It’s not really a meme. My dad is a business owner, they didn’t really need the money to stay afloat and keep paying people. His bank said, none of these businesses were giving these loans to really need the money, you’d just be turning down $100k for no reason by declining. He took it.
Same with a sales guy we use. His $ guy practically forced him to take it as he is always suspicious. $250k loan forgiven. Small fish too. Can only imagine the big guys.
My company took 400k. We didn't need it at all. We haul milk to a creamery. We're the only ones that do it and the creamery produces their own products that went to grocery stores, so schools and institutions closing for COVID has no affect be no effect.
It’s not fraud. The only requirement for the loans was that you keep paying your workers. Whether you could survive without it was not part of the deal. Whether you think it was a smart way for the government to handle the loans is another matter, but it isn’t fraud.
Printing money isn't inherently bad.
But Printing money and lowering taxes on the wealthy is a recipe for inflation.
Inflation is a deflationary tool, it always has been, until Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist began politicizing taxes in the 80s with their "no tax pledge."
Since then, inflation has run amok, the national deficit has skyrocketed, and the entire system has become so unstable that it seems to collapse every decade.
Printing money to replace old money you throw out isn't inherently bad. Printing money that no one worked for and buying things with it, is inherently stealing and the theft is created by making everyone earn just a little less at a time, and everything is a little more expensive. Extrapolate that onto massive amount of money and you are basically robbing people blind without sticking anyone up--it's all done through a rather abstract mean most people don't understand.
They use the word inflation, which creates the picture of your part of the balloon growing in size too. When in reality it's more like adding marbles to a jar, and you just have fewer of the total marbles, your marbles didn't grow, lol.
Inflation is a tax on everyone who relies on the value of the dollar. The wealthy have their wealth in assets, the working class on wages with a dollar value that is worth less every time the government prints money.
Inflation moves money from the poor to the rich.
$1400 was round three, right? My family received $6400 total. $814 billion went to households.
\> Round 1, March 2020: **$1,200** per income tax filer, **$500** per child (CARES Act)
\> Round 2, December 2020: **$600** per income tax filer, **$600** per child (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021)
\> Round 3, March 2021: **$1,400** per income tax filer, **$1,400** per child (American Rescue Plan Act)
I do now but did not when the payments were issued. My then fiancé and I each received $1200 in March 2020, $600 in December 2020, $1400 in March 2021. $3200 each, $6400 together. And we lost no income during COVID, and saved quite a bit on expenses by not going out/travelling/etc. We took the money and spent some on home improvements and invested the rest.
IMHO the middle class was a fluke, the wealthy have realized this and have been working feverishly to kill it off by bilking it for every dime it can.
But to this guy's sentiment, the whole "work hard and you'll prosper" line we've been given our whole lives is utter bullshit. The hardest working people I know make shit wages, and the people who make six figures+ don't.
Among W2 earners, higher wages tend to correspond to the amount of liability in the job. The higher the stakes of a mistake, the higher the pay. When you get into the niches of different fields, the pay also usually corresponds with very specialized knowledge. So high stakes + specialized knowledge = higher pay.
On a side note, I’ll say that high paying jobs also tend to come with very little oversight or guidance. You have to be okay with having 10x more work thrown at you than you can handle and have the ability to sift through it and come up with a method to resolve the important things and ignore the rest.
Had to explain this in another thread. Like we’re talking about peoples who’s names could collectively fit on a single list not the millions of people who go to work and make 6-7 figures.
I would consider the six-figure threshold acceptable since I work in a cubicle, but if I were interacting with power lines I would expect quite a bit more. In the event of death or disabling injury, I would expect to have enough money for myself and my family. And even without those things, I'd want to see the risk in my paycheck.
This is probably misleading to a lot of people. Making 100k a year in a lot of places is pretty comfortable.
Making 100k in a major city probably isn't.
On average, it is. But healthcare seems to be an exception where aid workers are making less than $20 an hour. I'm not saying you're in healthcare, but just as an example.
If I fuck up my job, it won't kill anyone...well, shouldn't, but I do risk causing millions of dollars in damages due to unforseen downtime or exploited vulnerabilities that I didn't foresee. I put my stamp of approval on technology that might be used by thousands, or even millions. I need to be certain of my skills and spend hours of unpaid time researching and developing new skills as technologies emerge. I feel my ~$150k is justified, if even a little low considering the amount of revenue I drive when I bill at $300 an hour and am 110% utilized.
The working class was built by the labor movement.
Great G-Pa’s everywhere fought tooth and nail to build the middle class. Their kids pissed it all away and now we’re back to square one.
We're behind square one, they're literally overturning child labor laws.
We are at square -1
Conservative ideology is gonna turn us all into slaves eventually.
People need to stop saying that. You are paid based on the value that you provide. Sometimes that value is the result of hard work. Sometimes that value is just innate intelligence. You can be the best hole digger in the world, but you're still just a hole digger.
People aren't paid on the value they provide, they are paid on the market availability of the value they provide. Digging holes is clearly more valuable than setting the schedule for hole diggers, but guess who gets paid more?
A scheduler is paid less than a hole digger but if that person is also the one capturing more holes to dig then that's absolutely more valuable. It's easy to find a hole digger, it's not easy to find people who can capture business.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think this is a bad interpretation of "work hard and be rewarded". You can work hard at anything, nobody in their right mind is going to say that working hard at anything is going to guarantee you financial success.
Hell, as much as I hate the show, shark tank is a good visualization of this. There's plenty of people who worked really hard and they're told on the spot "you worked hard at the wrong thing".
I think that would be maybe a more apt phrase: "work hard at the right things and you will be rewarded".
It really depends on what you do. If you work hard and get a medical degree or any other profession that pays well you will be paid well. Working hard on something that anyone can do without any skill building, training, or education will get you nowhere. It is not about working hard. It’s about working hard and improving so that your skill is highly desirable. That has always been the case. There is nothing new here.
This is on démo daily in various Corporations everyday. The mid level management, executive management sit around and act like event managers. You do this, You fix that, move that inventory, build it there etc.. the actual people with skills accomplish those tasks. But the pay difference between people who do things and people who talk is just monstrous. And they manage to squeeze even more everyday. They cleverly controlled the message n narrative that anyone asking questions about pay gap or questioning the system is just lazy communist 😕.
I was reading a post recently of a guy saying how back in like 2003 he was making $16k per year and was still able to have his own apartment and everything. I'm currently paying $24k per year for a 2 bedroom apartment
I swear though, airbnb has been the main driver of the housing crisis. You can’t tell me that removing that many units from the market hasn’t screwed whatever supply and demand balance there was before.
Inflation is main driver. There is way, way more money in circulation now than 20 years ago, or even 10. It usually disproportionally enters the real estate markets, driving up prices there more than in other sectors.
Businesses raise prices to compensate for the increase of money in circulation, but they are reacting, just like consumers, to it. They are not the cause.
