ginalynn8942
9755
641
4
May 17, 2026 8:06 PM
ginalynn8942
9755
641
4
aeroldoth
I'm a middle aged man making 1k/mo. 900 goes to rent+ and the rest goes to food and an illegal car.
JohnSmithterms
'Sit there until you die' - fixed it for you. You wont be getting more money.
ThailandExpress
MeeseOnABeam
a major part of the collapse of the roman empire was going from an expansion period of abundant opportunity to a stagnation period of low or no social mobility btw. just a fun fact, no relation to the post surely
poochyena
Well yea, thats just how statistics work. People with below average incomes buy below average cost of things. It wouldn't make sense if people in the bottom half bought things in the top half bracket.
Borax
Ok
InfocalypseRising
"just become a streamer and get rich"
AgamemnonsMemes
Welcome to the future, sci fi dystopia we were all warned about
clonedeeznuts
All while people making 6 figures are in Washington trying to take even more from you.
Borax
Not just white antmore
sakasiru
Have you thought about getting a fourth job?
SploogeMcDuck316
Also to keep lowering your expectations until the American dream is living in a one bedroom apartment with 4 people and a can of beans for dinner.
tentaclefriendly
I have maybe two or three more months before I don't know where the rent is coming from.
I'm scared.
It's bad. It's so fucking bad.
EngineerforPresident
The only way to gain any control and improve your life would be to grow any food in any way you can, even if it’s just tomatoes in a pot on your patio. Good ingredients significantly improve food and quality meals significantly improve life.
dontrike
"Growing a tomato will improve your life" is rather silly advice
doctorId
So even more work
BrickSprickly
Yep ill just grow those in my closet
doctorId
The goal is for you to die of stress or starvation so you can be replaced by an equally desperate worker who will also die early.
Rijacki
And, if you do anything for entertainment, you're characterized as being wasteful and irresponsible.
SnowpersonHitInTheFaceWithALackOfCreativity
Unless you can monetize it, like podcasts, or whatever the fuck that Capped Kirk guy did
allergictocantaloupe
And people on disability make less than $1,000 a month...
RGN77
My wife and I live on disability. We each bring in about a grand a month. Her very elderly mother living with us is the only way that we even scrape by.
allergictocantaloupe
I have 11 roommates, which is why I can afford to live.
RGN77
Our apartment complex does regular inspections to make sure that you don't have more people living there than the lease allows. Eviction if you violate it. But, yeah. I've lived in many communal houses and apartments that were way over capacity.
RGN77
Sit there until you can no longer afford gasoline, food, or the apartment. The basic situation that my wife and I are in right now. Had to move out of our 3 bedroom house with a finished basement and attached garage to move into this tiny, ghetto apartment just over 7 years ago. Since they raise our rent by $80-$100 per annual lease renewal, along with the soaring cost of everything, we now pay more rent for this apartment than we did for our much bigger house. 1/
RGN77
We slip a little bit further into the red every month. We don't technically make enough to afford everything so a portion of it goes on credit cards. And they're approaching their limits. We have no idea where we'll be living 1-2 years from now. We're going to have to move to a rural community and out of the suburbs just to be able to afford rent and groceries. But, since everything is still going up, how long will that last? It's a very helpless and hopeless situation.
RGN77
And we have so much debt that our credit is horrible. We don't even know if we'd be approved for a place even cheaper and worse than where we currently are.
Minimal driving. No going out to eat. We've already sold almost anything that we own that had any kind of value. Lots of borderline expired, Food Bank groceries.
We were so happy 10 years ago when we had our house up and running well. Now we're tiny steps from living out of our cars.
RGN77
And gosh forbid that my 21yo car with 200k+ miles on it, and needs work, but runs, would happen to either break down in a way we couldn't repair, or if I got into even a minor accident. My fault or not, my car is worth so little that the insurance company would surely total it out and give me scraps for it. Nowhere near enough to get a replacement.
InablueMule
if You can't afford it here live somewhere else. (Not my words).
MissMittens
Do you have any idea how expensive moving is?
RGN77
People love to say that and I generally respond with, "Do you think that if I had the money to live anywhere but here, that I'd still be here?"
downsouthfarm
Now that you have recognised that you have nothing left to loose you can rise up against your oppressors. Or you can sit around and do nothing but post about it until they take your internet away.
