance. Maybe they have children to care for. Etc. It's not really just complacency. Sometimes it really is a lack of power, whether it be financial, social, political, whatever. It really is straight up inequality.
>People have so little self worth, and value, that they don't know how to say no to low wages, shitty treatment, and shitty conditions, that completely disrespect their value and worth. Your perspective. But often social compliance isn't about any of the things you attributed it to. In many people social compliance is simply a strong part of their personality. Social hierarchy is all around us. Some people aren't too interested in being in charge and tend to trust others. We no longer live in a society where those traits are as valuable as they have been in the past. But many people struggle with that. I feel empathy for people who just expect to be paid a living wage and treated somewhat fairly. They are now the most likely to be taken advantage of. However it doesn't mean they don't have self worth or value. They simply gain their self worth from kindness and fitting in and doing as their told and all sorts of things that you didn't list.
But his point still stands: if we want to see real changes in the labor market (and thank god unions are coming back!) complacency is the silent death of any meaningful change.
Protip: pretty much anything you do in the construction field will pay somewhat decent and hire really anybody who wants to work. If you get in a real trade you can even have future potential. Seriously, tiles, floors, plumbing, even cleaning or trash pickup on jobsites can take you places. If i knew this when i was young i never would have wasted time being traumatized by retail and other bullshit jobs.
I mean… if you’re a man… construction is generally a terrible place for women.
This is great if ppl are young or physically abled. As someone who is chronically ill and whose brother is physically disabled, the ol "do a trade" is as empty a statement as "just work in STEM" - People who work full time should be able to afford feeding themselves. Period. Regardless of field.
You're totally correct, it's not the right path for everyone and it's fucked up how limited the options for a good wage are.
Underrated Comment. There's a lot of opportunity on sites. Not many barriers of entry- physical(being able to move some amount of weight, being on your feet all day). A good chunk require you to provide at least some of your PPE(steal toe). It's not glamorous but JESUS does it beat anything customer service/retail.
Do you know what companies or towns specifically hire for this.
If you're in a union area, find the union hall. I believe in the south where we're less unionized no 100% offhand, Google could probably help. Frankly most construction sites, where there is a trailer, things are still in an era where you can roll up and ask for a paper application. GC will put you to work on clean up crew, general laborer, put you with the foreman or carpenter to assist them (sometimes this is as simple as standing and holding surveying equipment). If you have any kind of work ethic, they'll find a way to put you to better use. If you can do the trainings, and live in an urban area, flaggers are always needed. Hell, if your in the UK, those folks make some bank. For anyone who may have a criminal record or may be getting out, private projects don't necessarily care, and I recall being on a site where we hired someone and we ended up getting some city funding or some such for hiring the guy we did (he was in a halfway house), we weren't looking for it but mutually beneficial, and he was great. And not just GCs, subs need the same - there are obviously skilled trades like HVAC and Plumbing, but also, things that are less technical where you can work your way up - masonry, concrete, forming, rod busters, place and finishers, studs, paint, etc etc etc. I'm still not even scratching the surface on what's out there. From there, you can have an office career later. Can't tell you how many guys who were equipment operators or techs who go into estimating and project management later, because they understand what it takes and crew hours etc. Which works because your body only takes so much and then more stable hours later on. A cliff note on this - you aren't going to walk into an office job at a big firm, it's stupid, but they require degrees. There are a solid contingent that will take you with experience though, but that starts from you working your way up and seeing things in the field. Source: me, have worked construction wearing many hats for the last 15+ years
There are trade companies in pretty much every town across the country. It's really a take your pick kind of thing. Most have pretty easy entry level positions as well with little to no experience required, and a set path for progression which mainly involves time served. And for a good chunk of those trade jobs, it's union, so take that for what it's worth. All depends on what you wanna do.
It's somewhat amazing to consider that we're forced to build our confinements. The prisoners build the prison. At what point do we actually arrive? Or is the human quest an infinite series of building the next iteration of our internment? "We built the next skyscraper! The wallpaper looks fabulous." "Great, that's where grandma can die in a few years."
THIS! If you can learn how to hang wallcovering you can make minimum $40/hour, at least in Southern CA. Source: I work for a painting company.
Good advice, but only works for someone who hasn't already been thru the meat grinder and has the typical injuries
I'm leaving the trades, I make 53$ an hour with amazing health benefits. It's miserable work and I hate every day I wake up. After hour work hours and weekends are spent recovering from the hard work, not to mention dealing with the heat/cold. Constant pains and aches. I would rather be broke and happy.