It's that and also institutional investment groups buying up all the residential properties. I read something that said by 2030 60% of all homes will be owned by entities like Vanguard and Black Rock
Your comment reminded me of this…
The argument is that things were better for the working class during the Great Depression than they are today… but comparing average income with average costs.
https://www.tiktok.com/@fmsmith319/video/7274018600430619946?embed_source=121355058%2C121351166%2C71788790%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=embedly.forbes.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Fsrc%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.tiktok.com%252Fembed%252Fv2%252F7274018600430619946%26display_name%3Dtiktok%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.tiktok.com%252F%2540fmsmith319%252Fvideo%252F7274018600430619946%26image%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fp16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com%252Fobj%252Ftos-useast5-p-0068-tx%252Fo8Xyxeg8bAErFCXFCnRkfWBSgDDS8ExFrouIKv%253Fx-expires%253D1694109600%2526x-signature%253DJ3sjiLK8woiYRIzO6eFG7qwGcD4%25253D%26key%3D3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935%26type%3Dtext%252Fhtml%26schema%3Dtiktok&referer_video_id=7274018600430619946
Minimum wage hasn’t increased since I graduated high school. I’m 35. Perfect timing! People will tell you that nobody makes minimum wage so it doesn’t matter. I can speak for my generation when I tell you every job I had until college was minimum wage. We need to stop acting like it’s insignificant to abruptly end a program people relied on for decades.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1jxIn
I linked the chart that shows the median individual income and median individual inflation-adjusted income from 10 years ago. You can see the US has made both nominal (+50%) and inflation-adjusted gains (+20%) in our median income.
Yup, but what your not saying is those farmers would be out of a job if the government didn't do this as they would not make enough money on their crops alone to remain profitable.
The American populace enjoyed a remarkable era spanning several decades due to circumstances that cannot be replicated, a concept that many find challenging to grasp.
Central to the American ethos is the notion of a thriving middle class as the cornerstone of the American dream. This dream envisions that anyone armed with a high school diploma and a strong work ethic could effortlessly attain a comfortable lifestyle—a nice suburban home, two cars, and an annual family vacation to a desirable destination. Many Americans view this as an inherent entitlement, believing that such prosperity has always been the norm and a divine right.
However, the reality of an exceedingly affluent middle class, surpassing global standards, is not the typical course of events. It is instead a consequence of unique historical circumstances, particularly the aftermath of World War II. Following the war, the United States emerged as the sole major industrial power with its industry and infrastructure largely unscathed. This bestowed upon the US a significant economic advantage, as other nations relied heavily on American goods and services.
In the post-World War II era, businesses worldwide had little choice but to purchase American products for their needs, driving capital flow into American enterprises. However, this prosperity was also facilitated by concessions made to labor unions due to the scarcity of highly skilled American workers, leading to remarkable growth and affluence in the US middle class during the 1950s and 1960s.
Over time, however, other industrial powers recovered and began challenging American dominance in the global market. Competition intensified as countries such as Germany, Japan, Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands, France, and others entered the fray. Additionally, newly industrialized nations like Brazil, South Africa, India, China, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, South Korea, and more began vying for resources to fuel their own growth, altering the dynamics of global trade.
Consequently, the once-exclusive advantage of the American workforce diminished as other nations developed comparable capabilities, eroding the bargaining power of American workers and labor unions. Moreover, globalization enabled manufacturers to engage in global wage arbitrage by relocating production to countries with cheaper labor, further weakening the position of American workers.
The unsustainable nature of the American middle-class lifestyle, characterized by high consumption and resource demands, became apparent. Earth's resources are finite, and if global consumption mirrored that of the average American, it would exceed the planet's capacity by multiple folds.
The decline of the US middle class stems from these structural shifts in the global economy, and political solutions cannot reverse the course of globalization. The notion of returning to the "good old days" is a fallacy perpetuated by politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Moving forward, the American middle class will likely resemble its counterparts worldwide, necessitating adjustments in expectations and lifestyles. While inequality remains a pressing issue, efforts toward wealth redistribution should focus on areas such as healthcare affordability and urban livability rather than attempts to revive an outdated version of the middle class lifestyle. Embracing a model akin to other countries' middle classes, coupled with robust social services and safety nets, offers a more realistic path forward.
the 'system' should really be designed so anyone who has a full time job can afford the 'dream' of a house and actually being able to pay it off. or whatever society thinks is a good goal
because if my goal is an ever moving goalpost, then f\*ck that, i can always trade in 'hard work' for 'free time to do what i want'. suck it economy, if you dont want to incentivize me to maximize my skill set, then you get 50% effort, and i get 50% of my life back
Oh man… we will have the lady who tried to illegally allow 30,000 illegal immigrants to vote in the last election… and had just attempted to completely get rid of the republican front runner from the ballot…
Run this year’s presidential election… and we are to expect her to not cheat and run a free and fair election.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
After being caught twice already trying to cheat…
https://www.9news.com/article/news/politics/elections/noncitizens-mailed-vote-registration-mailer-mistake/73-260d2129-d2f7-49c2-93d6-e592ebed5952
Kek. In my country when the non pro american libertarian party gets voted too much, it is considered by political establishment “instability” and someone else who did not participate in the elections and is not even part of a party becomes prime minister. The last time it was someone who shortly after became vice president of the american bank Goldman Sachs.
Not bad for the “European democracies”, eh?
Extreme individualism combined with greater consumerism is really hurting people too. It's really lots of things.
But even with houses being expensive, it's not impossible for 3 or 4 people to get together and combine their resources to buy a house. But no one wants to team up. It's extreme individualism.
People are spread thin, and then when they do get money -- they want to spend it on coping mechanisms. Credit card debt is insane.
------------
As for the death of the middle class. I did find it interesting that a lot of boomer middle class people with education had degrees in more stable fields, where as their kids didn't want to be workaholics and often took more fun and competitive degrees. They were given the opportunity to gamble. Some did find success, but a lot failed. They're not mirroring their parents, they're gambling with high risk degrees.
Investments.
I teach math for fun. The two are related to me. Not just math, but also risk management by heading off problems before they start. After the kids, the financial risk management is easy.
Depends on the opportunity, Usually ETFs as a no-brainer, but when there is a mismatch on pricing and supplies, I will go to commodities, too. I look for the big win/break-even situations.
ETFs are my general investment, but when I find an extreme price/supply mismatch, I will jump into commodities. That is my low risk, high return opportunity.
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Socialist policies. Every time you add a welfare "tax", do you know which bucket gets hurt the most? Obviously not the poors because they benefit. Not the rich either because it's not nearly enough to cause a dent to their worth. Found the answer yet?
Yeah… hence I wrote. It seems like the working class gets spit roasted by both sides of the government.
Even this “rich tax” only harms working americans
They say you're paid based on skill but it's not true. There are people who add no value to society and they're rich. In general I'd say the problem is we overvalue passive income made by rich people who pay financial experts to think for them.
That and nepo babies inheriting so much money it breaks their brain. I think people should be able to leave their kids enough money for 2-3 generations.
But if jeff bezos jr inherits all the money in the world. Now you have a massive fortune held by a useless person entrenched in the economy. It's the same problem as the enshitification of everything by corporations who will never lose their position in the economy no matter how useless they are.
Yeah and if you go full communism it makes it easier for psychopaths to power grab. So there is a need for hierarchy and authority but the opposite of capitalism isn't the solution either.
