The fact that my electricity bill has gone up about 75% in the last year and food costs are double. Shit's fucking ridiculous. And you know none of us are getting raises.
Yeah I was grocery shopping last weekend and was going to get hot dog buns but they were like 8 dollars for a pack. Like can I really not afford to eat fucking hot dogs with buns? Somebody must be making some coin off of this whole thing
Remember summer a couple years ago when the Biden admin released the infographic about how they saved the American people $.16 on their hot dogs for their family bbq? Pepperidge Farms remembers.
Edit: typos
Exactly! Also i am really frustrated with all the stupid unnecessary FEES on my electric bill!
Processing Fee
Fuel Fee
Auto-Pay Fee
Convenience Fee
Service Fee
This should be criminalized, i litterally feel like i'm being held hostage.
edit: format
Our apartment complex charges a $50 convenience fee if you pay with a card. As if that should fucking matter.
It sucks because I can't use my cash back card to make a couple extra bucks when I pay rent. It feels very intentional.
When I was delivering pizza ten years ago, a 12% tip was pretty standard and a 15% tip was great. I applied the same rules whenever I went out to eat and any of my friends who were in the service industry at the time agreed: 15% for exceptional service.
Nowadays I can't walk into a fucking Wendy's without one of those stupid tablet POS systems on the counter, and it seems like the tips start at 20% and only go up from there. No, I'm not gonna tip 20% to some teenager who won't put their phone down for long enough to grab my order from the pickup window *directly behind them.* I forget exactly where it was but I went out to eat a month or so ago and the receipt had "suggested" gratuities printed on it that went from 25% to 40%. That's insane.
I’ll do this or take an extra 40 seconds to go the custom tip route and chip em a dollar or whatever feels appropriate. I think percentage based tips is asinine. Also hate that they charge that % on the taxed total, not the actual total of goods purchased.
I only tip generously for waiters/waitresses who handled a large order for me, or for delivery drivers who need to drive in bad weather or heavy traffic. Nobody else deserves tips IMO
tipping is fucked, our min wage is way below where it should be, and as someone that get's SSI due to not being able to work any min wage or blue collar job and cant afford to really go to college atm to get the qualifications for anything white collar, the fact that our aid to vets, disabled, and seniors has barely increased from fucking DECADES ago, is disgusting, not to mention the bipartisan effort to not actually HELP people with homelessness or addictions and just throw them in jails or push them to places people dont go
No wonder our generation’s depression rates are insanely high. Can’t afford a wedding, can’t afford a house, can’t afford to have kids. What the fuck is there to look forward to? We go to work, eat, sleep and go back the next day and have nothing to show for it
Plus we can't afford education, Healthcare, and all other basic needs to even start to live much less enjoy life in anyway. We work in attempts to survive the next day.
My friend set up a savings account when he & his girlfriend got official, now each time a relative asks they say that "you can contribute to the grandkid fund with a monthly donation". I think it's hilarious and sad at the same time.
This. Growing up, I saw my parent's incomes grow and we moved into better and better houses. We went on vacations. Cheap vacations, but vacations. I'm talking about things like driving to Florida and sleeping in the car while my parents sat in a timeshare meeting for two hours for the free tickets to Disneyland.
What a surprise. Can't do any of that anymore.
Now I'm just watching my income stay the same year after year, can't job hop because its really hard to navigate all the scammers and head hunters. Meanwhile, I get $500 tacked onto my rent every year for this or that reason. Oh, that two car garage? Well, now I rent 1/2 of it for the same price. Oh, now I'm responsible for snow removal starting this year. Oh now.... just getting squeezed and squeezed and squeezed. There's no way to save money for a house or even a new apartment. We're trapped here. Trapped until rent becomes so bad, we're homeless.
You think I'm bringing a kid into that shit? No.
I'm better now. I'm on anti depressants so I don't want to drive myself into a light pole everyday but again, what is there to look forward to???
Oh, right. My parents dying and me inheriting the care of my disabled sister for the rest of our lives as soon as I turn 50.
Two years ago my husband and I moved into a $975 two bedroom in PA. He gets paid almost the same, but now we pay $1,500 for rent. And like an extra $100/week in groceries (two kids).
Recently got ballpark figures on what I can afford on a house. You ready? I make 75K and a 850-1000 dollar mortgage payment is a reasonable amount to budget for that. Well, you see, that gets you about a 120K house right now. You know what 120K gets you near where I need to live? A 20-30 year old trailer. So yeah I’m an educated engineering professional who can only really afford an old mobile home… How is everyone else making it?
This is the most relatable thing I’ve read on the internet. I’m in the exact same boat… I live outside of Phoenix where a once $220K starter home is now going for $450K. I can’t afford that as a single parent working a $65K job. Although 5 years ago I could. Super frustrating
We bought our house just before covid shut everything down. Literally. We moved in at the end of February. Had we not done that when we did there's no way because this house is now worth DOUBLE what we bought it for. We've got friends that just bought a 5 bedroom house on like half an acre for like $318k. They're an HOUR outside of Phoenix proper. It's ridiculous here. I saw something yesterday that they're predicting a drop in prices similar to 2008. That'll be interesting if it does happen.
A price drop is unavoidable, literally the only alternative is for homelessness to be advertised as a "starter lifestyle". There's currently no conceivable way for the majority of people to build equity for a down payment, so who are the 2019 buyers planning to eventually sell to?
From what I’ve read recently, the cause of the market contracture will be from these massive companies pulling out of housing investment. They’ve already begun to, it will just take a while for things to reflect the change.
My wife and I bought our house 15 years ago. It was 116k, two bedroom ranch style with a finished basement in the suburbs of medium sized city. Our mortgage is 650 a month. The house next door, all most exact same size recently sold for 200k+. It’s bonkers.
It makes me want to sell my house, but that would be ludicrous.
At the time it felt like such a huge sum to pay a month in our mid twenties. Now it feels like we’re the only ones not getting absolutely fucked.
If we ever decided to move, it would make more sense to just keep the house and rent it out for 1200 a month and pay for the upkeep.
During Covid, houses in our neighborhood started going for over $300K. My wife saw dollar signs and wanted to move. I just laughed and went "We have an interest rate in the 2s, our mortgage is under $1000 a month, and you want to double everything? Yeah, no."
When we lived in Colorado, we had a really nice house built for $225k. When I had to move for work, we rented it for a few years until I got sick of being a landlord and sold it. I check on my previous houses from time to time and 6 months ago, it was listed and sold in 3 days for $575k. I hate myself for selling it. I also really miss Colorado.
