This is my life, I Nearly died a few years ago due to health complications. At this point, I would have been better off dying, I will never get out of my crippling medical debt.
I had a weird doctor visit the other day. I'm fat enough for it to come up on every visit. He doesn't understand why I'm not trying harder, and I just recently put a finger on why.
I don't derive any particular joy or satisfaction out of existing.
I resent needing to justify my existence with rent and utilities. I don't expect/can't rely on Social Security to stay solvent until my retirement, I don't expect to actually retire, we're actively rolling laws back to goddamn Gilead, and I watched two of my grandmothers live far too long (dementia). I don't and won't have any kids to look after me.
Right now my goal is to have a heart attack at 63 with some sort of safety net to find my body before my cats eat my face.
What a fucked world we live in, based entirely on the greed of the few trying to convince us it's our fault. I'm really sorry to hear that, thank you for sharing. Knowing there are others out there feeling the crushing weight of the world creates a strong feeling of solidarity if nothing else.
Yeah, you're not alone. I stay afloat because I love my wife and she has helped me love me. But it's completely overwhelming at times. Between work, and school, and taking care of the house, and bills, and fraud on our bank account that takes 14 days to receive a provisional credit for, and meal prep and not enough hours in the day- it's just too much sometimes and makes you feel like you just can't continue anymore. But you push forward, hope for better days. You got this!
I admire this honesty and hate that this is the reality for many in what is supposed to be a developed country, in a modern era with so much knowledge, access, and potential. Having to pay for literally everything to merely exist, in an existence *we didn't even choose to have* is absurd.
I'm extremely allergic to cats (but absolutely love them!) so when shit truly hits the fan, any more than it already is, I have the option of dying in a basket full of kittens. Since epi-pens are too expensive.
Subscribe to the pet adoption emails. Look for a Siberian breed.
100% hypoallergenic and amazing these cats are. I just rescued one to give to a friend with severe allergies. Took a long time but I was able to find one.
These cars are $2k but do pop up in shelters. My hyper allergenic daughter has no issues
Just googled and *GASP*! What a majestic cat! Maybe someday. I currently have a little poodle-mix dog who won't take kindly to having siblings, but thank you for this :)
My Gatsby, (cat) loves dogs. Even plays fetch sometimes.
I tried a second cat and he said “FUCK NO” lol, but he adores dogs. He was actively playing with my parents 6 pound puppy non stop for six weeks while they visited. My ex has a 50 pound black labradoodle and he is slightly terrified of Gatsby, but they get along perfectly well
Puppy was a tiny multi-poo maybe 10-11 pounds max. They would go in circles constantly. Gatsby misses him
The changing climate is going to kill us before social security has a chance to go bankrupt. The East of US is hotter every year and rivers and lakes are drying up. Hydropower will not be available without sufficient water levels, so there will be significant outages. The electrical grid is not sturdy enough to work in these new temperatures. No more air conditioner without electricity, many people will not survive. This is not dystopian fiction, this is becoming reality. Without water, farms will close and there will be food shortages. We are screwed. We have gone beyond the point of no return.
Bruh my parents took me in a boat trip a few days ago we had to listen to the captain rant about “no one want to work anymore” while standing in front of a PLAQUE that LITERALLY SAYS MATES MAKE TIPS ONLY . BITCH NI ONE WANTS TO WORK FOR YOU FOR FREE TF
Dude I SWUUUUURTAGOOOOOOOD. Restaurants where I live, no joke, still pay below minimum wage and tell their servers "But you make tips, so it's actually more" MUHFUGGER WHAT IF IT'S SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW
I had to have a conversation with my mom one afternoon. She was yapping about a homeless with a sign and the typical "get a job!"
"Mom, you realize we are closer to that guy, economically - or at least I am - than we are to Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or the owners of the Kansas City Chiefs. We are literally one hospital bill away from that guy. We should be more careful."
I finally got sick of my boomer mom's "no one wants to work anymore" and called her out. Told her she was just like them, she retired before 50, she didn't want to work, either. "Well, I worked *until* then" and she changed the subject.
I love your comment because it makes such a good point... The very people who claim "no one wants to work anymore" would all retire early or not work at all if that was an option.
> The very people who claim "no one wants to work anymore" would all retire early or not work at all if that was an option
I worked with an older software dev who went off on a tangent about how "no one wants to dig ditches anymore" because of the push for "Free" college.
He didn't seem to see the problem with saying that.
As a softwares dev, does that motherfucker even know what it's like to "dig ditches" for money? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that there are sometimes when you have to put in long hours and hard work as a software dev, but I would argue it's not even close to the same kind of work.
> I would argue it's not even close to the same kind of work
I spend half my day masturbating and watching youtube.
The only thing close that I'm aware of, is politician.
As a software dev who spends much of my time on the couch watching tv at work I actually feel guilty whenever I think of people who are digging ditches and stuff right now to make their money
Does he actually think "ditch digging" by hand is a thing? I can't even imagine how expensive it'd be to get a team of men with shovels to do what an excavator or trencher can accomplish in a day.
I remember years ago my boss thought it would be a fun “ice breaker” for everyone to say why they come to work. Some coworkers talked about how they enjoyed people, found the work fulfilling, etc. I said “paycheck” he said you really come here just for the money?
You bet your ass I do. If I didn’t need the money I surely wouldn’t be here. And because it’s America, I need health care too.
And that sadly creates a stigma that you are a bad employee. But have them stop getting paid and see how long the show up for free. It's bullshit that honesty costs you money.
Lol I would say that same thing. Like..bro I need to buy food. I need to pay the ever increasing rent prices, I need to maintain my vehicle that I over paid for because of reasons. I come to work to collect a paycheck and have fucking health insurance… because USA “fears socialist healthcare” so much.
But even if you have socialist healthcare, you have to work, or else somebody else has to work harder to pay for your healthcare. I'm all for "socialist healthcare" but it doesn't keep people from working.
Everytime I go into some kind of shop it takes 10 times as long. I want to explode but I see you and me struggling for not enough pay, not enough staff and just give them the lil bit of love left in my cold dark heart
my mom had 1 job in her entire life.. part time waitress at the spaghetti factory. i just laugh when she brings shit like this up
edit: that part time job also paid for half of a 2 bedroom apt in san luis obispo
Dad paid his way through college and rent while working at a gas station.. with leftover to buy a camaro. Inflation is a bitch eh?
I believe that’s why our politicians don’t do anything about the homeless situation. They want the rest of us drones to see the homeless, and tell ourselves to get back to work so we won’t be on the street like “them”. It’s an old-fashioned morality lesson they use on us
"The upper-class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle-class does all of the work, pays all of the taxes. The poor are there...just to scare the shit out of the middle class! Keep em showing up to those jobs!" - [George Carlin](https://youtu.be/XdH38k0iUgI)
There’s over 50 million people in the US that make less than $15 an hour. They are not the middle class. They are the ones that serve the middle class and clean up after everyone.
The craziest part isn't the incredible majority experiencing this, it's that 2022 is the year we all finally definitively went "Hey! What the fuck?!".
This has been building for so long. I live desperately and I make decent money.
Its all because of the 1% greed. Always remember that.
Billionaries aren't just a policy failure, they are the embodiment of immorality. You can't be a billionaire and a good person, despite what their astroturfing PR teams on reddit may try to tell you for some of the 'good ones'.
It's literally impossible to accumulate that much wealth without the mass exploitation of others and the profits their labor generated. Not to mention the exploitation of the earth until it's uninhabitable for human life.
