'An economic divide that is widening': Almost one third of Americans earning $150,000 a year or more say they're living paycheck to paycheck and many rely on credit cards to close the gap
'An economic divide that is widening': Almost one third of Americans earning $150,000 a year or more say they're living paycheck to paycheck and many rely on credit cards to close the gap
Some say they won’t be able to pay off their credit cards by the end of the year.
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Oh boo hoo. Try making about half that, like me and my wife do (combined). It isn’t fun.
Dude. Get a grip. These people are far closer to you in wealth than the people who fund SuperPACs or own news organizations. You have much more in common with someone who makes $150k/year than you do with Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, George Soros, Warren Buffet, Rupert Murdoch, or whoever the fuck else has obscene amounts of money. Those people, the billionaire class, the 0.01%, are the people using their larges to influence politics and media.
These people making $150k/year are overextending themselves, I get it, but if I actually spent the money I wanted to spend on improving my life, especially in relation to things like my health, I would be looking at needing to spend that kind of money each year. My teeth are falling out of my god damned head and I've gotten the cost of such things shared with me and it's out of fucking control. I'm talking like $10k for one of the many problems I have in my mouth. The others aren't cheaper. All it means is that we are so poor that we're literally putting off life-saving medical care because it's fucking unaffordable. All people making $150k a year are doing is just barely scraping by while actually getting that care.
Oh no, they own a single super shitty, hollowed out house that is busted as hell and needs massive repairs constantly. Yeah, man, they're doing so much better than us just because they have a house. /s Like maybe take a minute and understand a lot of those people just bought their house, and it's not like they were buying it in their 20's.
People making this much are not your enemy, they are the people you have to convince that the system is broken and get them on your side.
People whose entire wealth and income comes from investments are the people who are your real fucking enemy.
Because guess what, these $150k/year stiffs still work for a fucking living.
Because I get it, it feels like they have so much more when they're making over $100k a year more than you, but like, they're still treading water, just like us, just like this article points out. Trust me, if you were making that money, you'd still be pretty broke unless you didn't have kids.
Source: my broke ass sister, a lawyer who lives in a fucking hovel that needs tons of repair and is being bled dry by medical bills, child care, a psychopathic narcissist of an ex-husband (who literally lives off of credit cars and spends like Paris Hilton) and housing costs. She didn't buy her home until she was over 50, she's Gen X. She's on thin ice just like me, even though she's doing better by a lot of measures. The only "investments" she has is her fucking 401K to try to have a halfway decent retirement (ha, as if).
EDIT: Second Source: Just remembered a conversation I had with a friend years ago when I worked at a local mexican restaurant. He was upset at the owner, because he had like a million dollars in the bank. I explained that a lot of that was because he had been in business a long time, and frankly, you need that kind of money to keep a restaurant running (thin margins). I told him at the time that any huge disruptive thing could eat into that million and make a lot of it go away fast. COVID hit, and that restaurant nearly bit the dust, but only JUST scraped through the other side. I bet they don't have a million in the bank now, they had to shut down to satellite stores where they sold their tortillas.
Hey, re your teeth, if you can afford this, and it hasn't changed since then, my dad had to get something like $25,000 in dental work, so they took a trip to Costa Rica, spent about $3000 on the trip, and got the dental work for free. It sucks that people have to resort to things like that, but if you think you could afford that, I would definitely recommend looking into it.
they’re still treading water, just like us
I currently have 1200 dollars and live in my mother's basement, because I'm her full time carer while she recovers from cancer. My current retirement plan is a rope. I have a master's degree in STEM, but you'd be surprised how many homeless people have those too.
Someone earning 150k would have to work thousands of years to become a billionaire, true.
The ultra rich are the true enemy, true.
But Jesus Christ, people earning 150k are not 'just scraping by'.
Seriously. Get a grip. How out of touch do you have to be to think that? No concept of what true poverty looks like.
As a 40-something guy who literally has cancer and no retirement savings and is wondering how he can even stay alive and has had a year of nothing but suicidal ideation, I still have the capacity to have compassion and not blame other working stiffs for how bad things are for me. I have a degree and I work at a fucking pizza place.