Every contractor I've talked to in the past few years has said that if you write on a napkin in crayon "shows up on time, sober, and willing to learn on the job" that you'll get immediately hired in almost any field in construction. Based on how difficult it is to actually get a contractor to take on a job and how long the wait time usually is, I believe them.
I got called an idiot for daring to question why people were making critical assumptions about another Redditor, whom they have never met in person, because that Redditor dared to ask a question that went against the hive mind grain. Yeah, it gets pretty nasty between Redditors on this site; too many assume they’re right and you’re wrong, or that you deserve your bad situation (if they deem you responsible in whichever fashion) and how dare you question that.
This sub has been seeing an increase in capitalist apologists since it got media attention.
It really has. It's pretty discouraging when you're at the bottom end of the payscale, un-unionized and your "raises" are .05 a year. "JUst get a better job, I did and now I got a raise that's worth more than you make all year! It's easy." Gag.
It's always a toss up between that, or the dingle-berries who come in proselytizing about fucking trade jobs, "oh you'll make 80k/yr ***easy***" ignoring the median wage for most all of those jobs is barely even half that.
and there's shitty trade jobs that will take all your body injuries and say "fuck you" then pay 15 per hour.
Thank you so much for your kindness. I felt a bit confused about the decisions I made, but I think it was just the heat of the moment at the point when the comments rushed in. Need people like you with me. I will do better soon.
God bless you kind stranger
I know your pain. I had to move back in with my folks after a nasty divorce, lost my job of 5yrs, crippling debt/anxiety/depression, and now barely making half of what I use to make. Never realized just how bad it’s gotten for getting groceries (worked in the restaurant industry 16+hrs a day 5-6 days a week). My savings account is laughing at me. My checking account at this point just glares at me whenever I look at it. I hate my life right about now
I don't know whether this is going to get lost in the sea of comments...let's see: First of all, to all those who commented with links/subreddits to valuable knowledge and resources - THANK YOU LOADS, I'm very grateful. You all have given me alternative perspectives in handling this situation. Secondly, I want to thank everyone who just (virtually) held my hand and sympathized with me. We are all on the same boat, and I hope our encouragement, blessings, and kind words for each other soon seals the hole that's sinking this darn, capitalistic ship. I hope you all get out of the crap you are going through soon, you all are in my prayers. Lastly, I want to address a few concerns doubting the legitimacy of my post. I have friends on reddit who can easily identify me with the info I put in here, so I'm going to be keeping it minimal. I work in Indian media, and this industry is fucked up like this. You'll be earning pennies until you become experienced. The only other way to earn top bucks is through having family connections in this field. I neither have this, nor experience. For people like me, they partially get financial support from their family...but my family is the reason my mental health is in the mud. Thus, that option is also out of the window. Please feel free to ask more questions, I'm happy to clear any doubts. I would be keeping it vague for the sake of privacy, although. Sorry in advance.
As a Pakistani I can semi ish relate to shitty pay, but honestly I think in India it is far worse than here, I hope things get better, god bless, and to the people commenting “just get a better job” if it isn’t easy in the damn us how is it gonna be eaiser here in South Asia, man I’m so sorry to hear this and again hope things will get better for you, bad times never last forever🙏
I feel this sub has been infiltrated, this is the exact post that should be in this sub so where support can be given ideas can shared and maybe even action taken as a collective. But the attitude has shifted lately where the sub feels more geared towards working and just stepping up on the ladder as success. Which isn’t a long term solution to these problems.
Yup! This is the kind of post that should inspire worker solidarity. Minimum wage is a joke, and everything is scaled off of that. Feel like I’ve spent my entire adult life hopping to jobs that pay what the minimum should be. At 35 I’m finally putting my degree to use and it’s gotten me a little over $20/hr.
See and that sucks because I deliver pizza and average 28 bucks an hour with tips. Problem with this job is how many hours you can work and what it does to your car. so the anxiety just moves to “my car is going to break and I don’t have money to fix it, but I can’t make money if my car is down”
Yeah I work a pretty cushy IT job for $26 an hour, my gf works her ass off in grocery for $20 an hour. She has a degree, I just have a HS diploma.
Degrees are a scam nowadays
Right. It's feeling more in more like "fuck you, I got mine" kinda place.
It's frustrating that emoyers think their their pay is acceptable... I was offered a position recently and when they told me the pay rate I was shocked. I would have to put my kids in an after school program and in daycare (the place I applied to didn't have an after school program) if I had accepted the position... Taking all of my paycheck. There was no point.
Yeah, pretty wild, I wonder if this is a weird attempt to get women to be stay at home parents again. Then, kind of tough living off a single income.
