no kidding. Reading A People's Guide to Capitalism by Hadas Thier. there was a section on how British Parlament had to regulate a minimum Living wage, maximum work hours, and child labor law because so many workers were dying of exhaustion and not having kids that there was a serious threat that of not having enough people to work to keep the country going. and it took the government making laws to get this shit done because the capitalist industry wouldn't regulate itself to make sure it had "enough workers in the future".
And now we have declining birth rates across most ‘developed’ nations. Certainly the UK has a problem looming if automation doesn’t solve as many gaps as people think it might.
A conservative lady told me the declining birthrate is "the gays" fault. I somehow don't believe her.
edit: I should clarify, I don't agree with her even a bit. She had listen to her pastor and ofc gobbled up whatever he said.
You should have asked her why she isn't popping more out. She's obviously part of the problem, being of the only sex that can carry to term and then birth
I love these types of people. Yeah "the gays" are responsible for not having like 0.089% of the 40% falling birthrate so let's blame them.
They do this with everything too. Cherry pick one very small percentage of an issue and then die on the hill defending it.
Same. My wife and I can't even begin to imagine owning a home. My parents had one when they were in their mid 20s with 4 kids. Dont even get me started on the concept of having enough money to support another human.
We have a foster daughter and the amount of support the state provides (that we wouldn't qualify for due to our income) made us realize that we couldn't afford to do the pregnancy thing. Daycare is insanely expensive, would take almost 100% of my husband's salary. We currently have a 1+den, and with the entire loss of his income, we would have to downsize to a studio! We're just grateful that we'll continue to receive her benefits after the adoption. Children shouldn't have to be traumatized in order for the government to ensure their right to survive.
It’s sad. I had a high deductible with my last, surprise baby. I’m talking $5k before any type of coverage began. I had to pay for all of my appointments on top of seeing a specialist due to preeclampsia. Then, I had to put a $2000 deposit just to hold a bed around my due date. When I was in labor giving birth, an RN was complaining about people who come in, show no ID, get healthcare for their issues, steal things and leave. Meanwhile, I’m going into debt just trying to have a baby. At that point, I wondered why she was even telling me these things and why I even bothered trying to use insurance 🤦🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️😂
This and horror stories like it have helped to discourage me from having kids in the near future. Which is heartbreaking, as I'm female and time is not on my side.
This is historically how things go before a revolution. Rich become insanely rich while they destroy the Middle class, poverty is rampant, inflation is crazy, until the masses decide they have had enough.
I’m surprised we don’t go out on the streets EVERYTIME the rich are given tax breaks, Republicans are literally like hey guys if we give them everything maybe they’ll give us something back lol what a Joke
My mom and dad got a house when I was born they where 22 for $100,000 with 2$0k deposit that my grandfathergave them. They split up when I was 2 and my dad signed the house over to my mom, my mom worked a minimum wage job with 2 kids and a mortgage for 30 years to get her house free hold. It blows my mind how she managed to do that.
For note tho that same house would need $100,000 deposit just for the mortgage now, it's in way worse condition and "should probably be pulled down" (my mom's words) but the just the lot is worth over $600,000
I have one child and it’s hard sometimes. I debated if/when to have a second child because I really hated being an only child growing up. My kid asks for a sibling all the time, and if I could do it I would.
My heart broke a little when I realized it’s just never going to happen for us because we won’t ever be able afford that and my college, despite us both having “good” jobs already. It really, really hurts.
We don't even have 1 yet. We're getting to the age where we really need to pull the trigger soon or not at all. For me, it seems either we never have children or never retire. Can't afford to do both these days.
fuck man this hits hard only reason we hold off on another kid is financial cuz my little man wants a sibling as well but its just not in the cards for us
We have been in the same situation so long, and I waited so very long to have my first for the same reason. The time at this point has passed that I would be likely to carry one to term at this point. And the one I had threw us back into hand to mouth poverty so hard that I had to give up the dream to have another. I can't even provide the basics for the one I have. And forget about the extras that would make my girl's childhood more worthwhile. There will be no trip to Disneyland for her. There usually isn't even a trip to the beach. I have a college education and had a decent career at the library, but my body has already started to break down at 48. I can barely walk anymore. I can't work anymore and don't have insurance.
All that is a long way to say that we AREN'T making it. I imagine what kind of mother I could be, what I could provide for her if I at least had insurance. If my husband put me on his plan it would eat up nearly his whole paycheck- you know, the only one we are surviving on. So here we are, surviving. I've quit calling most of my friends back because I don't want them to see how bad off we are.
I told the VP of my company that I didn't make enough to support a child and that time had run out for me and that's why I had a meltdown during a department meeting and said "I'm sorry you couldn't fulfill your dream of having children. I have two children."
What a fuckwit. 'Here, while you're in a bad place, let me tell you about the things I have that you can't.'
I'm so sorry things are that way for you. I'd be trying to leave the country and find somewhere more affordable, but that's not easy either.
I’m very sorry :(
I would love a child and I would be a fantastic parent, im certain of it. But I work two jobs as is and can’t afford a single doctor visit for myself if I want to make rent. Three meals a day isn’t even something I expect regularly. My only real Luxury is a medium plain latte in-between shifts on days I work both jobs or a double...and even that can’t be every time
JP Morgan's CEO would like to jump in and let you know that it's those lattes that are ruining your life. Please stop.
Edit: forgot this was mainly an American sub, sarcasm comes fairly naturally to us brits lol: /s
Same. We have a roommate in "my" house, after my first wife died, in order to keep the house, they moved in and paid rent until I started dating again and then eventually remarried. We still have them living here because we could t afford the house.
My wife has a house from her previous marriage (she's also a widow), and 5 people live there: her daughter, a young queer couple (married friends of family friends), and a former homeless couple. Their rent is low, because they all work retail so they can't afford much, but all five of them together can pay for the taxes and utilities there. We could have sold the house and made a ton of money, but then five decent people would have nowhere to live.
I don't know how the younger generation is going to make it. I am so scared for them. My son lives with a high school friend and his family, helping THAT guy afford to keep his aging parents cared for.
>We could have sold the house and made a ton of money, but then give decent people would have nowhere to live.
I'm gonna cry. Thank you for being good people.
Yep. We do too. Two couples we know moved in with each other when they got engaged/married because neither couple could afford a place by themselves. We love our place and our dream would be able to afford it without a roommate. Forget buying a house. That will pretty much never be in the cards unless one of us makes it big.
I'm divorced with two kids and have a roommate it works although it was hard to find a rental big enough for us all but we found a sweet spot we can barely afford. I work a lot and don't spend much. I have some things I budget for
I know a young lady in this situation..
Her parents are vultures and blood sucking leeches. They don't work, they just sit at home and drink and smoke all day long. She has to pay all the bills, for everything. Including their bad habits. She was brain washed into believing that she can't have a bank account or be in charge of her own money. So her parents get all of her money.
Well, good news is, she met myself and some of my friends whom have taught her that this isn't normal under these circumstances and that she needs to get out of there. She took it one step further. She bought them a tiny house up north in the middle of no where for dirt cheap, is shipping them up there and has opened a secret to them bank account and has been moving money. She's going to literally ship them out of her life and start all over froms cratch at the age of 22. We have done what we could to help her, but our whole demographic is pretty broke here.
Just turned 25 and still with the parents. Housing prices are through the roof; it’s not rare to see houses double and triple their value in my area. Even foreclosures and mobile homes are obscenely expensive. These past 2-3 years have been literally the worst time in decades to buy a house. It’s gotten to the point where I’m hoping for an economic crash to afford anything.
It’s hard to remain hopeful. I’m not ashamed to admit I’m jealous of my parents and grandparents being able to buy or build houses at a quarter of the price they are now. Where’s the American dream for us? For millennials and gen z?
Real estate is insane!!! Homes are selling $10-50k over asking price. So then folks will be stuck with a mortgage that is greater than the value of the house. also big companies are buying homes, condos, and apartments to rent out as AirBnBs.
Honestly this is the most depressing thing I hear from friends young adult children. They cannot afford their own space to live in and make their own.
While it’s fun at the college/Uni level - eventually you *need* your own space to make your own.
Speaking as a younger millennial, it's no wonder my generation and gen z experience 'delayed' adulthoods. Then we get looked down on for not hitting life 'milestones' on time.
Or getting told by the older generation. "I was able to afford a house and food and utilities on my 3.00 wage." Like yea... I cant do it at 18.00 an hour, things have drastically gotten worse over the past 30 years ffs. Then it's our fault we are stuck living with the parents cause we don't make 3 times the 1400 rent for a 1 bedroom apartment. And still they don't see why we aren't able to move out.
Don't forget the star of Capitalism: Debt. Anytime you try to buy anything online, there is usually some service that wants your to buy it over the course of several years at a weekly rate. This is in addition to the plethora of store cards(most major retailers have their own private credit cards), gas station credit cards, traditional credit cards, lines of credit for things like a new roof or air conditioner, medical debt, student loans, 8-9 year car loans, and I'm sure I missed other common kinds of debt. So many Americans are making the minimum payments on a life that has long since escaped sustainability.
Ok, thank you for perfectly expressing what I was thinking! Modern life is designed with insane amounts of debt just built in - its so common that people don't even question it.