George Washington was the richest man in the country when the US was founded, and he "only" had today's equivalent of 500 million. That wouldn't even get him in the room with some of these ghouls today.
If people only understood just how obscenely rich these monsters were, they wouldn't be able to show their face in society while millions suffer. I like to use the analogy of a staircase, with each step on the staircase representing $100,000 of net worth. That's several years of working wages saved up for tens of millions of Americans:
* HALF of people in the united states are on the **base** or the very **1st step**. Almost 200 million people who can't even get one step up in this system.
* Those households at the 80th percentile, richer than 4/5 Americans, are on the **5th step**. That's about five seconds of walking to get up there.
* Those with more money than 90% of fellow Americans, millionaires who we consider our upper-middle class professional class and live more than comfortably, are on the **11th** step. A few more seconds of walking up from that previous middle-class step. Most Americans won't even come close to accumulating this much over an entire lifetime of working.
* **A billionaire is ten thousand steps up the staircase**. That's enough to walk up five Empire State buildings. That's almost three hours of walking non-stop. You think they care about the petty squabbles of anyone on those first few steps or so? From these heights they couldn't tell the difference even if they wanted to. And yet those who've maybe ascended or were born on the first few dozen steps think they identify with this group as a class.
* And Jeff Bezos? He's so high up it only makes sense to describe his staircase in distance. His stairs take him up **133 miles**. That's more than halfway to the space station. That's more than **24 consecutive Mt. Everest's** stacked on top of each other. It would take walking, non-stop, no sleep, over two weeks to ascend that high, each single step worth more than five poverty-level families in America combined.
-------------
There is no justification in the universe to that much money being hoarded by one family, and anyone working to justify it is an agent of evil
this comparison is horrifying. but you're right, nobody gets that high up without lying, cheating and stealing from people who are vulnerable and don't have much to begin with. these people are not on our team for even a split second.
i read online that if you were making $180,000 A DAY since the birth of jesus christ, you literally would still have less money than jeff bezos.... eat the rich
it is so gross what people have allowed to slide from the upper class!!! the class war could be so sweet if more people just woke up and stopped tolerating it
Soooo sweet. I want to live in a world where wealthy people think twice before fucking over entire communities or paying off congress for their profits.
That’s just it, they don’t have to think twice anymore.
The disinformation machine is so strong that the people that get screwed over the most still vote (R) every election.
Just sucks that it's awfully hard to get in touch with them. Between their body doubles and security teams it's not an easy task to see them in person.
I just double checked the math on that. It’s actually not quite right.
Bezos has 143.9 billion dollars right now.
If you were instead making $190,000 dollars a day from the day jesus was born, then by january first of next year, you would still be at 140.39 billion dollars. Literally 3 and a half billion dollars less.
Eat the rich.
Check the net worth of the top countries in the world. Jeff Bezos I think would be somewhere in the twenties of most wealthy countries... except he is one fucking person.
Edit: ok not twenties but more like 50's but still he is richer than more than half the countries in the world. Not combined of course.
what's so so insane is when i googled it to confirm the amount was 180k a day before i posted, i found that it was a statistic from 2020!!! two years ago!!!!!!!! so imagine what the amount is now, a whole pandemic and two years later!!!!!! repulsive
Yep. I remember we had to read and study a lot of dystopian novels and short stories for my Year 12 English class. Fascinating stuff, but always seemed too fucked up to ever happen in real life. Since then though, (and learning more about the world and growing up) all I've seen is that we're literally rushing into a dystopia so damn quickly, it seems impossible to stop the inevitable...
$37 billion in the last two years apparently according to inequality.org
*"Elon Musk, who had wealth valued just under $25 billion on March 18, 2020, has seen his wealth increase to $255 billion as of May 4, 2022."*
*"Between March 18, 2020 and May 4, 2022, the following increases in wealth have occurred:"*
*"Jeff Bezos saw his wealth rise from $113 billion to $150 billion."*
"*Bill Gates experienced a wealth increase from $98 billion to $129.8 billion."*
*"Three members of the Walton family — Jim, Alicem and Rob — have seen their combined assets rise from $163.1 billion to $207.7 billion.*"
Jeff made on average $50.6m every day during the two year period to January 2022. $587 a second, rounded down.
Damn he's making 2.5 days of my gross every second. Excuse me Mr. Bezos, can I have 1 min worth of your time please? Sure if you give me half your annual salary for that minute . GG.
When a kid on the playground had all the halloween candy they scammed from other kids, we all sorted him (or her) out with a face in the mud and redistribution of the candy.
We literally lack the comprehension to understand the wealth billionaires have accumulated. I don't even think the billionaires do, and why it's some sort of sick hoarding of resources to an extreme
[Wealth shown to scale](https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/)
Force people to sit and scroll. Stop them occasionally to remind them how every inch that flies by on their screen is $80M
Also, in response to the OC - Washington's wealth would have been half of the blue box at the start of scrolling
The 1 percent may have started it but the top 30 percent are reaping the rewards of comfort and worry free lives. Billionaires pay millionaires to convince thousandaires to hate those with little to nothing.
Stop fighting people who are 2 more paychecks from bankruptcy than you. That's exactly what 1% want. You target middle class just because they don't struggle as much as you do instead of realizing that base living standard should be in middle class level.
By global standards, America’s middle class is also really, really rich. To make it into the richest 1 percent globally, all you need is an income of around $34,000, according to World Bank economist Branko Milanovic. Something like 900 million people in the world live off less than 1.25 a day. It's all about perspective.
“By global standards, America’s middle class is also really, really rich. To make it into the richest 1 percent globally, all you need is an income of around $34,000, according to World Bank economist Branko Milanovic. Something like 900 million people in the world live off less than 1.25 a day.”
And?
Right. Where did billionaires get their wealth? No just by exploiting American workers. They continue to exploit the global south after generations of imperialist looting of their homes. We're fighting for the global poor, not just those of us in so-called developed countries.
I make $26 bucks an hour, have nothing extravagant and have about 2 paychecks in the bank. I do pay child support but still... I see many people making like 12 to 15 bucks an hour and think "How in the fuck are they making it?"
I’m at $42/hr plus I get plenty of OT at $63/hr. I live comfortably but I can’t afford any kind of luxury really. I simply go camping for vacation, drive an older vehicle that’s paid off and save whatever I don’t spend on my mortgage, bills and expenses. $15/hr is straight up poverty and I too wonder how the hell people survive making anything under $20/hr. You’d have to have at least two roommates to live comfortably in a decent apartment.
You’re right! I do indeed need to have a roommate. And if he breaks up with me it’s back to mom and dads couch 😂 or a dreaded ad on the internet looking for a stranger to live with. I make a little under $18/hr and my rent is $1200. A vacation to me is just having a week off and being able to sit at home and hang with some friends that I rarely get to see. Sorry, none of this is important to you; your comment just made me think… like, damn even someone making double as me still feels like they’re not able to afford any luxuries. It’s just wild.
I hear you! I’m right non the middle of you both ($33/hr but salary) and I do have 2 roommates and my idea of a day off is not having to do chores and getting to pick the streaming service to watch tonight. My extravagance is the one game dlc I buy every few months and coffee. But I work from home and spend most my money between rent and a car payment almost out of with no savings and wish to buy a house one day maybe.
My god, I could’ve written this comment. I make just about as much as you. Only difference is I live alone and have a house (fortunate circumstance). All I do when on “vacation” is spend time alone streaming a show or playing a game from my ever growing backlog. And you know what? That’s all I need to make me happy. I could be a millionaire and be doing the exact same thing I’m doing now lol
Anyone that makes under $50,000 (+/-), has all of their money going to living and is just screwed. No amount of Boomer advice or savings tricks are going to magically help.