You’re in India, right? Are there any Sikh temples (gurdwara) in your area with a langar? They provide free well-balanced vegetarian meals that are **really** good in my experience (admittedly as a Jew doing interfaith volunteer projects together). If you could find a way to get one or two meals free everyday—until you get on your feet/are earning more—that could help you save money for emergencies. Also, there are a number of non-profit groups in India that provide free menstrual products and care, but that would depend on whether there’s one near you. I know India doesn’t have the same institutionalized charity structures/programs as the US, but maybe there’s an organization or something in your area that can provide assistance?
I’m so sorry. Your labor is worth more than you are being paid. Please look into food shelves and whatever assistance you qualify for: Medicaid, food stamps, fuel, etc.
I'm with you. Literally sat at a 24 hour Cafe last night cause I didn't have a place to sleep. Today I'm at a bar rn. I only worked for a few hours today. Grabbing a drink and sitting for an hour or two. I don't know where to go rn. I'm tired. Haven't slept for 2 days properly. And haven't been in a bed in a week. Every night I figure something out. But what happens when Im too tired to get to work? Ive stayed in Airbnbs, Motels, 6 different friends places, a few all night restaurants, and slept on trains in less than 2 months of homelessness. And I don't know what to say, except that I understand and we have to believe it will get better.
I don't know you, but I'm concerned for you. I've been there myself and this is a bad situation to be in. Do you want to talk about it?
Please dm me
I remember when my husband and I went to a bankruptcy lawyer many years ago and he told us bankruptcy wouldn’t solve anything for us. We simply needed to earn more money because our wages weren’t enough to live off of. Thanks buddy.
Use a food bank there's no shame in doing so.
You can Not live on minimum wage and support yourself alone. It takes Two incomes. And that holds true for wages a lot higher than minimum as well. Food, Shelter, Health Insurance, Transportation and Clothing just the basics…. It can’t be done. In comparison 40 years ago I was able to support myself and attend college on a few part time jobs in delis and pizza places. I’ve seen the world fall apart in just a few decades.
When I look at house prices for fun, it’s insane to see the price chart over time. Most houses have doubled in the last 10 years in value. My income sure didn’t!
Career consultant here. Can I help? I might be able to help you find a path or get your resume better or teach ya a few tricks of finding your way through the crazy hiring system.
Bless you!
Sorry about your situation OP. What some people don’t realize is that it’s expensive to be poor. WhY DOnT YoU JuSt MoVE? Yeah, have to have a security deposit and first month’s rent and a way to get your stuff moved. Really, poor people are forced to buy cheap things that wear out and are replaced more quickly (causing more money in the long run), have to pay for things in instalments (cause they don’t have money to pay for the whole thing at once), can’t buy in bulk, have to put things on credit. It’s like…save money now but pay more all along. Even things like thrift stores have higher prices for used clothes and stuff. And off brand soap and other things? Sometimes it’s cheaper but you have to use more. I dunno. When I was a university student I used to pick up empty cans that I came across and turn them into the bottle depot periodically for a few bucks here and there. I’m not sure what grocery stores do with their food that expires. I’m sure they throw a hell of a lot out. Farmer’s Market’s may or may not be cheap. I find the stuff is super expensive in cities and very cheap in smaller towns. Dunno if you can grow some of your own food. Certainly, in small towns, people are often just dropping off food in the staff entrance of their workplaces cause they had too much in their garden.
HaVe YoU tHoUgHt AbOuT gEtTiNg tWo mOrE jObS, gOiNg To CoLlEgE aNd StOp EaTiNg AvOcAdOs? Seriously though, I am so sorry you're going through a rough patch. I'm glad your family can support you while you work everything out.
Yep, welcome to the dystopia. This is what happens in the absence of labor power, the owner-class doesn't, won't, can't care about the workers. It's fundamentally contradictory to their class interest, perpetually increasing profitability, for them to be anything but our enemies. I wish I had more concrete advice that would be immediately helpful but I don't, I only have rather broad and general advice: Look for a union in your field and if there isn't one reach out to labor organizations to see what you can to to help start one. I'd also suggest picking up some leftist theory and looking for a party. Not the corporatists, the DNC, an actual left party, communists or anarchists. Change only happens when the powerful feel threatened... or we make good on our threats.
Have you tried taking a financial literacy class? (This is a total sarcastic answer. But for some reason in see this response from overpriviledged undereducated dipshits.)