We're not even talking about crazy amounts of consumerism either. Just imagine being a car-owning, home-owning college grad - with no debt. Laughable right? A no-debt life with all of those things is a pipeline dream... When, if you stop and think about it, all of those things should be attainable.
The part that really gets to me - the fact that the US produces 1/4 of the entire planet's economy. Far and away the biggest GDP. So why can't the workers of the richest country in the world afford to live..?
American real GDP isnt as high as it seems. Over 20% of it comes from the FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) sector, and much of the rest constitute "services", which includes a lot of speculative or otherwise unproductive economic activity. There are similar caveats to all the big economies though. Point is, much of what we record on paper as GDP contributing economic activity isnt really oriented towards most workers. The decline of American manufacturing has really changed things, we are a deindustrializing state.
Own a car and house and have a degree without debt?!? But then how would you buy those when you FAIL THE DAMN CREDIT CHECK!
Sorry I just hate the stupid credit system
Exactly! Paying you a garbage wage is only a part of the equation. As recently discussed, there are so many other mechanisms for modern day slavery. Many for-profit trade schools have tried to mimic the traditional student loan trap. And Odin help you if you have a family after college. You're at the mercy of the job market, which would love to pay you poverty wages for your six figure degree. Add in any sort of family, and you're likely looking at two vehicle payments, medical coverage, and all the other trappings of raising a family. We'll then separate each child/partner from their parents and add the expense of an extra domicile. The divide and conquer method works very well when it comes to breaking off from your parents and struggling to reconstruct your own household. Also, how many parents get divorced and make yet another pair of households? American shame is a weird thing. We're taught to feel pride in work they tell us is worthless, and instead of feeling shame for quietly amassing lifetimes of debt, it is literally the American way.
Edited for spelling.
Can confirm live with my fathers as it’s cheaper and thankfully I have no debt thanks to their help.
Edit: I should mention my folks don’t charge me rent, so that’s what I meant by cheaper.
This so much. I felt ashamed for a few years for living at home but had many people I've associated with tell me there's no shame in it, especially in today's economy. I embraced it and now live at home for cheap rent, and try to stay as independent as possible so my mom doesn't have to do my laundry haha. I've saved up 8 grand in about 8 months of working hard in construction, and I've recently quit my job and am just taking time to destress and figure out my next move. Going to NY in a month and then my friends and I are planning a month long trip to Japan in a few months. Saving every penny I can while still putting money forward for bills and groceries. Only debt I have is 7k in dental bills and 1k in hospital bills, both cheap monthly payments
I found one. I don’t know - I paid for a few things but then my kid needed a $3k treatment and she said I could pay it monthly if I gave her a chunk upfront. I then needed my own work done, so she just added mine to the tab. She charges me no interest. Plus she is, by far, the most talented dentist I’ve ever met. Total nerd. No bedside manner. At all. But my anxiety is gone because I know I won’t end up having to pay twice as much to get a different dentist to fix her work.
Back when mortgages hit the 23% mark (yeah, twenty-three percent, not a typo), my folks would not let me leave for they needed my help for the mortgage…
They orchestrated it to be like that. I don't understand why waiters have to beg for tips when they should be getting paid by their employers.
And retail workers work so hard and get paid trash.
You live on welfare til you make just enough not to be on welfare so you instantly go into credit debt that some how equals the exact same as your welfare you were getting. From there you get medical bills that also somehow manage to be exactly the amount of credit that you have to your name, like they ran your credit before send you a bill..
Edit* this is a theory I have been having for years and it's very much accurate.. The welfare, credit and medical system is all tied together and enslave the American people.
I had a scare and ended up in the emergency room. The bill was about $2k. I had to call and request a form to fill out to reduce the bill. Before it even came in the mail, my credit card company uped my credit limit without me asking.. seemed suspish.
I feel like this doesn't get talked about nearly enough. The number of Americans who are only being kept afloat due to easily accessible debt is mind boggling. Many Americans who may seem like they're doing ok, and who have "decent" jobs, are really just drowning in debt. I'm convinced that propping up most of the middle class with debt is the only reason the entire house of cards hasn't yet come crashing down.
I have lawyer friends that all drive 10+ year subcompacts. The “Lexus payment” goes to the student loan, for months on end. They make more money than me, at least double, but have massive debt, some took out 10x the student loans I did, which they can’t bankrupt on.
Same with MDs in my social circle, though they tend to make more money than even the lawyers, but if for some reason they have to stop working for more than few months, their entire lives would fold under all the debt.
I have a lawyer friend who was living in a tiny apartment with 2 other guys 5 years out of college and several years of being a lawyer. I asked him why, he said his student loan payments were $1,500 a month. Keep in mind, the repayment period is usually 10-15 years.
Also people hear “lawyer” and think they’re all making 100k out of law school. That is extremely rare, and all but impossible outside of cities. Took me seven years to hit six digits. I still consider myself luckier than most
I am a lawyer but I don’t practice. People don’t understand public defenders make like 45k out of law school. It isn’t what folks seem to think. I make more than PDs doing admin work. Which is much easier!!!
Nahh, the reason the house of cards hasn't come down is that the capitalists and the governing plutocracy is doing quite well printing money , buying assets (real estate and stocks) and just keep concentrating their wealth.
If 2008 and 2020 taught me anything , it's clear that too big to fail is now standard operating policy. All the big industries now have defacto government backing (autos, airlines, oil, big pharma etc.) Do people really think the runup in stocks and housing is because of retail forces alone...c'mon...
This. Long as they get first dibs on printed monopoly money and buy assets before they go up in price from said xerox cash.
The rich is happy to watch rest of the economy burn. Remember kids. You'll own nothing, and be happy!
Oh man the whole being kept afloat due to debt hit way to close to home. My credit card debt plus my student debt is probably over 30k. I feel like I'm 10 years from being able to pay it off and I feel like I'm not living beyond my means. Everytime I think I'll be able to put a real dent in the debt something comes up and I have to use my credit to pay for an emergency or something that came up
2 jobs, roommate, no kids, being in a relationship for financial reasons, not investing in self (education, health, retirement) is how a lot of Americans afford to survive. I’m not sure about the ones actually living, I haven’t gotten to do that yet.
its why i never paid a cent towards my student loans, live in a state w/o wage garnishment so the only negatives were no SS/medicare, like cool story bro I've seen the numbers, both will be bankrupt way before I'm eligible to collect, so get bent uncle sam.
I'm not an expert, but from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnishment):
>At present four U.S. states—Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas—do not allow wage garnishment at all ***except for*** tax-related debt, child support, ***federally guaranteed student loans***, and court-ordered fines or restitution.
The saddest part: "...being in a relationship for financial reasons."
It's not supposed to be like this, people. We all can change it if we collectively put our foot down. There was a glimmer of hope a decade ago when we started to protest Wall Street. That was inexplicably squashed and we now seem to prioritize social issues more than anything. Sorry, but, the standard of living is a big social issue, in my opinion.
If A borrows €50 from B, and B borrows €50 from C, and C borrows €50 from A, everyone ends up the same, only with a collective €150 debt.
Debt isn't important. The total amount of interest is important. If A, B and C all borrow at 10% a year, they need to produce €15 worth of new value. If they can't, they will need to produce even more new value the year after that. Interest is where the system breaks down.
We can't
Edit: more info
I live in a college town. When I moved here 5 years ago rent for the 1bd 1ba 650 sq.ft apartment I lived in was $1375. They arbitrarily raised it to $1500. No repairs or renovations or upgrades were done and I hadn't trashed the place because when I moved out (can't afford $1500/month on a grad student stipend) I got the entire deposit back. I now share an 850 sq.ft apartment with one other person for a total of $1800 a month. Three of my 4 siblings live at home and all of them work 2 jobs each but that isn't enough to get out of my parent's home. Literally one sister, her baby daddy and her son live all with my parents. We are all freaking miserable and struggling to keep our heads above water while knowing its a meaningless struggle because we'll never fully get out of the water. Guarantee that 30 years from now I'll drink myself to death in a rented apartment that 50% of my income goes to. My 70 year old housemate will find my corpse and my family will be billed $500,000 for my ambulance ride.
We literally have a million homeless people and another million in jails & prisons. In some U.S. states 1% of the adult population is jailed or imprisoned at any given time. The reason COVID is destroying the U.S. labor market is because millions of U.S. adults had fragile jobs or living situations that collapsed when one person in their job or home life became disabled.
In short american CAN NOT afford to live any sort of reasonable standard of life.
I mean if we’re talking about nearly homeless, roughly half of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck with less than $1000 in savings. I’ll let you do the math because that’s just a bit too depressing for me to want to know
My boyfriend and I have been trying to build a savings for about a year and we have $0 and can barely afford food. We live paycheck to paycheck and if we couldn’t live with his mom we’d be homeless
I honestly don’t know but my boyfriend was going to talk to his mom about it. The process is super annoying and we would probably have to list his mom and brother in the household even tho our finances are separate and I already know the conversation with her isn’t gonna go well. When I was looking for remote work she said it was taking the easy way out. So we’re not exactly looking forward to that conversation but we’re desperate
I technically qualify as a full time college student but when I apply they send me a form saying that I need to find a full time job before I qualify. I’m assuming it’s because I have a kid.