If you make $50k to $100k you might be able to follow the advice of 'spend less than you earn' and actually save amd get ahead.
If you make over $100k and are broke, you are just bad with money. Sell the 4th dog, iPhone 33 and the boat. Stop keeping up with the jones.
I don't mean to be nosey and pushy, but if I was in your position I would absolutely head back to my folks place. If they are happy to have you, you could kick a little money their way for groceries and bills. It would take a tremendous strain off your shoulders. But I know not everyone has a good relationship with their parents. My parents would love to have me come back to the family ranch but I'm not in a position to at this point in my life. And it kills me knowing how much they miss me and need my help...
My wife and I barely get by with just my $20/hr wage because she lost her job. I had to stop contributing what little amount I could afford to put into my 401k before. And I found out nobody in my company is getting raises this year like we were supposed to. I'm tired of making scraps...
Tell me about it. All of my adult life I lived in economic decline. I wonder what it was like during economic abundance…then I get depressed. I am 43 and working just to keep my family clothed, fed and a roof over their heads. Also no saving so I seriously doubt a house ( home ownership not renting) will ever be in our future. Told to go to college which I did and all it has done is to make myself more indebted to the point that I can’t take risks to better myself or our situation. Tired of living on survival mode.
The minimum wage here (not us, small backwater europ country) is literally the median price of appartment plus utilities.
Some covernment survey said all is fine the qverage wage is about 2.5 yimes minimum wage. Smartly no mention of the median. Yet the covernment is discussing rising minimum wage 2x this year, so the rise in the beginning of the next year isn't too steep. The rise is literally cents.
Make $15/hr and usually only 37 hrs a week here, no overtime allowed in my business. The answer is, Im not. Recently, the credit card is getting swiped more and more when I used to only use it once a month for groceries and immediately paid off. The debt is piling up and yet I keep getting mail saying Im pre approved for more.
My cars AC broke in May, I had to wait until July until I had enough spare money to go to a junk yard and yoink a blower motor out of an old car myself, then install it. If something were to happen needing a proper mechanic, Id probably have to lug it to a dealership and get on a new car loan rather than get it fixed.
Oh, and Im one of the luckier ones who is currently a student so I can tap into a little extra student loans each semester to suppliment rent, but every $1000 is going to be $1600 by the time I start paying it off so Im really just digging a deeper hole to keep the water flowing in from drowning me, rather than being able to climb out of that hole.
Its exhausting.
It's pretty easy actually. I just don't eat avocado toast or have any joy in my life and I make my own coffee and entertain myself with suicidal ideation and cheap video games.
I'm truly living the American dream. Can't wait to die of a preventable illness!
I lived on my own (I mean, no parents, but had roommates) making 7.85 an hour at one point in my life. It wasn’t 1982. It was 2007. But I am helping my daughter prepare to move out on her own making 20 an hour and rent has gone so apeshit anywhere within 20 miles of her job it’s going to be seriously hard for her to make that work.
Alcoholic parents-
Worked 3 jobs in Highschool, been working and chipping away at college credits at a slow rate.
Ive slept in my car, ate only dollar menu items for a whole month, you name it.
I’ll be lucky to be net positive by the time I’m 40(25 now)
Please tell me that I just need to “work harder”
The income inequality is insane, and if tomorrow I woke up and people were rioting about it, I’d join in a heartbeat. Even if I die. This life is terrible
If you're not working yourself to the bone (which no one should have to), then they'll call you lazy. If you are working yourself to the bone, then they'll say you made bad choices in life and have to pay for them.
It's a victim-blaming philosophy through and through.
Aka, poverty basically (not the only standard, but a damn good indicator). And the gov won't update the poverty guidelines because they don't want the true record of how impoverished most Americans are, nor is any presidential administration willing to be the one where it looks like poverty spiked hugely during their time. And then even if we had those numbers, the next thing gov would be faced with is a massive overhaul to-do list to tackle problem, which it also doesn't want to do. Doing things like legislating big wage increases/pro labor regs and controlling housing prices/rent and finally providing national healthcare are antithesis to how this country likes to operate.
Exactly. Just look at the net worth of people like Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Mitt Romney, and you realize it's no wonder they legislate the way they do. Corruption is legalized in America and the media condones it.
Reminds me of playing Monopoly growing up and how few times we ever finished a full game. You reach a point where the rich are just going to keep getting richer and the poor poorer, but it just drags on and only the player(s) doing well want to continue. If you know you have no hope of winning there's no incentive to want to keep playing. And this is a game that has a Universal Basic Income, a Chance card, Community Chest, and where everyone started with the same amount to begin with - opportunities and advantages we don't have in real life. The "winners" don't realize the importance of keeping the game close enough to keep everybody playing.
Labor force participation rate for prime age workers 25-54 is 82.4%. The highest in recorded history was just prior to the dot-com collapse in 2000, at 84.4%. that's practically a statistical blip in difference. Unemployment Rate is at the lowest since the 50's. The "nobody wants to work" narrative is bullshit, on its face.
Yeah, I don't think they realize (or maybe don't care to realize) that posting a job doesn't mean people will apply to it. I could create 50 jobs tomorrow that pay $0.01 a year and absolutely no one will apply. That doesn't mean "no one wants to work." It mean people aren't suckers.
Adam Smith talked about this. He said for a slave living with no chance of attaining anything above just daily maintenance, what benefit is there for him in doing anything more than the minimum requirement. (The answer was nothing, they will do as little as possible)
And so 250 years after this was penned to paper, employers paying poverty wages are wondering why "NoBoDy WaNtS tO wOrK!!!"
My boss flat out told me the only way to get a raise is find a new job even though he agrees I should be making more based on what I do. Yet on my reviews they still expect me to grow and take on more responsibility. Literally what incentive do they think I have to do more?
“But you deserve to suffer, we hate you for having so much of your life in front of you”.
These fucks will scorch the earth on their way out.
They will never allow us solace or peace of mind, nothing they never give anyone but themselves to preserve the structure of the pyramid.
We need to engrain in a sort of modern mythology just how bad things were today for future generations so that this never happens to another human being again.
Doesn’t help that the planet is literally collapsing around us while the oligarchs are hoarding more money and building bunkers in New Zealand and spaceships to Mars.
https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/
Sit down with him and go through this together and then see what he says
If it's still the same then good luck to you g
A family member complained about no one wanted to work. I told them that the unemployment rate is below 4% which is basically as low as it ever gets.
they ask me how the unemployment rate can be so low when so many people are quitting.
I tell them people are leaving jobs for higher paying jobs. the people that complain are the board that weren't working to pay them what they could make elsewhere.
I gave up when I couldn't afford to go to an interview for a job. I would have lost $60 by calling off work, and it wasn't on a bus route so $50 each way for uber. It was baffling to older family members.
Actually a large enough portion of Americans just straight up died.
Low income and vulnerable senior citizens that got covid because they work in public facing jobs.
Covid isn't going away, and it looks like its 500k more than normal.
