I live across the street from a homeless camp in California in a house I dont deserve, my parents are amazing people and had no retirement plan and I have no idea whats going on or what Im going to do when Im too old to work and get fired from whatever bs tech company Im working for when Im 35 and Im just realizing it. Its 1:30 in the morning and my babys gonna wake me up in four hours. America is insane.

The poor people's 25% isn't seldom a small small small small fraction of a more wealthy person's 25%.

Low wage workers here (also Europe) can barely save any money (if at all), and have something like at least a 10x increase in disposable income after living expenses from moving in with someone, or getting a well paying senior dev job.

It's not always an individual's actions having this effect, and if you decide to punish or reward based on it you are not rewarding based on morally reasonable metrics.