this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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Not necessarily. My company doesn't do any severance, and that's true for many (most?) companies in my state. The only people getting severance are those who work for a company based in California or Washington or something where that's enforced at the state level, and the company just made it standard across everyone.
Some do, but many don't. That said, if you're making six-figures and are reasonably competent w/ money (not a given), you'll have a cushion of investments if there's some kind of mass layoff or something.
They are not necessarily the bourgeoisie, that's mostly the top-end execs making 7-figs or high 6-figs w/ generous options. There are a ton of people making 6-figs who fit into the worker class that merely get a taste of some of the things the bourgeoisie take for granted.
Six figs these days is middle to upper-middle class. Upper class starts at the mid-to-upper six-figs.
Meanwhile, here I am, feeling lucky for my ~700$ pay
EDIT: Monthly
Assuming you're in the US or Europe, that sounds like you're working part-time, close to minimum wage?
If youre living somewhere else, it's not really comparable since cost of living can vary drastically.
Full-time, 9 hours 6 days a week. It's Serbia
OK, in Serbia that makes sense. Apparently the average wage is 11,570 $ (15,016 $ gross) vs ~$80k in the US. That corresponds to ~$940 monthly, so you're a bit below average in Serbia, but not alarmingly so. Rent seems to be $425-575 depending on the area, whereas in the US, rent is $1400-1700.
I'm not implying lifestyle is equivalent between countries just by comparing "cost of living", I'm merely pointing out that directly comparing costs isn't very effective. I could probably live a lot better on $50k in Serbia (would probably have servants and whatnot) than I could on $100k in the US (basically paycheck to paycheck in many parts of the US).
I'm in a small city, so bit above minimum wage.
You're conflating "not having to work" with "not having to work to hold onto a middle-class standard of living", plain and simple.
My mother-in-law retired with $30,000 in her retirement account, and only gets $1300 a month from Social Security. She has a two-bedroom apartment and she is constantly buying DVDs and crafting stuff she never uses. I won't deny there's probably some money there we don't know about, I honestly don't know how she does it, but compared to that, you're saying $100,000yr is a struggling wage-slave?
It really depends on where you live. For example, in my area, a 1BR studio costs $1400/month, meaning ~$17k/year is going to rent alone. If you have kids, then you need more space, and 3BR apartments run $2k/month+ ($24k/year). After tax, that's pushing the 20-30-50 ratio (20% savings, 30% housing, 50% everything else).
My area isn't all that expensive either. If we look somewhere like San Francisco, triple those numbers (no, I'm not joking).
So yes, you can absolutely be cutting things close on $100k, depending on where you live. $100k in Mississippi would put you in the upper class, whereas $100k in SF would have you struggling for a lower-middleclass lifestyle. This site says $50k in Mississippi is comparable to $100k in SF. Here's an interesting article that compares income to be in the top 20% in each state (i.e. upper class):
Like I said before, $100,000 is in the top 16% of earners. Sure, nationwide, but even in San Francisco, that's enough money made in one month to relocate and start over comfortably across 99% of the globe.
People aren't static fixtures, much as privileged people in privileged cities like to pretend they are victims of circumstance, that its the rest of society disconnected from any notion of the true worthlessness of a measley dollar.
Personally, I grew up in California and have camped in Utah. Your numbers are pretending Salt Lake City, SF, LA and more don't skew the numbers for their states to a ridiculous degree.
Even minimum wage could get you there, assuming your budget is such that you are able to stay afloat. $10/hr is about $1800/month. If you stop paying rent and other bills, you could probably save more than half of that for 2-3 months before getting evicted. That's enough for a couple airplane tickets and a month or so expenses assuming you have an apartment lined up. Couple that with selling all your stuff and you should make it okay. You could probably even qualify for a new credit card to further juice your cash stockpile.
Whether you can flee a country isn't the proper metric here, at least for developed countries. The real differentiator is whether you're in the ownership class or worker class (i.e. if you stop showing up to work, what happens?).
I stand by my original sentiment here: OOP himself is likely not even making $100k/yr. This owner/worker class discussion is tangental.