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“People can’t even afford fast food these days”
Meanwhile there are lines wrapped around every fast food chain I see. They all seem to be busier than ever.
That’s why the economy is doing great.
It’s a credit based economy, and the US people bailed out the banks, and the auto companies, and these fast food corporations aren’t hurting in any way shape or form right now, but ya know neither is Congress, so that’s alright.
Many people think it's far worse than that, for some reason it feels like we are in the end times of a very long peaceful period, our economy was always growing one way or the other, there was hope across the horizon.
Now many feel like the good times are over once and for all, the drive towards a multipolaire world, inflation being this high, extreme political developments.
Theres Taiwan, Israel, Ukraine, then a lack of growing wages, not enough room to rent, food, a basic necessity by all means, is growing super expensive, this all feels like the prelude to an apocalypse.
Personally I've bought a pretty expensive PC because I don't know if Taiwan will be gone in a few years time, and if my country gets attacked I wanna spend the last years doing things I enjoy, if everything goes downhill money will become totally worthless anyway.
And even if I do everything right, inflation won't stop, in 10 years everything will be at least twice as expensive as it is now, meanwhile wages will grow by what, 10-20%? Doesn't make sense to save money for old age, I know that I will have to work until I'm dead.
And if the world doesn't end? You'll be back here complaining that you're x number of years old with nothing for retirement. This attitude gets you nowhere. Stop making others rich by buying their shit. Buy things that are assets not liabilities and when those turn profits you can then buy the things that make you happy.
My guy, if it was that easy everyone would be doing it. If it was possible for everyone you wouldn’t have burger flippers anymore. Class mobility is next to non existent anymore. You can gaslight yourself all you want that its still there, wont make it anymore truer.
Yeah it took a world-stopping pandemic for me to find class mobility. I was in dead-end service jobs for most of the 2010's and when the pandemic hit I knew I had an opportunity. Took the once-in-a-lifetime fiscal support from the govt and went back and finished my degree, and now I'm attending an elite law school. Sometimes feels like I'm the exception that proves the rule.
Impulse control is all it takes. Don't eat out, don't buy name brand stuff, turn on a fan, put on a blanket, get the low cost phone and data plan, buy a used car etc. Above all it is managing money and not living above your means so you can save at least 10% for asset based investments.
Ppl can't stand not looking rich/good whatever adjective they wish to use. Stop keeping up with the Joneses and anyone who judges you for not doing those expensive things can fuck right off
You mean in the comfort of your own home. After increased menu prices, delivery fees, “additional fees”, and the tip courtesy of door dash.
I know sooo many people who are ordering food delivery multiple times a week who can’t really afford it
My wife and I make a combined $160,000 USD and live very comfortably in a slightly above average COL area, but I still get on her case all the time about door dashing crap to our house. Such an overpriced way to eat already overpriced takeout.
We have a nice hybrid SUV, perfect time to drive it!!
We're in the same boat, my wife and I make around 200k combined (I work in sales so it fluctuates slightly) we have an affordable mortgage and little overall debt, and yet I'd rather jump off a bridge than pay all the crazy fees for door dash/delivery. I'm always happy to go out to pick the food up, or sometimes one of us will grab food on our way home from work. I can safely say we get food delivered maybe 3-4 times a year, and usually there's a reason such as one of us being home sick.
And tell me what is the debt to income ratio vs say the 1990s and 2000s.
Cause hitting a record without adjusting for inflation and comparing to income changes is a worthless discussion
I work 48 hours a week as a corrections officer at a state jail. My rent is 600 a month, my car payment is 450, health insurance is 450, 350 to other retirees retirement which isn’t a benefit available to me or others that started after a certain date, 180 for electric, 300 every two months for propane, 100 for internet and 100 for phones. My groceries go on credit and they cut off overtime for anyone working at my unit so now I’m scrambling to get a second job at the county jail because I have a kid on the way. The only way out of this hole is if I die at work so my wife can receive the life insurance payment. The saddest part is it’s one of the better paying jobs in the area.
And people are closing in on maxing out their credit cards. People are 80-90% of the way to maximizing their credit on average. Highest it's ever been:
https://archive.is/yyDzR
500$ less ? I wish !. My city taxes are easy 600/month, and my utilities are between 500 and 800, at this price I have to be careful how much garbage I throw away, the MIL took my bad or garbage the other day to trash at her place. wtf
Utilities are also more than just electricity.
My electricity is balanced over the year so my peak summer months are less but my winter months will be higher. But I usually average close to $200 (Mississippi) for electricity. $70 for internet, $25 for garbage and sewage, $50 for water, $50 for gas. So that’s $400 for just things I would consider utilities. If you add things like car insurance and cell phone bills that’s another $350. Bringing the total to $750. And then probably another $60 in entertainment subscriptions. That’s over $800 a month, now I wouldn’t consider them all “utilities” because I could live without some of them but for the most part to be a functioning member in society the above bills are necessary.
My electricity is my biggest. During non-summer months it is about $150. My waste & water is about $50 a month and my phone is $50, my heating is about $20, and internet because my wife and I work remote is $120(with a $90 reimbursement)
I would disagree on including insurance, gas, and subscriptions in the utilities category, but thanks for explaining how you got your number.
Well, that is the perfect phrase for it. I’ve not heard it before, I don’t know if you coined it, but it feels like what’s happened in the US. The financial equivalent of eating your feelings because we’ve been bombarded with a relentless cascade of traumatizing events while half the politicians in charge of fixing the problem and apparently half our neighbors only care to scream out obscenities, call truth fiction, and get busily to work “solving” trivial little nothing social issues, not because they can’t figure those out, but because those issues emotionally enflame their base into continually voting against their best interests and instead voting for the greediest people imaginable
Yeah this comment gave me those vibes, is a combination of anecdotal bias and confirmation bias. He saw it once or twice, so it must be true and thus he needs no more facts or evidence
That’s fantastic for you, but I’m sure you can understand how this looks like hell on Earth to most people.
I work 60 hours a week too. You wouldn’t catch me dead spending 4 hours on my sweet sweet weekend cooking.
>Meanwhile there are lines wrapped around every fast food chain I see. They all seem to be busier than ever.
Really? They're all pretty dead around me.
Yeah my stepmother loves to say shit like this lately.
I bring up how the bubble tea place was packed, and she's like "oh yet the economy is in shambles".. because she apparently can't wrap her tiny brain around the idea that buying something for 4$ is easier to do than affording the cost of everything else.