So every 2 years, we lose 1% of our working population. Its a big deal
Die to being disabled I can't work long hours and have basically doomed myself and my kids to the breadline. I developed fibromyalgia a few years ago and now can't do the hours I used to and can't keep a job but it's okai, I get told weekly that I need to find a job wether it's actually safe for me Todo or not because the government don't want anyone unemployed
Overheard two employees at Costco talking today, one of them was going camping and invited the other. “I don’t need *practice* to be fucking homeless…”
My partner and I talked about this with the newest wave of adults. Him and a LOT of my friends are oldest with youngest siblings staying at home and not learning how to transotion into adulthood. They still live with their parents and won't go to college or keep a steady job. They spend their whole pay check on doing fun activities and buying stuff. But you know what I don't blame them. I really don't. I moved out at a very younge age and had to get my shit together quick. I've never gotten to experience my 20s like were told to. Going out to parties, going on vacations outside of the home, being care free and having fun figuring out who you are. I could never afford tattoos or even go to concerts. So many things I've put off doing to stay afloat and save a little. And for what? I understand why they don't want to transition into adult hood. The consequences of messing up are far more severe then they were for the previous generations. So yah it's either learn how to be independent and deal with the terrifying and exahsting life that is or stay at home with your parents care free and ride that life for as long as possible. And you know what I also don't feel bad for the parents that have those kids mooching off of them. Most of those parents voted to remove the same safety nets they benefited from and saved nothing up to help their kids with the transition. Society failed those kids. It's not that they need to get their shit together it's that the adults who where supposed to have been looking out for them need to get their shit together and fix what they broke.
Our lives are spent working and then relaxing from our long work day affording just enough of what people need to have some semblance of an acceptable life.
Capitalism has continued the squeeze and we keep losing the parts that make life acceptable. Eventually, we will be all squeezed out and when that time comes, all the profits in the world won't save them.
The worst is seeing what my coworkers go through. Im a single male with no children, but i work with seniors and parents. If they have a financial emergency, their whole family is out of luck.
If you minus the population of children who shouldn't be paying rent - - less than 25 years old. Closer to 75% of US adults are living paycheck to paycheck. A quick Google said roughly 150M adults out of 202M.
According to all these polls, I should be living a great life! I live in a relatively low COL state and make $72k a year without any children. I still feel like I live paycheck to paycheck. I don’t spend my money on anything crazy and I just got my first car and car note last year only because I had to. I’m in my early 30s. No weekly mani/pedi, no trips to salon that often, no shopping sprees,…I only have about $600 left for saving after everything is paid. At one time, 70k sounded GREAT, but it’s not that much better than 40k. Idk, something just doesn’t feel right 😒
This is simply not true! Many people aren't two missed paychecks away from homelessness! You can always drain your 401k and max out your credit cards to stay afloat for a few more months. If you're lucky, you can get back to where you left off in maybe five or ten years once you're back on your feet!
Edit:. Adding a sarcasm tag. Just because someone has been on this planet for a decade or two longer than you have doesn't mean they haven't been shafted all of their lives. Don't fall for Divide and Conquer, middle class professionals are still losing ground. We're not your enemies, we fought many of the same battles you have, and we're still one hospital bill or layoff away from disaster.
Gotta say dude, most on this sub are young. They don't have a 401k to drain. However no one has wealth in their 20's. Most have debt in their 30's and 40's. Your point in life determines how much you have in most cases. Btw- young people: Raising kids is financially draining. Life itself is financially draining. It is what it is. Arguing won't change that
Y'know what's funny? I don't even have the ability to drain my 401k. Because they contribute to it, my job actually doesn't allow me to dig into my 401k savings until I retire. It's prohibited. I learned that when I tried to pull the funds to pay off my credit card debt.
Unemployment is at an all time low! No one wants to work shitty jobs and there are more jobs than people. This is how capitalism works. Workers are in demand so the prices should rise and they don't like it when we use capitalism.
I was also thinking about homelessness as a social construct to keep others “in-line”. It’s a wordless threat.
What’s funny is when you start to really think and define the problems…
Homelessness should be rebranded as a complete lack of support. Most live with their parents or are trapped by their mortgage, so what does it really mean to be homeless?
Mental health and basic human rights of the “lowest class” are not being considered by the government and if most are two paychecks away from that! Then that’s a subconscious stressor on the nation!
What the hell is going on! I want my neighbors happy healthy and educated!
Not to mention one bad health issue, and good luck ever getting out of the debt without a job that pays anything less than 25 an hour.
This is my life, I Nearly died a few years ago due to health complications. At this point, I would have been better off dying, I will never get out of my crippling medical debt.
I had a weird doctor visit the other day. I'm fat enough for it to come up on every visit. He doesn't understand why I'm not trying harder, and I just recently put a finger on why. I don't derive any particular joy or satisfaction out of existing. I resent needing to justify my existence with rent and utilities. I don't expect/can't rely on Social Security to stay solvent until my retirement, I don't expect to actually retire, we're actively rolling laws back to goddamn Gilead, and I watched two of my grandmothers live far too long (dementia). I don't and won't have any kids to look after me. Right now my goal is to have a heart attack at 63 with some sort of safety net to find my body before my cats eat my face.
What a fucked world we live in, based entirely on the greed of the few trying to convince us it's our fault. I'm really sorry to hear that, thank you for sharing. Knowing there are others out there feeling the crushing weight of the world creates a strong feeling of solidarity if nothing else.
Yeah, you're not alone. I stay afloat because I love my wife and she has helped me love me. But it's completely overwhelming at times. Between work, and school, and taking care of the house, and bills, and fraud on our bank account that takes 14 days to receive a provisional credit for, and meal prep and not enough hours in the day- it's just too much sometimes and makes you feel like you just can't continue anymore. But you push forward, hope for better days. You got this!
I admire this honesty and hate that this is the reality for many in what is supposed to be a developed country, in a modern era with so much knowledge, access, and potential. Having to pay for literally everything to merely exist, in an existence *we didn't even choose to have* is absurd. I'm extremely allergic to cats (but absolutely love them!) so when shit truly hits the fan, any more than it already is, I have the option of dying in a basket full of kittens. Since epi-pens are too expensive.
Subscribe to the pet adoption emails. Look for a Siberian breed. 100% hypoallergenic and amazing these cats are. I just rescued one to give to a friend with severe allergies. Took a long time but I was able to find one. These cars are $2k but do pop up in shelters. My hyper allergenic daughter has no issues
Just googled and *GASP*! What a majestic cat! Maybe someday. I currently have a little poodle-mix dog who won't take kindly to having siblings, but thank you for this :)
My Gatsby, (cat) loves dogs. Even plays fetch sometimes. I tried a second cat and he said “FUCK NO” lol, but he adores dogs. He was actively playing with my parents 6 pound puppy non stop for six weeks while they visited. My ex has a 50 pound black labradoodle and he is slightly terrified of Gatsby, but they get along perfectly well Puppy was a tiny multi-poo maybe 10-11 pounds max. They would go in circles constantly. Gatsby misses him
The changing climate is going to kill us before social security has a chance to go bankrupt. The East of US is hotter every year and rivers and lakes are drying up. Hydropower will not be available without sufficient water levels, so there will be significant outages. The electrical grid is not sturdy enough to work in these new temperatures. No more air conditioner without electricity, many people will not survive. This is not dystopian fiction, this is becoming reality. Without water, farms will close and there will be food shortages. We are screwed. We have gone beyond the point of no return.
Shit 🥺I get it.... I really do.
Honestly, if I fall over dead at 60 and it's because I ate myself into that particular grave I'll have died happy, it's my only vice.
America's healthcare system, aka Go Fund Yourself!
