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New Survey: 78% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck

iapetus

Scary Euro Man
meanwhile

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Trump's planning on doing something about that, though.

Breaking those records.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
I'll say it again. Decouple healthcare from the private sector. Move to national healthcare. Watch so many dominos fall into place.
 
Man that's bonkers. I was feeling bad from spending half my savings on my wedding, new house, and new car all in the span of a year and I'm still far from living pay check to pay check.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
How much do you owe in student debt?


That's a ridiculous amount lol.

I have something like $70k (thanks out of state tuition!) and my wife has something like $120k (because she went to school to become a DPT and makes shit money because that field is fucking joke). My wife agrees that nobody in their right mind should EVER become a PT in this economic climate. You make ass money for the debt you are required to accrue.

I get super bitter thinking about it because it's seriously impacted SO many decisions in our life. We can't afford to have kids (still) because our student loan debt is legitimately insane. AND! There's no way out of it, ha.
 

Foffy

Banned
I'll say it again. Decouple healthcare from the private sector. Move to national healthcare. Watch so many dominos fall into place.

I think we need to decouple baseline needs from jobs. Healthcare is a start to this.

If your health and wellbeing depend upon the wages you get from a job, this will always be gamed, and always be a bona fide disaster.

I have something like $70k (thanks out of state tuition!) and my wife has something like $120k (because she went to school to become a DPT and makes shit money because that field is fucking joke). My wife agrees that nobody in their right mind should EVER become a PT in this economic climate. You make ass money for the debt you are required to accrue.

I get super bitter thinking about it because it's seriously impacted SO many decisions in our life. We can't afford to have kids (still) because our student loan debt is legitimately insane. AND! There's no way out of it, ha.

Mark Blyth has talked about how universities now support the current regime of rentierism and privilege that fucks over the masses.
 

Severance

Member
I know since I have started working 12 years ago, the rise in the cost of bills, groceries and rent has risen much more than my pay most years. Oh hey look, I'm making $50 more a week at my job! Wait a second, rent is going up $50 this year.. the electric company is raising their rates by 5%. Internet rates are also going up even more. Certain grocery items are going up. Oh and student debt? Well damn. I have to imagine that's been going on a long time now. The only time pay goes up significantly is finding a new job. If you stay at one job though, pay raises are not what they used to be. Many companies don't give 2% raises like they used to. I know some people who haven't been given a raise in 2 to 3 years. Let that wealth trickle down baby.
 

Sulik2

Member
There were some good articles last year that talked about this. Every time in human history inequality levels have reached this level you have either had revolutions or societal collapse. You cannot just pour all the wealth into corporations and the .1% and expect society to not eventually crumble.
 
From a political standpoint, we should be praying for some sort of correction to occur in the remainder of Trump's term.

From every other standpoint, there will be a lot more human suffering before we transition to a more viable and morally defensible economy—if we ever do.

Yep, been saying it for years. Basic advice on saving, how credit cards work, how student loans work, etc. I've read that SOME high schools do this, but it should be required.
This is like saying we should teach people in shark-infested water basic advice on treading water, how not to cut themselves, how to punch a shark in the face, etc.
 

Clockwork

Member
I have something like $70k (thanks out of state tuition!) and my wife has something like $120k (because she went to school to become a DPT and makes shit money because that field is fucking joke). My wife agrees that nobody in their right mind should EVER become a PT in this economic climate. You make ass money for the debt you are required to accrue.

I get super bitter thinking about it because it's seriously impacted SO many decisions in our life. We can't afford to have kids (still) because our student loan debt is legitimately insane. AND! There's no way out of it, ha.

My friend is a DPT. She makes a shit ton of money. *shrug*
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
My friend is a DPT. She makes a shit ton of money. *shrug*

Define "shit ton". Also, does she have her own practice or work for a private clinic?

I can tell you from experience (my wife + all of her friends from her graduating class years back) that the income is not good.
 

Morts

Member
I'm lucky enough to not be living paycheck to paycheck, but I can attest to wage growth being shit, such that I'm afraid I will be paycheck to paycheck a decade from now.
 

Foffy

Banned
No. You get one super duper capitalist party and one capitalist but is okay with gay people and want a small safety net party and you'll like it

Pretty sure this was the endgame of Making America Great Again.

If it's a callback to the olden days, it's a callback to the days of few tyrants and many masses of slaves and servants. It ain't just a throwback to thirty years ago. ;)
 

Dishwalla

Banned
I know people that live less than paycheck to paycheck. My cousin will go three to four days without eating anything herself just so she can feed her two kids. She depends on a disability check and theoretically a child support payment that she doesn't receive most months(she's in the process of going through the courts for that). Things are rough out there.
 

ApharmdX

Banned
This is no surprise. Wages for the middle class have stagnated. Wealth is only being gained at the top. This is not an accident.

I think we are fucked, personally, as a nation. We need a rapid course correction (UBI, socialized health care) that we will never get, because working-class whites cannot stomach the idea of other demographics benefiting from these things. These imbeciles have fucked us, and the wealthy have for the past 30 years laughed their way to the bank.

Why the 1% is not taxed at a 90% rate I'll never understand.

90% is too high, but top tax rate should be at least 70%, as it was in the past. And capital gains tax needs to be double what it is now.

I'll say it again. Decouple healthcare from the private sector. Move to national healthcare. Watch so many dominos fall into place.

Absolutely. That would be major progress for America.
 
Eventually, this all has to come back to the wealthy, right?. Yeah, you have millions saved up but what good will that do you when everyone is broke?
 

takriel

Member
In some regards, yes. Or at the very least, is declining hard into one for more and more people.

"Third-world" is too strong for most of the country, but it certainly lags other OECD nations on a host of metrics, and a lot of the lag is actually disguised because of Americans' dependence on credit.

So depressing, man. The rest of the world used to look up to the US. Now look what's happening...
 

Clockwork

Member
Define "shit ton". Also, does she have her own practice or work for a private clinic?

I can tell you from experience (my wife + all of her friends from her graduating class years back) that the income is not good.

She works at a clinic and hospital (all part of the same health system).

Hell, my gf's brother is just a PTA and he is doing alright (but obviously has much less student loan debt).
 

Ron Mexico

Member
We really need schools to start teaching personal finance.

There is literally zero downside to this and I can tell you from working in the financial industry, it's desperately needed.

To be abundantly clear-- this won't solve all the issues on its own. However, there's a lack of fiscal literacy across the entire socioeconomic scale. Any movement in the right direction, small as it may be in the scheme of things, is a positive movement.
 

Servbot24

Banned
I have 6 months buffer, and aside from that all pay checks immediately go into bills, 401k and student loans.

I used to live literally from pay check to pay check and man, that is so incredibly stressful.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
She works at a clinic and hospital (all part of the same health system).

Hell, my gf's brother is just a PTA and he is doing alright (but obviously has much less student loan debt).

PTA is honestly the way to go. Slightly less income with SIGNIFICANTLY less debt.
 
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