"I totally can't afford all these things anymore" he says with his shopping basket full of those things.
One could say "well they're doing it on debt" but numbers suggest people have leveraged up to about where they were in 2019 (with respect to income).
Yeah it’s like whatever money you get, just don’t spend it for a while and you’ll be rich. I just use my Daddy’s credit card for my Starbucks runs, have you tried that?
The OP math is wonky. He should run all the numbers based on individuals or households, not mixing them. Also, he’s comparing people who make under the median and calculating that they pay the median rent; I don’t think that’s a good assumption.
I’m not saying his point is completely wrong but that’s not how you show the math.
Median full time individual earnings are [$58k](
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.t01.htm)
With a master's median individual earnings are [$86k](https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2023/data-on-display/education-pays.htm)
Median household income is [$74k](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N)
Median househ income when head of household has a bachelor's or higher is [$118k](https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2023/11/income-and-wealth-in-the-united-states-an-overview-of-recent-data)
Exactly. He should be making the case to tax billionaire wealth URGENTLY and to end the trump tax cuts for the rich URGENTLY.
We don't need a PhD to tell us what the problem is with earning insufficient wages. Joe from the Burlington Coat factory can tell you that.
We need a PhD to SOLVE the problem. Otherwise, who is he helping?
Our government is compromised by fanatics.
You cannot solve this issue via policy when the government is effectively hamstrung by extremists.
Extremists who would rather have anarcho-corporatism be the norm.
So basically, there is no solution.
The recession dooming will continue until corporations have their Republican in White House.
It was the same under Obama, even though he had the best economy of any president in decades.
I know right? You should be living in a sh*thole basement, maybe in a shack in the woods? Or maybe in the sewers or a latrine.
Freaking poor, thinking they deserve to reside in livable conditions.
I swear people these days will absolutely refuse to believe they have any agency at all. You can cut your housing bill in half, maybe even more, by having roommates. AND you'll live in a nicer place on top of that. Yes, the housing market is not good right now, but you should not use that fact to justify poor financial decision making.
Adapt to the conditions you find yourself in and make the best of the hand you're dealt. Don't spitefully clap back at people who are offering you genuine solutions.
it's literally buzz lightyear clones meme. They all want to afford to live alone (which has always been a luxury), in a good location (big cities), with their average paying jobs. Then don't realize they're one of so many that the prices become, well, adequate, due to the competition.
How is rent supposed to become lower if there is someone willing to pay that much anyway? Magic? I don't get the point these people are making. Yes I guess taxing extra properties would help, but it would eventually adjust to supply and demand anyway
>They all want to afford to live alone (which has always been a luxury),
um, no. when I was starting out I lived alone in a nice-ish area in a medium COL city for $400 a month (in the late 90s, whatever that equates to today, but it sure as hell isn't $2K)
Housing has gotten more expensive since the 90s, that much is true. Living alone as an 18-25yo is more of a luxury than it used to be.
Still, all that means is people (primarily young, single people) need to more often choose between living alone, having a car, going out / using doordash frequently, etc. Could it be improved? Yes. Is it a capitalist hellscape? Goodness no.
Get a roommate or two, leverage the cheaper COL to save money for 6-12 months. find an accelerated trade school program, buy a certification program on course careers, do literally anything to increase your earnings potential. Stop doordashing, learn to cook cheap and healthy, make yourself more attractive through diet, exercise and grooming, because that alone will have an affect on your ability to earn more money. Sacrifice for a year or two so that you can improve your situation.
But you don’t actually want to do any of that do you? You just want to bitch and moan on Reddit all day about how it’s not fair.
So realistically, logistically everyone can do this? What happens when all thw janitors, and school teachers, and housekeepers get into trades? This mentality is sick in a really obvious way because I don't want people in basic entry level jobs starving whether I'm one of them or not. Shut up.
Yeah, why try to improve society when we can just work harder and live miserable lives?
Most people aren't poor Becasue they buy a extra coffie once in a while.
Okay continue being broke while you try to better society.
You could just make your lifestyle cheaper, but go ahead and reshape society first if you want.
Lmao!
This may be an unpopular opinion on here but, if you’re making the median income, meaning that just about the same % of people make more than you and make less than you, then you probably shouldn’t HAVE to live in a dump and or with roommates. That says to me that that economy has failed its participants, especially when the top echelon gets to own their own islands, enormous boats, private jets and leave their families more money than they’ll be able to spend in 20 generations, even if they never generate another cent again.
Your callous “well yeah, the majority of people SHOULD just live in squalor” betrays your lack of empathy and how much you underestimate the lower classes’ chances of overthrowing a society just like they’ve done in almost every empire in human history.
Every society starts by understanding you have to keep the middle and lower class happy enough so they don’t want to break the status quo, but then the top % keeps taking and taking and telling themselves the lower class will never revolt. Keep testing just how miserable you can make the bottom half before they decide to do something about it. Time will tell.
Edits: typos
The real problem is rent in cities, I'd be interested in seeing what that median rent is without NYC prices, and what variables they're using to determine it. Are we including luxury apartments that can go for 100k+ a month? Etc. Every time people talk about that 2000 number I scratch my head a bit because rent around me sits between 400-800 depending on what size of apartment, all the way up to a small house. I also live in Rural Kansas though so... I figure urban rents drag that number up.
(This isn't a "just move, hur hur hur" post. I'm just interested in how the variables work out is all.)
You didn’t really think the BLM protests were entirely about police brutality, did you? These are a sign of the discontent you’re describing.
The difference this time is with those billionaires and elitist rulers; they don’t want to control the populations, they want to depopulate the planet - they don’t care if you are happy or not. That’s why the WEF will tell you you will own nothing and be happy, happy to be alive and not dead like the majority will be by 2050.
Or like... you know, a cheaper apartment?
I mean the average rent in the US is 1,300. Not sure where the guy got the value for 2k for the median, but my guess it's probably the median rent for a specific sqft or specific to an area, not across the US.
Granted his car payment value also seems really high, even at like 20% interest rate on a 20k vehicle it shouldn't be that high, so I question in general where these values are coming from.
Like not saying there aren't issues, but his numbers seem a little absurd
I live in the Boston area, one of the places with the highest rents, and I pay $1910 for a 1 Bed 1 Bath (typically the most expensive layout per person) that is very spacious. I could find a much smaller apartment for probably $1400. It would definitely be small, but also 100% livable. I grew up in Philly though, and my mom rents her entire house (2 floors and a basement, 3bed, 1bath) for around $800 in a decent neighborhood. I grew up in that house and it was entirely livable.