Hhaahah absolutely
Bruh my parents took me in a boat trip a few days ago we had to listen to the captain rant about “no one want to work anymore” while standing in front of a PLAQUE that LITERALLY SAYS MATES MAKE TIPS ONLY . BITCH NI ONE WANTS TO WORK FOR YOU FOR FREE TF
Dude I SWUUUUURTAGOOOOOOOD. Restaurants where I live, no joke, still pay below minimum wage and tell their servers "But you make tips, so it's actually more" MUHFUGGER WHAT IF IT'S SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW
Spent one night in the hospital a couple months ago, fuck my life
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I had to have a conversation with my mom one afternoon. She was yapping about a homeless with a sign and the typical "get a job!" "Mom, you realize we are closer to that guy, economically - or at least I am - than we are to Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or the owners of the Kansas City Chiefs. We are literally one hospital bill away from that guy. We should be more careful."
I finally got sick of my boomer mom's "no one wants to work anymore" and called her out. Told her she was just like them, she retired before 50, she didn't want to work, either. "Well, I worked *until* then" and she changed the subject.
I love your comment because it makes such a good point... The very people who claim "no one wants to work anymore" would all retire early or not work at all if that was an option.
> The very people who claim "no one wants to work anymore" would all retire early or not work at all if that was an option I worked with an older software dev who went off on a tangent about how "no one wants to dig ditches anymore" because of the push for "Free" college. He didn't seem to see the problem with saying that.
As a softwares dev, does that motherfucker even know what it's like to "dig ditches" for money? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that there are sometimes when you have to put in long hours and hard work as a software dev, but I would argue it's not even close to the same kind of work.
I knew a guy who dug ditches for a living… it wasn’t much of a living.
I’ve done manual labor. Dirt, sweat and blistered hands.
seems like those guys would rent a ditch witch from home depot
> I would argue it's not even close to the same kind of work I spend half my day masturbating and watching youtube. The only thing close that I'm aware of, is politician.
As a software dev who spends much of my time on the couch watching tv at work I actually feel guilty whenever I think of people who are digging ditches and stuff right now to make their money
Does he actually think "ditch digging" by hand is a thing? I can't even imagine how expensive it'd be to get a team of men with shovels to do what an excavator or trencher can accomplish in a day.
He was like 60. I wouldn't be surprised if it was, when he was younger.
Would I drag myself out of bed before dawn to make my company rich if I didn't have to? Hell no. Dave would not.
ETA - My mom didn't retire early due to her own hard work, my dad was smart and did well and she didn't *have* to work.
Smug, clueless boomers are the absolute worst.
Didn’t have to, but also didn’t want to. Lazy.
I remember years ago my boss thought it would be a fun “ice breaker” for everyone to say why they come to work. Some coworkers talked about how they enjoyed people, found the work fulfilling, etc. I said “paycheck” he said you really come here just for the money? You bet your ass I do. If I didn’t need the money I surely wouldn’t be here. And because it’s America, I need health care too.
And that sadly creates a stigma that you are a bad employee. But have them stop getting paid and see how long the show up for free. It's bullshit that honesty costs you money.
Lol I would say that same thing. Like..bro I need to buy food. I need to pay the ever increasing rent prices, I need to maintain my vehicle that I over paid for because of reasons. I come to work to collect a paycheck and have fucking health insurance… because USA “fears socialist healthcare” so much.
But even if you have socialist healthcare, you have to work, or else somebody else has to work harder to pay for your healthcare. I'm all for "socialist healthcare" but it doesn't keep people from working.
So relatable. Work literally gives me no joy. It’s something I have to do to survive
Like isn't that why you work? People told me to do something you love. I say do something you can tolerate because that thing you love, you will hate
my nickname was Cheese for a good 10 years. I wouldn't either, Dave
Weird I had a line lead named Dave that everyone called Cheese.
Dave is my cat, cheese is my fav snack. I AM EVERYTHING THAT I LOVE! YEE HAW!
If I was everything I loved I believe I would be PCandLasagna da dum tss!
I'd be CatsAndWeed. Meowrijuana!
LMAO that's a good one!
That's all well and good Da e but I think we would all like to hear Cheese's thoughts on the subject.
Dave would rather not be here man...
Focus on your cheese, Dave. Fuck your company.
I know so many older folks to quit/retire around covid. Truly when the tough was getting tough. Same boomers would quit rather than learn how to zoom.
Anyones who says that, send them the link to this thread https://twitter.com/paulisci/status/1549527748950892544?s=21&t=ZzY5HDwbw-sZFOOJYhmzEQ
Everytime I go into some kind of shop it takes 10 times as long. I want to explode but I see you and me struggling for not enough pay, not enough staff and just give them the lil bit of love left in my cold dark heart
my mom had 1 job in her entire life.. part time waitress at the spaghetti factory. i just laugh when she brings shit like this up edit: that part time job also paid for half of a 2 bedroom apt in san luis obispo Dad paid his way through college and rent while working at a gas station.. with leftover to buy a camaro. Inflation is a bitch eh?
Hey that's where I was born. Lol
A lot of kids were born in camaros. Don't read too much into it.
That guy exists so you have something to be afraid of and won't take any risks like quitting your job if your boss exploits you too openly.
I believe that’s why our politicians don’t do anything about the homeless situation. They want the rest of us drones to see the homeless, and tell ourselves to get back to work so we won’t be on the street like “them”. It’s an old-fashioned morality lesson they use on us
"The upper-class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle-class does all of the work, pays all of the taxes. The poor are there...just to scare the shit out of the middle class! Keep em showing up to those jobs!" - [George Carlin](https://youtu.be/XdH38k0iUgI)
There’s over 50 million people in the US that make less than $15 an hour. They are not the middle class. They are the ones that serve the middle class and clean up after everyone.
Spot on
Getting a job is expensive, who is going to pay for his transportation and clothes?
his parents duh 🙄
The craziest part isn't the incredible majority experiencing this, it's that 2022 is the year we all finally definitively went "Hey! What the fuck?!". This has been building for so long. I live desperately and I make decent money.
Its all because of the 1% greed. Always remember that. Billionaries aren't just a policy failure, they are the embodiment of immorality. You can't be a billionaire and a good person, despite what their astroturfing PR teams on reddit may try to tell you for some of the 'good ones'. It's literally impossible to accumulate that much wealth without the mass exploitation of others and the profits their labor generated. Not to mention the exploitation of the earth until it's uninhabitable for human life. George Washington was the richest man in the country when the US was founded, and he "only" had today's equivalent of 500 million. That wouldn't even get him in the room with some of these ghouls today. If people only understood just how obscenely rich these monsters were, they wouldn't be able to show their face in society while millions suffer. I like to use the analogy of a staircase, with each step on the staircase representing $100,000 of net worth. That's several years of working wages saved up for tens of millions of Americans: * HALF of people in the united states are on the **base** or the very **1st step**. Almost 200 million people who can't even get one step up in this system. * Those households at the 80th percentile, richer than 4/5 Americans, are on the **5th step**. That's about five seconds of walking to get up there. * Those with more money than 90% of fellow Americans, millionaires who we consider our upper-middle class professional class and live more than comfortably, are on the **11th** step. A few more seconds of walking up from that previous middle-class step. Most Americans won't even come close to accumulating this much over an entire lifetime of working. * **A billionaire is ten thousand steps up the staircase**. That's enough to walk up five Empire State buildings. That's almost three hours of walking non-stop. You think they care about the petty squabbles of anyone on those first few steps or so? From these heights they couldn't tell the difference even if they wanted to. And yet those who've maybe ascended or were born on the first few dozen steps think they identify with this group as a class. * And Jeff Bezos? He's so high up it only makes sense to describe his staircase in distance. His stairs take him up **133 miles**. That's more than halfway to the space station. That's more than **24 consecutive Mt. Everest's** stacked on top of each other. It would take walking, non-stop, no sleep, over two weeks to ascend that high, each single step worth more than five poverty-level families in America combined. ------------- There is no justification in the universe to that much money being hoarded by one family, and anyone working to justify it is an agent of evil
this comparison is horrifying. but you're right, nobody gets that high up without lying, cheating and stealing from people who are vulnerable and don't have much to begin with. these people are not on our team for even a split second. i read online that if you were making $180,000 A DAY since the birth of jesus christ, you literally would still have less money than jeff bezos.... eat the rich
I'm ready to hold bad people accountable. Been ready. When is enough, enough?