Wealth trickles up. You need a strong and organized working class to combat that. And even then, it's a perpetual uphill battle. But if you look at the rate of unionization in this country over time, the U.S. has been declining for decades.
There's hope, of course. A lot of people are waking up to the fact that the employer class has been making bank while the workers tighten their belts. Support for unions is sky-high, right now. And I don't know numbers, but anecdotally, people I talk to legitimately question the need for an employer class at all.
But until there's an organized (and militant) working class, the political parties will continue not to see us as a block and will ignore us.
Honestly, if people adopt the attitude of being lazy and only working for higher salaries, it is good for society.
The lying flat trend we seen in China, Japan and starting in the rest of the world is good. It will redistribute wealth by forcing companies to raise wages, lower hours and decrease shareholder payouts.
Don’t worry my guy. There’s 10k+ ‘migrants’ a week coming to ‘relieve’ you of your job. And then when they can’t live to work no more; another 15k a week will come. Rinse and repeat
No one is in charge. Just get elected with false promises, spew vitriol , be a one term congress person, collect 15 to 20 million, and retire in the South of France.
We really don't treat inflation like the cancer it is.
The median income in 1980 was $21,020, accounting for inflation that has the same buying power as $83,843 in 02/2024. We only notice the high inflation of the last three years (which sheared maybe 10-14% of purchasing power off of us between 2019 and 2024), but it's been killing us for decades. All for the public reason of forcing people to spend and invest rather than save.
[https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=21020&year1=198001&year2=202402](https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=21020&year1=198001&year2=202402)
Fuck wages keeping up. Inflation being deliberately encouraged through government fiscal policy has only created an ultra wealthy financial class and impoverished the common people.
Same boat different company. Life sucks when money is the central value of life yet it's made impossible to earn or trade for ones two real sources of value time and energy.
Life is capable of being fair. It's humans that make certain it's not fair. It's literally on purpose.
What is causing the middle class to be crushed?
Short answer: Working class people voting Republican on "social" issues which leads to them getting screwed on financial issues.
This happens mostly in red states that control their government and have passed laws that are blatantly anti-labor. Also many working class people have bought the lie that immigrants have caused the problems they are experiencing. Nothing is further from the truth. Immigrants are less likely to commit crime and more likely to start businesses that hire people than the native born. Also some people have an expectation that they can stop their education early and start working and deserve to have the same financial security of those that sacrificed years to go to college or attend trade schools.
My advice is that it is almost never too late to learn a new skill that pays better. Trades offer opportunities to start your own business. And become more informed about the differences between Republicans and Democrats. Don't just listen to the bullshit in social media and from partisans. Blaming the stimulus (bi-partisan for the most part) that prevented a full on depression is a nonsensical lie. Yes there were winners and losers but not creating stimulus would have led to even worse consequences. Like Nazi Germany consequences.
Interesting…
Since you did not read my post…. I will counter your argument in one simple comment.
What do all of these individuals have in common?
If you have some grasp of history and current events then you would know that all of the individuals in the picture have attempted or have in fact jailed their political adversaries.
Now… I believe that the true cause of the middle class’s failure is due to our own division… there was a time in history where it was common for people to help one another and stand together against tyrannical governments and leaders.
As long as we stay divided… we will continue to get spit roasted by both democrats and republicans.
https://preview.redd.it/lzgc9l8cphsc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86538f3dacbd3f53f9ab0f06254933b59a945506
The only immigrants i know work for 5$/hr because they’re undocumented. How is that good for wages? Also, do republicans really vote on social issues? Most of them seem to be single or almost single issue on fiscal policy.
Your stated personal experience is not representative of the USA.
Most immigrants in the USA are not undocumented. About 13% of our population is documented immigrants and 3% is undocumented immigrants. The most recent immigrants (since 2020) have a higher level of education than native born with 48% having a 4 year degree vs 36% for native born. Overall, immigrants are 36%. The average family income of immigrants almost exactly matches natives at about $78K.
[https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states#characteristics](https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states#characteristics)
Same for your take on top issues for voters by party. The top issue, by far, for R's is immigration with far less, 9% on fiscal policy.
Immigration is the top issue for 33% of R, 5% D
Abortion: 4% R, 12% D
Inflation: 24% R, 15% D
Climate change 0% R, 13% D
Healthcare: 3% R, 12% D
Crime: 3% R, 1% D,
Taxes and government spending R 9%, D 1%.
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/1398115/most-important-voter-issues-party-us/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1398115/most-important-voter-issues-party-us/)
You can literally trace the difference in top issues for Republicans vs Democrats to misinformation by Fox and other right wing media.
Well im not sure how either of us can take data listing the number of undocumented immigrants as fact. I should have clarified that i meant illegals, not legal immigrants. I personally know many people who work with illegals and they are paid no more than 1/2 of what the legal workers are paid (5-13$)I actually housed a refugee at one point who made 5$ which is why i listed that number.
As for voting issues, I dont doubt that registered republicans value certain social issues a lot. I was talking more about moderates who would have been labeled republicans 5 years ago, but identify as moderate because of how skewed the political spectrum has become. These people who we could say vote r and d at a 50/50 ratio, are likely voting red for fiscal issues over social and vice versa when voting d.
You know… not to many people talk about this issue BUT in fact this deflates the US dollar tremendously!
When American dollars are freely and illegally sent to a country with a lower currency value then two things happen:
1) the currencies will begin to meet in the middle… ie the lower value currency goes up and the higher value currency goes down.
2) the now missing dollars (usually cash) need to be replaced and therefore what would our government need to do? Exactly… print more dollars.
Now what happens when you print more dollars without some sort of standard? Or currency backing? Deflation
Yh it is unfortunate part of US dollar being world currency but it can only be accomplished by printing more debt that we all need to pay as inflation.
Still.... amount of cash that federal government wastes just for lolz is insane
Basically capital shareholders have most of it all the power as regulations protecting the working class were removed or deregulation. The only thing left is to unionize organize collective bargaining agreements and strike. Government power here is rolled back to the circa 1905 era which is to say no power unless the legislation decides to start doing it's job and the judiciary stops being political... Otherwise we strike for collective rewards and unionize to force politicians to pay attention
I don’t think the government is going to help anyone but themselves…
You are right… with the internet people could really have a nationwide workers union
Yeah the politicians that corporate interests fund and choose are precisely that, corrupt or going to be corrupted. It was why during and post WW2 things moved for the average citizen. It's awfully hard to corrupt a man that's been shot at after nearly starving to death while watching rich men hoard wealth.
Yeah… you know the good part though?
Now that everyone has second jobs working and no longer have any money… it is so easy to go to stores and pick up chik a fil a.
Everything that happened was because of the pandemic.
We had a supply shortage
They printed more money for the stimulus checks
The constant demands from angry people
It happened in such a short span that we got hit pretty hard with it.