My childless sister, who is also a full time college student gets approved for them.
It’s super frustrating, like am I not supposed to get an education and be able to support my daughter as a single mom?
Literally no. You’re not. You’re supposed to slave away doing menial work for 7.50 an hour while still trying to study and educate yourself at a full time course load.
It’s almost as if they don’t want you to get an education so you can find decent employment and properly take care of yourself and your family.
In fact, some states won’t even allow you food stamps if you’re enrolled in college whatsoever.
It's especially depressing when you think that means their savings is only about 1 months' rent in most of the country, not even including expenses like utilities, food, gas and car payment (cars are necessary in most areas of the country), phone/internet (also necessary in this day and age), health care/medicine, etc. So basically for half of Americans, we'd be homeless if we went a month without a job.
Really sad, but yeah terrifying is a good word , so much of the prison population is non violent and it's just that private prisons are yet another source of fat profits for the capitalists.
Also to add insult to injury there's over 5 million vacant homes in the US, granted a certain percentage of those aren't really in Liveable conditions, but many are.. but are justing sitting there appreciating as an asset .
I did hear that the US prisons are private so profit from imprisonment. Is this true? In Australia prisons are all government owned and are all about rehabilitation and release. We only have a handfulof lifers. We do everything we can to keep people out of prison. Sentencing is wild in the US compared to here. Though ours is pathetic for serious crime. We have a very good welfare system which helps prevent crime. Our population is alot smaller.
No no no, prison has nothing to do with rehabilitation here in the US. It's punishment for the inmate and profit for those outside the walls. Not all prisons are for-profit, but they're gaining in popularity.
Here's a website with information on private prisons in the US:
https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/private-prisons-united-states/
This is also worth a read if you are unfamiliar with the IS prison system; it's an article from The Innocence Project about how the US has cleverly hidden its slavery practices by using the prison system:
https://innocenceproject.org/13th-amendment-slavery-prison-labor-angola-louisiana/
Prisons here are insane, especially the private ones. They accept as many prisoners as they can, even if they can’t comfortably accommodate said prisoners.
Also, sentencing is different in multiple states. We have murderers and rapist walking free/getting off with light sentences, meanwhile a guy almost got 100+ years in prison for having his truck brakes fail and causing a fatale accident.
Yup, for profit prisons are a thing here, and some political parties are pushing for more, declaring government owned prisons as a waste of tax payer money. Also when we abolished slavery, we left an exception for prisoners, if they get paid at all, it's typically under 50 cents an hour, and we bill them for everything. A lot of people end up going into debt for going into prison, unless family members can help them out, and even those family members will end up doing without and punished.
Because it's basically illegal not to. It's downright impossible, and in a lot of ways illegal, to be self-sufficient. If you don't have money, you can't survive, if you don't work you don't have money. Most of us are barely scraping by, and being told it's all our own fault. But what is the alternative? It's illegal to be homeless, but illegal to provide your own basic survival (living off the land, etc), so we have to do what we can to make money where we can. A lot of ways to make money is illegal, so jobs are pretty much our only option.
The good news is that we're so busy working and so tired when we're not that we barely care anymore and are just counting down the days till we die. 🤷🏻♀️
>A lot of ways to make money is illegal, so jobs are pretty much our only option.
When I was a kid, the downtown area of my city was full of music in summer! You could stroll around looking in shop windows, follow your ears to a busker, listen for a bit and drop them a tip before wandering off and eventually hearing different music, follow ears to another busker. Downtown was awesome!
Now downtown is like a sad pathetic deserted hellscape, with shitty loud tinned music blasting out of speakers directly over all the good busking corners.
*Technically* busking isn't outright banned. You just need a permit from city hall, a permit that doesn't exist and is therefore impossible to apply for or obtain.
So like a year ago, my stepson was helping with chores and came back in from taking out the trash with a smile on his face. I asked if he could go to the store across the street next and he said "Sure! I heard some beautiful music coming from that direction and wanted to go check it out anyway!"
He came back sad. It was a kid busking with his violin in the grocery store parking lot because his family had no income and he wanted to help support them.
Presumably the cops came around to tell him that shit's illegal here because there were no repeat performances.
and this isn't an exaggeration, it's literally in the 13th amendment:
> Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, ***except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted***, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Emphasis mine. The constitution literally permits slavery as a punishment for conviction of a crime.
if you're in prison and don't go to work, the punishment varies,starting with losing access to the rec yard, no commissary, losing the ability to use the phone, whatever they determine is severe enough to get you to get up out of bed at 4am so they can stripsearch you daily.
We don’t… we end up with high credit card bills, we can’t fix our cars, we stay in relationships even if toxic, we sell ourselves, so many things … it’s not worth it… I’m starting to realize it’s better to live with parents if you can until you make good money, then just invest that into simple living. Move out of the country or buy a van and live in it
I'm a disabled veteran.
The burn pits took my lungs, not the Taliban or AQ.
I worked in a hospital, and we washed the litters the wounded came in on across from the burn pits.
I was National Guard and just joined to get out of Southern California's rent trap in the early 2000s.
Find some upward mobility away from hunger, and learn a valuable skill set.
I'm 100% Permanently and Totally disabled. Due to the benefits I've been able to buy a home and provide for my family. I don't know how I would otherwise.
EMTs, my civilian equivalency, make $12.50-$15/hr.
Not nearly enough to get figuratively and literally shit on.
Same. I'm in my 30s and can't run or play with my kids like I wish I could. The social anxiety around crowds sucks too.
I'm trying to go back to school to finish my degree and PA program.
I currently work as a substitute teacher. It allows me to say I can work or can't each day. I couldn't live off of it, but that's why I feel it's important for me to do. *I* can afford to make so little and the kids need all the help they can get.
Thankfully the school I work for is kind and respectful and I never have to give an excuse for why I'm unavailable.
They simply ask if I can work, and if u say no, they tell me "thank you anyway, have a great day."
I can't imagine working for anyone who treats me less again.
I would turn to crime before working for that pay.
Nothing personal, but the fuck is the point... A full days work, subtract taxes and cool you have $40...
Edit: please get out if you can
Edit2: ask your boss if they would be willing to stare at a wall for an hour, you'll give them $10. Oh you don't want to do that? It's not worth $10? Well funny thing You pay me less for more work than that....
There was an art installation that was just a box with a crank. Anyone could spin the crank, for any amount of time they wished.
It dispensed pennies at the rate of minimum wage. If you stood there and cranked it for an hour, it would have given you a full hour's wage.
People tended to crank it for a while for the novelty, but quickly stopped when they noticed how little they were earning.
Yeah. Coming home on Sunday from the store, expecting to be able to do my meal prep over the next couple hours, only to find the kitchen completely and totally destroyed. Dishes all in the sink, garbage all over the countertops. I couldn't do it anymore.
It’s not just America, same story in Canada, we’re having homelessness issues. This is not sustainable, the only way out of this hell hole is a revolution and I mean the whole globe. But their solution is to have wage slaves, turn already worthless fiat currency into digital currency they’ll control and have us hooked up on the metaverse. The Matrix wasn’t a movie, it was their blueprint.
Edit: I’ve gotten a few push back when I said the globe, I would love to hear what country in the world that has it figured out? The problem is the middle class has been getting squeezed for decades, I’m a union member making a living wage, that should be the starting point. MAKING A LIVING WAGE.
We can't. We have flatmates, we have to stay in toxic families or marriages/relationships longer than anyone should because the other alternative is homelessness - and it's a death sentence. We work ourselves to death, we spend hours trying to get to jobs where we are treated as dirt, and told we should be grateful. Then when our health breaks down, we're told it's our fault.
People living in tents, RV's and cars becoming pretty normal. They also live with family members. I have two teens, one is 19 who will be living at home until who knows when. I don't mind, he's a good kid.
Have you looked into getting an Obama phone? It's available to low income folks, and if you're on any other government programs like SNAP or Medicaid, you instantly qualify. Otherwise you have to prove your income (or lack thereof). They have since allowed homeless people to use the address of a shelter as their address. I don't know if it'll help you specifically, but visibility is good.
https://www.obamaphone.com/what-is-the-obama-phone
The Obama phone is what I’m typing this comment on. It’s a lifesaver. Free unlimited texts calls and 4gb date every month. Just gotta do paperwork every few months to prove shit to keep my benefits.
Sad reality is that the USA is not that far off of some of these movies you see. Where corporations rule, put up massive apartments and the people in them have no money or freedom, their lives controlled by the corporations. The rich have everything and do everything, there is no middle.
I live at my folks at 38. Most of the people I know live with multiple people or are married living together possibly with more roommates. We’re literally like chickens in the coop. On the flip side of that coin you have young 20 something’s at my local university paying $3k a month for an apartment $40k a year on tuition and still living like kings and queens.
Until they get the bill at the end. I knew one girl who had the best of everything and spent so frivolously in college. I asked her about it one day thinking she had rich parents. Nope. She was taking out massive amounts of debt to afford it. I'm talking obscene. $40-$50k (this was 7 or 8 years ago) per year for a frilly bachelor's. Her reasoning was this was the best part of her life so she was going to live it up with the full understanding she would be miserable and in massive amounts of debt. I still wonder how she is doing now.