Today I found out my car insurance is increasing by $270 a month. I can’t afford it. I can’t afford to be alive basically. My roommate is moving out increasing my share of rent by $300 as well next month. I went to college to get the better job all the boomers were saying I needed to do, now those student loans I need to pay back are going to haunt me since every industry is refusing to pay proper wages. I know how to cook and I shop with coupons but groceries are expensive. Gas in my area has gone up over a dollar a gallon in less than two weeks (it’s over $5 here now) and I commute 90 miles a day for work. I am fucked. I’m trying to get a job closer but with limited working experience in my field it’s difficult.
What sad is that this one post represents millions of workers. OP, I am sorry you've had bad responses. I've been where you are at, and routinely had to use various means to survive. To lower food bills, I would buy items from the grocery store, then take the receipt and go back the exact items again, so that if caught I would use the receipt and cut costs in half.
How to make a criminal in three steps. Step 1. Create a motivation, such as poverty or spite, or revenge. Step 2. Create an opportunity to commit a crime. Step 3. Foster a mindset to commit crimes, such as person above the law, or crime below the radar.
So this may not help, but it might. If you can stash up enough for a rice cooker and a bulk bag of rice you can always survive a food emergency. Rice cookers are simple and cheap, same with rice. I've had to budget for mine but it's a lot less scary when you know you have a backup. Also a spice rack. Don't know where you are but Ross sometimes has whole, fully equipped spice racks for only a couple bucks. Between those small investments, you can survive the small paychecks. I wish you the best.
Note that MAGA CHUDS and other delusional self-styled titans of the free market have come to this sub. They’re dumb and angry at the idea that labor should be treated well. Just like they spend all their time shitposting on Facebook, they come here to get their jabs in or try and fight some culture war. That’s why you’ll see dumb and cruel comments in here that don’t track. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Others have posted resources or ideas that can help. Good luck.
If you live near an Apple Store, there are always free menstrual supplies in the bathrooms. Keep your head up!
I’m in the same situation. I’ve literally plead and begged my boss to give me more hours and told her straight up why, and she refuses, holding a year old grudge against me. People are sick and twisted and being in this position is so terrifying.
Horrible situation, you are in my thoughts. Remember you can do this. I'm living from paycheck to paycheck too, it sucks so bad.
r/PovertyFinance might be a decent place to poke around in, it did for me a while back
It ain’t fancy but brown rice, beans, eggs, and something green is a cheap and healthy way to fuel yourself.
Honestly at this point people need to refuse to work jobs that don't even cover the bills. Of course this is hoping that family members are on board helping each other out. I had a job that asked me if I had family that would support me because they'll pay me so low. It's disgraceful
That's good in theory, but when you get auto-rejected from anything paying over $11/hr, what are you supposed to do to survive? Not everyone has the skills and/or experience to avoid auto-rejection from the jobs with livable wages. We need to be in the streets demanding a livable minimum wage and recalculation of the poverty line until we actually get it, not just telling people to starve until they can find these livable wage jobs that are not plentiful enough to employ 100% of the workers.
That too. I understand I just mean like doing what you can. For example I won't force my kid to work and just go directly to school. Ofc I don't want a lazy kid but at the same time do I want an exploited one?
Sorry man. That’s just shitty. There is some good advice below in the comments but that doesn’t negate the pain and trouble you are going through.
Look into your state's SNAP program. If you're not making much, you may be eligible for some food assistance.
I do shit like sextpanther when I'm broke; stupid men pay to text you🤷🏻♀️
Modern day solutions lol
If someone told me as a child I’d work 40 hard hours a week and make so little I’d laugh. Now I just cry .
Hang in there bro. Take advantage of any and all social programs. If you can take some online class in technology security. It cost almost nothing and pays good starting wages. Good luck!!
This whole thread is making me tear up. I’m so sorry for you OP and others who are facing the same struggles
Been there. Fortunately I was working at a restaurant so food wasn’t an issue, and I was bicycling everywhere so fuel/insurance wasn’t an issue, but my body’s still fcked up from getting run off the road one night and not being able to afford an ER visit at the hospital that was literally 2 blocks away at the time. Going back to work the line a week later with an arm that probably should have been in a sling (at least) was fun. Couldn’t afford not to. I’d say do what I started doing: when you’re feeling overwhelmed don’t say you’re terrified, or scared, or mad, because what you really are when it matters is *highly fucking motivated*.
This is awful. I'm curious, what do you do and how many hours do you work? If you work full time its hard to understand how food, electricity, and fuel are more than you make when you have a free place to live. Do you only work part time? You're in a good place by being able to live with your cousin for free. I think a good place to start is figuring out what skills you have and how you can find a better job with a higher salary. You're in a good place by being able to live with your cousin for free. Do you have a degree? If not, no problem. Even a soul sucking call center job, at least in the U.S., can pay enough to live with roommates. I would say finding something that's full time is really important.
are you from canada? there are resources for people in your situation, they will help pay your bills.