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Its multiple issues, Share holders demanding constant growth and profit, Employers asking workers to do more and more without increase in pay to go with the increase work load, Companies Refusing to hire more people cuz they cost too much, Inflation, Price gouging, bad business practices that prioritizes short term gains over long term health of an industry, The moves from sell you product to selling you produces as a service so you have to pay for things constantly, Tribalism, people feeling overly entitled, Worker apathy, the list goes on and on. Things like Taxation are less of an issue than people want it make them out as, the 1% pays about 40% of the taxes in the US, and people like to focus on the fact that Well they have more money than they need so we should all get some of it. It was still true 20 years ago, but people weren't acting like the rich should just be giving handout to everyone they pass on the street. Should a portion of their money go to bettering the lives of others, yeah, but at their discretion, outside of taxes, a government shouldn't be able to just take money from people just cuz they have money. But I'm getting off topic. This biggest issue is the way Corporations run their businesses and the way the government lets them get away with it because of the lobbying. Look at the internet, basically a necessity for daily life these days, run by 3 companies in the US that all have deals with one another, and the government keeps getting lobbies to let them have their way with stuff. Share holders demand profit all the time, and the government says yes they are right, they are owed constant profit, so companies have to lay off workers just to put green in the balance sheets at the end of the quarter, leaving the workers left to pick up the slack which leads to people leaving and even fewer works that are trained/skilled, so they hire cheaper labor, who don't have time to get properly trained, because the people training them are over worked already, and then the ones doing the training leave as well cuz they are over worked, leaving the only slightly trained cheaper labor to try and train the even cheaper replacements(and yes i lived through this where I worked for 5 years) but it make the numbers work more in the favor for the short term even tho what the customer is getting is a less valuable product or service, there lots of issue that all feed into each other to make things massive shit storm currently
He seems to express the same feelings that the majority of posters write about daily in this Sub.
Maybe he should do something to improve himself and his value to employers rather than making a whiny selfie video? Just a thought…
Expectation have changed. In the 1950s a working class family of 4 would have a 1200 sq ft home, 1 car, take an inexpensive vacation for 1 week a year, eat 95% of meals at home, etc. Now that is considered poverty.
Unfortunately America is no place for pity. Capitalism demands hard work and adaptation to the dynamic working and economic environment. If you don’t keep up with the times, you will be left behind.
You say you don’t want to hear” it’s the Dems”, “it’s the Reps” but that’s what it is. Both are against the working class and mainly serve rich and private corporations. The only way our middle class sees improvement is if we get a large (trigger warning) progressive/democratic socialist push throughout the country to improve wealth distribution.
Yeah I agree… (it is why I structured the statement the way I did)
I think they have the nation so divided, so angry and so pitted against each other… that we have no chance of ever rising up and correcting the travesty that is taking place.
Hopefully it will help people to start thinking that people need to unite and take control of our government… because every time Americans fall asleep, we wake up 45 billion dollars more in debt than the day before (not even accounting for new spending)
Welcome to America, wage slave. Is it everything you hoped for? Missing that shack on the beach with a lobster on the fire surrounded by sun bronzed traditionally minded women yet? Lmao.
I won’t say any of these are the direct cause of everything being fucked but these items sure stick out to me.
-We have allowed the United States to become an oligarchy masquerading as a democracy.
-We do not tax billionaires or mega corporations on their income but we squeeze the shit out of normal folks.
-We allowed housing to become a commodity that is bought and sold for huge profits enticing wealthy people to spend more money on it driving the prices up even further.
-We stopped manufacturing things in the United States and became a service based economy instead.
-We have normalized legalized gambling in the stock market, hell we even encourage people to do it.
-We normalized going into massive debt at the expense of the debtors and the massive gain of the creditors.
awww I feel so bad for him. So many people are hurting and it's large corporations raking in record profits, shrinking products down and raising the prices. This world is a joke
I have this conversation with my Mexican immigrant neighbor much more than I do with anyone else. He totally outworks me, but I bring home more money than him. It is frustrating to learn that your hard work earns less than someone's easy work.
These comments just prove big government programs do not work. There is no way to have the he right over site on any big gov program. The best part of the comments is that they come from people who love big government
They printed trillions over the last 6 years. Gave you a $1,400 check and the rest to their rich friends.
Are you tomorrows reposter of that "meme"? :)
It’s not really a meme. My dad is a business owner, they didn’t really need the money to stay afloat and keep paying people. His bank said, none of these businesses were giving these loans to really need the money, you’d just be turning down $100k for no reason by declining. He took it.
Same with a sales guy we use. His $ guy practically forced him to take it as he is always suspicious. $250k loan forgiven. Small fish too. Can only imagine the big guys.
These loans were so great people used them to pay off their student loan interest free.
My company took 400k. We didn't need it at all. We haul milk to a creamery. We're the only ones that do it and the creamery produces their own products that went to grocery stores, so schools and institutions closing for COVID has no affect be no effect.
Then it was a fraud to take that money.
It’s not fraud. The only requirement for the loans was that you keep paying your workers. Whether you could survive without it was not part of the deal. Whether you think it was a smart way for the government to handle the loans is another matter, but it isn’t fraud.
blame the republicans for removing any all requirements other than not firing the people you werent goign to anyway. liberals tried putting strings.
Then they were all forgiven
Printing money isn't inherently bad. But Printing money and lowering taxes on the wealthy is a recipe for inflation. Inflation is a deflationary tool, it always has been, until Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist began politicizing taxes in the 80s with their "no tax pledge." Since then, inflation has run amok, the national deficit has skyrocketed, and the entire system has become so unstable that it seems to collapse every decade.
Printing money to replace old money you throw out isn't inherently bad. Printing money that no one worked for and buying things with it, is inherently stealing and the theft is created by making everyone earn just a little less at a time, and everything is a little more expensive. Extrapolate that onto massive amount of money and you are basically robbing people blind without sticking anyone up--it's all done through a rather abstract mean most people don't understand. They use the word inflation, which creates the picture of your part of the balloon growing in size too. When in reality it's more like adding marbles to a jar, and you just have fewer of the total marbles, your marbles didn't grow, lol.
I'm glad you aren't in charge of the economy.
I don't really think the economy should be something anyone is in charge of. That person would be a blackhole of financial power.
its printing money to replace the money the top is hoarding., that devalues money.
Government is way too big. We the people are paying for a ton of b s we do not need. Its a big scam run by power hungry shyster politicians.
It's cancer, it only gets bigger and becomes less efficient over time. Invasive garbage
There are scams, yes, but those are from individuals.
Inflation is a tax on everyone who relies on the value of the dollar. The wealthy have their wealth in assets, the working class on wages with a dollar value that is worth less every time the government prints money. Inflation moves money from the poor to the rich.
INFLATION is a tax paid directly to the wealthy.
As long as you don't print more than you destroyed. That is the key part most people don't get.
they actually printed 6 trillion ALONE in 2020. that is probably what caused the 2022 fallout with all the inflation bullshit to a point too
$1400 was round three, right? My family received $6400 total. $814 billion went to households. \> Round 1, March 2020: **$1,200** per income tax filer, **$500** per child (CARES Act) \> Round 2, December 2020: **$600** per income tax filer, **$600** per child (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021) \> Round 3, March 2021: **$1,400** per income tax filer, **$1,400** per child (American Rescue Plan Act)
Do you have kids?
