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submitted 9 months ago by JoMiran@lemmy.ml to c/news@lemmy.world

TL;DR: Americans now need to make $120K a year to afford a typical middle-class life and qualify to purchase a home. Minimum.

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[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 163 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I honestly don't even know why this upsets me so much. I am 50 and all set. I don't have children and barely any debt. I never considered myself particularly patriotic but somehow this whole thing gets under my skin. I guess it sours my achievements and fruits of decades of struggle (it took three generations of planning and hustle to get us out of poverty). It's like being a kid having a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese by yourself while all your friends are locked outside and you can see them through the glass windows.

[-] Daxtron2@startrek.website 150 points 9 months ago

Because you have empathy for others, it's a good thing.

[-] MaXimus421@lemmy.world 48 points 9 months ago

I agree. Something I wish we saw more of.

[-] Cold_Brew_Enema@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

Something foreign to MAGAts

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 102 points 9 months ago

It gets under my skin because the west was on the right trajectory; improving wealth equality, quality of life, work life balance, etc — Then Capitalists killed all those gains using Conservatism, Neoliberalism, and a bastardised version of Libertarianism — just to enrich a tiny percentage the human population and return the rest of humanity to feudalism.

Why should they own all the gains from humanities collective efforts, when all of us have a rightful claim to a share of those gains?

[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 47 points 9 months ago

In the early 1900s we had huge fights for labor. Strikes yes, but also some literal armed fights.

We won a lot. They conceded a lot.

But they've eroded those wins, little by little, for a century or so.

This is what will ALWAYS happen when you live in a system explicitly designed to extract profit from workers and reward greed. It cannot be reformed. It cannot be controlled. It will always slide backwards into this. We need a different system altogether.

[-] speck@kbin.social 20 points 9 months ago

Yup, we could be creating an amazing life for more people - and damaging the environment less while we are at it; but instead "we" keep doubling down in the other direction

[-] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago

the west was on the right trajectory

A lot of the west is still on the right trajectory. It's the US that is not.

There are a lot of developed countries, especially in Europe, where the "American Dream" is much easier to attain than in America. But, more often than not, they don't even want that dream. For good reason.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 40 points 9 months ago

Wanting other people to have what you have, without your struggle, is an opinion we need more of.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 30 points 9 months ago

Especially when we have a society with a huge number of people who think that if you're poor, you deserve it.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 28 points 9 months ago

What gets me is, a lot of the POOR people say that about POOR people.

[-] pearable@lemmy.ml 9 points 9 months ago

We live in the most effectively propagandized society ever created. It hasn't been until more recently that it's started to slip. A lot of folks still believe in the old lies and believe that everything would work if we just got rid of the immigrants, Jews, and corrupt politicians. Still I think more people are waking up to the reality that this system is broken not the people in it.

[-] InternetUser2012@midwest.social 5 points 9 months ago

And that's because they are stupid. They are not educated becasause the education they received was garbage. All by design from your "trickle down" bringing republikkkans. Working as planned.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

By “your,” you mean United States’s of course? Because they aren’t mine.

[-] InternetUser2012@midwest.social 1 points 9 months ago

What in the fuck are you talking about?

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago
[-] InternetUser2012@midwest.social 1 points 9 months ago

Yeah, I am responding to you talking to me.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

Well, I’m the only one here.

[-] Alto@kbin.social 11 points 9 months ago

Because you're not an awful person trying to pull the ladder up while saying "fuck you I got mine"

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

I'm in a similar boat, except in my early 40's.

My parents are in their 80's and working for DoorDash. They are lucky they at least paid off their home, because they didn't save enough and this country is sucking every penny it can get from them.

I bought a condo that I love, have almost all my debt paid off, and am saving for what I hope will be an early retirement. It breaks my heart to see people struggling everywhere, and if I had Elon Musk money, I wouldn't be blowing it on a vanity space program.

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'm so glad my Dad, also in his 80s, programs COBOL. My parents have owned their home since 86, but I'm sure that without the random COBOL job they'd have to do door dash or something as well.

this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
606 points (96.5% liked)

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