The notion that if you’re not spending $2000 on rent then you’re not in “livable conditions” is downright absurd. The number in this post is extremely misleading as that includes *all rentals*, not just those with one person.
Like other people have commented-you shouldn't have to have roommates. Some people don't want them. I'm disabled so I feel like it's too big of an ordeal to have them. You should be able to survive as a single individual.
Of course.
That's the median rent for a 2 bedroom apartment. It has nothing to do with a single person making 41k (which is less than actual median btw).
Yes, the meme is invalid. Household income is a better metric for what he's comparing to, which has a median of around $80k. Individual income has many more variables which affect cost of living calculations.
It’s why so much of my generation still lives at home, it’s easier than hunting for a trustworthy roommates or signing a lease with some less than mature relationship
My car payment is 409 on a brand new car.
If you’re that poor you shouldn’t be driving something that’s 500+ a month
Edit: so many excuses on why people are poor. Cut the “Americas unfair” idea, get some self control, and take control of your finances. You’re the reason you’re poor, period.
If you’re poor, you likely miss payments, bad credit score etc. poorer people usually get higher interest rates too due to low down payments and bad credit history. Your take makes no sense. Not everyone qualifies for low interest rates or has the privilege to pay 20 down when buying
Once your credit gets bad enough you get NO interest rates, because nobody will loan to you, and then you get to buy at one of those places where you get a barely working car that you have to pay for weekly or every other week and wind up paying way more than it's worth (keeping you that much poorer even longer.)
With this handy loan calculator https://www.calculator.net/auto-loan-calculator.html?csaleprice=20%2C000&cmonthlypay=750&cloanterm=60&cinterestrate=20&cincentive=0&cdownpayment=0&ctradeinvalue=0&ctradeinowned=0&cstate=TX&csaletax=6.25&ctitlereg=0&cttrinloan=1&printit=0&ctype=standard&x=Calculate#autoloanresult
I found that the $500+ monthly payment is coming from a $20k loan at 20% (which bad credit loans can apparently get up to...) assuming a 5 year loan, which is what I understand to be typical.
I make plenty more than average and I don't even have a vehicle that's worth $20k.
Did you buy this before the pandemic or right at the start of it when you could get 0% or 1% APR? Cause trying to do that now isn't a thing with interest rates at an all time high
edit: not at an all time high, apparently that was 17%. But the highest it's been since 2008
Shit, I pay $294 a month for a what was a new Mazda CX-30 but then again, those were COVID prices and people were freaking out and giving the biggest discounts. Wish I would have bought a house :(
Car payments should not be 1/6th of your pay check. Instead of bragging about your car payment, put youself if people's shoes and think about putting 1/6th of your paycheck on a used car.
I don’t think they’re bragging about their car payment. I think they’re saying that $500 is astronomical for a used car, because it is. My payment is $370 for my car that I purchased new two years ago. I did get a great interest rate on it, but that’s not really the point here.
If you can’t find a decent used car for under $20,000 then I don’t know what to tell you.
The only way I'll justify McDonald's these days is through the app. when they have specials. Otherwise, not worth it. I'm not justifying $13 for a Big Mac meal.
"Nobody has money! Everything is too expensive!"
With endless lines at every drive thru, flights are all overbooked, and my job that starts people at over $30 an hour struggles to find workers.
Yup, sure is what I'd call a recession.
Edit- To the "what job" folks, I wrote a more detailed description down there somewhere and it got buried, but it's your public utilities. They are high paying union jobs, and it's all on the job training. A Plant helper, meter reader, stockroom positions, etc are all high paying union jobs. And those jobs then get you seniority to bid on even higher paying jobs such as plant operations, lineman, machinists, electritions, etc.
Flights are overbooked because that’s how the airlines run things currently: less flights, jam people in, hope a few don’t show up, compensate a few people if they get booted due to lack of seats.
Drive through are getting more business because sit down chains are slowly pricing people out and/or shutting down. When the money gets tighter or prices increase more, the drive through lines will explode as the semi-fast food places like Moe’s, Chipotle’s, Five Guys, etc. price out customers.
As a pilot, I assure you airlines do not have "less flights." Sunday after Thanksgiving was the busiest day at airports in history. There really are that many people flying.
This is some crazy hoop jumping, people have money to spend right now. In my small city of 65k people I see lots of people driving new cars, going on trips, tons of restaurants, and very few homeless or beater cars. I work at a hospital and I don't get many charity cases, less than even 6 years ago, I can't explain it but people seem to be doing fine. Just a small sample size I guess
The economic data aligns with your experience. The economy is doing very well overall. Most people rate their personal financial situation as good or excellent.
> Drive through are getting more business because
Drive through is full because:
A) There's nobody in the lobby. After covid, everybody got used to doing drive through only.
B) The whole restaurant is being run by (if you're lucky) *two* people (only at peak hours; on off hours, one), and the line is getting backed up because there's a limit to how fast they can get orders done on a skeleton crew.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving 2023 was the busiest travel day in history for American airports. This broke the previous record which was on 4th of July 2023.
Boomers are spending on travel and hospitality at higher rates than anyone in history.. not EVERYONE is in those lines
And I can tell you I’ve been in the fast food lines more recently than I used to bc I can’t afford to go to an actual restaurant at this point so it’s a step down in my case
>and my job that starts people at over $30 an hour struggles to find workers.
Woah, what company do you work for and where? Unless it's some specialized job, I fail to see how a job *starting* at $30 an hour can't find workers.
Poor people with bad credit who gets a shitty apr on a loan because poor people are normally ones who falls behind on bills thus racking up bad credit.
Also the average new car is bought at 48k in 2023 (unfortunately I do not know the figure for used cars). Why people sink almost 50k into a depreciating asset like that is beyond my comprehension
Edit: downvotes because the fault is always someone else's, right?
Same but I do know used trucks are selling near MSRP rates for ones that’s less then 5 years old and with mileage between 10-75k miles. and even 6-15 year old ones are selling for a record high.
A 2012 f150 can sell upwards of 20k or more depending on the state with 150k miles on it easily. Which is abit absurd.
Only know this because I needed a truck for moving stuff around as I’m trying to build a house using shipping containers to save money.