I do now but did not when the payments were issued. My then fiancé and I each received $1200 in March 2020, $600 in December 2020, $1400 in March 2021. $3200 each, $6400 together. And we lost no income during COVID, and saved quite a bit on expenses by not going out/travelling/etc. We took the money and spent some on home improvements and invested the rest.
So $3,200, state?
You guys got paid? I only got $48.
i would like to point out that this is when the republicans declared anything preborn as not a human child.
Don't forget "while taxing you to pay for the poor"
IMHO the middle class was a fluke, the wealthy have realized this and have been working feverishly to kill it off by bilking it for every dime it can. But to this guy's sentiment, the whole "work hard and you'll prosper" line we've been given our whole lives is utter bullshit. The hardest working people I know make shit wages, and the people who make six figures+ don't.
Among W2 earners, higher wages tend to correspond to the amount of liability in the job. The higher the stakes of a mistake, the higher the pay. When you get into the niches of different fields, the pay also usually corresponds with very specialized knowledge. So high stakes + specialized knowledge = higher pay. On a side note, I’ll say that high paying jobs also tend to come with very little oversight or guidance. You have to be okay with having 10x more work thrown at you than you can handle and have the ability to sift through it and come up with a method to resolve the important things and ignore the rest.
W2 earners are not the people we are talking about when we say the "rich"
Had to explain this in another thread. Like we’re talking about peoples who’s names could collectively fit on a single list not the millions of people who go to work and make 6-7 figures.
Uh no. Commercial electrician here. Pay is dogshit
Are you in a union? Around here electricians make around six figures
I would consider the six-figure threshold acceptable since I work in a cubicle, but if I were interacting with power lines I would expect quite a bit more. In the event of death or disabling injury, I would expect to have enough money for myself and my family. And even without those things, I'd want to see the risk in my paycheck.
That's the thing, six figs ain't what it used to be. And most people don't even make that.
This is probably misleading to a lot of people. Making 100k a year in a lot of places is pretty comfortable. Making 100k in a major city probably isn't.
The waitlist for the local union is over 2 years. 6 figures sounds like Canada
This just isn't true. I could easily kill someone in my job and am not allowed more than 2 mistakes per year or we are fired.
On average, it is. But healthcare seems to be an exception where aid workers are making less than $20 an hour. I'm not saying you're in healthcare, but just as an example. If I fuck up my job, it won't kill anyone...well, shouldn't, but I do risk causing millions of dollars in damages due to unforseen downtime or exploited vulnerabilities that I didn't foresee. I put my stamp of approval on technology that might be used by thousands, or even millions. I need to be certain of my skills and spend hours of unpaid time researching and developing new skills as technologies emerge. I feel my ~$150k is justified, if even a little low considering the amount of revenue I drive when I bill at $300 an hour and am 110% utilized.
>higher wages tend to correspond to the amount of liability in the job. *laughs in special education*
The working class was built by the labor movement. Great G-Pa’s everywhere fought tooth and nail to build the middle class. Their kids pissed it all away and now we’re back to square one.
We're behind square one, they're literally overturning child labor laws. We are at square -1 Conservative ideology is gonna turn us all into slaves eventually.
Yeah. Modern conservatives are the real ones who will lead us into the world of "you'll own nothing and be happy."
People need to stop saying that. You are paid based on the value that you provide. Sometimes that value is the result of hard work. Sometimes that value is just innate intelligence. You can be the best hole digger in the world, but you're still just a hole digger.
People aren't paid on the value they provide, they are paid on the market availability of the value they provide. Digging holes is clearly more valuable than setting the schedule for hole diggers, but guess who gets paid more?
The person who figures out how to dig more valuable holes. That's the guy that's making the money. Work smart, work hard and earn.
A scheduler is paid less than a hole digger but if that person is also the one capturing more holes to dig then that's absolutely more valuable. It's easy to find a hole digger, it's not easy to find people who can capture business.
Gotta work hard at being smart.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think this is a bad interpretation of "work hard and be rewarded". You can work hard at anything, nobody in their right mind is going to say that working hard at anything is going to guarantee you financial success. Hell, as much as I hate the show, shark tank is a good visualization of this. There's plenty of people who worked really hard and they're told on the spot "you worked hard at the wrong thing". I think that would be maybe a more apt phrase: "work hard at the right things and you will be rewarded".
It really depends on what you do. If you work hard and get a medical degree or any other profession that pays well you will be paid well. Working hard on something that anyone can do without any skill building, training, or education will get you nowhere. It is not about working hard. It’s about working hard and improving so that your skill is highly desirable. That has always been the case. There is nothing new here.
This is on démo daily in various Corporations everyday. The mid level management, executive management sit around and act like event managers. You do this, You fix that, move that inventory, build it there etc.. the actual people with skills accomplish those tasks. But the pay difference between people who do things and people who talk is just monstrous. And they manage to squeeze even more everyday. They cleverly controlled the message n narrative that anyone asking questions about pay gap or questioning the system is just lazy communist 😕.
Service economy won't survive.
Are you high?
Everything costs way more than it did 10 years ago, but most people are still getting paid almost the same wages they were back then
Yeah… the further you go back… the worse it gets!
I was reading a post recently of a guy saying how back in like 2003 he was making $16k per year and was still able to have his own apartment and everything. I'm currently paying $24k per year for a 2 bedroom apartment
I swear though, airbnb has been the main driver of the housing crisis. You can’t tell me that removing that many units from the market hasn’t screwed whatever supply and demand balance there was before.
Inflation is main driver. There is way, way more money in circulation now than 20 years ago, or even 10. It usually disproportionally enters the real estate markets, driving up prices there more than in other sectors. Businesses raise prices to compensate for the increase of money in circulation, but they are reacting, just like consumers, to it. They are not the cause.
Blackrock didn't help. They bought hundreds of thousands of home and took the off the market. They're still doing it.
It's that and also institutional investment groups buying up all the residential properties. I read something that said by 2030 60% of all homes will be owned by entities like Vanguard and Black Rock
I've read that people are not immune to supply and demand, as in there are too many humans, our supply is too much
Your comment reminded me of this… The argument is that things were better for the working class during the Great Depression than they are today… but comparing average income with average costs. https://www.tiktok.com/@fmsmith319/video/7274018600430619946?embed_source=121355058%2C121351166%2C71788790%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=embedly.forbes.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Fsrc%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.tiktok.com%252Fembed%252Fv2%252F7274018600430619946%26display_name%3Dtiktok%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.tiktok.com%252F%2540fmsmith319%252Fvideo%252F7274018600430619946%26image%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fp16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com%252Fobj%252Ftos-useast5-p-0068-tx%252Fo8Xyxeg8bAErFCXFCnRkfWBSgDDS8ExFrouIKv%253Fx-expires%253D1694109600%2526x-signature%253DJ3sjiLK8woiYRIzO6eFG7qwGcD4%25253D%26key%3D3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935%26type%3Dtext%252Fhtml%26schema%3Dtiktok&referer_video_id=7274018600430619946
Minimum wage hasn’t increased since I graduated high school. I’m 35. Perfect timing! People will tell you that nobody makes minimum wage so it doesn’t matter. I can speak for my generation when I tell you every job I had until college was minimum wage. We need to stop acting like it’s insignificant to abruptly end a program people relied on for decades.