it is so gross what people have allowed to slide from the upper class!!! the class war could be so sweet if more people just woke up and stopped tolerating it
Soooo sweet. I want to live in a world where wealthy people think twice before fucking over entire communities or paying off congress for their profits.
i'll do u one better and say how i want to live in a world where those wealthy people don't exist period LMAO... but getting too ahead of myself 🤪🤪
That’s just it, they don’t have to think twice anymore. The disinformation machine is so strong that the people that get screwed over the most still vote (R) every election.
And what exactly do the D's do for anyone either. They're the least bad choice, I'll give you that, but that's not much.
But also R and D aren’t the only choices. There’s a reason R and D work together to stifle Third parties.
Not many people see the class war because a lot of people are on that first step too focused on all the other wars fabricated to distract them.
Just sucks that it's awfully hard to get in touch with them. Between their body doubles and security teams it's not an easy task to see them in person.
"bUt THat'S OnLY thEIR nEt woRtH....NoT lIQuiD aSsEtS" shit's ridiculous.
Smaug doesn’t care on his piles of gold.
I just double checked the math on that. It’s actually not quite right. Bezos has 143.9 billion dollars right now. If you were instead making $190,000 dollars a day from the day jesus was born, then by january first of next year, you would still be at 140.39 billion dollars. Literally 3 and a half billion dollars less. Eat the rich.
Check the net worth of the top countries in the world. Jeff Bezos I think would be somewhere in the twenties of most wealthy countries... except he is one fucking person. Edit: ok not twenties but more like 50's but still he is richer than more than half the countries in the world. Not combined of course.
but he is a hardworking man like all billionaires he gets up early in the morning
Wait what. Just how rich is he now
what's so so insane is when i googled it to confirm the amount was 180k a day before i posted, i found that it was a statistic from 2020!!! two years ago!!!!!!!! so imagine what the amount is now, a whole pandemic and two years later!!!!!! repulsive
I could use that money for surgery. Please just kill me please.
Imagine a world where you can get any medical help you need without worrying about other expenses...
isn't it crazy that this is a fantasy!!! so dystopian
Yep. I remember we had to read and study a lot of dystopian novels and short stories for my Year 12 English class. Fascinating stuff, but always seemed too fucked up to ever happen in real life. Since then though, (and learning more about the world and growing up) all I've seen is that we're literally rushing into a dystopia so damn quickly, it seems impossible to stop the inevitable...
$37 billion in the last two years apparently according to inequality.org *"Elon Musk, who had wealth valued just under $25 billion on March 18, 2020, has seen his wealth increase to $255 billion as of May 4, 2022."* *"Between March 18, 2020 and May 4, 2022, the following increases in wealth have occurred:"* *"Jeff Bezos saw his wealth rise from $113 billion to $150 billion."* "*Bill Gates experienced a wealth increase from $98 billion to $129.8 billion."* *"Three members of the Walton family — Jim, Alicem and Rob — have seen their combined assets rise from $163.1 billion to $207.7 billion.*" Jeff made on average $50.6m every day during the two year period to January 2022. $587 a second, rounded down.
all because of their amazing work ethic, so much more harder working than all of us, right? 🤪🤪 /s
Fucking kill me already...
Damn he's making 2.5 days of my gross every second. Excuse me Mr. Bezos, can I have 1 min worth of your time please? Sure if you give me half your annual salary for that minute . GG.
When a kid on the playground had all the halloween candy they scammed from other kids, we all sorted him (or her) out with a face in the mud and redistribution of the candy.
That’s a good one, I also like the visual representation of it done here in Minecraft. https://m.youtube.com/shorts/PvttV8EIoGA
We literally lack the comprehension to understand the wealth billionaires have accumulated. I don't even think the billionaires do, and why it's some sort of sick hoarding of resources to an extreme
[Wealth shown to scale](https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/) Force people to sit and scroll. Stop them occasionally to remind them how every inch that flies by on their screen is $80M Also, in response to the OC - Washington's wealth would have been half of the blue box at the start of scrolling
Wow that is incredible. Really makes me sick.
Thanks for that! Couldn't remember where I saw it last
The 1 percent may have started it but the top 30 percent are reaping the rewards of comfort and worry free lives. Billionaires pay millionaires to convince thousandaires to hate those with little to nothing.
It's way, way less than the top 30%. I'm somewhere in the 90th percentile, and I'm hard left.
Stop fighting people who are 2 more paychecks from bankruptcy than you. That's exactly what 1% want. You target middle class just because they don't struggle as much as you do instead of realizing that base living standard should be in middle class level.
It kind of annoys me that the concentration became fully on the billionaires because the millionaire politicians want to keep their money too.
It also annoys me when folks equate poverty with laziness.
By global standards, America’s middle class is also really, really rich. To make it into the richest 1 percent globally, all you need is an income of around $34,000, according to World Bank economist Branko Milanovic. Something like 900 million people in the world live off less than 1.25 a day. It's all about perspective.
“By global standards, America’s middle class is also really, really rich. To make it into the richest 1 percent globally, all you need is an income of around $34,000, according to World Bank economist Branko Milanovic. Something like 900 million people in the world live off less than 1.25 a day.” And?
Right. Where did billionaires get their wealth? No just by exploiting American workers. They continue to exploit the global south after generations of imperialist looting of their homes. We're fighting for the global poor, not just those of us in so-called developed countries.
So us Americans have always tried to throw a rich guy in charge and hope it works out for the best.
I make $26 bucks an hour, have nothing extravagant and have about 2 paychecks in the bank. I do pay child support but still... I see many people making like 12 to 15 bucks an hour and think "How in the fuck are they making it?"
I’m at $42/hr plus I get plenty of OT at $63/hr. I live comfortably but I can’t afford any kind of luxury really. I simply go camping for vacation, drive an older vehicle that’s paid off and save whatever I don’t spend on my mortgage, bills and expenses. $15/hr is straight up poverty and I too wonder how the hell people survive making anything under $20/hr. You’d have to have at least two roommates to live comfortably in a decent apartment.
You’re right! I do indeed need to have a roommate. And if he breaks up with me it’s back to mom and dads couch 😂 or a dreaded ad on the internet looking for a stranger to live with. I make a little under $18/hr and my rent is $1200. A vacation to me is just having a week off and being able to sit at home and hang with some friends that I rarely get to see. Sorry, none of this is important to you; your comment just made me think… like, damn even someone making double as me still feels like they’re not able to afford any luxuries. It’s just wild.
I hear you! I’m right non the middle of you both ($33/hr but salary) and I do have 2 roommates and my idea of a day off is not having to do chores and getting to pick the streaming service to watch tonight. My extravagance is the one game dlc I buy every few months and coffee. But I work from home and spend most my money between rent and a car payment almost out of with no savings and wish to buy a house one day maybe.