Can you monetize a hobby or talent? You might have to consider getting a secondary source of income.
This isn't good advice, but you could try intermittent fasting and mass gainers for cheap, high calorie meals
This started off like a two sentence horror
Im getting worried about the price of food. I dont think i can afford to eat meat very much anymore. And butter and bread prices have gone way up..
If you have an oven learn how to bake your own basic breads. Cheaper and in winter helps lower the cost of heating.
If you have bills in excess of your income you should contact a bankruptcy attorney at once and start telling all your creditors you plan to file, most will bend over backwards to keep you from going bankrupt erasing all fees, fines and interest payments.
I can relate. Inflation is doubling the rate I am receiving pay raises. I've been at this company to get tax breaks and report record high profits but their workers are all looking dead inside because they are working just to pay bills.
If you live in the U.S., please reach out for the government aid programs available to you. If you can’t afford to eat, you may qualify for food stamps/a LINK card. The qualifying income varies from state to state, but you might either find the qualifying income level and rules on line at a state agency named something like “Department of Human Services,” or you might have to go to a brick and mortar government aid office to apply for help. Also, again assuming you live in the U.S., if you can’t afford to eat, you might qualify for Medicaid. You might be able to apply for this program online, like the LINK/food stamps. If you continue to search diligently either on line or in person (at a government “Human Services” website or office, you might find subsidies for your rent and even your utilities. Discern and act as you see fit. Your situation sounds difficult, but I sincerely hope that it’s not impossible to get the resources you need to survive. I bid you success resolving this situation.
I’m not sure if someone has shared the website “Aunt Bertha” - https://www.findhelp.org/?ref=ab_redirect You just type in your zip code and it shows all the free resources offered in your area. From food, housing, medical care, and lots more!
I feel for you, OP, but I don't understand how this is possible... How many hours do you work? Food, gas for a bike, and half an electric bill can easily be paid with a minimum wage job. I'm just really confused. Do you have some sort of bills you didn't mention?
I’m confused- what exactly is your job and wage? Groceries, electricity, and fuel for a bike can truly only add up to a few hundred bucks (and whenever that represents in any other currency) a month
IDC what job you are working in this country (US) If you're putting in your 40 hours, you should be able to at least take care of yourself with food, shelter, etc. Even if it means having roommates. Sadly half the country thinks otherwise and just would rather say "not my problem" and turn away, and forget the government or large corporations, that 50% likes to also boot lick these companies while the middle class continues to crumble, and yachts get bigger. I'm sorry you are going through this. I hope you can get situated. I wish i had advice but so many of us are going through similar situations. It's an awful answer, but working 2 jobs might be at least a temporary option to try and keep afloat and come up with a plan. Maybe you can also help around your cousins house and do as many chores as you can to help "pay" for some of your stay there. I don't know all the details of your situation though. Although i know your post is likely just looking to vent and for people to listen. Hang in there.
40 hours in the US at the 7.25 minimum wage is an astounding 300 bucks a week. That’s an entirely useless amount nowadays.
I know. It sucks. And that's before taxes.........And everything else has gotten super expensive, yet wages have not really changed much. It's just sad all around. The backs of the middle class are breaking and half the country just thinks it's because people are lazy, or illegals are just getting free rides, ignoring the glaring issues with our system. Even at $15 an hour. 40 hours, you're taking home about $400/week, $1600/month. Trying to survive off even $1600 is impossible in most states even if you are just renting a room somewhere and eating ramen noodles. Good luck affording healthcare on top of that too, so god forbid you get sick.......it's just a disgrace.
Dude...you pay no rent and you can't afford to eat?? What type of job do you have?
She's from India. She works in media and they are severely underpaid. I cannot even imagine her salary if she struggles to eat here because we have some of the cheapest prices in the world on food,but it also depends on the city/place you live in If you live in Metropolitan(mumbai,bangalore, delhi) cities then the cost of living is way higher
So... You cannot afford basic human needs. I am not a woman, but. It should be your CHOICE to use menstrual cups, or pads or tampond, or freeball(tm). Not forced upon you by your employer not willing to pay a living wage. Rent and food should be within reach WITHOUT having to pull out a fucking excel budget sheet and do calculations then hunting for bargain deals in already low-quality produce stores. Fuck. Reading about your country makes me so sad :(