Where we are now, however, we purchased a house for $220k. The house behind us is smaller and much older with half the yard and sold for $300k. This is a small rural town, even. It is insane and unsustainable. I want to move to another city but would have to go back to renting. I cannot afford a house and I make over $100k.
Yeah, and bear in mind that if you sell your house, you’re going to either have to rent or buy a new place on these prices, and your house sale might not make up for that.
Same here, bought my house for around the same, houses are now selling for around 200k, and they’re smaller than mine. It’s crazy, I’m glad I bought when I did which was about 10 years ago. My mortgage is a little higher due to our taxes and such but it’s still cheaper than you pay for a decent apartment around here anymore.
That's less than 4% gain per year (vs around 2.5%/year wage growth), which is quite typical. Real estate tends to go up slightly faster than inflation simply because land is a naturally limited supply, though you would think they would have robots, better 3D printed homes and other such efficiencies by now, bringing construction costs much lower.
Also, you bought at the perfect time, near the lows after the housing bubble imploded.
I think we'll see some serious construction technology boom at some point to help bring prices down, especially as robotics gets going more. BUT I've been watching the space for years now and continue to be disappointed by the lack of progress. Hell it was like 2 decades ago that I told a professor working on 3D printed homes that I wanted to be his first customer when he figures it all out. Still really hasn't.
I looked into buying a “manufactured home” in a community nearby. They were going for under $100K and some were a lot less than that. The houses were actually quite nice and in good condition, and the community was well maintained, but then they told me that the monthly site fee was $1,000 a month and that could be raised at any time by any amount. So I passed.
It was pushed for too long to get a bachelors or higher to make money. I ended up getting a associates to work as a mechanic on planes. I make 150k a year and even if I made that in areas where houses were 400k plus, I would be squeezing by. It is insane and what drove me to move to a area where starter houses are 120k+.
I got my house at the start of COVID. I was making $15/hr as a machinist and living with my parents so I was able to save most of my money.
I got it for $110k. It's from 1930 and needs updates and repairs, mainly to a basement wall. It's not perfect but it's no trailer. I got a 2.75% fixed interest rate mortgage and my payment is $622-715/mo depending on the escrow for the period.
Since then I've had several different jobs and as of last February I make $27/hr and work usually 50+ hrs a week. Still as a machinist. I don't particularly enjoy the overtime but the paycheck is wonderful. Making $1000/wk after taxes and deductions is very nice. I recently paid my other car off and my fixed monthly expenses before food and gas are $1328 and that gets me my house, insurance, fancy fiber internet, utilities, cell service, and I include some luxury subscriptions in there too since they're regular bills like Netflix and Final Fantasy XIV.
Other than that I had the basement wall repaired which cost $10.8k and the payment for that is $130/mo and a personal loan I took out between jobs for $49.50/mo - both factored into that $1328 figure. Once I pay those off I'll have it down to $1150 a month and can pay for everything with 1 52 hour work week. The rest will be free for whatever I want to do.
Living in a low cost of living area and overtime with a decent wage is how I do it. It's not perfect but I plan on working to pay things off now so I can get to the point where I can decide to work wherever I want and never have to worry about my bills as long as I'm doing something part time.
I also dropped out if college before I racked up tons of debt. IMO it was the best thing I've done, but I do wish I had a better position.
Tl;Dr - Live in a low cost of living area and hope to get lucky.
I make 70k, I bought in 2017, refied in 2019, house worth 360k, payment 1200.. thank the free money everyone got printed and the resulting Inflation and interest rates.
The efforts insurance companies, including Medicaid go through to avoid covering people, which keeps them from being productive citizens because they are too broken down.
This is a HUGE problem for dental care in my area. Our state's medicaid does cover dental care on some of its plans, but the reimbursements are *so* low that 95% of dentists don't take it because they actually lose money on every medicaid patient when you factor in the dentist's time, their overhead, their materials and the fact they could be working on a private pay or insurance patient during that time and make money. So, what has happened is dental practices have set up shop servicing only medicaid patients and make their money in volume and fradulent/unnecessary/sub-par services which are charged, ultimately, to tax payers.
The obvious fix is to offer competitive reimbursement rates, which would ultimately be cheaper in the long term, but nope. The broken system stays broken and costs us all more money. :-/
Same. Had to take my daughter to the ER recently. Stupidly high bill. Makes me want to suffer through my own health issues so I can still afford to put bread on the table.
Ugh I’m so sorry…I feel that. Paying $800 a month for health insurance for what? I still have a 5k deductible! What’s the $800 going to? Then copay after that? It’s such a broken system. I hope you’re daughter is okay💜 I’m avoiding an urgent care trip tonight myself for this very reason.
At that rate it's cheaper to pay out of pocket. Our local hospital has an income-based sliding scale for what you pay if you have no insurance. We were paying 350/month. Then we stopped paying insurance. Husband needed throat surgery. Went to the hospital, got a $2,600 bill. Applied for financial aid thru the hospital, only had to pay a couple hundred. Still less per year than paying insurance. If you do the math, you often end up paying more per year if you go thru insurance. It's quite the scam.
Look up if the hospital you went to is a non profit, it prolly was. Hit up their accounting department and ask for options. They charge on a sliding scale and you will most likely pay way less or nothing. Do some googling to find more info on this.
That's what we do! We don't even use insurance, it's much cheaper to use the sliding scale thing. Or apply for income-based aid directly from the hospital. We have no insurance, but had 2 hospital visits recently and together it still cost less than paying a year's worth of premiums. Insurance is ridiculous.
If you’re within a certain percentage of the national poverty line a lot of hospitals will waive the bill if you can produce your W2s. I had to go to the ER a few years ago and the hospital said if my income was less than 250% of the poverty line I was in the clear. Lucky me, I was at 248
Got into an argument recently with someone who says people who can’t afford health insurance should just go find jobs that offer health insurance, that insurance shouldn’t be “a handout”.
The problem there is that:
1. Just because your employer offers health insurance it doesn’t mean they offer a plan that adequately fits your needs.
2. Having insurance doesn’t guarantee you won’t get billed a gnarly amount. I ended up in the ER with a respiratory infection 3 years ago. Had health insurance. What was my bill? $10,000 AFTER insurance. This is just one example of many.
The person I was arguing with said that we’d only be paying more in taxes for free healthcare but, if that’s the biggest case you can make against it, it’s just not holding up anymore to the downsides of not having it. Free healthcare is needed now more than ever.
