Re:Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common
by jchw on Monday December 31, 2018 @05:35PM
(#18797474)
I think a lot of people misunderstand. Before I had a nice tech job, I literally could not afford to do my dental work or take care of my car. So later on, when I started, it costed a lot more. And I spent it, because it's important.
Same can be said about many expenses. When you don't have the money, you make it work even if you can't. When you do, you gotta balance it out again. Saving your money isn't as important as saving your life. Saving your automobile might be cheaper than having to buy another later. Etc, etc.
So, just because this problem exists among a wide range of paychecks doesn't mean shit really, because paychecks scale with rent and people are suffering to make the rent as it is. I would argue for most people, the trouble isn't their attitude. It's that wages ultimately grow far, far slower than living expenses and inflation, and cuts have been made to essential expenses at the cost of degraded quality of life.
A lot of people harp on others for buying frivolously but frankly an iPhone every year would be a drop in the bucket compared to my medical expenses, maintenance and gas for my car, etc. My monthly rent is more than three iPhone XS Maxes and it's literally within a couple hundred of the cheapest thing I could find in a 20 mile radius. Don't get me wrong, it's great and I'm not complaining, but it still puts things into perspective.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I think everything that needs to be said is already covered by graphing minimum wage vs inflation. That's a lot of folks real realities today.
Same can be said about many expenses. When you don't have the money, you make it work even if you can't. When you do, you gotta balance it out again. Saving your money isn't as important as saving your life. Saving your automobile might be cheaper than having to buy another later. Etc, etc.
So, just because this problem exists among a wide range of paychecks doesn't mean shit really, because paychecks scale with rent and people are suffering to make the rent as it is. I would argue for most people, the trouble isn't their attitude. It's that wages ultimately grow far, far slower than living expenses and inflation, and cuts have been made to essential expenses at the cost of degraded quality of life.
A lot of people harp on others for buying frivolously but frankly an iPhone every year would be a drop in the bucket compared to my medical expenses, maintenance and gas for my car, etc. My monthly rent is more than three iPhone XS Maxes and it's literally within a couple hundred of the cheapest thing I could find in a 20 mile radius. Don't get me wrong, it's great and I'm not complaining, but it still puts things into perspective.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I think everything that needs to be said is already covered by graphing minimum wage vs inflation. That's a lot of folks real realities today.