Out of touch my ass, I'm literally living a similar experience. Sorry I have the ability to consider other people's situations instead of just my own. It's called empathy, motherfucker. Have you heard of it??
Look, I'm really not in a good place either, as I assume you gathered. It's been so long for me. At one point I found myself crying into the toilet I was cleaning for one of my night time temp jobs. Like you, I'm basically hanging on by a thread. It's been going on so long, I no longer know where depression ends and I begin or if the original me still exists.
I don't know about you, but I really shouldn't be having this discussion, so we'll leave it at that.
I'm just going to wish you luck, strength, or whatever gets you through today and tomorrow. Even if it's drowning out the noise, even if it's spite, anger or curiousity about something like the conclusion of a dumb tv show you don't even really like.
Maybe things will get better for us, even if right now we perhaps don't really believe in it anymore.
Thanks for that, friend. Life is hard, and I don't blame you for being in a low place because of it. I appreciate your candor, openness, and willingness to hear me.
I wish and hope for the best for you, too. All of us deserve better.
Also, unrelated, dope username.
I'm not who you were replying to, but I just want to wish you the absolute best of luck in your health battle. Empathy is in short supply at the best of times, but showing empathy when you're in the middle of something so hard is next level. I bet you also make an excellent pizza, even if that's not where you expected to be working.
I'll have my fingers crossed for you, friend. Fuck cancer and everything that it entails.
Cheers, mate. I hope for the best for all of us. It can happen to any of us at any time, and that's part of why it's so stressful. Making good money isn't some sort of panacea against your life falling apart.
I mean, Christ, just think of all the people who have chronic pain that became opiate addicts who also had real, productive jobs who ended up on the street due to addiction to the solution to their chronic pain. Life isn't fair, and even having money saved away can't protect you from everything.
Many of them bought this on themselves
If these people are financially struggling, it’s by choice (e.g. buying property).
And I don’t feel sympathy for them. They can reduce their spending and survive.
People could literally say the same things about my financial situation, which is dire. I was on the verge of homelessness earlier this year. I have heard plenty from discompassionate people who say I could have tried harder/worked harder/done more and that my shortcomings are things I brought on myself.
They wouldn't be entirely wrong, but I would still think they are kind of a stuck up asshole.
Same difference. Do you talk about the homeless the same way?
Do I talk about the homeless the same way as the top 20% of income earners?
No.
Do you have any more bad faith leaps you want to take here?
Now we can't even buy property at $150k without being called out for making bad choices? Holy shit the working class is lowering their expectations way too much.
People used to be able to have a house, a car, hobbies, have medical help, all the house appliances, and yearly vacations on one income at some mindless factory job. Expect more, people. Demand more. You only can't have it because the rich are hoarding everything and stealing your money. Don't shrug and take it. Don't criticize others for expecting it. Fucking demand it for yourself. It's your work making them rich.
You might have heard of student loans. They can get rather high. You might have also heard about high cost of living areas. Houses can be pretty expensive. Another thing you might have heard about is high mortgage rates.
A new veterinarian with a specialist cert (which requires an undergrad degree, graduate degree, a shitty pay internship, and a shitty pay residency for a long time) will be sitting on $200,000 in loans and make about $200k. Now, if that person lives in Los Angeles and wants to buy a home they are going to have a loan for a million at 7%. Take-home pay on $200k after retirement/insurance/taxes is around $10k/month. Mortgage on a million is $7k/mo. Loan payments on $200k is around $1000/mo. Taxes on that house are about $1000/mo. Right there the take-home pay comes down to $1000/mo to pay for food ($600), utilities ($100), cell phone ($70), car ($300), car insurance ($100), gas ($100) internet ($100), etc. You might notice that those numbers add up to more than $1000.
Sure, that veterinarian who is already 35 years old now after all that schooling can just rent instead of buy a tiny house, but rent still costs $3000/mo in a big city for a small apartment.