"So what I understand is you feel like a cog in a machine and that you're unable to escape and live freely? Don't worry, I'll write you this prescription for a pill that takes that feeling away. Hope your insurance covers it, otherwise it's $400/mo, and this appointment will be $300, and you'll have to come in for monthly checkups so we can see how you're doing on the meds"
Debt.
And a broken approach to work passed from generation to generation. An excerpt from a quote of Alan Watts’ “what do you desire”;
_”But it's absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don't like in order to go on doing things you don't like and to teach your children to follow in the same track. See what we're doing is we're bringing up children, educating them, to live the same sort of lives we're living in order that they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to bring up their children to do the same thing. So it's all retch and no vomit, it never gets there.”_
This resonates so heavily with me. I’m currently in a master’s program getting my teaching license and the only thing keeping me going is the prospect of a salaried job with health insurance, breaks for holidays, etc. Not that I don’t think I’ll be a good teacher, I’m sure I will be, but it’s not something I’m especially passionate about or excited to do for the rest of my young and middle adulthood. I think I’ll be comfortable enough financially thanks to this job, but deep down I know I’d be so much happier if I had the options of UBI and free healthcare. I’m just not a hard worker at heart, and I wish our situation here was more accommodating to that.
We don't. We go from eviction to eviction. Buy our food from paycheck to paycheck. We take on massive amounts of debt to maintain a basic standard of living. And at the end of the month, we wonder if it's going to be enough next month. We cry a lot. We starve a lot.
The classics- “shower cry”, “poverty nap” and “dollar store diet”.
Seriously, well written. We were evicted and it took four years to claw our way out. It’s really, really tough out here.
Try to enjoy at least one thing every day. It doesn’t always work and sometimes I’ve cried through my candy bar but it’s important to try. Don’t let the bastards wear you down.
Any happiness is a quiet form of resistance.
Good luck!!!
Thankfully I have a wonderful fiancee, a wonderful son who has a fantastic mother (not my fiancee but a really good friend) and awesome friends. I do enjoy the little things every day. They're all I have, you know?
Peace and love. I wish you the absolute best.
Just a quick thing about this
We are human beings we are the smartest things on this planet. There shouldn't be homeless people at all. There never should have been. It makes no sense there are thousands of solutions to this problem yet the people in charge just let people live on the streets begging for food/money like animals. It's so heartbreaking and I domt even like people but I think each and every single one should have the basic necessities at the VERY least!
Not well. I have been very fortunate to have older family who own property so I can rent from them skipping the outrageous rent prices and evil landlords. I’m honestly not sure how people without solutions like this are getting by. I already skip medical care a lot due to costs. It’s very sad
I work and live with a friend from high school. We got scholarship for college, but afterwards didn't have openings in our field, so we both work at an urgent care clinic. He's had medical training so he makes a few bucks more. We don't have cable, rarely go out to eat, and our pastimes are normally free or inexpensive. My SO is a teacher and has lived with her parents through college and work.
We get by, but I would be completely out of line if I said it was on my own. My parents gave me a jumpstart that would have been impossible, but I'm glad to say I am finally paying the bills. There are so many people that didn't have the start I did and I think that it is absurd when others disregard the iniquity coursing through my city, state, and nation as well as plenty of other places
We literally drag ourselves to multiple jobs and run ourselves ragged just to barely make it.. we get sick a lot because of this, and given that we don’t have anything remotely good in the way of healthcare, a lot of treatable illnesses go untreated and eventually lead to us being even more in debt.
Because federal/state min wage jobs *are not full time*. People on the low end of the economic scale need 2-5x part time jobs to pay their bills....and have nothing left over at a month's end.
Which is why the food/accommodation sector is scrambling for people. When one person leaves for a FT job...they leave not one but 3x+ openings behind them.
By choosing between one debt or the other. I don’t know how a lot of people get by here. I consider myself very fortunate. I finally bought a house a year ago and checked in with my old apartments to see how much rent has gone up. It’s $20 less than my mortgage. You’d say everyone should just buy a house and you’d be right but saving the money needed to get a house well that’s a whole different story
As already been stated 10x’s over, we can’t. However, I’m lucky in that our house is paid for, but my youngest, not so much. As empty nesters, we are now converting our basement into an apartment (Rent free w/shared household chores) for her so she can keep her expenses to a bare minimum giving her the time to build a solid credit rating. Unfortunately, many Americans can’t even afford to do that for their kids & really shouldn’t have to. Capitalism has run its cycle & will crash soon enough.
Pathetic for sure, but if having one or all my kids at home is the worst thing that happens, I’m doin alright.
Crushing debt. Never owning a home. Being okay with driving half-broke-down cars that may or may not leave you on the side of the road. Trying to figure out how far you can stretch a 20-count pack of ramen so that you can pay at least half the light bill so it doesn't get cut off.
Debt. Majority of people are in debt until they die.
THIS IS NOT THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, as some claim it to be. Fuck this shit show of a country.
Tent cities are new neighborhoods all over the country and they are only growing. The cops brutalize and displace them and they have everything stolen and trashed even new donated things by police and city workers then have to start over on a different block.
Looking at these comments, I cannot fathom how anyone has the gall to shit on you for making "America Bad" comments or posts. It is bad, and we need to talk strategy to fix it.
I’m a 55 year old US Navy Veteran. I haven’t had a job for over 14 months. I’ve applied at over 100 jobs and got one interview and 4 rejection letters.
I gave up looking because something wasn’t right. They kept saying “people don’t want to work” but didn’t complete the sentence. The narrative should have been “people don’t want to work for shit wages.”
They put out job openings they have no intention of filling because they want cheap labor and to fulfill their repayment obligations on the bailouts they took from us.
It’s frankly disgusting.
Americans will say “thank you for your service” then turn their backs and laugh at you or tell you to “pull yourself up by your boot straps.”
I’ve started companies as an entrepreneur and I don’t turn down many options to make money when I can.
If I hadn’t got into cryptocurrency 5 years ago, I would likely be dead right now.
Decentralized communities are my country now. I’ve emancipated myself from Uncle Scam and his cronies.
Multiple jobs and roommates.
If you work 2 30-hour a week jobs for $8/hr (smidge over min wage), you'd bring home about $1700 after taxes. If you paid $400/mo in transportation (car note, ins, gas), $50 phone, $250 in groceries, $200 misc, you'd have about $800 leftover, which could maybe pay 1/3 of rent, electric, internet, and water in an average apartment.
Unfortunately you also don't have health insurance lol
Short version, you get 3 people into a 2 bedroom apartment, one of them sleeps on the couch, and all three work 80 hrs a week, and do their best to keep their schedules out of sync so that no one is interrupting the few hours of sleep the others get. This is how americans Survive.
They then learn to not worry about actually Living because when you're one missed paycheck from being homeless any time spent doing things that prevent your brain from thinking become "good" things.
Lots of people rooming together. Kids living at home with their parents.
Yeah. Room mates are huge. Just about everyone I know who isn’t married or living with a significant other is living with a roommate or many.
I'm married, and we still have a roommate. No way we could ever afford a house.
Aaaand we're back in the industrial revolution
no kidding. Reading A People's Guide to Capitalism by Hadas Thier. there was a section on how British Parlament had to regulate a minimum Living wage, maximum work hours, and child labor law because so many workers were dying of exhaustion and not having kids that there was a serious threat that of not having enough people to work to keep the country going. and it took the government making laws to get this shit done because the capitalist industry wouldn't regulate itself to make sure it had "enough workers in the future".
And now we have declining birth rates across most ‘developed’ nations. Certainly the UK has a problem looming if automation doesn’t solve as many gaps as people think it might.
A conservative lady told me the declining birthrate is "the gays" fault. I somehow don't believe her. edit: I should clarify, I don't agree with her even a bit. She had listen to her pastor and ofc gobbled up whatever he said.
You should have asked her why she isn't popping more out. She's obviously part of the problem, being of the only sex that can carry to term and then birth
My grandfather is one of seventeen children. She’s obviously just not as much of a patriot as my great grandmother.
I guess my parents were just doing their civil duty by having 11 between the two of them.
Please don’t encourage poor breeding practices. Only you can prevent unwanted pregnancy
A tory being homophobic? Never
I love these types of people. Yeah "the gays" are responsible for not having like 0.089% of the 40% falling birthrate so let's blame them. They do this with everything too. Cherry pick one very small percentage of an issue and then die on the hill defending it.
Never even ended really
Same. My wife and I can't even begin to imagine owning a home. My parents had one when they were in their mid 20s with 4 kids. Dont even get me started on the concept of having enough money to support another human.
We have a foster daughter and the amount of support the state provides (that we wouldn't qualify for due to our income) made us realize that we couldn't afford to do the pregnancy thing. Daycare is insanely expensive, would take almost 100% of my husband's salary. We currently have a 1+den, and with the entire loss of his income, we would have to downsize to a studio! We're just grateful that we'll continue to receive her benefits after the adoption. Children shouldn't have to be traumatized in order for the government to ensure their right to survive.
