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

Re:Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living p... by brimble on Thursday February 17, 2022 @02:58PM (#30377891)

- That entire $900 for "everything else" ends up all going to your monthly employee contribution to have a family health insurance plan through your employer. Luckily they're only making you pay about a third of the premium.

[EDIT] For anyone from outside the US who's getting a bit lost in all this US-centric budgeting, the TL;DR (and trend which you may have noticed in all this) is that it's insanely expensive to have kids in the US. The main reasons are healthcare costs (including insurance), housing, and childcare. Costs can easily approach $100,000 to take one kid from conception to age 5, with no extravagant spending, and no major health problems.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living p... by runako on Thursday February 17, 2022 @03:02PM (#30377928)

I was intentionally being very generous. The thing about the cost sharing you mention; it's the kind of change that companies make all the time. An extra $200 out of a family's monthly check can be ruinous.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living p... by brimble on Thursday February 17, 2022 @03:12PM (#30378048)

Yeah, and those numbers only ever seem to go one way, with no end in sight considering that (last I checked) insurance premiums are still increasing faster than base inflation.

Between the savings crisis in every generation past the Boomers (worse with each subsequent generation), and healthcare costs going ever-upward, I have a hard time seeing how we're going to have a strong economy in 20 or so years as more and more of our consumer base gets ground into paste by the wheels of The System and can no longer drive the economy with spending, yet we still don't seem to be anywhere near fixing any of that.

[ Parent | on HN ]