Unmatched wages

[jorian]

The wage disparity is incredible, I bought my first house in 2001 when I made less than &40,000 per year. Since then, I’ve upgraded a few times but I still feel like I’m lower middle class even though I make around $150,000. I know I shouldn’t complain but life gets expensive. For the record, I support 5 kids who are grown and living their lives.

https://www-businessinsider-com.cdn...p-2024-1?amp&amp_js_v=0.1#webview=1&cap=swipe

 

[chiefgeek]

@jorian Why are you supporting 5 adult kids? That's your real problem.

 

[nativenh1]

@chiefgeek This

 

[jesusreigns4ever]

@chiefgeek yep

 

[johneneinc]

@jorian You're enabling your adult children. Stop it

 

[jorian]

@johneneinc Fuck you, you don’t know what family means. I’m enabling my children to meet their full potential in a society that wants to push them down. Trickle down doesn’t work because the rich get rich and the poor get poor and those in the middle don’t know what the fuck is going on

 

[johneneinc]

@jorian OP: I make 150k but still feel broke

Also OP: I support 5 grown children

General concensus: Stop supporting your grown children, maybe then you'll have some breathing room.

OP: Fuck You

Me: Ok. You definitely got me with that one. My mind is changed

 

[jorian]

@johneneinc Yep, abandon your kids

 

[chris0699]

@jorian Maybe stop supporting your grown children? Or set an age limit of say 22 or 23?

They will never learn to be self sufficient when they have the parent safety net backing them up.

$150k a year should be upper middle class at least other than Hawaii, NYC, LA, Bay area, San Diego, Seattle, DC or a couple other VHCOL areas.

 

[tnf_13]

@chris0699 Safety net is usually ok. Ongoing support/subsidy in perpetuity is not without extenuating circumstances.

 

[chris0699]

@tnf_13 Yes but in this case the safety net is the ongoing subsidy.

A true safety net should not be relied upon unless there is no other option.

 

[panlyk]

@chris0699 Exactly.

 

[fangirlinggod]

@jorian I mean, you've upgraded a few times. And are supporting multiple working age adults, it sounds like. You're not comparing apples to apples.

 

[misterboy]

@jorian Stop lol

 

[timothygrae]

@jorian The reason you think you're still lower middle class is lifestyle creep.

You buy a house at $40k a year, for example lets say a $100k house. You only make $40k a year so you buy a nice inexpensive used car thats already paid off and your idea of going out to eat somewhere nice is applebees. You get by and you're happy.

Its 5 years down the road, you get a raise, now you're making $75k a year and you're ecstatic because you're making almost double what you were making 5 years before and by comparison you're bringing in $1000 per pay check more after taxes than just 5 years before.

Wowee thats good!

Buuuuuuut that used car is getting long in the tooth, better buy a new one. There goes $500 a month.

Also the house is getting a little cramped.....better upgrade that... there goes another $400 a month.

But hey its okay because you are making about $2000 a month more! Buuuuuut you don't really consider applebees fancy anymore, now Longhorn steakhouse is fancy, and you don't really have time to cook like you want so you order doordash 4 times a week and on fridays you go to longhorns. Also your new coworkers like to have happy hour every thursday and thats about $75 per.

All of the sudden you realize that you're in the same boat as you were in when you were making $40k.

Its wash rinse repeat all the way from $40k to $150k.

Its little things here and there. It become super easy to justify bad spending habits when your income is going up and sometimes it makes sense and sometimes you take a step back and go "Holy shit, we really do eat at our favorite sushi place 6x a month and each time is $75+ what are we doing?"

 

[lavender]

@timothygrae We’re in the reverse. Prob bought a bit more house than we could handle after 2008. It was cheap and we had way more bedrooms than we had kids. Our interest rate is sub 4% and you can’t even rent a 1br for our mortgage. And as the kids age, thankfully our income has increased but we’re also losing expenses like daycare. Hope it keeps going in the right direction. But now the house valuation has doubled. we maybexplire an additoon or a renovation.

 

[jesusreigns4ever]

@timothygrae very true. I think it's also the savings game that makes it feel like you're struggling even when 20% of your income is going to retirement and investment accounts. If you're trying to set yourself up and have a nest egg it could feel like you're barely making ends meet when it's really your choice to save that much. But to many this doesn't feel like a choice and it's worth cooking at home and not doing Door Dash, or driving an older car to do so. For many it's the opposite. I know so many broke people trying to live some luxury lifestyle..

 

[mrexpress]

@timothygrae

You buy a house at $40k a year, for example lets say a $100k house. You only make $40k a year so you buy a nice inexpensive used car thats already paid off and your idea of going out to eat somewhere nice is applebees. You get by and you're happy.

The thing I hate about this "lifestyle creep" talk is that the vast majority of Xennials on down are simply trying to earn an approximation of the standard of living they grew up with, and we've been completely propagandized into thinking that we should have regress to where our parents were at 25 or 30 (when we're now 35-40) instead of the historical norm of starting adulthood at the standard your parents were able to achieve for you and then building a better quality of life upon it.

There's some perverse expectation now where this is all a "cycle", and people who were raised upper-middle class in the 1990's now have to accept being lower-middle or working-class in the 2020's and spend the next 30 years working to achieve what their parents already have, and any spending habits that are accordant with the lifestyle you grew up with is "lifestyle creep" and not an absolute travesty of the American neo-liberal economy. That just is not the way that family structures and living standards have worked for the entirety of this country, to say nothing of civilization writ large.

 

[aurelian]

@timothygrae Brilliant

 

[dominion247]

@jorian Yea. Now imagine you’re slightly younger and never got that first house for a reasonable price on a decent wage. Not going to get a lot of sympathy these days… maybe count your blessings.