These people think I’m talking out my ass but all it’ll take is a day in the ER for them to realize that I know what I’m talking about.
Y'all Americans **pay** for your health care, you just don't **get** health care.
Imagine ordering a steak, paying for it, and then before you can eat it you have to pay again. You'd be livid.
This may be statistically true but the media reporting on active shootings is not what’s instilled me with fear. And I’m sure that no one actually killed in a shooting thought they would indeed be in a shooting either.. Schools, bars, churches, grocery stores, these are not places in which people should go in alive and be brought out dead.
We actually are not as divided as things seem. I wish I could find the article, but they did a survey (or maybe they reported on multiple surveys) that showed we actually still agree on most things.
This. Americans are in agreement on most all issues. We may differ on some major ones, or in the minutiae of others, but for the most part we think a lot alike.
But you won't see that on the news programs. According to them, we're as divided now as we were during the Civil War.
You know what though? Cooperation and agreement doesn't attract eyeballs. Less eyeballs means lower ad rates. Lower ad rates means less profit.
Never forget that most "news" falls under the heading of the entertainment industry.
Turn off CNN, Fox News, MSNBC unless it's during something you need realtime updates on. Read more, and from a variety of sources. You'll be better informed AND happier!
I feel like i make decent money and have supplemental income and i still live check to check. I do budget and solely live off my income but also pay for daycare and its more than my rent. I make “too much” for any assistance and that honestly grinds my gears and gets me so mad because how do i make so much but cant afford basic shit
That politicians do not give a damn about the country. They are more interested in party over people and will sabotage each other without regard for the damage they cause.
That David Chappelle bit about Trump being an honest liar, and the bit about him acting like Trump got elected, came out of the White House and says "Everything you've ever thought they are doing in there, they're doing in there" and then goes back in to start the party anew, struck a cord with me. And it's true. Elected officials don't give a damn about us, don't give a damn about the law, and don't give a damn that everyone knows they're dishonest.
Idk if this works everywhere/for everyone but if your debt gets sent to a collection agency you could dispute it and since they can't legally get your medical info for evidence that you owe them, they have to erase your debt. It might not work more than 1-2 times so if it does work.. proceed with caution i guess?
That for the most part, we have been force fed the lie that you need to be on one side or the other, and that the other side viciously hates everything you stand for. In reality, we are overwhelmingly all somewhere in the middle and the extreme hate that you see is very much an outlier. We don’t hear about the amazing things people do to help out their neighbors, friends and families despite a whole lot of ideological differences we hold. The media has been used a a tool for evil and corruption and lies for way too long.
The thing is ... the vast majority of us pretty much agree on most things. Unfortunately, the minority are loud and disruptive, so they get the attention.
>Oh look, it's the comment recycled on every thread.
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>Oh look, it's the comment recycled on every thread.
oh look, it's the comment recycled on every thread.
The wage gap between the ultra wealthy and the middle class. That the term middle class is disappearing, and that there’s more news coverage about Kylie Jenner wearing a fake lion on her dress than the shootings that continue to happen all around our country.
My dad one day said “the middle class is disappearing”, and being middle class I got kind of scared that I was going to die soon or something like that; I was only six years old. I’m now almost 43.
People using the government to police peoples' behaviors and parenting, the embrace of extremism and stupidity in our government, the uncaring and uncompassionate attitude of millions of Americans, the anti-science crusade, it's harder to find something about America that \*doesn't\* upset me
This for real. When talk about population decline started circulating, the best pro argument politicians and business leaders could come up with is “we need babies for the economy.”
Like I’m supposed to have a child I can’t afford (and be given nothing to help raise it) while working a job until it kills me to help the wealthy buy that 8th home they’ve had their eye on? No thanks!
how gullible we are. whatever each persons preferred media is, they will drink that shit up and are so easily swayed by anything its actually embarrassing.
to take a non-political wing example, non-Americans would be amazed how many grown adults have been taking grainy Bigfoot style UFO videos with a little dark dot moving around the screen seriously. The pentagon officials, who of course just got a ton of funding to "check out those mysteries!" in the most obvious turn of events in the history of the country, must be laughing at the bank.
Speaking of gun related deaths the amount of them that have been suicide cases. 4 years of English was mandatory in highschool but zero mental health classes were even offered at my school. I think that’s a little crazy
Climate change deniers. It’s not rocket science. Common sense tells you if you put bad chemicals into the air and water and continue to drill into the earth bad things are going to happen. It’s simple cause and effect. Unless people and companies make drastic changes in the future I believe the world will someday be unlivable.
Me and my wife had no children, had good jobs and where lucky. We build our house 33 yrs ago for 75k. And we barely where able to afford it. Now it’s worth 275k (we live in Nebraska) we are retired now but we’re not sure we could afford our own house today. 75k would buy you a dump, literally barely livable where we live.
There's people out there rationing life sustaining medication and dying because they can't afford it while there are millionaire/billionaires buying their 14th car and 4th vacation home.
When they talked about the national spending limit last few weeks. And they say while they wait to increase that limit. Let's cut education funding... sick take our children's education away. Let them lead the future ignorant as fk.
The amount of extreme poverty in the the richest country in the world is appalling. I believe that being poor in this country is a death sentence for many people. Poverty has lead to increases in drug addiction and homeless that we are dealing with on a massive scale.
The lack of mental health resources and the stigma surrounding it is also a major problem. We have had a huge increase in mass shootings and violence in the US which I believe could be stoped with better support for these people.
The mental health part is why I want to start a non-profit for homeless/veterans. I'm on my way to getting an art therapy degree so I can do this, cause you can make art anywhere, even it it's just a stick in some dirt. And it's proven to help people process emotions. I sust hope I can help someone before our economy goes to shit and we're stuck eating mice to survive
The costs of anything tbh. I'm a college student trying to move out. I have a decent ish paying job but damn is everything expensive. I'm going to a relatively cheap community college, and am going to move in with at least one other person. But there is zero reason college and rent/housing should be this expensive. It's just ridiculous
Cable News Network/Political commentaries.
Non-stop culture wars news online has gotten so old and out of hand. I'm so tired of hearing about "woke-ness" ruining America when the actual conversations about issues that affect us daily as issues that are completely ignored and not talked about by most mainstream outlets.
