'An economic divide that is widening': Almost one third of Americans earning $150,000 a year or more say they're living paycheck to paycheck and many rely on credit cards to close the gap - eviltoast
  • whofearsthenight@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    I think a lot of people who grew up in the 90s and early 00s working class kind of saw $100k/year something to aspire to

    Oh absolutely. Looking at median home prices by state and even then choosing a lowball estimate for a mortgage ($275k, 0 down) at today’s rates (7-8%) you’re looking at nearly a $3k/mo house payment. So, like 30-40% of your income. This doesn’t include taxes/insurance, so that $3k is probably $3500 being again extremely generous, so that’s just about half of your income. And that’s for a house with no heat, water, electric…

    I have a family of 6-8, and make just over this amount between our incomes, and it’s tricky. Absolutely wouldn’t be possible for us if we hadn’t bought our home 6-8 years ago.

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Exactly. People need to remember that $100k in 2023 is different than $100k in 2003.

      They don’t realize that they’re falling right into the trap of class infighting. You can absolutely make $150k and still be a “working class family” in certain areas of the US in 2023. These aren’t the people we should be focusing on.