Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

"They work in big cities and rural towns. They’ve tried to save — but rent, child care, student loans and medical bills get in the way."

Yikes. I'm not exactly living paycheck to paycheck, but I can relate to this.

It's really funny - my wife and I make quite a bit of money - whatever twisted form of capitalism we currently live in has been designed in such a way to extract most of it away from us. One begins to wonder what the point of going to work and earning money is other than to line the pockets of corporations that have effectively taken ownership of our government.

Not even 200 years ago, most people exchanged labor for food. Currency was not used, as you most likely lived on the farm you worked for.

There was no form of advancement to be seen, but also no rent, student loans, medical bills, child care etc.

There was also no Whole Foods or freedom of speech.

But how much farther have we really come in 2018? We have more things, but if you stop working, you will starve or go ill just as quickly as an Irish laborer in 1850.

Don’t discount the weight of emotional trauma and the self-sabotaging habits it has the potential to engender.

Most people are slaves to their limbic systems.

Most people don’t have self-education or resources to seek the help they need to fix these underlying problems.

Society does them no favors. Media and advertising are designed to promote consumption. And not even healthy consumption.

The idea that we are black boxes with private worlds and perfect agency is being eroded by the empirical evidence that, at scale, we are ultimately manipulable.

I know because I wrestle with this constantly. My higher self knows what’s right and how I should spend my time and money. On a daily and minutely basis, my lower self vyes for control and often succeeds in taking the wheel. And I have to catch myself and recognize when my long term efforts are being subverted automatically and mechanistically.

I know that, over the years, my unaddressed early childhood traumas have compounded into deeply-ingrained habits of self-medicating.

It’s a constant struggle.

I am not surprised that there are huge numbers of people who struggle similarly and are not as successful as I am at managing this internal conflict.

edit: why is this article now flagged? :(

It's pretty understandable, imo. My income would not scale upwards very much if I moved from Chicago to somewhere higher cost like NYC, DC, or SF, and if I were to go to those places a lot of my current extra income would be wiped out.

You bring up a good point, that even people who make decent money still can't get ahead much more than those making close to minimum wage. Why is this?

My theory, is that life is full of stress, and throwing money at problems can make some causes of stress diminish. Whereas a minimum wage worker will shovel his own driveway, a higher paid office worker may typically have a snow plow contractor on retainer (for them it is worth the trade off, especially with long office hours). Same story with vehicle or home repairs. Which is why you don't really feel stress free until your income exceeds the threshold to handle most stress items with money instead of your own labor.