US Authoritarianism

That's the power of the New Deal coalition that ruled for 30 years.

You can still be a nomad at today's wages. I have a friend who works for a school year as a teacher, and then travels extensively for a couple of years. He lives like a nomad though, no fancy hotels or accommodations. That's what the Hell's Angels did back then too, in addition to plenty of additional illegal activities which provided them extra funding.

I hate that we consider that rich. Being able to have a normal home, food on table and a bit left over for rainy days shouldn't be considered rich, it should be the baseline for everyone.

I wish I could both afford to have health insurance and afford to go to the doctor. I can't even afford to get insurance on my car and the health insurance cost 20% of my income but has a $2,000 deductible? What the fuck?!

None of this is for you. This order, these laws.

So what kind of fucking idiot would stick to them?

That's "Household income". Household income is the most useless and skewed statistic I can think of when it comes to equality and actual income per person.

In my mind rich people can afford to live in different homes. Poor people can not afford to do so. That means if 8 poor people who each make eg 10k a year share a household then their household earns 80k. Now if 8 less-poor people who each make eg 40k a year are split over four households then their households also make 80k each.

So now there's 4 households of 2 people each that make as much as 1 household of 8 people. Here statistically 100% of households make exactly 40k. Regardless 50% of those 16 people still make less than 35k a year.

In reality people inside one household have different incomes, which means even among the 4 slightly richer households in the example above some inhabitants would probably make less than 35k.

One question I have is how do household-statistics count people who have multiple houses? If a rich person owns 10 houses, then does it count as 10 households who earn >35k?

The median net compensation for American workers in 2019 was $34,248.45, which is less than $35,000. So, the claim in the screenshot is apparently accurate for individuals. Granted, household income is a better indication of socioeconomic standing for people with spouses.

/* Ignore my other comment if it’s not deleted for you yet *

This is specifically for combined household rate, which is different from individual earnings in that, well, it’s for two people and not a measure of how much the “average” American makes

Only 46% of the population are working. https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2022/whos-not-working-in-the-us-learn-the-basics So technically, technically the quote is correct. The stat you are quoting is the median salary of someone working full-time is $58,001. So it leaves out all those people un and underemployed or who just gave up on joining the workforce. Idk where you got the 40,480 because your link just goes to a broken link. Millennials are also making less money are less likely to be married and have higher unemployment numbers than gen x so our numbers would be more screwed than the overall median which is what the original tweet was referencing when saying stop asking us about buying houses or having kids.

If the median household income is 75k, assuming dual-income, then that’s probably where the 35k comes from: 75k/2 = 37.5k.

You're mixing measurements. Household != Individual.

Dual income, no kids, live in a basement.

Lots of roommates and/or a low cost of living location. Food and utilities are not much. Skip medical care, or just didn't pay for it.

Multi generational housing is back.

Also somehow that's true and a housing shortage is true at the same time.

Parents filling in a lot of gaps

The social contract:

"You get nothing. Work or die. Sleep in the barracks/pod. Eat the bugs."

Which sounds... I dunno, why? If that's the deal I'm offered I have a few questions: why do I care about your laws, your social mores, even you saying you own shit, right?

And whenever I ask them, I get the shit beaten out of me.

Oh it's gotten way more overt than that. You're talking about plain old greed. Low wages are about power.

"If I pay my workers more they will have savings and that means they can quit if I treat them badly and they might open up a competing business."