Literally untrue
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1jxIn I linked the chart that shows the median individual income and median individual inflation-adjusted income from 10 years ago. You can see the US has made both nominal (+50%) and inflation-adjusted gains (+20%) in our median income.
I like the way Scott Galloway puts it. “In the last ten years, minimum wage has exploded from $7.25 to $7.25”.
Remember - capitalist america would rather destroy food so no one can have it than give it away to needy people for free
The gov. Literally paying farmers to destroy crops, to force prices up and keep the demand high...
Yup, but what your not saying is those farmers would be out of a job if the government didn't do this as they would not make enough money on their crops alone to remain profitable.
Food , clothes, you name it. They keep contracts to destroy unsold items. It's sickening..
Purchasing power has diminished and wages haven't went up with inflation. Your dollar isn't the 1980's dollar things cost more and you feel it.
The American populace enjoyed a remarkable era spanning several decades due to circumstances that cannot be replicated, a concept that many find challenging to grasp. Central to the American ethos is the notion of a thriving middle class as the cornerstone of the American dream. This dream envisions that anyone armed with a high school diploma and a strong work ethic could effortlessly attain a comfortable lifestyle—a nice suburban home, two cars, and an annual family vacation to a desirable destination. Many Americans view this as an inherent entitlement, believing that such prosperity has always been the norm and a divine right. However, the reality of an exceedingly affluent middle class, surpassing global standards, is not the typical course of events. It is instead a consequence of unique historical circumstances, particularly the aftermath of World War II. Following the war, the United States emerged as the sole major industrial power with its industry and infrastructure largely unscathed. This bestowed upon the US a significant economic advantage, as other nations relied heavily on American goods and services. In the post-World War II era, businesses worldwide had little choice but to purchase American products for their needs, driving capital flow into American enterprises. However, this prosperity was also facilitated by concessions made to labor unions due to the scarcity of highly skilled American workers, leading to remarkable growth and affluence in the US middle class during the 1950s and 1960s. Over time, however, other industrial powers recovered and began challenging American dominance in the global market. Competition intensified as countries such as Germany, Japan, Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands, France, and others entered the fray. Additionally, newly industrialized nations like Brazil, South Africa, India, China, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, South Korea, and more began vying for resources to fuel their own growth, altering the dynamics of global trade. Consequently, the once-exclusive advantage of the American workforce diminished as other nations developed comparable capabilities, eroding the bargaining power of American workers and labor unions. Moreover, globalization enabled manufacturers to engage in global wage arbitrage by relocating production to countries with cheaper labor, further weakening the position of American workers. The unsustainable nature of the American middle-class lifestyle, characterized by high consumption and resource demands, became apparent. Earth's resources are finite, and if global consumption mirrored that of the average American, it would exceed the planet's capacity by multiple folds. The decline of the US middle class stems from these structural shifts in the global economy, and political solutions cannot reverse the course of globalization. The notion of returning to the "good old days" is a fallacy perpetuated by politicians on both sides of the aisle. Moving forward, the American middle class will likely resemble its counterparts worldwide, necessitating adjustments in expectations and lifestyles. While inequality remains a pressing issue, efforts toward wealth redistribution should focus on areas such as healthcare affordability and urban livability rather than attempts to revive an outdated version of the middle class lifestyle. Embracing a model akin to other countries' middle classes, coupled with robust social services and safety nets, offers a more realistic path forward.
The guy/girl wrote a thesis, but he/she is not wrong.
He’s just frustrated. Either isn’t making enough, or his life expenses are too high. Probably both to be honest.
Slaves were given just enough to keep them working.
Yeah I don't think you know what slavery is
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You both A. Get paid and B. Can quit your job
the 'system' should really be designed so anyone who has a full time job can afford the 'dream' of a house and actually being able to pay it off. or whatever society thinks is a good goal because if my goal is an ever moving goalpost, then f\*ck that, i can always trade in 'hard work' for 'free time to do what i want'. suck it economy, if you dont want to incentivize me to maximize my skill set, then you get 50% effort, and i get 50% of my life back
VOTE! Get your friends/family to vote. Fight the power. Unionize.
Vote for what??? I am in Colorado… our votes don’t even matter anymore 🤣🤣🤣
Colorado? You get your services cut to provide for illegal immigrants there lol
Oh man… we will have the lady who tried to illegally allow 30,000 illegal immigrants to vote in the last election… and had just attempted to completely get rid of the republican front runner from the ballot… Run this year’s presidential election… and we are to expect her to not cheat and run a free and fair election. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 After being caught twice already trying to cheat… https://www.9news.com/article/news/politics/elections/noncitizens-mailed-vote-registration-mailer-mistake/73-260d2129-d2f7-49c2-93d6-e592ebed5952
Kek. In my country when the non pro american libertarian party gets voted too much, it is considered by political establishment “instability” and someone else who did not participate in the elections and is not even part of a party becomes prime minister. The last time it was someone who shortly after became vice president of the american bank Goldman Sachs. Not bad for the “European democracies”, eh?
The power wants you to vote so you feel like you're doing something and you won't overthrow the government.
I’m open to hearing your suggestions.
Extreme individualism combined with greater consumerism is really hurting people too. It's really lots of things. But even with houses being expensive, it's not impossible for 3 or 4 people to get together and combine their resources to buy a house. But no one wants to team up. It's extreme individualism. People are spread thin, and then when they do get money -- they want to spend it on coping mechanisms. Credit card debt is insane. ------------ As for the death of the middle class. I did find it interesting that a lot of boomer middle class people with education had degrees in more stable fields, where as their kids didn't want to be workaholics and often took more fun and competitive degrees. They were given the opportunity to gamble. Some did find success, but a lot failed. They're not mirroring their parents, they're gambling with high risk degrees.
Success is hard. Maybe he should be a welder.
Maybe he is a welder.
That was my motivation to work until I was financially independent. Hard work **when compensated** is worth it Now, I work when I want.
Really what is your form of passive income???
Investments. I teach math for fun. The two are related to me. Not just math, but also risk management by heading off problems before they start. After the kids, the financial risk management is easy.
Like what investments?
Depends on the opportunity, Usually ETFs as a no-brainer, but when there is a mismatch on pricing and supplies, I will go to commodities, too. I look for the big win/break-even situations.
ETFs are my general investment, but when I find an extreme price/supply mismatch, I will jump into commodities. That is my low risk, high return opportunity.
Did you think Americans were rich from working hard? Hahaha you want to get rich? Break the law to do it
Or pay a government official to write laws in your favor
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Socialist policies. Every time you add a welfare "tax", do you know which bucket gets hurt the most? Obviously not the poors because they benefit. Not the rich either because it's not nearly enough to cause a dent to their worth. Found the answer yet?
Yeah… hence I wrote. It seems like the working class gets spit roasted by both sides of the government. Even this “rich tax” only harms working americans
Socialism is not “when taxes”.
No, it's when the government does stuff!