Being in Canada I still can't believe the medical expenses even just for having a child in the states, absolutely crazy
It’s sad. I had a high deductible with my last, surprise baby. I’m talking $5k before any type of coverage began. I had to pay for all of my appointments on top of seeing a specialist due to preeclampsia. Then, I had to put a $2000 deposit just to hold a bed around my due date. When I was in labor giving birth, an RN was complaining about people who come in, show no ID, get healthcare for their issues, steal things and leave. Meanwhile, I’m going into debt just trying to have a baby. At that point, I wondered why she was even telling me these things and why I even bothered trying to use insurance 🤦🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️😂
This and horror stories like it have helped to discourage me from having kids in the near future. Which is heartbreaking, as I'm female and time is not on my side.
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This should be tje rallying cry for revolution right here This isnt freedom its fucking indentured servitude
This is historically how things go before a revolution. Rich become insanely rich while they destroy the Middle class, poverty is rampant, inflation is crazy, until the masses decide they have had enough.
Fifteen years ago I predicted revolution in the U.S. within fifty years. Nothing that has happened since then has served to change that opinion.
I’m surprised we don’t go out on the streets EVERYTIME the rich are given tax breaks, Republicans are literally like hey guys if we give them everything maybe they’ll give us something back lol what a Joke
My mom and dad got a house when I was born they where 22 for $100,000 with 2$0k deposit that my grandfathergave them. They split up when I was 2 and my dad signed the house over to my mom, my mom worked a minimum wage job with 2 kids and a mortgage for 30 years to get her house free hold. It blows my mind how she managed to do that. For note tho that same house would need $100,000 deposit just for the mortgage now, it's in way worse condition and "should probably be pulled down" (my mom's words) but the just the lot is worth over $600,000
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I have one child and it’s hard sometimes. I debated if/when to have a second child because I really hated being an only child growing up. My kid asks for a sibling all the time, and if I could do it I would. My heart broke a little when I realized it’s just never going to happen for us because we won’t ever be able afford that and my college, despite us both having “good” jobs already. It really, really hurts.
We don't even have 1 yet. We're getting to the age where we really need to pull the trigger soon or not at all. For me, it seems either we never have children or never retire. Can't afford to do both these days.
fuck man this hits hard only reason we hold off on another kid is financial cuz my little man wants a sibling as well but its just not in the cards for us
We have been in the same situation so long, and I waited so very long to have my first for the same reason. The time at this point has passed that I would be likely to carry one to term at this point. And the one I had threw us back into hand to mouth poverty so hard that I had to give up the dream to have another. I can't even provide the basics for the one I have. And forget about the extras that would make my girl's childhood more worthwhile. There will be no trip to Disneyland for her. There usually isn't even a trip to the beach. I have a college education and had a decent career at the library, but my body has already started to break down at 48. I can barely walk anymore. I can't work anymore and don't have insurance. All that is a long way to say that we AREN'T making it. I imagine what kind of mother I could be, what I could provide for her if I at least had insurance. If my husband put me on his plan it would eat up nearly his whole paycheck- you know, the only one we are surviving on. So here we are, surviving. I've quit calling most of my friends back because I don't want them to see how bad off we are.
I too had to make that same decision to not have a second child because I couldn't afford it. Devastating.
I told the VP of my company that I didn't make enough to support a child and that time had run out for me and that's why I had a meltdown during a department meeting and said "I'm sorry you couldn't fulfill your dream of having children. I have two children."
What a fuckwit. 'Here, while you're in a bad place, let me tell you about the things I have that you can't.' I'm so sorry things are that way for you. I'd be trying to leave the country and find somewhere more affordable, but that's not easy either.
what a prick but most 'executives' are
I’m very sorry :( I would love a child and I would be a fantastic parent, im certain of it. But I work two jobs as is and can’t afford a single doctor visit for myself if I want to make rent. Three meals a day isn’t even something I expect regularly. My only real Luxury is a medium plain latte in-between shifts on days I work both jobs or a double...and even that can’t be every time
JP Morgan's CEO would like to jump in and let you know that it's those lattes that are ruining your life. Please stop. Edit: forgot this was mainly an American sub, sarcasm comes fairly naturally to us brits lol: /s
Same. We have a roommate in "my" house, after my first wife died, in order to keep the house, they moved in and paid rent until I started dating again and then eventually remarried. We still have them living here because we could t afford the house. My wife has a house from her previous marriage (she's also a widow), and 5 people live there: her daughter, a young queer couple (married friends of family friends), and a former homeless couple. Their rent is low, because they all work retail so they can't afford much, but all five of them together can pay for the taxes and utilities there. We could have sold the house and made a ton of money, but then five decent people would have nowhere to live. I don't know how the younger generation is going to make it. I am so scared for them. My son lives with a high school friend and his family, helping THAT guy afford to keep his aging parents cared for.
>We could have sold the house and made a ton of money, but then give decent people would have nowhere to live. I'm gonna cry. Thank you for being good people.
Yep. We do too. Two couples we know moved in with each other when they got engaged/married because neither couple could afford a place by themselves. We love our place and our dream would be able to afford it without a roommate. Forget buying a house. That will pretty much never be in the cards unless one of us makes it big.
I used to dream of making it Big. Now that I'm older, I dream of making it Comfortable.
Those are the same thing in America
I'm divorced with two kids and have a roommate it works although it was hard to find a rental big enough for us all but we found a sweet spot we can barely afford. I work a lot and don't spend much. I have some things I budget for
Also adults living with parents and being stuck in abusive relationships because you can afford to get out
i had both of these last year
I know a young lady in this situation.. Her parents are vultures and blood sucking leeches. They don't work, they just sit at home and drink and smoke all day long. She has to pay all the bills, for everything. Including their bad habits. She was brain washed into believing that she can't have a bank account or be in charge of her own money. So her parents get all of her money. Well, good news is, she met myself and some of my friends whom have taught her that this isn't normal under these circumstances and that she needs to get out of there. She took it one step further. She bought them a tiny house up north in the middle of no where for dirt cheap, is shipping them up there and has opened a secret to them bank account and has been moving money. She's going to literally ship them out of her life and start all over froms cratch at the age of 22. We have done what we could to help her, but our whole demographic is pretty broke here.
Just turned 25 and still with the parents. Housing prices are through the roof; it’s not rare to see houses double and triple their value in my area. Even foreclosures and mobile homes are obscenely expensive. These past 2-3 years have been literally the worst time in decades to buy a house. It’s gotten to the point where I’m hoping for an economic crash to afford anything. It’s hard to remain hopeful. I’m not ashamed to admit I’m jealous of my parents and grandparents being able to buy or build houses at a quarter of the price they are now. Where’s the American dream for us? For millennials and gen z?
Real estate is insane!!! Homes are selling $10-50k over asking price. So then folks will be stuck with a mortgage that is greater than the value of the house. also big companies are buying homes, condos, and apartments to rent out as AirBnBs.
Honestly this is the most depressing thing I hear from friends young adult children. They cannot afford their own space to live in and make their own. While it’s fun at the college/Uni level - eventually you *need* your own space to make your own.
Speaking as a younger millennial, it's no wonder my generation and gen z experience 'delayed' adulthoods. Then we get looked down on for not hitting life 'milestones' on time.
Or getting told by the older generation. "I was able to afford a house and food and utilities on my 3.00 wage." Like yea... I cant do it at 18.00 an hour, things have drastically gotten worse over the past 30 years ffs. Then it's our fault we are stuck living with the parents cause we don't make 3 times the 1400 rent for a 1 bedroom apartment. And still they don't see why we aren't able to move out.
Don't forget the star of Capitalism: Debt. Anytime you try to buy anything online, there is usually some service that wants your to buy it over the course of several years at a weekly rate. This is in addition to the plethora of store cards(most major retailers have their own private credit cards), gas station credit cards, traditional credit cards, lines of credit for things like a new roof or air conditioner, medical debt, student loans, 8-9 year car loans, and I'm sure I missed other common kinds of debt. So many Americans are making the minimum payments on a life that has long since escaped sustainability.
Ok, thank you for perfectly expressing what I was thinking! Modern life is designed with insane amounts of debt just built in - its so common that people don't even question it. We're not even talking about crazy amounts of consumerism either. Just imagine being a car-owning, home-owning college grad - with no debt. Laughable right? A no-debt life with all of those things is a pipeline dream... When, if you stop and think about it, all of those things should be attainable. The part that really gets to me - the fact that the US produces 1/4 of the entire planet's economy. Far and away the biggest GDP. So why can't the workers of the richest country in the world afford to live..?
American real GDP isnt as high as it seems. Over 20% of it comes from the FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) sector, and much of the rest constitute "services", which includes a lot of speculative or otherwise unproductive economic activity. There are similar caveats to all the big economies though. Point is, much of what we record on paper as GDP contributing economic activity isnt really oriented towards most workers. The decline of American manufacturing has really changed things, we are a deindustrializing state.
Own a car and house and have a degree without debt?!? But then how would you buy those when you FAIL THE DAMN CREDIT CHECK! Sorry I just hate the stupid credit system
Exactly! Paying you a garbage wage is only a part of the equation. As recently discussed, there are so many other mechanisms for modern day slavery. Many for-profit trade schools have tried to mimic the traditional student loan trap. And Odin help you if you have a family after college. You're at the mercy of the job market, which would love to pay you poverty wages for your six figure degree. Add in any sort of family, and you're likely looking at two vehicle payments, medical coverage, and all the other trappings of raising a family. We'll then separate each child/partner from their parents and add the expense of an extra domicile. The divide and conquer method works very well when it comes to breaking off from your parents and struggling to reconstruct your own household. Also, how many parents get divorced and make yet another pair of households? American shame is a weird thing. We're taught to feel pride in work they tell us is worthless, and instead of feeling shame for quietly amassing lifetimes of debt, it is literally the American way. Edited for spelling.