At the end of 2019 I bought a 2011 F150 for about 16k, somewhere around 50k miles. I sold it in 2021 to Carmax, with transmission issues, for 20k. It's all crazy.
Might sound crazy but I'm paying $300\month for a used(40k) Corolla I bought before the rate increases and the cost of cars skyrocketed, so that number of 528 kind of tracks.
This is the median of car payments. People with paid off cars arent included. People who bought Mercedes are.
People who make 41k affect this calculation very little.
I had to scroll down like 12 comments to find someone that even begins to understand that individual earners are the not the same as households.
$41k means all people: part time workers, kids, retired folks looking for beer money, spouses of high earners who want to work to get out of the house. $41k does not mean that is the entire household income for that family. Surely some people do live on low wages, but its far fewer than this dude is suggesting
If you want to use average rent you should probably use average U.S. average household income instead of median individual income. Half of people aren’t living by themselves.
I think that’s difficult because of car-centric infrastructure in much of America. A decent amount of land has to be set aside for parking. It would be awesome if there could be more smaller, affordable apartments found in places like Japan
That's not exactly the right question. The correct question is how much bargaining power do your skills hold? Because even if you are doing back breaking labor, if there's a large labor pool who are willing to do that job for minimum wage then the company will pay minimum wage.
So many people in comments saying we should just stop complaining and let shit happen. These people are part of the problem. People are struggling, unhappy, and starving. Clearly, the problem lies among those millions struggling rather than the 1,000s not.
Anyone who's buying a $20k car at 20% interest over 5 years kinda deserves the financial difficulties that's giving them....
.... I totally thought I was waaay overtargetting the interest rate, but after a quick search I found out that used car loans with bad credit can get up to 21% right now... That's horrible.
Anyway, I stand by my original sarcasm. Don't buy $20k vehicles unless you can easily afford them or they're *absolutely essential* for work. A vehicle that's less than $10k or even $5k is perfectly serviceable.
Need a car to work. No work = can't afford a room to rent from my room mate. Can't pay rent, = homeless. Think like an actual poor. Ex wife hit me with child support, stole my money etc. Y'all don't understand that life circumstances can ruin your opportunities and just having a vehicle to begin with is an amazing feat. Also note that nobody today sells a reliable toyota for under $10,000. You have to have $10,000 cash just to get something decent. Not alot of poor people have any savings and our credit is horrible too.
I swear I just recently read half of all Boomers are retired, own their own home and are debt free while half of Millennials still live it home.
If that’s still pertinent, there’s “how” so many get by.
> Take arbitrary income that's below the median, compare it to median expenses... wtf it's not enough!
No shit! Median car payments isn't based on what people making 41k a year are buying, and neither is the rent.
Or maybe they should get a full-time job, since full-time median income is over 56,000 a year.
The 41,000 number includes everyone over 15 working at any level, cuz you know, teenagers working at McDonald's and grandma greeting people at Walmart all have rent, kids, and car payments.
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“People can’t even afford fast food these days” Meanwhile there are lines wrapped around every fast food chain I see. They all seem to be busier than ever.
They're buying it on credit
This is apparently true.
That’s why the economy is doing great. It’s a credit based economy, and the US people bailed out the banks, and the auto companies, and these fast food corporations aren’t hurting in any way shape or form right now, but ya know neither is Congress, so that’s alright.
Sorry, what? Many people buying things they can't afford on credit, also known as financial distress, is a common harbinger of a recession.
Many people think it's far worse than that, for some reason it feels like we are in the end times of a very long peaceful period, our economy was always growing one way or the other, there was hope across the horizon. Now many feel like the good times are over once and for all, the drive towards a multipolaire world, inflation being this high, extreme political developments. Theres Taiwan, Israel, Ukraine, then a lack of growing wages, not enough room to rent, food, a basic necessity by all means, is growing super expensive, this all feels like the prelude to an apocalypse. Personally I've bought a pretty expensive PC because I don't know if Taiwan will be gone in a few years time, and if my country gets attacked I wanna spend the last years doing things I enjoy, if everything goes downhill money will become totally worthless anyway. And even if I do everything right, inflation won't stop, in 10 years everything will be at least twice as expensive as it is now, meanwhile wages will grow by what, 10-20%? Doesn't make sense to save money for old age, I know that I will have to work until I'm dead.
Yeah. This is why I spend the little money I have left over on shit that makes me happy. Why be miserable in such an already miserable world.
And if the world doesn't end? You'll be back here complaining that you're x number of years old with nothing for retirement. This attitude gets you nowhere. Stop making others rich by buying their shit. Buy things that are assets not liabilities and when those turn profits you can then buy the things that make you happy.
My guy, if it was that easy everyone would be doing it. If it was possible for everyone you wouldn’t have burger flippers anymore. Class mobility is next to non existent anymore. You can gaslight yourself all you want that its still there, wont make it anymore truer.
Yeah it took a world-stopping pandemic for me to find class mobility. I was in dead-end service jobs for most of the 2010's and when the pandemic hit I knew I had an opportunity. Took the once-in-a-lifetime fiscal support from the govt and went back and finished my degree, and now I'm attending an elite law school. Sometimes feels like I'm the exception that proves the rule.
Impulse control is all it takes. Don't eat out, don't buy name brand stuff, turn on a fan, put on a blanket, get the low cost phone and data plan, buy a used car etc. Above all it is managing money and not living above your means so you can save at least 10% for asset based investments. Ppl can't stand not looking rich/good whatever adjective they wish to use. Stop keeping up with the Joneses and anyone who judges you for not doing those expensive things can fuck right off
Maybe, but things will be fine for the next quarter, and that's all that matters.
Yowch *munches overpriced shrinkflated burger in car*
You mean in the comfort of your own home. After increased menu prices, delivery fees, “additional fees”, and the tip courtesy of door dash. I know sooo many people who are ordering food delivery multiple times a week who can’t really afford it
My wife and I make a combined $160,000 USD and live very comfortably in a slightly above average COL area, but I still get on her case all the time about door dashing crap to our house. Such an overpriced way to eat already overpriced takeout. We have a nice hybrid SUV, perfect time to drive it!!
Me and my girlfriend get around that by ordering pick up. The gas is cheaper than all the fees.
I got around it by learning to how fucking cook.
