AntiTrumpAlliance

most people who work menial jobs in my city aren't living off that money. they are living off their parents while pursuing arts careers and they are doing menial jobs for spending money. for them being poor is a temporary lifestyle thing and a lot of them around 30 just go back to school and go enter the corporate workforce when it stops being 'cool' to be a tattooed barista making 10/hr. their struggle is entirely aesthetic. i know several people with computer science degrees who are also doing this... because they dont' want to work for 'the man'. like if you are 30 and you chose to be an artist and you are struggling because you refuse to work a full time job for the past decade.. that's not really legit struggle.

i live in the most expensive city in the country my many metrics. even menial jobs here pay quite well. janitorial work will easily get you 50K a year which may not be luxurious but will easily cover the basics.

as for the immigrants... they are living subsidized housing multiple people to a room. they make it work. They aren't eating out, they aren't traveling, they aren't buying expensive cars and whining about it. I actually regularly make donations to immigrants to supply them with computer equipment that my company has decomissioned.

I respect them, because that's how I grew up myself and it's why I live so well today. I don't respect people in their 30s who whine about how hard life is because they made self-indulgence choices. Teachers are underpaid for sure, but if you are only making 60K a year and you're spending 10K traveling ever summer and paying it back over the next year and never building savings... your 'poverty' is entirely your own choice.