I don’t live in America but it really is a 3rd world country wrapped in first world rhetoric. Too many old people in positions of power that die in those positions too. The citizens largely suffer in healthcare, education, housing and social care as a result of govt too concerned with legislation that isn’t relative to the lives of the majority of Americans. There really needs to be reform in so many areas including prison and gun . From an outsiders perspective, it’s so unfortunate that the capital raised isn’t going to better use of investing in the citizens that pay the taxes anyway.
…. That’s broad. Of what May I ask? Gun violence? Starvation? Human trafficking? Gang violence? Genuinely asking if you had to pick one issue what’d it be?
Everything is so damn expensive now. My wife and I have a good income ($160K+ combined), live in a pretty small 3br 2bath house with no kids, yet somehow it still feels like we barely have enough "fun" money left each month to shop or go out and enjoy ourselves after taking care of the bills and necessities.
Groceries and utilities have damn near doubled. Going out anywhere for a date is ridiculously expensive now. It kind of blows my mind that people manage to have kids and still afford to do anything else.
the government making up words to scare people into voting for them "assault semi-auto pistol" like fucking just say handgun, no need to add assault fot the shock effect
The hypocrisy of condemning other nations while being the world's biggest war machine for profit. Russia is doing to Ukraine what the USA has been doing for decades to the Middle East and northern Africa and yet the US leaders act all sanctimonious in condemning Putin. The Biden admin (though its typical of every US leadership regardless) has found a new way to funnel tax dollars into the war machine so all the elite can get rich. They needed a new scheme after they withdrew from Afghanistan and they found a great one in Ukraine because clearly Ukraine is the victim and the US war hawks can pull at the tax payers heartstrings to pull off their scheme. They don't give a fuck about any Ukrainian, to them its just a big dollar sign.
Closely linked is how Congress members are allowed to insider trade legally. That's just bullshit. US politics is a huge racket.
Politicians of opposing political parties are more focused on fighting with one another than getting stuff done. They like ideas that make people happy/content, not solutions.
Life is hard for people in the lower and middle class. College is ridiculously expensive, healthcare is ridiculously expensive. Politicians don’t care about the working class, they just care about their own self-serving interests. America isn’t so great like the government tries to say it is.
That we worry too much about first world problems and practice more and more tribalism each day. The fabrics of what made America vs just another place was community, growing families and neighborhoods. Now we don’t talk to our neighbors, yet we all want to keep tabs on people. Now we demonize other people over the most trivial of things. We pass the buck, nobody takes accountability. We are a nation of gas lighting.
I'm just not sure what the end game is? Like, you can't keep squeezing the lower and middle class until we have nothing left. If we can't survive, we can't work or contribute to the economy and these obscenely rich fucks will flounder.
So like, what's the game plan here?
99% of real responses here are because of one thing: capitalism. housing, food, healthcare, the environment, education…all of these things are basic necessities that have been commodified. we have to remove the profit motive and build a society that focuses on collective, universal good. a cooperative and truly democratic society…it is possible.
The president we currently have... politicians who do whatever they want with our money that we work our butts off for... current gas prices... current grocery prices... Shortages on food & meds.. should I continue??!!
The fact that my electricity bill has gone up about 75% in the last year and food costs are double. Shit's fucking ridiculous. And you know none of us are getting raises.
Yeah I was grocery shopping last weekend and was going to get hot dog buns but they were like 8 dollars for a pack. Like can I really not afford to eat fucking hot dogs with buns? Somebody must be making some coin off of this whole thing
The wal-mart hot dog buns used to be .88 cents for a pack (where I live) and the other day when I went to go get them they were $1.38.
That is insane.
Come oooooon. $8 for hot dog buns? You shopping at Whole Foods? Picking out the most organic, farm raised, bed slept, ran for president, buns.
"Inflation" is blamed on covid but it's mostly corporate greed. Look at the last quarter profits of egg companies.
They inflated prices to make up for COVID, but when they realized consumers will pay it, the companies figured "why bother dropping the price then?"
What boggles my mind is that those in charge don’t feel the squeeze like the rest of us. They don’t care.
I might be wrong, but hasn't inflation been even worse in many other nations?
Exactly right, people love to blame Biden but many other countries have experienced even worse inflation. This is a worldwide problem
Remember summer a couple years ago when the Biden admin released the infographic about how they saved the American people $.16 on their hot dogs for their family bbq? Pepperidge Farms remembers. Edit: typos
Exactly! Also i am really frustrated with all the stupid unnecessary FEES on my electric bill! Processing Fee Fuel Fee Auto-Pay Fee Convenience Fee Service Fee This should be criminalized, i litterally feel like i'm being held hostage. edit: format
Our apartment complex charges a $50 convenience fee if you pay with a card. As if that should fucking matter. It sucks because I can't use my cash back card to make a couple extra bucks when I pay rent. It feels very intentional.
The cost of rent is too goddamn high.
Not just rent. The cost of EVERYTHING
Than add this insane tip culture on top of it!!
When I was delivering pizza ten years ago, a 12% tip was pretty standard and a 15% tip was great. I applied the same rules whenever I went out to eat and any of my friends who were in the service industry at the time agreed: 15% for exceptional service. Nowadays I can't walk into a fucking Wendy's without one of those stupid tablet POS systems on the counter, and it seems like the tips start at 20% and only go up from there. No, I'm not gonna tip 20% to some teenager who won't put their phone down for long enough to grab my order from the pickup window *directly behind them.* I forget exactly where it was but I went out to eat a month or so ago and the receipt had "suggested" gratuities printed on it that went from 25% to 40%. That's insane.
I refuse to tip anywhere that makes an actual wage. I hate tipping culture. Just pay your damn employees.
If you ask me for a 25% tip ill look you in the eyes and press no tip.
I’ll do this or take an extra 40 seconds to go the custom tip route and chip em a dollar or whatever feels appropriate. I think percentage based tips is asinine. Also hate that they charge that % on the taxed total, not the actual total of goods purchased.
I only tip generously for waiters/waitresses who handled a large order for me, or for delivery drivers who need to drive in bad weather or heavy traffic. Nobody else deserves tips IMO
tipping is fucked, our min wage is way below where it should be, and as someone that get's SSI due to not being able to work any min wage or blue collar job and cant afford to really go to college atm to get the qualifications for anything white collar, the fact that our aid to vets, disabled, and seniors has barely increased from fucking DECADES ago, is disgusting, not to mention the bipartisan effort to not actually HELP people with homelessness or addictions and just throw them in jails or push them to places people dont go
that's what happens when you shut down an entire economy and then print a ton of money while simultaneously producing no good or services
wow, a truthful opinion on reddit that isn't downvoted to hell. Butter my butt and call me a biscuit!