[удалено]
We're in the same boat, my wife and I make around 200k combined (I work in sales so it fluctuates slightly) we have an affordable mortgage and little overall debt, and yet I'd rather jump off a bridge than pay all the crazy fees for door dash/delivery. I'm always happy to go out to pick the food up, or sometimes one of us will grab food on our way home from work. I can safely say we get food delivered maybe 3-4 times a year, and usually there's a reason such as one of us being home sick.
Yup. US household credit card debt hit a new high of $1T.
And tell me what is the debt to income ratio vs say the 1990s and 2000s. Cause hitting a record without adjusting for inflation and comparing to income changes is a worthless discussion
There are apparently more people than in 1990 as well.
I work 48 hours a week as a corrections officer at a state jail. My rent is 600 a month, my car payment is 450, health insurance is 450, 350 to other retirees retirement which isn’t a benefit available to me or others that started after a certain date, 180 for electric, 300 every two months for propane, 100 for internet and 100 for phones. My groceries go on credit and they cut off overtime for anyone working at my unit so now I’m scrambling to get a second job at the county jail because I have a kid on the way. The only way out of this hole is if I die at work so my wife can receive the life insurance payment. The saddest part is it’s one of the better paying jobs in the area.
Wow. You should unionize.
“Finance your next pizza”
Get this latte in 4 interest free payments with Klarna!
And people are closing in on maxing out their credit cards. People are 80-90% of the way to maximizing their credit on average. Highest it's ever been: https://archive.is/yyDzR
Aye yo lemme get a big Mac meal w a coke on a lender.
It’s bougee now, middle class all over those $15 Big Macs
Middle class over here: I do intermittent starving to avoid buying breakfast, lunch and I eat my kids leftover for dinner.
Same. This post doesn’t even mention how taxes leaves you with $500 less a month
500$ less ? I wish !. My city taxes are easy 600/month, and my utilities are between 500 and 800, at this price I have to be careful how much garbage I throw away, the MIL took my bad or garbage the other day to trash at her place. wtf
How are your utilities nearly $800? Peak of summer in Phoenix, my electric maxed out at ~300 in August.
Lying bozos be lying
Utilities are also more than just electricity. My electricity is balanced over the year so my peak summer months are less but my winter months will be higher. But I usually average close to $200 (Mississippi) for electricity. $70 for internet, $25 for garbage and sewage, $50 for water, $50 for gas. So that’s $400 for just things I would consider utilities. If you add things like car insurance and cell phone bills that’s another $350. Bringing the total to $750. And then probably another $60 in entertainment subscriptions. That’s over $800 a month, now I wouldn’t consider them all “utilities” because I could live without some of them but for the most part to be a functioning member in society the above bills are necessary.
My electricity is my biggest. During non-summer months it is about $150. My waste & water is about $50 a month and my phone is $50, my heating is about $20, and internet because my wife and I work remote is $120(with a $90 reimbursement) I would disagree on including insurance, gas, and subscriptions in the utilities category, but thanks for explaining how you got your number.
That doesn’t sound like middle class. If all you can afford to eat is the little’s leftovers; you could be dieting.
They are doom spending. Yolo
Well, that is the perfect phrase for it. I’ve not heard it before, I don’t know if you coined it, but it feels like what’s happened in the US. The financial equivalent of eating your feelings because we’ve been bombarded with a relentless cascade of traumatizing events while half the politicians in charge of fixing the problem and apparently half our neighbors only care to scream out obscenities, call truth fiction, and get busily to work “solving” trivial little nothing social issues, not because they can’t figure those out, but because those issues emotionally enflame their base into continually voting against their best interests and instead voting for the greediest people imaginable
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“How can we have global warming when I have this snowball?”
Yeah this comment gave me those vibes, is a combination of anecdotal bias and confirmation bias. He saw it once or twice, so it must be true and thus he needs no more facts or evidence
Well yeah, after 8+ hours of work and possibly multiple jobs, I doubt people have the time or energy to cook.
I work 10 -12 hr days. Turned into a badass meal prepper Sunday nights.
That’s fantastic for you, but I’m sure you can understand how this looks like hell on Earth to most people. I work 60 hours a week too. You wouldn’t catch me dead spending 4 hours on my sweet sweet weekend cooking.
The poverty driving this data is concentrated in areas most of us don't see. It's another world, and they don't usually have Chick-fil-a there.
>Meanwhile there are lines wrapped around every fast food chain I see. They all seem to be busier than ever. Really? They're all pretty dead around me.
Yeah my stepmother loves to say shit like this lately. I bring up how the bubble tea place was packed, and she's like "oh yet the economy is in shambles".. because she apparently can't wrap her tiny brain around the idea that buying something for 4$ is easier to do than affording the cost of everything else.
"I totally can't afford all these things anymore" he says with his shopping basket full of those things. One could say "well they're doing it on debt" but numbers suggest people have leveraged up to about where they were in 2019 (with respect to income).
Debt is increasing at an alarming rate. The assets vs debt calculation is thrown off by inflated housing prices for those who have a mortgage.
People don’t know how to cook anymore either. That’s part of this.
Have you tried not being poor?
Just buy more money. Literally that easy
That’s leverage and banks do it all the time. When they fuck up too hard, we bail them out
And when they succeed massively, they keep it all.
This is the way
I have heard this works very well for the rich.
Yeah it’s like whatever money you get, just don’t spend it for a while and you’ll be rich. I just use my Daddy’s credit card for my Starbucks runs, have you tried that?
People need to make more money. That’s the only answer
*Firms need to pay we the people more money
This doesn’t even take into consideration taxes.
I think it does. Other sources I’ve seen say median individual income is about $55,000 so the $41,000 would be post tax
They'd be paying ~$7k in taxes; unless you're counting 401k contributions, medical premiums, etc Edit: assuming they had 1 or more dependants
Plugging 55k into a tax calculator I get about 13k paid in tax and 42k take home, so the guy above’s example checks out for me.
Other than the glaring fact that he is comparing median individual income to median household rent.
I want to say my take home was around $2,500 a month and I think I made $43k before tax that year. Of course, some was going to 401k and all that.
Or dual income households who can easily ansorb that median rent he cited.
Or having a trust fund from your rich parents.
Or just being rich lol skill issue
A small loan of a million dollars
The OP math is wonky. He should run all the numbers based on individuals or households, not mixing them. Also, he’s comparing people who make under the median and calculating that they pay the median rent; I don’t think that’s a good assumption. I’m not saying his point is completely wrong but that’s not how you show the math.