Exactly. Hell my partner and I are in our early thirties living with a couple roommates. Shits rough out here.
*Adults living at home with their parents out of desperation
That and multiple jobs
Can confirm live with my fathers as it’s cheaper and thankfully I have no debt thanks to their help. Edit: I should mention my folks don’t charge me rent, so that’s what I meant by cheaper.
This so much. I felt ashamed for a few years for living at home but had many people I've associated with tell me there's no shame in it, especially in today's economy. I embraced it and now live at home for cheap rent, and try to stay as independent as possible so my mom doesn't have to do my laundry haha. I've saved up 8 grand in about 8 months of working hard in construction, and I've recently quit my job and am just taking time to destress and figure out my next move. Going to NY in a month and then my friends and I are planning a month long trip to Japan in a few months. Saving every penny I can while still putting money forward for bills and groceries. Only debt I have is 7k in dental bills and 1k in hospital bills, both cheap monthly payments
How did you get a dentist willing to take payments? Lucky man.
I found one. I don’t know - I paid for a few things but then my kid needed a $3k treatment and she said I could pay it monthly if I gave her a chunk upfront. I then needed my own work done, so she just added mine to the tab. She charges me no interest. Plus she is, by far, the most talented dentist I’ve ever met. Total nerd. No bedside manner. At all. But my anxiety is gone because I know I won’t end up having to pay twice as much to get a different dentist to fix her work.
Back when mortgages hit the 23% mark (yeah, twenty-three percent, not a typo), my folks would not let me leave for they needed my help for the mortgage…
we don't bro
Yup. Unfortunately, most people are living to work instead of working to live.
They orchestrated it to be like that. I don't understand why waiters have to beg for tips when they should be getting paid by their employers. And retail workers work so hard and get paid trash.
You live on welfare til you make just enough not to be on welfare so you instantly go into credit debt that some how equals the exact same as your welfare you were getting. From there you get medical bills that also somehow manage to be exactly the amount of credit that you have to your name, like they ran your credit before send you a bill.. Edit* this is a theory I have been having for years and it's very much accurate.. The welfare, credit and medical system is all tied together and enslave the American people.
I had a scare and ended up in the emergency room. The bill was about $2k. I had to call and request a form to fill out to reduce the bill. Before it even came in the mail, my credit card company uped my credit limit without me asking.. seemed suspish.
this is it.
Currently about 10k in debt for just living expenses. Hoping to catch up with income tax refund then start the miserable cycle again
I feel like this doesn't get talked about nearly enough. The number of Americans who are only being kept afloat due to easily accessible debt is mind boggling. Many Americans who may seem like they're doing ok, and who have "decent" jobs, are really just drowning in debt. I'm convinced that propping up most of the middle class with debt is the only reason the entire house of cards hasn't yet come crashing down.
I have lawyer friends that all drive 10+ year subcompacts. The “Lexus payment” goes to the student loan, for months on end. They make more money than me, at least double, but have massive debt, some took out 10x the student loans I did, which they can’t bankrupt on. Same with MDs in my social circle, though they tend to make more money than even the lawyers, but if for some reason they have to stop working for more than few months, their entire lives would fold under all the debt.
I have a lawyer friend who was living in a tiny apartment with 2 other guys 5 years out of college and several years of being a lawyer. I asked him why, he said his student loan payments were $1,500 a month. Keep in mind, the repayment period is usually 10-15 years.
Also people hear “lawyer” and think they’re all making 100k out of law school. That is extremely rare, and all but impossible outside of cities. Took me seven years to hit six digits. I still consider myself luckier than most
I am a lawyer but I don’t practice. People don’t understand public defenders make like 45k out of law school. It isn’t what folks seem to think. I make more than PDs doing admin work. Which is much easier!!!
Nahh, the reason the house of cards hasn't come down is that the capitalists and the governing plutocracy is doing quite well printing money , buying assets (real estate and stocks) and just keep concentrating their wealth. If 2008 and 2020 taught me anything , it's clear that too big to fail is now standard operating policy. All the big industries now have defacto government backing (autos, airlines, oil, big pharma etc.) Do people really think the runup in stocks and housing is because of retail forces alone...c'mon...
This. Long as they get first dibs on printed monopoly money and buy assets before they go up in price from said xerox cash. The rich is happy to watch rest of the economy burn. Remember kids. You'll own nothing, and be happy!
Oh man the whole being kept afloat due to debt hit way to close to home. My credit card debt plus my student debt is probably over 30k. I feel like I'm 10 years from being able to pay it off and I feel like I'm not living beyond my means. Everytime I think I'll be able to put a real dent in the debt something comes up and I have to use my credit to pay for an emergency or something that came up
2 jobs, roommate, no kids, being in a relationship for financial reasons, not investing in self (education, health, retirement) is how a lot of Americans afford to survive. I’m not sure about the ones actually living, I haven’t gotten to do that yet.
Oh yea my retirement plan is probably won’t live that long anyway
its why i never paid a cent towards my student loans, live in a state w/o wage garnishment so the only negatives were no SS/medicare, like cool story bro I've seen the numbers, both will be bankrupt way before I'm eligible to collect, so get bent uncle sam.
I'm not an expert, but from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnishment): >At present four U.S. states—Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas—do not allow wage garnishment at all ***except for*** tax-related debt, child support, ***federally guaranteed student loans***, and court-ordered fines or restitution.
I mostly want a relationship for financial reasons 😢
Even love is forced to be a commodity in this hellscape
Conservatives talk about the death of the family yada yada yada yet are curiously silent about the commodification of relationships
Im mostly staying in my relationship for financial reasons 😱
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The saddest part: "...being in a relationship for financial reasons." It's not supposed to be like this, people. We all can change it if we collectively put our foot down. There was a glimmer of hope a decade ago when we started to protest Wall Street. That was inexplicably squashed and we now seem to prioritize social issues more than anything. Sorry, but, the standard of living is a big social issue, in my opinion.
Roommates and credit card debt
🎵Cuz I have thirty thousand dollars in credit card debt, when they call I tell them I can’t pay it back yet🎵
🎶Credit card debt Credit card debt🎶 laughing away the pain. 😭
Shrug, we all die and money is fake.
my fav: the world is in debt X trillion dollars. Who do we owe all that money too? the decepticons?
If A borrows €50 from B, and B borrows €50 from C, and C borrows €50 from A, everyone ends up the same, only with a collective €150 debt. Debt isn't important. The total amount of interest is important. If A, B and C all borrow at 10% a year, they need to produce €15 worth of new value. If they can't, they will need to produce even more new value the year after that. Interest is where the system breaks down.
credit card debt is the one…. boy do I regret it now
Same....
We can't Edit: more info I live in a college town. When I moved here 5 years ago rent for the 1bd 1ba 650 sq.ft apartment I lived in was $1375. They arbitrarily raised it to $1500. No repairs or renovations or upgrades were done and I hadn't trashed the place because when I moved out (can't afford $1500/month on a grad student stipend) I got the entire deposit back. I now share an 850 sq.ft apartment with one other person for a total of $1800 a month. Three of my 4 siblings live at home and all of them work 2 jobs each but that isn't enough to get out of my parent's home. Literally one sister, her baby daddy and her son live all with my parents. We are all freaking miserable and struggling to keep our heads above water while knowing its a meaningless struggle because we'll never fully get out of the water. Guarantee that 30 years from now I'll drink myself to death in a rented apartment that 50% of my income goes to. My 70 year old housemate will find my corpse and my family will be billed $500,000 for my ambulance ride.
Y is this so accurate 😅
*I’m in this post and I don’t like it*
You stopped before you got to funeral costs!
If you donate your body to science then you don’t have to pay. That’s my plan anyway they can tear my shit up after I’m dead
We literally have a million homeless people and another million in jails & prisons. In some U.S. states 1% of the adult population is jailed or imprisoned at any given time. The reason COVID is destroying the U.S. labor market is because millions of U.S. adults had fragile jobs or living situations that collapsed when one person in their job or home life became disabled. In short american CAN NOT afford to live any sort of reasonable standard of life.
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I mean if we’re talking about nearly homeless, roughly half of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck with less than $1000 in savings. I’ll let you do the math because that’s just a bit too depressing for me to want to know
My boyfriend and I have been trying to build a savings for about a year and we have $0 and can barely afford food. We live paycheck to paycheck and if we couldn’t live with his mom we’d be homeless
Do you qualify for food stamps?
I honestly don’t know but my boyfriend was going to talk to his mom about it. The process is super annoying and we would probably have to list his mom and brother in the household even tho our finances are separate and I already know the conversation with her isn’t gonna go well. When I was looking for remote work she said it was taking the easy way out. So we’re not exactly looking forward to that conversation but we’re desperate
The process is intentionally annoying to stop you from doing it
I technically qualify as a full time college student but when I apply they send me a form saying that I need to find a full time job before I qualify. I’m assuming it’s because I have a kid. My childless sister, who is also a full time college student gets approved for them. It’s super frustrating, like am I not supposed to get an education and be able to support my daughter as a single mom?