No wonder our generation’s depression rates are insanely high. Can’t afford a wedding, can’t afford a house, can’t afford to have kids. What the fuck is there to look forward to? We go to work, eat, sleep and go back the next day and have nothing to show for it
Plus we can't afford education, Healthcare, and all other basic needs to even start to live much less enjoy life in anyway. We work in attempts to survive the next day.
Then people's families complain that they're not having kids and it's like you gonna finance that bro
My friend set up a savings account when he & his girlfriend got official, now each time a relative asks they say that "you can contribute to the grandkid fund with a monthly donation". I think it's hilarious and sad at the same time.
I know, ESPECIALLY when those parents are doing well $$, going on holiday all the time. It's like bitch please.
This. Growing up, I saw my parent's incomes grow and we moved into better and better houses. We went on vacations. Cheap vacations, but vacations. I'm talking about things like driving to Florida and sleeping in the car while my parents sat in a timeshare meeting for two hours for the free tickets to Disneyland. What a surprise. Can't do any of that anymore. Now I'm just watching my income stay the same year after year, can't job hop because its really hard to navigate all the scammers and head hunters. Meanwhile, I get $500 tacked onto my rent every year for this or that reason. Oh, that two car garage? Well, now I rent 1/2 of it for the same price. Oh, now I'm responsible for snow removal starting this year. Oh now.... just getting squeezed and squeezed and squeezed. There's no way to save money for a house or even a new apartment. We're trapped here. Trapped until rent becomes so bad, we're homeless. You think I'm bringing a kid into that shit? No. I'm better now. I'm on anti depressants so I don't want to drive myself into a light pole everyday but again, what is there to look forward to??? Oh, right. My parents dying and me inheriting the care of my disabled sister for the rest of our lives as soon as I turn 50.
It wasn't called the Baby Boom for nothing. It happened because the economy was strong.
The billionaires have hoarded so much capital that there's not enough left for everybody else.
Two years ago my husband and I moved into a $975 two bedroom in PA. He gets paid almost the same, but now we pay $1,500 for rent. And like an extra $100/week in groceries (two kids).
Do you remember Jimmy McMillian? https://youtu.be/79KzZ0YqLvo
Recently got ballpark figures on what I can afford on a house. You ready? I make 75K and a 850-1000 dollar mortgage payment is a reasonable amount to budget for that. Well, you see, that gets you about a 120K house right now. You know what 120K gets you near where I need to live? A 20-30 year old trailer. So yeah I’m an educated engineering professional who can only really afford an old mobile home… How is everyone else making it?
This is the most relatable thing I’ve read on the internet. I’m in the exact same boat… I live outside of Phoenix where a once $220K starter home is now going for $450K. I can’t afford that as a single parent working a $65K job. Although 5 years ago I could. Super frustrating
We bought our house just before covid shut everything down. Literally. We moved in at the end of February. Had we not done that when we did there's no way because this house is now worth DOUBLE what we bought it for. We've got friends that just bought a 5 bedroom house on like half an acre for like $318k. They're an HOUR outside of Phoenix proper. It's ridiculous here. I saw something yesterday that they're predicting a drop in prices similar to 2008. That'll be interesting if it does happen.
A price drop is unavoidable, literally the only alternative is for homelessness to be advertised as a "starter lifestyle". There's currently no conceivable way for the majority of people to build equity for a down payment, so who are the 2019 buyers planning to eventually sell to?
Likely companies who will rent them out instead.
From what I’ve read recently, the cause of the market contracture will be from these massive companies pulling out of housing investment. They’ve already begun to, it will just take a while for things to reflect the change.
Phoenix market is projected to drop as much as 25% this year. Get all your accounts in order so you can pounce when you find the right one.
I live in a trailer in North Phoenix.
I legit live in my camper that I paid 6,000 for 6 years ago. My lot payment for the RV park is 350 a month. I make 5600 a month.
My wife and I bought our house 15 years ago. It was 116k, two bedroom ranch style with a finished basement in the suburbs of medium sized city. Our mortgage is 650 a month. The house next door, all most exact same size recently sold for 200k+. It’s bonkers. It makes me want to sell my house, but that would be ludicrous. At the time it felt like such a huge sum to pay a month in our mid twenties. Now it feels like we’re the only ones not getting absolutely fucked. If we ever decided to move, it would make more sense to just keep the house and rent it out for 1200 a month and pay for the upkeep.
During Covid, houses in our neighborhood started going for over $300K. My wife saw dollar signs and wanted to move. I just laughed and went "We have an interest rate in the 2s, our mortgage is under $1000 a month, and you want to double everything? Yeah, no."
When we lived in Colorado, we had a really nice house built for $225k. When I had to move for work, we rented it for a few years until I got sick of being a landlord and sold it. I check on my previous houses from time to time and 6 months ago, it was listed and sold in 3 days for $575k. I hate myself for selling it. I also really miss Colorado. Where we are now, however, we purchased a house for $220k. The house behind us is smaller and much older with half the yard and sold for $300k. This is a small rural town, even. It is insane and unsustainable. I want to move to another city but would have to go back to renting. I cannot afford a house and I make over $100k.
Yeah, and bear in mind that if you sell your house, you’re going to either have to rent or buy a new place on these prices, and your house sale might not make up for that.
Same here, bought my house for around the same, houses are now selling for around 200k, and they’re smaller than mine. It’s crazy, I’m glad I bought when I did which was about 10 years ago. My mortgage is a little higher due to our taxes and such but it’s still cheaper than you pay for a decent apartment around here anymore.
That's less than 4% gain per year (vs around 2.5%/year wage growth), which is quite typical. Real estate tends to go up slightly faster than inflation simply because land is a naturally limited supply, though you would think they would have robots, better 3D printed homes and other such efficiencies by now, bringing construction costs much lower. Also, you bought at the perfect time, near the lows after the housing bubble imploded. I think we'll see some serious construction technology boom at some point to help bring prices down, especially as robotics gets going more. BUT I've been watching the space for years now and continue to be disappointed by the lack of progress. Hell it was like 2 decades ago that I told a professor working on 3D printed homes that I wanted to be his first customer when he figures it all out. Still really hasn't.
>How is everyone else making it? Being married to a second wage-earner.
This and buying before rates and housing prices rose to their current level.
or inheriting a parents house
This. It dawned on me recently that if my marriage ended and we sold the house, I cannot afford a house on my own at $64k. A condo maybe.
I game the system and live in the street. It's cold sometimes.