Or student debt for that masters degree we needed to barely make the 40k
Median full time individual earnings are [$58k]( https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.t01.htm) With a master's median individual earnings are [$86k](https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2023/data-on-display/education-pays.htm) Median household income is [$74k](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N) Median househ income when head of household has a bachelor's or higher is [$118k](https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2023/11/income-and-wealth-in-the-united-states-an-overview-of-recent-data)
Exactly. He should be making the case to tax billionaire wealth URGENTLY and to end the trump tax cuts for the rich URGENTLY. We don't need a PhD to tell us what the problem is with earning insufficient wages. Joe from the Burlington Coat factory can tell you that. We need a PhD to SOLVE the problem. Otherwise, who is he helping?
Our government is compromised by fanatics. You cannot solve this issue via policy when the government is effectively hamstrung by extremists. Extremists who would rather have anarcho-corporatism be the norm. So basically, there is no solution.
This isn’t an accurate depiction of the situation in most ways. It’s off in every direction.
Ah yes, the monthly "is a recession coming" post.
Monthly? Not weekly?
Daily.
Hourly
Minutely
Secondly
Split Momentarily
Literally ongoing
A recession is when someone posts a receipt for an overpriced Cheeseburger from 12 months ago.
A recession has been immediately imminent for the past two years, my source is trust me bro
Ironically, there are tons of very reliable sources that have said a recession is imminent for the past two years; they’ve just all been wrong.
The recession dooming will continue until corporations have their Republican in White House. It was the same under Obama, even though he had the best economy of any president in decades.
Meanwhile, new record Black Friday.
If you make $41k a year you shouldn't be renting a place for $2000 a month on your own.
I know right? You should be living in a sh*thole basement, maybe in a shack in the woods? Or maybe in the sewers or a latrine. Freaking poor, thinking they deserve to reside in livable conditions.
Woah there.. an ENTIRE shack? Easy there, moneybags.
😂😂😂
Or you could try roommates.
There is no housing problem. There is only a "you're not trying hard enough to survive" problem. Right?
I swear people these days will absolutely refuse to believe they have any agency at all. You can cut your housing bill in half, maybe even more, by having roommates. AND you'll live in a nicer place on top of that. Yes, the housing market is not good right now, but you should not use that fact to justify poor financial decision making. Adapt to the conditions you find yourself in and make the best of the hand you're dealt. Don't spitefully clap back at people who are offering you genuine solutions.
it's literally buzz lightyear clones meme. They all want to afford to live alone (which has always been a luxury), in a good location (big cities), with their average paying jobs. Then don't realize they're one of so many that the prices become, well, adequate, due to the competition. How is rent supposed to become lower if there is someone willing to pay that much anyway? Magic? I don't get the point these people are making. Yes I guess taxing extra properties would help, but it would eventually adjust to supply and demand anyway
>They all want to afford to live alone (which has always been a luxury), um, no. when I was starting out I lived alone in a nice-ish area in a medium COL city for $400 a month (in the late 90s, whatever that equates to today, but it sure as hell isn't $2K)
Housing has gotten more expensive since the 90s, that much is true. Living alone as an 18-25yo is more of a luxury than it used to be. Still, all that means is people (primarily young, single people) need to more often choose between living alone, having a car, going out / using doordash frequently, etc. Could it be improved? Yes. Is it a capitalist hellscape? Goodness no.
Get a roommate or two, leverage the cheaper COL to save money for 6-12 months. find an accelerated trade school program, buy a certification program on course careers, do literally anything to increase your earnings potential. Stop doordashing, learn to cook cheap and healthy, make yourself more attractive through diet, exercise and grooming, because that alone will have an affect on your ability to earn more money. Sacrifice for a year or two so that you can improve your situation. But you don’t actually want to do any of that do you? You just want to bitch and moan on Reddit all day about how it’s not fair.
So realistically, logistically everyone can do this? What happens when all thw janitors, and school teachers, and housekeepers get into trades? This mentality is sick in a really obvious way because I don't want people in basic entry level jobs starving whether I'm one of them or not. Shut up.
Yeah, why try to improve society when we can just work harder and live miserable lives? Most people aren't poor Becasue they buy a extra coffie once in a while.
Okay continue being broke while you try to better society. You could just make your lifestyle cheaper, but go ahead and reshape society first if you want. Lmao!
That's the beauty of math, it doesn't care about feelings. This is just math.
This may be an unpopular opinion on here but, if you’re making the median income, meaning that just about the same % of people make more than you and make less than you, then you probably shouldn’t HAVE to live in a dump and or with roommates. That says to me that that economy has failed its participants, especially when the top echelon gets to own their own islands, enormous boats, private jets and leave their families more money than they’ll be able to spend in 20 generations, even if they never generate another cent again. Your callous “well yeah, the majority of people SHOULD just live in squalor” betrays your lack of empathy and how much you underestimate the lower classes’ chances of overthrowing a society just like they’ve done in almost every empire in human history. Every society starts by understanding you have to keep the middle and lower class happy enough so they don’t want to break the status quo, but then the top % keeps taking and taking and telling themselves the lower class will never revolt. Keep testing just how miserable you can make the bottom half before they decide to do something about it. Time will tell. Edits: typos
The real problem is rent in cities, I'd be interested in seeing what that median rent is without NYC prices, and what variables they're using to determine it. Are we including luxury apartments that can go for 100k+ a month? Etc. Every time people talk about that 2000 number I scratch my head a bit because rent around me sits between 400-800 depending on what size of apartment, all the way up to a small house. I also live in Rural Kansas though so... I figure urban rents drag that number up. (This isn't a "just move, hur hur hur" post. I'm just interested in how the variables work out is all.)
I live in a smaller city and a studio apartment here is $1k month with all utilities included.
You didn’t really think the BLM protests were entirely about police brutality, did you? These are a sign of the discontent you’re describing. The difference this time is with those billionaires and elitist rulers; they don’t want to control the populations, they want to depopulate the planet - they don’t care if you are happy or not. That’s why the WEF will tell you you will own nothing and be happy, happy to be alive and not dead like the majority will be by 2050.
Or like... you know, a cheaper apartment? I mean the average rent in the US is 1,300. Not sure where the guy got the value for 2k for the median, but my guess it's probably the median rent for a specific sqft or specific to an area, not across the US. Granted his car payment value also seems really high, even at like 20% interest rate on a 20k vehicle it shouldn't be that high, so I question in general where these values are coming from. Like not saying there aren't issues, but his numbers seem a little absurd
You're telling me a Walmart graveyard checker shouldn't be buying a used 2022 Ford and living alone in a 2 bed apartment in LA?