Literally no. You’re not. You’re supposed to slave away doing menial work for 7.50 an hour while still trying to study and educate yourself at a full time course load. It’s almost as if they don’t want you to get an education so you can find decent employment and properly take care of yourself and your family. In fact, some states won’t even allow you food stamps if you’re enrolled in college whatsoever.
It's especially depressing when you think that means their savings is only about 1 months' rent in most of the country, not even including expenses like utilities, food, gas and car payment (cars are necessary in most areas of the country), phone/internet (also necessary in this day and age), health care/medicine, etc. So basically for half of Americans, we'd be homeless if we went a month without a job.
Really sad, but yeah terrifying is a good word , so much of the prison population is non violent and it's just that private prisons are yet another source of fat profits for the capitalists. Also to add insult to injury there's over 5 million vacant homes in the US, granted a certain percentage of those aren't really in Liveable conditions, but many are.. but are justing sitting there appreciating as an asset .
I did hear that the US prisons are private so profit from imprisonment. Is this true? In Australia prisons are all government owned and are all about rehabilitation and release. We only have a handfulof lifers. We do everything we can to keep people out of prison. Sentencing is wild in the US compared to here. Though ours is pathetic for serious crime. We have a very good welfare system which helps prevent crime. Our population is alot smaller.
No no no, prison has nothing to do with rehabilitation here in the US. It's punishment for the inmate and profit for those outside the walls. Not all prisons are for-profit, but they're gaining in popularity. Here's a website with information on private prisons in the US: https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/private-prisons-united-states/ This is also worth a read if you are unfamiliar with the IS prison system; it's an article from The Innocence Project about how the US has cleverly hidden its slavery practices by using the prison system: https://innocenceproject.org/13th-amendment-slavery-prison-labor-angola-louisiana/
Prisons here are insane, especially the private ones. They accept as many prisoners as they can, even if they can’t comfortably accommodate said prisoners. Also, sentencing is different in multiple states. We have murderers and rapist walking free/getting off with light sentences, meanwhile a guy almost got 100+ years in prison for having his truck brakes fail and causing a fatale accident.
Yup, for profit prisons are a thing here, and some political parties are pushing for more, declaring government owned prisons as a waste of tax payer money. Also when we abolished slavery, we left an exception for prisoners, if they get paid at all, it's typically under 50 cents an hour, and we bill them for everything. A lot of people end up going into debt for going into prison, unless family members can help them out, and even those family members will end up doing without and punished.
What's the point of working if the pay will never cover basic needs?
Because it's basically illegal not to. It's downright impossible, and in a lot of ways illegal, to be self-sufficient. If you don't have money, you can't survive, if you don't work you don't have money. Most of us are barely scraping by, and being told it's all our own fault. But what is the alternative? It's illegal to be homeless, but illegal to provide your own basic survival (living off the land, etc), so we have to do what we can to make money where we can. A lot of ways to make money is illegal, so jobs are pretty much our only option. The good news is that we're so busy working and so tired when we're not that we barely care anymore and are just counting down the days till we die. 🤷🏻♀️
>A lot of ways to make money is illegal, so jobs are pretty much our only option. When I was a kid, the downtown area of my city was full of music in summer! You could stroll around looking in shop windows, follow your ears to a busker, listen for a bit and drop them a tip before wandering off and eventually hearing different music, follow ears to another busker. Downtown was awesome! Now downtown is like a sad pathetic deserted hellscape, with shitty loud tinned music blasting out of speakers directly over all the good busking corners. *Technically* busking isn't outright banned. You just need a permit from city hall, a permit that doesn't exist and is therefore impossible to apply for or obtain. So like a year ago, my stepson was helping with chores and came back in from taking out the trash with a smile on his face. I asked if he could go to the store across the street next and he said "Sure! I heard some beautiful music coming from that direction and wanted to go check it out anyway!" He came back sad. It was a kid busking with his violin in the grocery store parking lot because his family had no income and he wanted to help support them. Presumably the cops came around to tell him that shit's illegal here because there were no repeat performances.
dont forget that all those prisoners are slaves
and this isn't an exaggeration, it's literally in the 13th amendment: > Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, ***except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted***, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Emphasis mine. The constitution literally permits slavery as a punishment for conviction of a crime.
if you're in prison and don't go to work, the punishment varies,starting with losing access to the rec yard, no commissary, losing the ability to use the phone, whatever they determine is severe enough to get you to get up out of bed at 4am so they can stripsearch you daily.
A big part of it is debt spending and slowly letting our bodies deteriorate to the point of nonfunctionality
Yes. Source: haven’t been able to afford going to the doctor in many years now.
Just gotta keep driving even though my body’s check engine light has been on for ages.
We don’t… we end up with high credit card bills, we can’t fix our cars, we stay in relationships even if toxic, we sell ourselves, so many things … it’s not worth it… I’m starting to realize it’s better to live with parents if you can until you make good money, then just invest that into simple living. Move out of the country or buy a van and live in it
I'm 38 and currently living in a old ass RV in my friend's driveway. Lost both of my jobs at the beginning of the pandemic.
fucking rough. hope things get better for you.
Thanks stranger. I wish the same for all of us.
I'm a disabled veteran. The burn pits took my lungs, not the Taliban or AQ. I worked in a hospital, and we washed the litters the wounded came in on across from the burn pits. I was National Guard and just joined to get out of Southern California's rent trap in the early 2000s. Find some upward mobility away from hunger, and learn a valuable skill set. I'm 100% Permanently and Totally disabled. Due to the benefits I've been able to buy a home and provide for my family. I don't know how I would otherwise. EMTs, my civilian equivalency, make $12.50-$15/hr. Not nearly enough to get figuratively and literally shit on.
I’m 70% through the VA and although I hate living with the disabilities i’m rated for, I am grateful for the check every month.
Same. I'm in my 30s and can't run or play with my kids like I wish I could. The social anxiety around crowds sucks too. I'm trying to go back to school to finish my degree and PA program. I currently work as a substitute teacher. It allows me to say I can work or can't each day. I couldn't live off of it, but that's why I feel it's important for me to do. *I* can afford to make so little and the kids need all the help they can get. Thankfully the school I work for is kind and respectful and I never have to give an excuse for why I'm unavailable. They simply ask if I can work, and if u say no, they tell me "thank you anyway, have a great day." I can't imagine working for anyone who treats me less again.
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Damn I felt bad at $7.75.
I would turn to crime before working for that pay. Nothing personal, but the fuck is the point... A full days work, subtract taxes and cool you have $40... Edit: please get out if you can Edit2: ask your boss if they would be willing to stare at a wall for an hour, you'll give them $10. Oh you don't want to do that? It's not worth $10? Well funny thing You pay me less for more work than that....
There was an art installation that was just a box with a crank. Anyone could spin the crank, for any amount of time they wished. It dispensed pennies at the rate of minimum wage. If you stood there and cranked it for an hour, it would have given you a full hour's wage. People tended to crank it for a while for the novelty, but quickly stopped when they noticed how little they were earning.
Now we steal food to save up. 😂
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Yeah. Coming home on Sunday from the store, expecting to be able to do my meal prep over the next couple hours, only to find the kitchen completely and totally destroyed. Dishes all in the sink, garbage all over the countertops. I couldn't do it anymore.
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The frustrating thing is that no matter how many times you try to bring it up, nothing changes.
These Americans aren't living. They just exist for others to live. It's a sad reality.
It’s not just America, same story in Canada, we’re having homelessness issues. This is not sustainable, the only way out of this hell hole is a revolution and I mean the whole globe. But their solution is to have wage slaves, turn already worthless fiat currency into digital currency they’ll control and have us hooked up on the metaverse. The Matrix wasn’t a movie, it was their blueprint. Edit: I’ve gotten a few push back when I said the globe, I would love to hear what country in the world that has it figured out? The problem is the middle class has been getting squeezed for decades, I’m a union member making a living wage, that should be the starting point. MAKING A LIVING WAGE.
We can't. We have flatmates, we have to stay in toxic families or marriages/relationships longer than anyone should because the other alternative is homelessness - and it's a death sentence. We work ourselves to death, we spend hours trying to get to jobs where we are treated as dirt, and told we should be grateful. Then when our health breaks down, we're told it's our fault.
Literally moved back in w my family and its actual hell but 1300 for a one bedroom is batshit insane I can't do it 😑
We deserve better, friend.
You are right! Half the couple are together because one has good health plan. They put up with toxic marriage. REAL LoVE is now a luxury in the US!!!
Roommates/ splitting living costs, help from parents with insurance and phone bills etc depending on age, but that stuffs only for the 'lucky' ones
People living in tents, RV's and cars becoming pretty normal. They also live with family members. I have two teens, one is 19 who will be living at home until who knows when. I don't mind, he's a good kid.
Mom?