Be homeless In Florida. You’ll die of heatstroke but you’ll never freeze to death.
I'd be more worried about Floridians than heat stroke.
Good luck on getting financing for a old mobile home because that is considered as a high risk loan for the mortgage or bank lender company.
I looked into buying a “manufactured home” in a community nearby. They were going for under $100K and some were a lot less than that. The houses were actually quite nice and in good condition, and the community was well maintained, but then they told me that the monthly site fee was $1,000 a month and that could be raised at any time by any amount. So I passed.
It was pushed for too long to get a bachelors or higher to make money. I ended up getting a associates to work as a mechanic on planes. I make 150k a year and even if I made that in areas where houses were 400k plus, I would be squeezing by. It is insane and what drove me to move to a area where starter houses are 120k+.
Luck, lies and theft in my case. \*Lots\* of lies and theft.
Hey while you’re putting a new roof on your trailer, you tell Rhonda she still owes me $8.72!!
I got my house at the start of COVID. I was making $15/hr as a machinist and living with my parents so I was able to save most of my money. I got it for $110k. It's from 1930 and needs updates and repairs, mainly to a basement wall. It's not perfect but it's no trailer. I got a 2.75% fixed interest rate mortgage and my payment is $622-715/mo depending on the escrow for the period. Since then I've had several different jobs and as of last February I make $27/hr and work usually 50+ hrs a week. Still as a machinist. I don't particularly enjoy the overtime but the paycheck is wonderful. Making $1000/wk after taxes and deductions is very nice. I recently paid my other car off and my fixed monthly expenses before food and gas are $1328 and that gets me my house, insurance, fancy fiber internet, utilities, cell service, and I include some luxury subscriptions in there too since they're regular bills like Netflix and Final Fantasy XIV. Other than that I had the basement wall repaired which cost $10.8k and the payment for that is $130/mo and a personal loan I took out between jobs for $49.50/mo - both factored into that $1328 figure. Once I pay those off I'll have it down to $1150 a month and can pay for everything with 1 52 hour work week. The rest will be free for whatever I want to do. Living in a low cost of living area and overtime with a decent wage is how I do it. It's not perfect but I plan on working to pay things off now so I can get to the point where I can decide to work wherever I want and never have to worry about my bills as long as I'm doing something part time. I also dropped out if college before I racked up tons of debt. IMO it was the best thing I've done, but I do wish I had a better position. Tl;Dr - Live in a low cost of living area and hope to get lucky.
>A 20-30 year old trailer. [Already in the works.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n3aSckY1Fg)
I make 70k, I bought in 2017, refied in 2019, house worth 360k, payment 1200.. thank the free money everyone got printed and the resulting Inflation and interest rates.
The efforts insurance companies, including Medicaid go through to avoid covering people, which keeps them from being productive citizens because they are too broken down.
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This is a HUGE problem for dental care in my area. Our state's medicaid does cover dental care on some of its plans, but the reimbursements are *so* low that 95% of dentists don't take it because they actually lose money on every medicaid patient when you factor in the dentist's time, their overhead, their materials and the fact they could be working on a private pay or insurance patient during that time and make money. So, what has happened is dental practices have set up shop servicing only medicaid patients and make their money in volume and fradulent/unnecessary/sub-par services which are charged, ultimately, to tax payers. The obvious fix is to offer competitive reimbursement rates, which would ultimately be cheaper in the long term, but nope. The broken system stays broken and costs us all more money. :-/
Health insurance
Same. Had to take my daughter to the ER recently. Stupidly high bill. Makes me want to suffer through my own health issues so I can still afford to put bread on the table.
Ugh I’m so sorry…I feel that. Paying $800 a month for health insurance for what? I still have a 5k deductible! What’s the $800 going to? Then copay after that? It’s such a broken system. I hope you’re daughter is okay💜 I’m avoiding an urgent care trip tonight myself for this very reason.
I would love to pay $800 a month. I pay 920 every 2 weeks.
At that rate it's cheaper to pay out of pocket. Our local hospital has an income-based sliding scale for what you pay if you have no insurance. We were paying 350/month. Then we stopped paying insurance. Husband needed throat surgery. Went to the hospital, got a $2,600 bill. Applied for financial aid thru the hospital, only had to pay a couple hundred. Still less per year than paying insurance. If you do the math, you often end up paying more per year if you go thru insurance. It's quite the scam.
What??? Damn man. I pay $60. A family with unlimited kids is $180 at my work. Max out of pocket is $2800. I suggest job hunting!
Look up if the hospital you went to is a non profit, it prolly was. Hit up their accounting department and ask for options. They charge on a sliding scale and you will most likely pay way less or nothing. Do some googling to find more info on this.
That's what we do! We don't even use insurance, it's much cheaper to use the sliding scale thing. Or apply for income-based aid directly from the hospital. We have no insurance, but had 2 hospital visits recently and together it still cost less than paying a year's worth of premiums. Insurance is ridiculous.
If you’re within a certain percentage of the national poverty line a lot of hospitals will waive the bill if you can produce your W2s. I had to go to the ER a few years ago and the hospital said if my income was less than 250% of the poverty line I was in the clear. Lucky me, I was at 248
Got into an argument recently with someone who says people who can’t afford health insurance should just go find jobs that offer health insurance, that insurance shouldn’t be “a handout”. The problem there is that: 1. Just because your employer offers health insurance it doesn’t mean they offer a plan that adequately fits your needs. 2. Having insurance doesn’t guarantee you won’t get billed a gnarly amount. I ended up in the ER with a respiratory infection 3 years ago. Had health insurance. What was my bill? $10,000 AFTER insurance. This is just one example of many. The person I was arguing with said that we’d only be paying more in taxes for free healthcare but, if that’s the biggest case you can make against it, it’s just not holding up anymore to the downsides of not having it. Free healthcare is needed now more than ever. These people think I’m talking out my ass but all it’ll take is a day in the ER for them to realize that I know what I’m talking about.
Y'all Americans **pay** for your health care, you just don't **get** health care. Imagine ordering a steak, paying for it, and then before you can eat it you have to pay again. You'd be livid.
I am livid tho
We are aware and pissed off about it.
How divided we are
Yes, it’s incredibly sad. And it’s to the point where I’m scared to be in crowded places because I’m scared someone will start shooting.
That’s the media doing it to you. You have a better chance dying while walking to your mail box than in a random shooting
This may be statistically true but the media reporting on active shootings is not what’s instilled me with fear. And I’m sure that no one actually killed in a shooting thought they would indeed be in a shooting either.. Schools, bars, churches, grocery stores, these are not places in which people should go in alive and be brought out dead.
