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Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

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Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#61

Post by curiousllama »

zamfi wrote: post #6
mogadsheu wrote: post #2

The cost of housing combined with manufacturing outsourcing has basically crippled the American working/middle class since the early 2000s. Then add inflation. When Ivy League business school grads are having to save until their 40s to buy homes, what does that imply for the rest of the country?

> cost of housing combined with manufacturing outsourcing I think these are two separate issues. > business school grads saving into their 40s to buy homes For example, on this -- surely, if anything, manufacturing outsourcing has only made business school grads get paid more? If you're not already familiar, take a look at Baumol's cost disease [0] for more on the phenomena at play here. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org…

> business school grads saving into their 40s to buy homes

Median pay out of top b schools is ~$125-$150k. If you have a stay at home partner and a few kids, you prob need to make partner/Director before you can buy a townhouse in a Brooklyn.

That said, if you're single and work for an I Bank in Chicago, you'll be able to buy when you hit VP in your early 30s.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#62

Post by subsubzero »

barbazoo wrote: post #5

> Even among those earning six figures, 42% said they were living paycheck to paycheck, the survey of more than 3,000 adults found. I know there are areas with extremely HCOL, inflation, housing crisis... However, sometimes I do wonder though what some people's budgets are like that they are literally unable to save any money (paycheck to paycheck) making >$100k. Do we know what part lack of financial literacy or sim…

With the rise of social media, people feel the need to flaunt things(cars, houses, vacations, jewelry, you name it). Both me and my Wife are making extremely good tech money, shes a director and I am senior+ engineer. And I feel like everyone is living a lifestyle even we cannot afford. We drive Japanese cars (mid level) a few years old. Bought a very sensible house with a payment that if something happened to one of us the other could handle living expenses and not lose the place. We go on somewhat normal vacations, hawaii being an outlier, typically mountain areas in the US and stay at airbnbs and don't wear designer clothes, just t-shirts and jeans etc.

Most of our neighbors(and families in our kids school) drive tesla's and other luxury cars or brand new non-luxury cars, they always have brand new clothes and iphones and a few have rolex watches or other high end brands. I do feel like maybe its a southern california thing to live extravagantly but I suspect most are living way beyond their means and if a partner would lose their job things would drastically change for them overnight.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#63

Post by bduerst »

pasquinelli wrote: post #51
mrguyorama wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also half of those people think that a bailout of the middle class would be communism

maybe but i doubt they'd turn it down. what people think isn't always what people think.

Oh, they wouldn't turn it down, but they would support whatever they could to prevent it from happening.

It's a weird form of irrational behavior that falls under economic animosity.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#64

Post by pinephoneguy »

e4e78a06 wrote: post #33
mogadsheu wrote: post #2

The cost of housing combined with manufacturing outsourcing has basically crippled the American working/middle class since the early 2000s. Then add inflation. When Ivy League business school grads are having to save until their 40s to buy homes, what does that imply for the rest of the country?

People feel like they _have_ to live in NYC/SF/LA when they make peanuts. If those people moved to the Midwest they'd have much lower CoL and probably still around the same pay. Amazon pays $15/h wherever you are.

No post body was provided.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#65

Post by JAlexoid »

barbazoo wrote: post #5

> Even among those earning six figures, 42% said they were living paycheck to paycheck, the survey of more than 3,000 adults found. I know there are areas with extremely HCOL, inflation, housing crisis... However, sometimes I do wonder though what some people's budgets are like that they are literally unable to save any money (paycheck to paycheck) making >$100k. Do we know what part lack of financial literacy or sim…

There are things like debt, obligations, extended family, etc... We're a double income no kids couple....

We haven't saved much money living in NYC, with our parents needing financial assistance and residual debts. Dietary constraints also make it much more expensive to live in US.(celiac and lactose intolerance add to costs)

So it's not unfathomable.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#66

Post by jjoonathan »

giantg2 wrote: post #25
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But shouldn't a job paying 6 figures have decent insurance? Parent said he/she isn't from the US where this would be the norm. Here in the EU (Austria), in most cases you get no extra private insurance even with a high salary, just your public one, which in some cases may not be enough, especially if you optimize for quality doctors/therapists with short waiting times, which are all private, so you end up having to…

That's fair. I guess the interesting part is that many of the people in the US want public healthcare and generally think that the international examples cover everything.

No, they think that covering something is better than covering nothing.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#67

Post by throwaway0a5e »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #13
kitkat_new wrote: post #3

guess who will suffer most from global warming

The rich people who are still buying ocean-front property?

Yes, but only because they have a ton of overlap with the much broader group of "people who will get shot in the hole they just dug for shortsightedly causing exactly the kind of societal instability that resulted in them getting shot in the hole they just dug."

Humans can survive and thrive in very extreme climates. We can grow enough food for everybody. What we can't do is figure out ways for both of those things to happen without preventing people's standard of living from going so far backwards they get shooty.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#68

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

legitster wrote: post #54
giantg2 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair. I guess the interesting part is that many of the people in the US want public healthcare and generally think that the international examples cover everything.

This is a good reminder that people in the US have such a myopic view of our own issues. https://twitter.com/BadEconTakes/status/1228143455399858176 A better way to understand our problems is that our medicaid and medicare programs are the most generous in the world - so much so that extending it universally is so friggin expensive.

>so much so that extending it universally is so friggin expensive

I laughed out loud at the idea of the US thinking universal healthcare would be expensive considering all the trillions spent without blinking to pay for two pointless wars, the 1.7 trillions to be spent on a stealth plane that can't fly in the rain, and the trillions printed in the last couple of years and dumped on the stock market.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#69

Post by nightski »

e4e78a06 wrote: post #33
mogadsheu wrote: post #2

The cost of housing combined with manufacturing outsourcing has basically crippled the American working/middle class since the early 2000s. Then add inflation. When Ivy League business school grads are having to save until their 40s to buy homes, what does that imply for the rest of the country?

People feel like they _have_ to live in NYC/SF/LA when they make peanuts. If those people moved to the Midwest they'd have much lower CoL and probably still around the same pay. Amazon pays $15/h wherever you are.

Yeah exactly. Cost of living is so much lower and one can actually live in some very nice smaller cities with plenty of restaurants, entertainment, and nature. Good quality of life.

If you are even luckier and can be a developer in those cities making 150k-200k you feel like royalty with a ton of extra money to travel often.

Re: Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck

#70

Post by s1artibartfast »

barbazoo wrote: post #5

> Even among those earning six figures, 42% said they were living paycheck to paycheck, the survey of more than 3,000 adults found. I know there are areas with extremely HCOL, inflation, housing crisis... However, sometimes I do wonder though what some people's budgets are like that they are literally unable to save any money (paycheck to paycheck) making >$100k. Do we know what part lack of financial literacy or sim…

Taxes are also a big factor. Depending on your location, you could see 35-40% of that 100k disappear in taxes, and anther 40% for hosing in high cost of living areas and you are looking at 20k per year residual location.
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