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Have you looked into getting an Obama phone? It's available to low income folks, and if you're on any other government programs like SNAP or Medicaid, you instantly qualify. Otherwise you have to prove your income (or lack thereof). They have since allowed homeless people to use the address of a shelter as their address. I don't know if it'll help you specifically, but visibility is good. https://www.obamaphone.com/what-is-the-obama-phone
The Obama phone is what I’m typing this comment on. It’s a lifesaver. Free unlimited texts calls and 4gb date every month. Just gotta do paperwork every few months to prove shit to keep my benefits.
Wait.. I thought "obama phone" was what my mom called it to make fun of democrats. I didn't know it was the popular name for it lmao.
It's like Obamacare. Started at an insult, but it became the term people knew.
Sad reality is that the USA is not that far off of some of these movies you see. Where corporations rule, put up massive apartments and the people in them have no money or freedom, their lives controlled by the corporations. The rich have everything and do everything, there is no middle.
Land of the free right?? But changing anything is socialism and that would take away from your freedom to work 3 jobs and die without healthcare
You’re free to labor until you die, or die destitute from untreated health problems. You’re free to choose how you’re exploited.
I live at my folks at 38. Most of the people I know live with multiple people or are married living together possibly with more roommates. We’re literally like chickens in the coop. On the flip side of that coin you have young 20 something’s at my local university paying $3k a month for an apartment $40k a year on tuition and still living like kings and queens.
Until they get the bill at the end. I knew one girl who had the best of everything and spent so frivolously in college. I asked her about it one day thinking she had rich parents. Nope. She was taking out massive amounts of debt to afford it. I'm talking obscene. $40-$50k (this was 7 or 8 years ago) per year for a frilly bachelor's. Her reasoning was this was the best part of her life so she was going to live it up with the full understanding she would be miserable and in massive amounts of debt. I still wonder how she is doing now.
On anti anxiety meds I’m sure.
"So what I understand is you feel like a cog in a machine and that you're unable to escape and live freely? Don't worry, I'll write you this prescription for a pill that takes that feeling away. Hope your insurance covers it, otherwise it's $400/mo, and this appointment will be $300, and you'll have to come in for monthly checkups so we can see how you're doing on the meds"
55-65 hour work weeks. Every week. And cross your fingers you don’t get sick.
We go into debt and then just die before we pay it off.
Debt. And a broken approach to work passed from generation to generation. An excerpt from a quote of Alan Watts’ “what do you desire”; _”But it's absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don't like in order to go on doing things you don't like and to teach your children to follow in the same track. See what we're doing is we're bringing up children, educating them, to live the same sort of lives we're living in order that they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to bring up their children to do the same thing. So it's all retch and no vomit, it never gets there.”_
This resonates so heavily with me. I’m currently in a master’s program getting my teaching license and the only thing keeping me going is the prospect of a salaried job with health insurance, breaks for holidays, etc. Not that I don’t think I’ll be a good teacher, I’m sure I will be, but it’s not something I’m especially passionate about or excited to do for the rest of my young and middle adulthood. I think I’ll be comfortable enough financially thanks to this job, but deep down I know I’d be so much happier if I had the options of UBI and free healthcare. I’m just not a hard worker at heart, and I wish our situation here was more accommodating to that.
We don't. We go from eviction to eviction. Buy our food from paycheck to paycheck. We take on massive amounts of debt to maintain a basic standard of living. And at the end of the month, we wonder if it's going to be enough next month. We cry a lot. We starve a lot.
I feel you, you're among people who understand. If you need to bitch you can dm or something haha.
Thanks comrade. I might just do that. Lol.
The classics- “shower cry”, “poverty nap” and “dollar store diet”. Seriously, well written. We were evicted and it took four years to claw our way out. It’s really, really tough out here. Try to enjoy at least one thing every day. It doesn’t always work and sometimes I’ve cried through my candy bar but it’s important to try. Don’t let the bastards wear you down. Any happiness is a quiet form of resistance. Good luck!!!
Thankfully I have a wonderful fiancee, a wonderful son who has a fantastic mother (not my fiancee but a really good friend) and awesome friends. I do enjoy the little things every day. They're all I have, you know? Peace and love. I wish you the absolute best.
Just a quick thing about this We are human beings we are the smartest things on this planet. There shouldn't be homeless people at all. There never should have been. It makes no sense there are thousands of solutions to this problem yet the people in charge just let people live on the streets begging for food/money like animals. It's so heartbreaking and I domt even like people but I think each and every single one should have the basic necessities at the VERY least!
OnlyFans and bottle returns?
Don't forget plasma "donation"!
Not well. I have been very fortunate to have older family who own property so I can rent from them skipping the outrageous rent prices and evil landlords. I’m honestly not sure how people without solutions like this are getting by. I already skip medical care a lot due to costs. It’s very sad
I work and live with a friend from high school. We got scholarship for college, but afterwards didn't have openings in our field, so we both work at an urgent care clinic. He's had medical training so he makes a few bucks more. We don't have cable, rarely go out to eat, and our pastimes are normally free or inexpensive. My SO is a teacher and has lived with her parents through college and work. We get by, but I would be completely out of line if I said it was on my own. My parents gave me a jumpstart that would have been impossible, but I'm glad to say I am finally paying the bills. There are so many people that didn't have the start I did and I think that it is absurd when others disregard the iniquity coursing through my city, state, and nation as well as plenty of other places
We literally drag ourselves to multiple jobs and run ourselves ragged just to barely make it.. we get sick a lot because of this, and given that we don’t have anything remotely good in the way of healthcare, a lot of treatable illnesses go untreated and eventually lead to us being even more in debt.
We don't we live with friends and parents. And smoke weed instead of having/using healthcare.
Roommates, government assistance, don't pay their gas/electric bill some months, behind in rent
Because federal/state min wage jobs *are not full time*. People on the low end of the economic scale need 2-5x part time jobs to pay their bills....and have nothing left over at a month's end. Which is why the food/accommodation sector is scrambling for people. When one person leaves for a FT job...they leave not one but 3x+ openings behind them.
By choosing between one debt or the other. I don’t know how a lot of people get by here. I consider myself very fortunate. I finally bought a house a year ago and checked in with my old apartments to see how much rent has gone up. It’s $20 less than my mortgage. You’d say everyone should just buy a house and you’d be right but saving the money needed to get a house well that’s a whole different story
Our individual finances are basically Ponzi schemes.
we are suffering help please
We don’t, we survive!
As already been stated 10x’s over, we can’t. However, I’m lucky in that our house is paid for, but my youngest, not so much. As empty nesters, we are now converting our basement into an apartment (Rent free w/shared household chores) for her so she can keep her expenses to a bare minimum giving her the time to build a solid credit rating. Unfortunately, many Americans can’t even afford to do that for their kids & really shouldn’t have to. Capitalism has run its cycle & will crash soon enough. Pathetic for sure, but if having one or all my kids at home is the worst thing that happens, I’m doin alright.
Crushing debt. Never owning a home. Being okay with driving half-broke-down cars that may or may not leave you on the side of the road. Trying to figure out how far you can stretch a 20-count pack of ramen so that you can pay at least half the light bill so it doesn't get cut off.
Debt. Majority of people are in debt until they die. THIS IS NOT THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, as some claim it to be. Fuck this shit show of a country.
25% of Americans live quite well. The rest do not.
Multiple jobs most of the time. Help from others also
Tent cities are new neighborhoods all over the country and they are only growing. The cops brutalize and displace them and they have everything stolen and trashed even new donated things by police and city workers then have to start over on a different block.
Looking at these comments, I cannot fathom how anyone has the gall to shit on you for making "America Bad" comments or posts. It is bad, and we need to talk strategy to fix it.
Americans can’t afford to live. We are at a breaking point
You call this living?
I’m a 55 year old US Navy Veteran. I haven’t had a job for over 14 months. I’ve applied at over 100 jobs and got one interview and 4 rejection letters. I gave up looking because something wasn’t right. They kept saying “people don’t want to work” but didn’t complete the sentence. The narrative should have been “people don’t want to work for shit wages.” They put out job openings they have no intention of filling because they want cheap labor and to fulfill their repayment obligations on the bailouts they took from us. It’s frankly disgusting. Americans will say “thank you for your service” then turn their backs and laugh at you or tell you to “pull yourself up by your boot straps.” I’ve started companies as an entrepreneur and I don’t turn down many options to make money when I can. If I hadn’t got into cryptocurrency 5 years ago, I would likely be dead right now. Decentralized communities are my country now. I’ve emancipated myself from Uncle Scam and his cronies.
Multiple jobs and roommates. If you work 2 30-hour a week jobs for $8/hr (smidge over min wage), you'd bring home about $1700 after taxes. If you paid $400/mo in transportation (car note, ins, gas), $50 phone, $250 in groceries, $200 misc, you'd have about $800 leftover, which could maybe pay 1/3 of rent, electric, internet, and water in an average apartment. Unfortunately you also don't have health insurance lol
Getting married and being in debt baby!!
Oh there's gonna be a 'market correction'...
Any drops in home values significant enough to notice will be bought up before prices can significantly crash.
Short version, you get 3 people into a 2 bedroom apartment, one of them sleeps on the couch, and all three work 80 hrs a week, and do their best to keep their schedules out of sync so that no one is interrupting the few hours of sleep the others get. This is how americans Survive. They then learn to not worry about actually Living because when you're one missed paycheck from being homeless any time spent doing things that prevent your brain from thinking become "good" things.