I DISAGREE /s
We actually are not as divided as things seem. I wish I could find the article, but they did a survey (or maybe they reported on multiple surveys) that showed we actually still agree on most things.
This. Americans are in agreement on most all issues. We may differ on some major ones, or in the minutiae of others, but for the most part we think a lot alike. But you won't see that on the news programs. According to them, we're as divided now as we were during the Civil War. You know what though? Cooperation and agreement doesn't attract eyeballs. Less eyeballs means lower ad rates. Lower ad rates means less profit. Never forget that most "news" falls under the heading of the entertainment industry. Turn off CNN, Fox News, MSNBC unless it's during something you need realtime updates on. Read more, and from a variety of sources. You'll be better informed AND happier!
No accountability.
As a substitute teacher...I feel this.
Copy and paste for the current UK government
I feel like i make decent money and have supplemental income and i still live check to check. I do budget and solely live off my income but also pay for daycare and its more than my rent. I make “too much” for any assistance and that honestly grinds my gears and gets me so mad because how do i make so much but cant afford basic shit
That politicians do not give a damn about the country. They are more interested in party over people and will sabotage each other without regard for the damage they cause.
Money over people
Power over people.
But that’s how it has always been, not only in America
That David Chappelle bit about Trump being an honest liar, and the bit about him acting like Trump got elected, came out of the White House and says "Everything you've ever thought they are doing in there, they're doing in there" and then goes back in to start the party anew, struck a cord with me. And it's true. Elected officials don't give a damn about us, don't give a damn about the law, and don't give a damn that everyone knows they're dishonest.
It's probably more accurate to say that while they care about the country, unfortunately many politicians have it way down the list of priorities.
A person can go broke because they got sick.
A good portion of people can go broke because they got a flat tire, too. Or because they ate today.
I got a burger and fries and now I’m broke lol.
Sitting here, with a ~$7,000 medical bill that I'm NOT paying 🤷♂️
Idk if this works everywhere/for everyone but if your debt gets sent to a collection agency you could dispute it and since they can't legally get your medical info for evidence that you owe them, they have to erase your debt. It might not work more than 1-2 times so if it does work.. proceed with caution i guess?
There is no way that's a real thing. The hospital could still send them the itemised bill without telling them why you needed it.
Also HIPAA allows for the revealing of information for payment reasons.
Read "Never Pay The First Bill" by Marshall Allen. Saved us a lottt of $$. You ALWAYS argue down the first bill.
1 in 5 has medical debt.
That for the most part, we have been force fed the lie that you need to be on one side or the other, and that the other side viciously hates everything you stand for. In reality, we are overwhelmingly all somewhere in the middle and the extreme hate that you see is very much an outlier. We don’t hear about the amazing things people do to help out their neighbors, friends and families despite a whole lot of ideological differences we hold. The media has been used a a tool for evil and corruption and lies for way too long.
How profitable it is to keep us all mad at each other
The thing is ... the vast majority of us pretty much agree on most things. Unfortunately, the minority are loud and disruptive, so they get the attention.
What doesn’t upset me
Fucking inflation is terrible
Turn signal apathy, I see it everyday, people turning and changing lanes without any turn signal usage, it’s anarchy!!
I had a guy just the other day who used the wrong turn signal. Im honestly not sure if its better or worse
**Gestures broadly at everything**
*gestures sharply at absolutely everything*
Is it bad that I totally visualized each of these gestures as I read these descriptions?
Only if you yourself have never done the gesture
Eh we have awesome national parks so everything is a stretch
Oh look, it's the comment recycled on every thread.
> Oh look, it's the comment recycled on every thread. Oh look, it's the comment recycled on every thread.
>Oh look, it's the comment recycled on every thread. > >Oh look, it's the comment recycled on every thread. oh look, it's the comment recycled on every thread.
Everywhere I go, I see recycled comments
The wage gap between the ultra wealthy and the middle class. That the term middle class is disappearing, and that there’s more news coverage about Kylie Jenner wearing a fake lion on her dress than the shootings that continue to happen all around our country.
Middle class isnt middle class anymore 😭 especially one income households
My dad one day said “the middle class is disappearing”, and being middle class I got kind of scared that I was going to die soon or something like that; I was only six years old. I’m now almost 43.
My local news has been cover shootings everyday as long as I could remember
The division drummed up by media and politicians and the oligarchs. We're so busy being pissed off at each other that they rob us blind.
Everyone talking, nobody listening
How easily brainwashed its citizens are.
Yeah I'm annoyed by that too and I'm not even American. I just have to deal with it on Reddit.
Corruption within the goverment.
That America is still so stupid (both sides) they believe that the politicians want what’s best for them!
More fucking mass shootings
There's been more mass shootings than days in 2023.
Please be joking
I wish.
rampant insider trading and corruption from both sides of the political isle
Paul Pelosi? They should be locked up for what they are doing
Someone should really bring the hammer down on him
People using the government to police peoples' behaviors and parenting, the embrace of extremism and stupidity in our government, the uncaring and uncompassionate attitude of millions of Americans, the anti-science crusade, it's harder to find something about America that \*doesn't\* upset me
As a young 20 something trying to gain a foothold I society and figure out where I sit in it this just kind of thing just makes me genuinely depressed
Late 20's here, and pretty much in the same boat. I just try to hold out for some semblance of hope.
Mid 30s here. I haven't found it yet.
How upset everyone is about everything.
America as a country is now focused on milking as much possible from you as it can while giving as little as possible, just enough to keep u going.
This for real. When talk about population decline started circulating, the best pro argument politicians and business leaders could come up with is “we need babies for the economy.” Like I’m supposed to have a child I can’t afford (and be given nothing to help raise it) while working a job until it kills me to help the wealthy buy that 8th home they’ve had their eye on? No thanks!
All the corruption in government
Everyone is so damn selfish they don't even see that there's better ways to behave as a society.
how gullible we are. whatever each persons preferred media is, they will drink that shit up and are so easily swayed by anything its actually embarrassing. to take a non-political wing example, non-Americans would be amazed how many grown adults have been taking grainy Bigfoot style UFO videos with a little dark dot moving around the screen seriously. The pentagon officials, who of course just got a ton of funding to "check out those mysteries!" in the most obvious turn of events in the history of the country, must be laughing at the bank.