Monkeyofdoom44
How exactly is that supposed to go? The issue is getting people to go through great lengths at the same time. We can't even organize a single day general strike with meaningful turnout. Legitimately what is an individual supposed to do here? What are we missing? Everything is fucked but it's been organized so people are all either too tired or desperate to do anything or still have bread and circus.
downsouthfarm
I hear your pain. Solidarity is what you need. Unfortunately you have been conditioned to think of yourselves as each other's competition so much that you can hardly conceive of how to act collectively. Start by making connections with like minded people.
lildude52ca
... * Sit there until you die * . yea. i know man. i've been here my whole fucking life. now they wanna take my pension away? the one thing
lildude52ca
i've had to look forward to after all these years? gave everything gave my all worked my ass off. now i cant even retire. fuck society
LincLoud
I am sorry for everything you're dealing with
ImJustHereAtThisPoint
You deserve better. I'm sorry what this country continues to strip from us to feed the hungry maws of The Rich.
CitrusyGarlic
freezingpilot
Say it with me now: MAINTENANCE DE ROUTINE
Whitebeardthepirate
we can? but when? when are we gonna mob up and do this IRL instead of memeing about it? I'll wait for the inevitable "WELL WHY DON'T YOU DO IT FIRST?!"
CitrusyGarlic
As soon as you cowards join me, I can't do it by myself
StarmineRendezvous
When a No Kings sized movement stops being weak chicken shit and doesn't go away until demands are met or preferably the rich are dead.
GrandFubar
What if, we just do a J6. but teach the other guys how to actually commit to the goal and follow through.
wargames
bottom 50% of income accounts for 10% of the economy the top 10% account for 40%.
poochyena
The top 10% page 76% of income tax, while the bottom 50% contribute 2.3% https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/latest-federal-income-tax-data-2024/
Borax
Funny thing about this is the 1% they are talking about are not the tax evading 1% at the top. This is smoke as always.
poochyena
It is.
wargames
this is more about buying stuff then taxes.
rdkill
People always quote something like this like its some "got ya!" When in reality its just further showing how fucked everything is.
poochyena
how so?
Borax
It means the bottom is very poor and the 1% talked about is not the top 1% who just don't pay alot
rdkill
Well that should be pretty obvious, if more people paid similar amounts of total taxes(vs top earners paying the majority) that would be indicative that everyone was getting paid more.
poochyena
huh? We have a progressive tax system. What you describe only makes sense with a flat tax system.
rdkill
Paid more evenly*
battleofhastings1066
... and any crimes that you commit to obtain money will be seen as moral failings on your part.
Fuckimgurcunts
And will *cost* you a SHIT ton of money.
GigglingWordBearer
And despite the culture of that encouraged by movies; the crimes will often be for enough money to barely get by, not enough to become some extravagant criminal.
Clockworkdancerobot
Even if you don't commit crimes. you're labeled lazy, moochers, idlers.
AtmaDarkwolf
Some may not even be actual crimes, but off to jail anyways, so they have more source of free labor.
Zeterai
The magic of prosperity gospel. Being financially bankrupt must mean you're morally bankrupt because of divine punishment, while being rich means you're totally justified in anything you do because otherwise god would strip you of your wealth.
InablueMule
Then a private prison can make money from your incarceration.
Fuckimgurcunts
Even if you don't go to prison, the second the state's attention is on you they start milking you for all existing assets you may have, which may exceed your ability to lay and create debt, as well as likely giving you obligations that you must choose over your source of income.
InablueMule
Puritan work ethic.
CedricDur
While also serving as an excuse to be sent to jail. Which the US of A is treating as legal slavery.
Thegalwiththetie
Speaking even as a municipal prosecutor, our jails are so full, we can barely put anyone away apart from DV and DUI cases - which have mandatory minimums in my jurisdiction. This means that everything else gets less and less punished except by the rap sheet. People won't get hired and... now we're back to permanent underclass with a heavy racial tinge.
RichardPenne
Here's the thing. I've worked with quite a few CEOs and founders and I don't think I know a single one who did not break (or "bend") the law to get started. One of the biggest (who got 1M from daddy to "make his way in the world") went to a meeting with Bellsouth (a large southern phone company) and sold them a lie about the great logistics company he had to get them to sign a multi million $ contract and then he and his co-conspirator had to figure out how to pull it off ...
InablueMule
Got someone in WI that started shady. Dead now but was a billionaire.
RichardPenne
... on the way home. This isn't some hearsay. This is how he told his story to me when I had asked him how he started and built his company. That's the one thing most of them seem to have in common - ego. If you are not perceived as a threat (i.e. you are just a lowly coder) they will happily brag about how they gamed the system.