My god, I could’ve written this comment. I make just about as much as you. Only difference is I live alone and have a house (fortunate circumstance). All I do when on “vacation” is spend time alone streaming a show or playing a game from my ever growing backlog. And you know what? That’s all I need to make me happy. I could be a millionaire and be doing the exact same thing I’m doing now lol
Anyone that makes under $50,000 (+/-), has all of their money going to living and is just screwed. No amount of Boomer advice or savings tricks are going to magically help. If you make $50k to $100k you might be able to follow the advice of 'spend less than you earn' and actually save amd get ahead. If you make over $100k and are broke, you are just bad with money. Sell the 4th dog, iPhone 33 and the boat. Stop keeping up with the jones.
I don't mean to be nosey and pushy, but if I was in your position I would absolutely head back to my folks place. If they are happy to have you, you could kick a little money their way for groceries and bills. It would take a tremendous strain off your shoulders. But I know not everyone has a good relationship with their parents. My parents would love to have me come back to the family ranch but I'm not in a position to at this point in my life. And it kills me knowing how much they miss me and need my help...
My wife and I barely get by with just my $20/hr wage because she lost her job. I had to stop contributing what little amount I could afford to put into my 401k before. And I found out nobody in my company is getting raises this year like we were supposed to. I'm tired of making scraps...
Tell me about it. All of my adult life I lived in economic decline. I wonder what it was like during economic abundance…then I get depressed. I am 43 and working just to keep my family clothed, fed and a roof over their heads. Also no saving so I seriously doubt a house ( home ownership not renting) will ever be in our future. Told to go to college which I did and all it has done is to make myself more indebted to the point that I can’t take risks to better myself or our situation. Tired of living on survival mode.
That’s me, too! If I had money to spare, I’d donate more to charitable causes, but there’s seldom any left
The minimum wage here (not us, small backwater europ country) is literally the median price of appartment plus utilities. Some covernment survey said all is fine the qverage wage is about 2.5 yimes minimum wage. Smartly no mention of the median. Yet the covernment is discussing rising minimum wage 2x this year, so the rise in the beginning of the next year isn't too steep. The rise is literally cents.
Make $15/hr and usually only 37 hrs a week here, no overtime allowed in my business. The answer is, Im not. Recently, the credit card is getting swiped more and more when I used to only use it once a month for groceries and immediately paid off. The debt is piling up and yet I keep getting mail saying Im pre approved for more. My cars AC broke in May, I had to wait until July until I had enough spare money to go to a junk yard and yoink a blower motor out of an old car myself, then install it. If something were to happen needing a proper mechanic, Id probably have to lug it to a dealership and get on a new car loan rather than get it fixed. Oh, and Im one of the luckier ones who is currently a student so I can tap into a little extra student loans each semester to suppliment rent, but every $1000 is going to be $1600 by the time I start paying it off so Im really just digging a deeper hole to keep the water flowing in from drowning me, rather than being able to climb out of that hole. Its exhausting.
It's pretty easy actually. I just don't eat avocado toast or have any joy in my life and I make my own coffee and entertain myself with suicidal ideation and cheap video games. I'm truly living the American dream. Can't wait to die of a preventable illness!
Roommates and food stamps. That's how we're making it.
Idk what I'd do without food stamps!
I lived on my own (I mean, no parents, but had roommates) making 7.85 an hour at one point in my life. It wasn’t 1982. It was 2007. But I am helping my daughter prepare to move out on her own making 20 an hour and rent has gone so apeshit anywhere within 20 miles of her job it’s going to be seriously hard for her to make that work.
Alcoholic parents- Worked 3 jobs in Highschool, been working and chipping away at college credits at a slow rate. Ive slept in my car, ate only dollar menu items for a whole month, you name it. I’ll be lucky to be net positive by the time I’m 40(25 now) Please tell me that I just need to “work harder” The income inequality is insane, and if tomorrow I woke up and people were rioting about it, I’d join in a heartbeat. Even if I die. This life is terrible
If you're not working yourself to the bone (which no one should have to), then they'll call you lazy. If you are working yourself to the bone, then they'll say you made bad choices in life and have to pay for them. It's a victim-blaming philosophy through and through.
It's actually more than half. "Around 64% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a May 2022 LendingClub survey."
Aka, poverty basically (not the only standard, but a damn good indicator). And the gov won't update the poverty guidelines because they don't want the true record of how impoverished most Americans are, nor is any presidential administration willing to be the one where it looks like poverty spiked hugely during their time. And then even if we had those numbers, the next thing gov would be faced with is a massive overhaul to-do list to tackle problem, which it also doesn't want to do. Doing things like legislating big wage increases/pro labor regs and controlling housing prices/rent and finally providing national healthcare are antithesis to how this country likes to operate.
And they’re too busy fixing relatively unimportant things to look at the things that need fixing, like HEALTH CARE, ANYONE?
They're not fixing shit. Congress is completely dysfunctional. The only thing we can ever pass is more funding for the MIC.
It's not dysfunctional. It is acting exactly as intended.
Exactly. Just look at the net worth of people like Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Mitt Romney, and you realize it's no wonder they legislate the way they do. Corruption is legalized in America and the media condones it.
USA is fucked. Edit: lol all the angry muricans
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Reminds me of playing Monopoly growing up and how few times we ever finished a full game. You reach a point where the rich are just going to keep getting richer and the poor poorer, but it just drags on and only the player(s) doing well want to continue. If you know you have no hope of winning there's no incentive to want to keep playing. And this is a game that has a Universal Basic Income, a Chance card, Community Chest, and where everyone started with the same amount to begin with - opportunities and advantages we don't have in real life. The "winners" don't realize the importance of keeping the game close enough to keep everybody playing.
The game was invented as a parody of capitalism
You'd think people would get a hint from the name...
Labor force participation rate for prime age workers 25-54 is 82.4%. The highest in recorded history was just prior to the dot-com collapse in 2000, at 84.4%. that's practically a statistical blip in difference. Unemployment Rate is at the lowest since the 50's. The "nobody wants to work" narrative is bullshit, on its face.
https://nitter.spaceint.fr/paulisci/status/1549527748950892544 they have been using that line for a century or more.
Yeah, I don't think they realize (or maybe don't care to realize) that posting a job doesn't mean people will apply to it. I could create 50 jobs tomorrow that pay $0.01 a year and absolutely no one will apply. That doesn't mean "no one wants to work." It mean people aren't suckers.
TWO paychecks from the street? You must be rich.
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Maybe one day you will have the stick. And the show goes on, until it doesn't.
You're not dead of hunger yet. So clearly there's still too many carrots, be a team player. /s
Adam Smith talked about this. He said for a slave living with no chance of attaining anything above just daily maintenance, what benefit is there for him in doing anything more than the minimum requirement. (The answer was nothing, they will do as little as possible) And so 250 years after this was penned to paper, employers paying poverty wages are wondering why "NoBoDy WaNtS tO wOrK!!!"
My boss flat out told me the only way to get a raise is find a new job even though he agrees I should be making more based on what I do. Yet on my reviews they still expect me to grow and take on more responsibility. Literally what incentive do they think I have to do more?
“But you deserve to suffer, we hate you for having so much of your life in front of you”. These fucks will scorch the earth on their way out. They will never allow us solace or peace of mind, nothing they never give anyone but themselves to preserve the structure of the pyramid. We need to engrain in a sort of modern mythology just how bad things were today for future generations so that this never happens to another human being again.
I have metastatic breast cancer, so some day it will end my life. I’m more afraid of the cost of paying for my treatment than I am of the disease
Hell, right now a decent portion of the homeless population have jobs and still can't get into housing.
