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Even households earning $150,000 a year are struggling with credit card and car payments
(www.cbsnews.com)
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
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@blarghly @miss_demeanour This kind of animosity within the working classes (including the relatively privileged middle class) is exactly what the oligarchs want. If you're busy casting aspersions at couples earning $75k each in New York City who probably don't own a car much less a pavement princess and are struggling to
keep up with the bills their parents were easily able to afford, you're looking away from how a handful of billionaires are dismantling the country and trashing the planet.
@blarghly @miss_demeanour Certainly there are many examples of middle class people who are living beyond their means and the planet's at the same time, but their overconsumption is child's play in the grand scheme of things. We can encourage people to consume less (I certainly share your disgust with car/monster truck culture, fast fashion and fast food) without insisting anyone struggling in this shit society is a dumbass.
I don't think @blarghly@lemmy.world is expressing animosity so much as frustration. These people's lack of financial resiliency is why they can't afford to have class solidarity. If everyone was a FIRE sort of person like blarghly (full disclosure: and me), then things like general strikes would become much more feasible.
I don't think the oligarchs even think about us that much.
Anyway, you are doing the thing where you make up a sympathetic scenario to excuse people for being terrible at personal finance. I'm not saying outliers don't exist. And I'm not saying that increased income inequality and the diminishment of the middle class isn't a problem. I'm just saying, jesus fucking christ, admit when people could improve their circumstances by just making better choices.
You say you spent 8 years sub six figures to retire at 31. Can you list your savings rate and what you live on now? Did you just directly build a large nest egg or did you get lucky with investments?
Id like to give your advice its due, but if you were able to randomly retire because you gambled and bought $1k of bitcoin in 2012 and held it till 2020, it may not be that correlated to most peoples lived experience.