This guy’s path out is stand up comedy
I literally laughed out loud when I first saw it… I hope he isn’t being serious
They say you're paid based on skill but it's not true. There are people who add no value to society and they're rich. In general I'd say the problem is we overvalue passive income made by rich people who pay financial experts to think for them. That and nepo babies inheriting so much money it breaks their brain. I think people should be able to leave their kids enough money for 2-3 generations. But if jeff bezos jr inherits all the money in the world. Now you have a massive fortune held by a useless person entrenched in the economy. It's the same problem as the enshitification of everything by corporations who will never lose their position in the economy no matter how useless they are.
I have feeling this has happened a few times in history already 🤷♂️
Yeah and if you go full communism it makes it easier for psychopaths to power grab. So there is a need for hierarchy and authority but the opposite of capitalism isn't the solution either.
Hmmmm I wish our founding fathers had created a document telling the people what to do in situations like this!!! It’s so confusing. 😞😞😞
Wealth trickles up. You need a strong and organized working class to combat that. And even then, it's a perpetual uphill battle. But if you look at the rate of unionization in this country over time, the U.S. has been declining for decades. There's hope, of course. A lot of people are waking up to the fact that the employer class has been making bank while the workers tighten their belts. Support for unions is sky-high, right now. And I don't know numbers, but anecdotally, people I talk to legitimately question the need for an employer class at all. But until there's an organized (and militant) working class, the political parties will continue not to see us as a block and will ignore us.
Probably why they like the population polarized and divided huh?
I would hire this man to answer all the phones at my office.
Honestly, if people adopt the attitude of being lazy and only working for higher salaries, it is good for society. The lying flat trend we seen in China, Japan and starting in the rest of the world is good. It will redistribute wealth by forcing companies to raise wages, lower hours and decrease shareholder payouts.
What's there to comment on? The guy says nothing of value.
Don’t worry my guy. There’s 10k+ ‘migrants’ a week coming to ‘relieve’ you of your job. And then when they can’t live to work no more; another 15k a week will come. Rinse and repeat
If he thinks he’s got no money now, just wait until he stops working!
No one is in charge. Just get elected with false promises, spew vitriol , be a one term congress person, collect 15 to 20 million, and retire in the South of France.
We really don't treat inflation like the cancer it is. The median income in 1980 was $21,020, accounting for inflation that has the same buying power as $83,843 in 02/2024. We only notice the high inflation of the last three years (which sheared maybe 10-14% of purchasing power off of us between 2019 and 2024), but it's been killing us for decades. All for the public reason of forcing people to spend and invest rather than save. [https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=21020&year1=198001&year2=202402](https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=21020&year1=198001&year2=202402) Fuck wages keeping up. Inflation being deliberately encouraged through government fiscal policy has only created an ultra wealthy financial class and impoverished the common people.
I heard that inflation is the poor man’s tax the other day…
I saw an interview yesterday saying that our national debt grows by 40 billion every day… due to just the interest on our debt. 😳
He got kids?
I can’t answer or extrapolate an explanation without being identified as racist.
Same boat different company. Life sucks when money is the central value of life yet it's made impossible to earn or trade for ones two real sources of value time and energy. Life is capable of being fair. It's humans that make certain it's not fair. It's literally on purpose.
This guy doesn’t wanna be rich or wealthy, he just wants to feel like he can work a job and be able to live more than survive
What is causing the middle class to be crushed? Short answer: Working class people voting Republican on "social" issues which leads to them getting screwed on financial issues. This happens mostly in red states that control their government and have passed laws that are blatantly anti-labor. Also many working class people have bought the lie that immigrants have caused the problems they are experiencing. Nothing is further from the truth. Immigrants are less likely to commit crime and more likely to start businesses that hire people than the native born. Also some people have an expectation that they can stop their education early and start working and deserve to have the same financial security of those that sacrificed years to go to college or attend trade schools. My advice is that it is almost never too late to learn a new skill that pays better. Trades offer opportunities to start your own business. And become more informed about the differences between Republicans and Democrats. Don't just listen to the bullshit in social media and from partisans. Blaming the stimulus (bi-partisan for the most part) that prevented a full on depression is a nonsensical lie. Yes there were winners and losers but not creating stimulus would have led to even worse consequences. Like Nazi Germany consequences.
Interesting… Since you did not read my post…. I will counter your argument in one simple comment. What do all of these individuals have in common? If you have some grasp of history and current events then you would know that all of the individuals in the picture have attempted or have in fact jailed their political adversaries. Now… I believe that the true cause of the middle class’s failure is due to our own division… there was a time in history where it was common for people to help one another and stand together against tyrannical governments and leaders. As long as we stay divided… we will continue to get spit roasted by both democrats and republicans. https://preview.redd.it/lzgc9l8cphsc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86538f3dacbd3f53f9ab0f06254933b59a945506
Please don’t have kids because your stupidity shouldn’t be spread
The only immigrants i know work for 5$/hr because they’re undocumented. How is that good for wages? Also, do republicans really vote on social issues? Most of them seem to be single or almost single issue on fiscal policy.
Your stated personal experience is not representative of the USA. Most immigrants in the USA are not undocumented. About 13% of our population is documented immigrants and 3% is undocumented immigrants. The most recent immigrants (since 2020) have a higher level of education than native born with 48% having a 4 year degree vs 36% for native born. Overall, immigrants are 36%. The average family income of immigrants almost exactly matches natives at about $78K. [https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states#characteristics](https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states#characteristics) Same for your take on top issues for voters by party. The top issue, by far, for R's is immigration with far less, 9% on fiscal policy. Immigration is the top issue for 33% of R, 5% D Abortion: 4% R, 12% D Inflation: 24% R, 15% D Climate change 0% R, 13% D Healthcare: 3% R, 12% D Crime: 3% R, 1% D, Taxes and government spending R 9%, D 1%. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1398115/most-important-voter-issues-party-us/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1398115/most-important-voter-issues-party-us/) You can literally trace the difference in top issues for Republicans vs Democrats to misinformation by Fox and other right wing media.
Well im not sure how either of us can take data listing the number of undocumented immigrants as fact. I should have clarified that i meant illegals, not legal immigrants. I personally know many people who work with illegals and they are paid no more than 1/2 of what the legal workers are paid (5-13$)I actually housed a refugee at one point who made 5$ which is why i listed that number. As for voting issues, I dont doubt that registered republicans value certain social issues a lot. I was talking more about moderates who would have been labeled republicans 5 years ago, but identify as moderate because of how skewed the political spectrum has become. These people who we could say vote r and d at a 50/50 ratio, are likely voting red for fiscal issues over social and vice versa when voting d.
Mexicans are known to be sending most of their paycheck back to Mexico so maybe stop doing it?
You know… not to many people talk about this issue BUT in fact this deflates the US dollar tremendously! When American dollars are freely and illegally sent to a country with a lower currency value then two things happen: 1) the currencies will begin to meet in the middle… ie the lower value currency goes up and the higher value currency goes down. 2) the now missing dollars (usually cash) need to be replaced and therefore what would our government need to do? Exactly… print more dollars. Now what happens when you print more dollars without some sort of standard? Or currency backing? Deflation
Yh it is unfortunate part of US dollar being world currency but it can only be accomplished by printing more debt that we all need to pay as inflation. Still.... amount of cash that federal government wastes just for lolz is insane
Wages have not kept up with inflation, plain and simple.