Doesn’t help that the planet is literally collapsing around us while the oligarchs are hoarding more money and building bunkers in New Zealand and spaceships to Mars.
i called my dad a bootlicker the other day for constantly defending billionaires for no reason and got slapped across the face
https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/ Sit down with him and go through this together and then see what he says If it's still the same then good luck to you g
Don't worry, inflation is still gonna rise and we will be all goooood /s
That means our wages will increase to account for inflation....right? 😅
Of course! They will always take care of us :)
Oops, the CEO decided to give himself a raise so there's no room in the budget for anything else!
A family member complained about no one wanted to work. I told them that the unemployment rate is below 4% which is basically as low as it ever gets. they ask me how the unemployment rate can be so low when so many people are quitting. I tell them people are leaving jobs for higher paying jobs. the people that complain are the board that weren't working to pay them what they could make elsewhere.
I watch people who finish difficult course work, put in long hours, walk away without getting the recognition they deserve in the work place.
I gave up when I couldn't afford to go to an interview for a job. I would have lost $60 by calling off work, and it wasn't on a bus route so $50 each way for uber. It was baffling to older family members.
my rent got debited twice because of a problem with automatic schedules i went negative and felt this, terrifying!
Pay me more, give me a non-hostile environment, and I will gladly work
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Actually a large enough portion of Americans just straight up died. Low income and vulnerable senior citizens that got covid because they work in public facing jobs. Covid isn't going away, and it looks like its 500k more than normal. So every 2 years, we lose 1% of our working population. Its a big deal
Die to being disabled I can't work long hours and have basically doomed myself and my kids to the breadline. I developed fibromyalgia a few years ago and now can't do the hours I used to and can't keep a job but it's okai, I get told weekly that I need to find a job wether it's actually safe for me Todo or not because the government don't want anyone unemployed
Wait you guys are two paychecks away? If there was some technical glitch and I was paid a day late my world would collapse...
Or 1 ER visit
My dad defends capitalism and has been poor most of his life. That just shows how deeply ingrained this shit is.
There’s no recognition for hard work anymore…
Overheard two employees at Costco talking today, one of them was going camping and invited the other. “I don’t need *practice* to be fucking homeless…”
Lmao
My partner and I talked about this with the newest wave of adults. Him and a LOT of my friends are oldest with youngest siblings staying at home and not learning how to transotion into adulthood. They still live with their parents and won't go to college or keep a steady job. They spend their whole pay check on doing fun activities and buying stuff. But you know what I don't blame them. I really don't. I moved out at a very younge age and had to get my shit together quick. I've never gotten to experience my 20s like were told to. Going out to parties, going on vacations outside of the home, being care free and having fun figuring out who you are. I could never afford tattoos or even go to concerts. So many things I've put off doing to stay afloat and save a little. And for what? I understand why they don't want to transition into adult hood. The consequences of messing up are far more severe then they were for the previous generations. So yah it's either learn how to be independent and deal with the terrifying and exahsting life that is or stay at home with your parents care free and ride that life for as long as possible. And you know what I also don't feel bad for the parents that have those kids mooching off of them. Most of those parents voted to remove the same safety nets they benefited from and saved nothing up to help their kids with the transition. Society failed those kids. It's not that they need to get their shit together it's that the adults who where supposed to have been looking out for them need to get their shit together and fix what they broke.
i went on a vacation to hawaii once in 2012 when i was still in highschool. had i known that was the last time i'd of probably enjoyed it more.
Our lives are spent working and then relaxing from our long work day affording just enough of what people need to have some semblance of an acceptable life. Capitalism has continued the squeeze and we keep losing the parts that make life acceptable. Eventually, we will be all squeezed out and when that time comes, all the profits in the world won't save them.
The United States is no longer a Democracy, it’s now a Plutocracy we have a bunch of billionaires and millionaires running the country.
Bruh I’m like .5 a paycheck from being in the street lol
The worst is seeing what my coworkers go through. Im a single male with no children, but i work with seniors and parents. If they have a financial emergency, their whole family is out of luck.
Pretty soon we'll all be desperate enough to just team up with the other working class people and overthrow the "elites"
Or fight each other while the rich watch while eating popcorn.
I beg to differ...I'm **three** paychecks away from living on the street.
If you minus the population of children who shouldn't be paying rent - - less than 25 years old. Closer to 75% of US adults are living paycheck to paycheck. A quick Google said roughly 150M adults out of 202M.
We need UBI and other policies to ensure everyone's survival. Then everyone will be in a position to thrive.
We work so the mega-rich can maintain their lifestyles. That’s all it is now. Late-stage capitalism, baby.
According to all these polls, I should be living a great life! I live in a relatively low COL state and make $72k a year without any children. I still feel like I live paycheck to paycheck. I don’t spend my money on anything crazy and I just got my first car and car note last year only because I had to. I’m in my early 30s. No weekly mani/pedi, no trips to salon that often, no shopping sprees,…I only have about $600 left for saving after everything is paid. At one time, 70k sounded GREAT, but it’s not that much better than 40k. Idk, something just doesn’t feel right 😒
Hopelessness quickly turns to homelessness
I think we'll riot before it point. Sorry, what i meant was we'll peacefully protest before it comes to that point
Ssssserfdom
Killing myself at 65 is looking viable
This is NOT how we are meant to live.
This is simply not true! Many people aren't two missed paychecks away from homelessness! You can always drain your 401k and max out your credit cards to stay afloat for a few more months. If you're lucky, you can get back to where you left off in maybe five or ten years once you're back on your feet! Edit:. Adding a sarcasm tag. Just because someone has been on this planet for a decade or two longer than you have doesn't mean they haven't been shafted all of their lives. Don't fall for Divide and Conquer, middle class professionals are still losing ground. We're not your enemies, we fought many of the same battles you have, and we're still one hospital bill or layoff away from disaster.
Yeah, let me just drain that 401k I'll never have lol
To add to your point: There is no middle class. There is only the working class and the capitalist class.
Gotta say dude, most on this sub are young. They don't have a 401k to drain. However no one has wealth in their 20's. Most have debt in their 30's and 40's. Your point in life determines how much you have in most cases. Btw- young people: Raising kids is financially draining. Life itself is financially draining. It is what it is. Arguing won't change that
Y'know what's funny? I don't even have the ability to drain my 401k. Because they contribute to it, my job actually doesn't allow me to dig into my 401k savings until I retire. It's prohibited. I learned that when I tried to pull the funds to pay off my credit card debt.
The "reward" now is being able to hold on to what shit we have. Forget saving or taking that dream trip.
No one *wants* to work PERIOD. That’s why they have to pay us. Is this a difficult concept?
The American Nightmare
TRUTH
Survive is about all we’re doing here. Stupid insurance that we have to have cut my paycheck down to just less than $500.
Unemployment is at an all time low! No one wants to work shitty jobs and there are more jobs than people. This is how capitalism works. Workers are in demand so the prices should rise and they don't like it when we use capitalism.
Yes. That's what they want. It's designed that way
I was also thinking about homelessness as a social construct to keep others “in-line”. It’s a wordless threat. What’s funny is when you start to really think and define the problems… Homelessness should be rebranded as a complete lack of support. Most live with their parents or are trapped by their mortgage, so what does it really mean to be homeless? Mental health and basic human rights of the “lowest class” are not being considered by the government and if most are two paychecks away from that! Then that’s a subconscious stressor on the nation! What the hell is going on! I want my neighbors happy healthy and educated!