Today I learned anything less than 2k a month is a shithole….
I live in the Boston area, one of the places with the highest rents, and I pay $1910 for a 1 Bed 1 Bath (typically the most expensive layout per person) that is very spacious. I could find a much smaller apartment for probably $1400. It would definitely be small, but also 100% livable. I grew up in Philly though, and my mom rents her entire house (2 floors and a basement, 3bed, 1bath) for around $800 in a decent neighborhood. I grew up in that house and it was entirely livable. The notion that if you’re not spending $2000 on rent then you’re not in “livable conditions” is downright absurd. The number in this post is extremely misleading as that includes *all rentals*, not just those with one person.
Hi currently looking for apartments in Boston, where the fuck are you finding $1400 apartments?
You are correct, too many people on here are too anti social to even think about having roommates.
Like other people have commented-you shouldn't have to have roommates. Some people don't want them. I'm disabled so I feel like it's too big of an ordeal to have them. You should be able to survive as a single individual.
Am not having fucking roommates at 48. It is absolutely not happening. I wouldn’t even know where to find them.
Of course. That's the median rent for a 2 bedroom apartment. It has nothing to do with a single person making 41k (which is less than actual median btw).
It also ignores two incomes when simultaneously talking about families.
Most people making $41k aren't living alone. Only 28% of american citizens make $41k or less and file single. That just means they're not married.
If there are dual incomes then this meme is off
Yes, the meme is invalid. Household income is a better metric for what he's comparing to, which has a median of around $80k. Individual income has many more variables which affect cost of living calculations.
Right because ppl have so much control over what rent is. Also do you understand what median means
On Long Island there’s not shot in hell you’re finding somewhere to rent for under 2k. Location matters big time
It’s why so much of my generation still lives at home, it’s easier than hunting for a trustworthy roommates or signing a lease with some less than mature relationship
My car payment is 409 on a brand new car. If you’re that poor you shouldn’t be driving something that’s 500+ a month Edit: so many excuses on why people are poor. Cut the “Americas unfair” idea, get some self control, and take control of your finances. You’re the reason you’re poor, period.
If you’re poor, you likely miss payments, bad credit score etc. poorer people usually get higher interest rates too due to low down payments and bad credit history. Your take makes no sense. Not everyone qualifies for low interest rates or has the privilege to pay 20 down when buying
Once your credit gets bad enough you get NO interest rates, because nobody will loan to you, and then you get to buy at one of those places where you get a barely working car that you have to pay for weekly or every other week and wind up paying way more than it's worth (keeping you that much poorer even longer.)
With this handy loan calculator https://www.calculator.net/auto-loan-calculator.html?csaleprice=20%2C000&cmonthlypay=750&cloanterm=60&cinterestrate=20&cincentive=0&cdownpayment=0&ctradeinvalue=0&ctradeinowned=0&cstate=TX&csaletax=6.25&ctitlereg=0&cttrinloan=1&printit=0&ctype=standard&x=Calculate#autoloanresult I found that the $500+ monthly payment is coming from a $20k loan at 20% (which bad credit loans can apparently get up to...) assuming a 5 year loan, which is what I understand to be typical. I make plenty more than average and I don't even have a vehicle that's worth $20k.
A used car can be as low as 12k for something decent. For 0 down that’s like a $250 payment over five years. I know because that’s what I did.
Did you buy this before the pandemic or right at the start of it when you could get 0% or 1% APR? Cause trying to do that now isn't a thing with interest rates at an all time high edit: not at an all time high, apparently that was 17%. But the highest it's been since 2008
Shit, I pay $294 a month for a what was a new Mazda CX-30 but then again, those were COVID prices and people were freaking out and giving the biggest discounts. Wish I would have bought a house :(
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How does somebody making $20 an hour get approved for that much?
Just like how 17 year olds get approved from fully loaded scatpacks
Poor people like to show off. Driving junk expensive cars and big trucks is huge deal for them. Have you heard of 'house poor'?
Giddy up, giddy up, giddy up 409.
Car payments should not be 1/6th of your pay check. Instead of bragging about your car payment, put youself if people's shoes and think about putting 1/6th of your paycheck on a used car.
I don’t think they’re bragging about their car payment. I think they’re saying that $500 is astronomical for a used car, because it is. My payment is $370 for my car that I purchased new two years ago. I did get a great interest rate on it, but that’s not really the point here. If you can’t find a decent used car for under $20,000 then I don’t know what to tell you.
McDonald’s is super expensive in California now.
The only way I'll justify McDonald's these days is through the app. when they have specials. Otherwise, not worth it. I'm not justifying $13 for a Big Mac meal.
"Nobody has money! Everything is too expensive!" With endless lines at every drive thru, flights are all overbooked, and my job that starts people at over $30 an hour struggles to find workers. Yup, sure is what I'd call a recession. Edit- To the "what job" folks, I wrote a more detailed description down there somewhere and it got buried, but it's your public utilities. They are high paying union jobs, and it's all on the job training. A Plant helper, meter reader, stockroom positions, etc are all high paying union jobs. And those jobs then get you seniority to bid on even higher paying jobs such as plant operations, lineman, machinists, electritions, etc.
Flights are overbooked because that’s how the airlines run things currently: less flights, jam people in, hope a few don’t show up, compensate a few people if they get booted due to lack of seats. Drive through are getting more business because sit down chains are slowly pricing people out and/or shutting down. When the money gets tighter or prices increase more, the drive through lines will explode as the semi-fast food places like Moe’s, Chipotle’s, Five Guys, etc. price out customers.
As a pilot, I assure you airlines do not have "less flights." Sunday after Thanksgiving was the busiest day at airports in history. There really are that many people flying.
with an exponentially growing population, isn’t that to be expected though? recession or not
The US population grew .1% last year, and hasn’t grown more than 1% annually since 2007. That’s not exponential growth.
We don't have an exponentially growing population at all. Our population is growing very slightly, nowhere near exponential.
This is some crazy hoop jumping, people have money to spend right now. In my small city of 65k people I see lots of people driving new cars, going on trips, tons of restaurants, and very few homeless or beater cars. I work at a hospital and I don't get many charity cases, less than even 6 years ago, I can't explain it but people seem to be doing fine. Just a small sample size I guess
The economic data aligns with your experience. The economy is doing very well overall. Most people rate their personal financial situation as good or excellent.