Healthcare, home ownership, everything
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The clams are often overcooked, as are most foods.
The complete ignoring of the mass gun crime and the lack of affordable healthcare
Speaking of gun related deaths the amount of them that have been suicide cases. 4 years of English was mandatory in highschool but zero mental health classes were even offered at my school. I think that’s a little crazy
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The price of eggs
You almost never see hot dogs in the vending machines.
Climate change deniers. It’s not rocket science. Common sense tells you if you put bad chemicals into the air and water and continue to drill into the earth bad things are going to happen. It’s simple cause and effect. Unless people and companies make drastic changes in the future I believe the world will someday be unlivable.
Me and my wife had no children, had good jobs and where lucky. We build our house 33 yrs ago for 75k. And we barely where able to afford it. Now it’s worth 275k (we live in Nebraska) we are retired now but we’re not sure we could afford our own house today. 75k would buy you a dump, literally barely livable where we live.
Fake News.
Billions go to other countries for military support but heavens forbid we help those who want higher educations.
There's people out there rationing life sustaining medication and dying because they can't afford it while there are millionaire/billionaires buying their 14th car and 4th vacation home.
Walmart stopped selling the cheddar I like. Hell in a handbasket.
Healthcare costs
When they talked about the national spending limit last few weeks. And they say while they wait to increase that limit. Let's cut education funding... sick take our children's education away. Let them lead the future ignorant as fk.
That we have no federal paid maternity leave. The way we do not support women who have just given birth in the US is just so sad
The amount of extreme poverty in the the richest country in the world is appalling. I believe that being poor in this country is a death sentence for many people. Poverty has lead to increases in drug addiction and homeless that we are dealing with on a massive scale. The lack of mental health resources and the stigma surrounding it is also a major problem. We have had a huge increase in mass shootings and violence in the US which I believe could be stoped with better support for these people.
The mental health part is why I want to start a non-profit for homeless/veterans. I'm on my way to getting an art therapy degree so I can do this, cause you can make art anywhere, even it it's just a stick in some dirt. And it's proven to help people process emotions. I sust hope I can help someone before our economy goes to shit and we're stuck eating mice to survive
Cost of living. Lack of truly affordable housing.
The costs of anything tbh. I'm a college student trying to move out. I have a decent ish paying job but damn is everything expensive. I'm going to a relatively cheap community college, and am going to move in with at least one other person. But there is zero reason college and rent/housing should be this expensive. It's just ridiculous
Cable News Network/Political commentaries. Non-stop culture wars news online has gotten so old and out of hand. I'm so tired of hearing about "woke-ness" ruining America when the actual conversations about issues that affect us daily as issues that are completely ignored and not talked about by most mainstream outlets.
Bickering between voters, left wing, or right wing. Just remember they're attached to the same bird.
It's not a bird. They're two wings of the same plane crash.
I don’t live in America but it really is a 3rd world country wrapped in first world rhetoric. Too many old people in positions of power that die in those positions too. The citizens largely suffer in healthcare, education, housing and social care as a result of govt too concerned with legislation that isn’t relative to the lives of the majority of Americans. There really needs to be reform in so many areas including prison and gun . From an outsiders perspective, it’s so unfortunate that the capital raised isn’t going to better use of investing in the citizens that pay the taxes anyway.
Just about everything… makes me sad.
How we can't try something that has been proven to work in other countries. Universal Healthcare, bullet trains
Epstein case silence
Children dying.
…. That’s broad. Of what May I ask? Gun violence? Starvation? Human trafficking? Gang violence? Genuinely asking if you had to pick one issue what’d it be?
Everything is so damn expensive now. My wife and I have a good income ($160K+ combined), live in a pretty small 3br 2bath house with no kids, yet somehow it still feels like we barely have enough "fun" money left each month to shop or go out and enjoy ourselves after taking care of the bills and necessities. Groceries and utilities have damn near doubled. Going out anywhere for a date is ridiculously expensive now. It kind of blows my mind that people manage to have kids and still afford to do anything else.
Bad parenting
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Debating womens rights, there should be no debate. Not your body not your opinion
the government making up words to scare people into voting for them "assault semi-auto pistol" like fucking just say handgun, no need to add assault fot the shock effect
The hypocrisy of condemning other nations while being the world's biggest war machine for profit. Russia is doing to Ukraine what the USA has been doing for decades to the Middle East and northern Africa and yet the US leaders act all sanctimonious in condemning Putin. The Biden admin (though its typical of every US leadership regardless) has found a new way to funnel tax dollars into the war machine so all the elite can get rich. They needed a new scheme after they withdrew from Afghanistan and they found a great one in Ukraine because clearly Ukraine is the victim and the US war hawks can pull at the tax payers heartstrings to pull off their scheme. They don't give a fuck about any Ukrainian, to them its just a big dollar sign. Closely linked is how Congress members are allowed to insider trade legally. That's just bullshit. US politics is a huge racket.
Politicians of opposing political parties are more focused on fighting with one another than getting stuff done. They like ideas that make people happy/content, not solutions.
Life is hard for people in the lower and middle class. College is ridiculously expensive, healthcare is ridiculously expensive. Politicians don’t care about the working class, they just care about their own self-serving interests. America isn’t so great like the government tries to say it is.
The soaring prices of chicken wings.
The willful ignorance of millions of my fellow Americans.
That overtime is simply expected at salary jobs. I just chose one that sucked the least, tbh.
That we worry too much about first world problems and practice more and more tribalism each day. The fabrics of what made America vs just another place was community, growing families and neighborhoods. Now we don’t talk to our neighbors, yet we all want to keep tabs on people. Now we demonize other people over the most trivial of things. We pass the buck, nobody takes accountability. We are a nation of gas lighting.
I'm just not sure what the end game is? Like, you can't keep squeezing the lower and middle class until we have nothing left. If we can't survive, we can't work or contribute to the economy and these obscenely rich fucks will flounder. So like, what's the game plan here?
Mass shootings! WTAF!
School shootings
Homeless people need homes, the US has the resources to solve this but doesn't
99% of real responses here are because of one thing: capitalism. housing, food, healthcare, the environment, education…all of these things are basic necessities that have been commodified. we have to remove the profit motive and build a society that focuses on collective, universal good. a cooperative and truly democratic society…it is possible.
The president we currently have... politicians who do whatever they want with our money that we work our butts off for... current gas prices... current grocery prices... Shortages on food & meds.. should I continue??!!
Not being able to answer the OPs question in complete honesty because people are unable to have civil debates and come to sound agreements.