RichardPenne
Remember that you only see the successes. You don't see all of the nepo-babies that fail and lose daddy's money. Before they are rich, nobody cares if they fail, because they haven't fucked over enough people that want to see them fail. Capitalism demands showing only successes. It's how they keep you dreaming of riches while missing out on the beauty of a normal life. It's also why they sell the lie of "self made" billionaires.
DeadeicPrints
I make $800 a week, I used go make around $800 a MONTH. This insane jump. I feel like i should be rolling in it, however... where tf is all my money!? Why are groceries so expensive? Why am I so fucking tired?
monkeyfly
The system working as intended.
supervillin
Just gotta get paid by companies you laws about, that's the American Dream.
ostensiblystupid
15 years ago I made $1,100/month and rent was $525 for a 650sq ft 1 bedroom, life wasn’t so bad.
Then over the last 5 years I job hopped to $4,200/mo and rent became $1,500 for a 237sq ft micro studio.
Now that I’ve been injured with a permanent deteriorative condition and I’m trying to navigate my way through a very slow, overburdened and uncaring series of “resources”, I have a hard time now and then with not wondering what it was all even for.
IHaveGreatKittenRecipes
Seriously. My income has quadrupled over the last 20 years and I am in more debt now than I could even *conceptualise* back then. What is this shitfuckery and how tf do I get off this ride.
JJohnston94
Somehow the universe knows. Every extra dollar you bring home will be gobbled up by something else. I got a raise myself a few weeks ago, just as gas prices exploded. I guess I'm lucky - lots of people didn't.
starkeclipse
Agree. I make what I always thought of as stupid silly money. My husband's salary matches mine. And yet, trying to figure out childcare for my second kiddo has us dialing away all of our retirement savings so we can put her in daycare. I don't understand how anyone can make 6 figures, and barely be scraping by. And yet I know I'm lucky to have even managed to put any money into retirement. I didn't get there until I was 35 and I'm back out by 40. The United States' dream is dead.
IntegratedTraumaEarnedSecure
Im going to hire a nanny instead of childcare .
chuckaholic
Now you can afford all the basic necessities you used to live without. Instead of gluing old shoes back together you throw them away and buy new ones. You're buying gifts for people on birthdays because you never could afford to before. When someone invites you for coffee, instead of making up a fake reason to cover the fact that you won't be able to afford coffee until payday, you simply go. I bet you even fill your gas tank to F.
ImJustHereAtThisPoint
"fuck you Commie. Try not being poor next time lol" is the best answer youll get from a politician. Everyone else is gonna tell you something that can't be talked about on social media.
LuminoZero
It can if you stop being a pansy.
A handful of Billionaires stole our future from us. This won't end until their fear of us outweighs their greed.
ImJustHereAtThisPoint
Go be the change ya wanna see "pansy".
FanBladeFleshlight
I make about $2.4k per week, pre tax. By the time I pay the mortgage, buy food, pay the bills, pay insurance, and try to keep the savings stocked for yet another "oh fuck", I'm lucky to buy a damned video game. By all accounts I should be sitting on silly amounts of liquid assets, and yet I'm trying to get OT just so I can afford to do a little work on my house.
undeadlemur
Yeahh I get $1700 every 2 weeks and I only get by from living with my sister
zechor
Dang man, unless you're supporting 2 families or living in Seattle you're well over the median household income just about anywhere in the US.
Not to judge, but it might be worth hiring an accountant to help you take a look at your expenses and see if there are any leaks you can plug.
HughGRecti0n
So what’s your net then? Post tax?
FanBladeFleshlight
Between state and fed taxes taking around 35%, I take home around 1.5k per week.
IntegratedTraumaEarnedSecure
The hell you pay on mortgage and property tax
FanBladeFleshlight
2.5k mortgage + tax, state and fed taxes take about 33% of my gross earnings, electric bills here are super high, and solar doesn't make much sense in my state.
IntegratedTraumaEarnedSecure
Not too bad of a price but thats double mine
poochyena
Well you probably spend more money on nicer things when you have more money.
ThinkThisOut
You’re accurate. Many seniors lost everything when stimmy checks came rolling in. Started spending but never reduced back to previous levels after the checks stopped. It’s a known problem - giving people money, reduces their ability to spend wisely. Sad
BrickSprickly
Those stim checks were not designed to last or be substantial.
ThinkThisOut
Human behavior is human behavior.
akafluffy
you mispelt inhuman behaviour is human behaviour relating to the leeches that keep charging more when they see people get a tiny pit more to spend.
akafluffy
you probably lose your money to scams when you have more money, we are not the same.