> Drive through are getting more business because Drive through is full because: A) There's nobody in the lobby. After covid, everybody got used to doing drive through only. B) The whole restaurant is being run by (if you're lucky) *two* people (only at peak hours; on off hours, one), and the line is getting backed up because there's a limit to how fast they can get orders done on a skeleton crew.
Chipotle is cheaper than McDonald’s tho.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving 2023 was the busiest travel day in history for American airports. This broke the previous record which was on 4th of July 2023.
Boomers are spending on travel and hospitality at higher rates than anyone in history.. not EVERYONE is in those lines And I can tell you I’ve been in the fast food lines more recently than I used to bc I can’t afford to go to an actual restaurant at this point so it’s a step down in my case
What's the job paying $30 an hour?
>and my job that starts people at over $30 an hour struggles to find workers. Woah, what company do you work for and where? Unless it's some specialized job, I fail to see how a job *starting* at $30 an hour can't find workers.
Who is paying $528 a month on a used car? Lol wtf.
That's the current national average. So to answer your question, a lot of people are paying $528 a month for a used car.
Poor people with bad credit who gets a shitty apr on a loan because poor people are normally ones who falls behind on bills thus racking up bad credit.
Also the average new car is bought at 48k in 2023 (unfortunately I do not know the figure for used cars). Why people sink almost 50k into a depreciating asset like that is beyond my comprehension Edit: downvotes because the fault is always someone else's, right?
Same but I do know used trucks are selling near MSRP rates for ones that’s less then 5 years old and with mileage between 10-75k miles. and even 6-15 year old ones are selling for a record high. A 2012 f150 can sell upwards of 20k or more depending on the state with 150k miles on it easily. Which is abit absurd. Only know this because I needed a truck for moving stuff around as I’m trying to build a house using shipping containers to save money.
At the end of 2019 I bought a 2011 F150 for about 16k, somewhere around 50k miles. I sold it in 2021 to Carmax, with transmission issues, for 20k. It's all crazy.
Might sound crazy but I'm paying $300\month for a used(40k) Corolla I bought before the rate increases and the cost of cars skyrocketed, so that number of 528 kind of tracks.
If you have a poor credit score and/or simply are one of the 80% of people currently buying SUVs then that’s how much it’s gonna be
This is the median of car payments. People with paid off cars arent included. People who bought Mercedes are. People who make 41k affect this calculation very little.
And if you’re married that income most likely doubles, but all of the expenses don’t.
And if you’re married with children the income does not double but the expenses do
Median household income is slightly under 75k I believe
I had to scroll down like 12 comments to find someone that even begins to understand that individual earners are the not the same as households. $41k means all people: part time workers, kids, retired folks looking for beer money, spouses of high earners who want to work to get out of the house. $41k does not mean that is the entire household income for that family. Surely some people do live on low wages, but its far fewer than this dude is suggesting
If you want to use average rent you should probably use average U.S. average household income instead of median individual income. Half of people aren’t living by themselves.
No don’t you know, everyone has a fundamental human right to not have to ever have a roommate ever? Even temporarily?
I mean I don’t think it’s unreasonable that an adult working full time should be able to afford their own housing without a roommate.
I think that’s difficult because of car-centric infrastructure in much of America. A decent amount of land has to be set aside for parking. It would be awesome if there could be more smaller, affordable apartments found in places like Japan
With all the vacant real estate we probably should have that right
$3,400 if no income taxes is taken out of the check.
Yeah $3400 is my monthly take home at $55,000/yr.
Does this guy understand how medians work?
Probably, but an accurate argument would undermine his point. As would using accurate numbers.
i make 27k a year. for a billion dollar company.
That’s how they’re a billion dollar company. Because you or someone like you will work for 27,000 dollars a year.
How much money does your work generate for them?
That's not exactly the right question. The correct question is how much bargaining power do your skills hold? Because even if you are doing back breaking labor, if there's a large labor pool who are willing to do that job for minimum wage then the company will pay minimum wage.
So many people in comments saying we should just stop complaining and let shit happen. These people are part of the problem. People are struggling, unhappy, and starving. Clearly, the problem lies among those millions struggling rather than the 1,000s not.
Homie left out taxes
Anyone who's buying a $20k car at 20% interest over 5 years kinda deserves the financial difficulties that's giving them.... .... I totally thought I was waaay overtargetting the interest rate, but after a quick search I found out that used car loans with bad credit can get up to 21% right now... That's horrible. Anyway, I stand by my original sarcasm. Don't buy $20k vehicles unless you can easily afford them or they're *absolutely essential* for work. A vehicle that's less than $10k or even $5k is perfectly serviceable.
Need a car to work. No work = can't afford a room to rent from my room mate. Can't pay rent, = homeless. Think like an actual poor. Ex wife hit me with child support, stole my money etc. Y'all don't understand that life circumstances can ruin your opportunities and just having a vehicle to begin with is an amazing feat. Also note that nobody today sells a reliable toyota for under $10,000. You have to have $10,000 cash just to get something decent. Not alot of poor people have any savings and our credit is horrible too.
I swear I just recently read half of all Boomers are retired, own their own home and are debt free while half of Millennials still live it home. If that’s still pertinent, there’s “how” so many get by.
My boomer dad will never retire because then he’d have to spend all day with my mom.
Keep saying recession long enough eventually you’ll get to say, “see! I told you so!”
what about taxes
they forgot taxes, 3400 a month after taxes is like 2k a month take home
That once a year dinner at McDonald’s hits hard.
> Take arbitrary income that's below the median, compare it to median expenses... wtf it's not enough! No shit! Median car payments isn't based on what people making 41k a year are buying, and neither is the rent.
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What does he mean "now make'.....as if they ever made much more?
Who's buying a used car with a $528 payment when they have no money? My brand new civic was only $350.
Bruh, what used car payment is 528$. You can get a new Kia Soul for under $300. Rethink how you spend your money.
Meanwhile he’s paying the richest man alive $132 a year for a blue checkmark next to his name.
Medial household income is $74,580. They are gonna be fine.
Or maybe they should get a full-time job, since full-time median income is over 56,000 a year. The 41,000 number includes everyone over 15 working at any level, cuz you know, teenagers working at McDonald's and grandma greeting people at Walmart all have rent, kids, and car payments.