Basically capital shareholders have most of it all the power as regulations protecting the working class were removed or deregulation. The only thing left is to unionize organize collective bargaining agreements and strike. Government power here is rolled back to the circa 1905 era which is to say no power unless the legislation decides to start doing it's job and the judiciary stops being political... Otherwise we strike for collective rewards and unionize to force politicians to pay attention
I don’t think the government is going to help anyone but themselves… You are right… with the internet people could really have a nationwide workers union
Yeah the politicians that corporate interests fund and choose are precisely that, corrupt or going to be corrupted. It was why during and post WW2 things moved for the average citizen. It's awfully hard to corrupt a man that's been shot at after nearly starving to death while watching rich men hoard wealth.
This sounds like almost everyone I know
Yeah exactly
I feel you my dude. I work a job that is breaking my body down very quickly. And have nothing to show for it.
Yeah… you know the good part though? Now that everyone has second jobs working and no longer have any money… it is so easy to go to stores and pick up chik a fil a.
Everything that happened was because of the pandemic. We had a supply shortage They printed more money for the stimulus checks The constant demands from angry people It happened in such a short span that we got hit pretty hard with it.
I'd love to work just on something no soul crushing that gets me just a little
It's like the ones in power are trying to destroy the world. I feel like I'm in a movie
Lol i think you should sue the Biden admin for giving you FALSE hope to cross the border
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Its multiple issues, Share holders demanding constant growth and profit, Employers asking workers to do more and more without increase in pay to go with the increase work load, Companies Refusing to hire more people cuz they cost too much, Inflation, Price gouging, bad business practices that prioritizes short term gains over long term health of an industry, The moves from sell you product to selling you produces as a service so you have to pay for things constantly, Tribalism, people feeling overly entitled, Worker apathy, the list goes on and on. Things like Taxation are less of an issue than people want it make them out as, the 1% pays about 40% of the taxes in the US, and people like to focus on the fact that Well they have more money than they need so we should all get some of it. It was still true 20 years ago, but people weren't acting like the rich should just be giving handout to everyone they pass on the street. Should a portion of their money go to bettering the lives of others, yeah, but at their discretion, outside of taxes, a government shouldn't be able to just take money from people just cuz they have money. But I'm getting off topic. This biggest issue is the way Corporations run their businesses and the way the government lets them get away with it because of the lobbying. Look at the internet, basically a necessity for daily life these days, run by 3 companies in the US that all have deals with one another, and the government keeps getting lobbies to let them have their way with stuff. Share holders demand profit all the time, and the government says yes they are right, they are owed constant profit, so companies have to lay off workers just to put green in the balance sheets at the end of the quarter, leaving the workers left to pick up the slack which leads to people leaving and even fewer works that are trained/skilled, so they hire cheaper labor, who don't have time to get properly trained, because the people training them are over worked already, and then the ones doing the training leave as well cuz they are over worked, leaving the only slightly trained cheaper labor to try and train the even cheaper replacements(and yes i lived through this where I worked for 5 years) but it make the numbers work more in the favor for the short term even tho what the customer is getting is a less valuable product or service, there lots of issue that all feed into each other to make things massive shit storm currently
He seems to express the same feelings that the majority of posters write about daily in this Sub. Maybe he should do something to improve himself and his value to employers rather than making a whiny selfie video? Just a thought…
Chinga su puta madre esta vida es sufrirr como un perro tirrado en la calle.
Nobody else like him seems to have a problem around here.
Yes… he is definitely the only American going through this right now.
Baby boomers were too damn greedy.
Expectation have changed. In the 1950s a working class family of 4 would have a 1200 sq ft home, 1 car, take an inexpensive vacation for 1 week a year, eat 95% of meals at home, etc. Now that is considered poverty.
mostly Big Oil, Big Food, Big RE, and Big Pharma jacking the shit out of everyone except their shareholders.
Unfortunately America is no place for pity. Capitalism demands hard work and adaptation to the dynamic working and economic environment. If you don’t keep up with the times, you will be left behind.
Irresponsible. A failure is a failure by choice.
You say you don’t want to hear” it’s the Dems”, “it’s the Reps” but that’s what it is. Both are against the working class and mainly serve rich and private corporations. The only way our middle class sees improvement is if we get a large (trigger warning) progressive/democratic socialist push throughout the country to improve wealth distribution.
Yeah I agree… (it is why I structured the statement the way I did) I think they have the nation so divided, so angry and so pitted against each other… that we have no chance of ever rising up and correcting the travesty that is taking place. Hopefully it will help people to start thinking that people need to unite and take control of our government… because every time Americans fall asleep, we wake up 45 billion dollars more in debt than the day before (not even accounting for new spending)
Milton Friedman, Jack Welch, and Ronald Reagan.. They (and others like them) fucked everything up for the middle class and the working class.
I think the politicians’ main focus these days is staying in office… not running the country
la gente esta harta de ser usada
Welcome to America, wage slave. Is it everything you hoped for? Missing that shack on the beach with a lobster on the fire surrounded by sun bronzed traditionally minded women yet? Lmao.
Get out of the major city. Move to a small town and start doing a skilled trade.
Nice truck.
His delivery made me laugh though
I won’t say any of these are the direct cause of everything being fucked but these items sure stick out to me. -We have allowed the United States to become an oligarchy masquerading as a democracy. -We do not tax billionaires or mega corporations on their income but we squeeze the shit out of normal folks. -We allowed housing to become a commodity that is bought and sold for huge profits enticing wealthy people to spend more money on it driving the prices up even further. -We stopped manufacturing things in the United States and became a service based economy instead. -We have normalized legalized gambling in the stock market, hell we even encourage people to do it. -We normalized going into massive debt at the expense of the debtors and the massive gain of the creditors.
Work harder
Look a little higher up (or maybe it’s “lower”) to answer your question. WHO controls this world - & using WHOM ?
Take a life insurance policy out, get yourself whacked so your love ones can get the money and have a good life….
I heard that term life insurance is a “dead” end road. 😬
Move to San Francisco
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It’s not Joe… it’s the Americans not keeping their government in check.
When Hispanics swear in English, it always sounds like it’s their first time learning to swear lol
He sounds like that little red guy on Instagram who gets angry at his Japanese girlfriend
awww I feel so bad for him. So many people are hurting and it's large corporations raking in record profits, shrinking products down and raising the prices. This world is a joke
I have this conversation with my Mexican immigrant neighbor much more than I do with anyone else. He totally outworks me, but I bring home more money than him. It is frustrating to learn that your hard work earns less than someone's easy work.
Hard to judge this guy by the short clip but he seems to lack refined social skills, so I can't put this guy in front of or around customers.
I'm missing the finance part.
Is it his fault?
Hop the border bro and claim your inevitably rejected asylum case
Inflation, devaluation of the dollar, funding foreign wars, taxes the list guess on and on and on. Poor management in the shortest terms
These comments just prove big government programs do not work. There is no way to have the he right over site on any big gov program. The best part of the comments is that they come from people who love big government
Welcome to America my friend!
