Seize the Memes of Production
An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the “ML” influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.
Rules:
Be a decent person.
No racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, zionism/nazism, and so on.
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I mean there is some merit to it. Some people get a raise or promotion and immediately buy a new car or rent a new apartment or use up all that extra money somewhere else.
I recently bought a house. The previous owner had a tenant living in it whom was trying to save enough to buy the house. That renter owned and drove a Cadillac escalade. I drive a hatchback beater car. If i had her car and gas payments, i doubt I'd have saved enough for a down payment.
Living within your means shouldn't be a controversial statement.
while I agree, the image implies that everyone complaining is not. aka "Eat less avacado on toast".
when in reality it means "be homeless, you will save a ton on rent!" something about the disconnect of the wealthy editors.
The image is a screenshot of a tweet featuring a pair of screenshots put near each other and stripped of context. The tweet primes you to assume bad faith and given that assumption the inner pair of screenshots does seem like it's blaming poor people.
But honestly, if you click on a link that lists common causes of headache and the first one doesn't apply to you, do you construct a narrative about how the editors are disconnected from people who don't suffer from the first cause of headache?
There are people who are living paycheck to paycheck who could lower their standards of living. Listing that as a way to resolve living paycheck to paycheck that will work for some people is simply correct.
At worst, we can blame the website for tweeting about this without the appropriate disclaimers when understanding it is going out to a broader audience many of who are genuinely poor. Especially because this sort of thing is often ragebait that attracts further engagement, as it did in this instance. But we can just as well blame the person who wrote the tweet for spreading that message and boosting their engagement, or lumpenproletariat for posting a screenshot of the tweet here and further boosting their engagement.
Maybe not controversial but it's certainly triggering in a time of increasing class discrepancy.
Be happy with what you have and work harder if you want more are the mantra of those that typically already have more and are never happy with what they have themselves.
I watch my coworker go through the same problem every two weeks. He sits there refreshing his bank app waiting for that paycheck to hit so he can afford some Doordash. Like, dude, if you're going 24+ hours without food, maybe it's a good idea to start buying groceries instead of paying a double premium.
This sounds shitty if you phrase it like that, but there is some profound truth behind that. Your financial health depends almost more than anything else on your ability to spend less than is available to you. Ideally, you will achieve that without hurting your quality of life by optimizing your expenses, and by mentally overcoming that widespread modern delusion that quality of life is measured in money spent.
But sometimes that isn't really possible, and at that point, even a minor reduction in standard of living can do wonders. Living as if you're just slightly poorer than your money says you are is a borderline financial superweapon. The peace of mind that comes from knowing a random life upset (Like suddenly rising gasoline prices because of another ill-advised military adventure in the middle east) is not going to ruin you tends to more than make up for the loss of luxury and convenience from living in a 10% smaller home, driving a 10% cheaper car, going to restaurants 10% less, and so on.
What's more, this is not a commentary on poverty. (Of course, poverty is a real problem. The growth in wages, especially on the lower end hasn't been keeping up with the cost of living for a while now, presenting serious systemic problems.) This applies on every income level short of ultra-rich. The stories from couples living on double six-figure incomes (USD) yet still getting deeper into debt every year just boggle my mind, but this a fairly common reality in some circles.
If you realize just how badly enslaved you are by your addictions to luxury, convenience and status, you can live a much more serene, and ultimately even much richer, life.
I don't know who you think is living "at their means" in 2026. either they already live just below it to survive or just above it sucking on debt to keep up appearances at the office (so they are not fired as a result!)
groceries, rent, fuel, insurance, everything, has never been more expensive. worse it's not local to you, this is a world wide issue at the moment.
cost of living skyrocketed in mid 2024 and has only gone up since. what you are saying implies that people can "step down" from non-essentials, like we didn't already do that in 2020. I don't know anyone who has been able to live "at their means" since before covid.
I'm married to a engineer, our net income should be making us a nice cushion that makes sure neither of us have to worry. instead, we had to sell all of our cars, stop every hobby, go to leasing electric cars (as buying one is too expensive and cheap petrol cars like we had cost 4x what electric does per month...) and even after all of that...
still have to carefully decide what essential thing we are cutting out of the weekly food budget... I've eaten so much frozen chicken and imported fake honey & pb sandwiches in the last two years for most of my meals to feel nauseated every time I see a KFC... I still wonder how anyone below our income bracket can afford anything without litterally deciding they can never save any money... (and yes before saving 70% of our combined income is going to expenses.)
compared to 2018, when only 40% was going to expenses and we could enjoy life. this is just ridiculous. reality is far worse than people realise right now...
This is a lesson I wish I could teach other people in my life. I formed a polycule a while back and this has been the hardest part.
My wife and I both grew up on the poorer side. We got jobs and grew up faster than the rest of our friend group. Struggled through college together. Dealt with her eventually dropping out and being permanently unemployed because of a disability. Gave up on dreams like having children and taking vacations. I could sense that the housing market was rebounding in the mid-2010's so we cobbled together enough money for a cheap house in an relatively rough neighborhood, wkth a monthly payment we could afford comfortably. Hopefully pay extra to pay it off early and save on interest. Slowly transitioned from buying everything cheap to buying stuff that was better value, but still not getting expensive stuff. Didn't get a PS4 until 2019, and even that $199 slim model bundle with 3 games was still a significant purchase.
My career kept going and I hit 6 figures shortly after the pandemic. Which put our household in the top 1/3rd of income for our city. Still we stayed humble. Maybe go to a nice restaurant once a year. Order either pizza or Chinese or some other takeout once, maybe twice a month, as a treat. Paid off the student loans early. Took a couple vacations, but just long weekends spent in nearby cities we could drive to.
I learned to love the little things. Sitting on my porch on a summer weekend morning, the light filtering through the trees. Sipping some homemade iced coffee, eating some scrambled eggs. Watching the squirrels scurrying through the small bit of woods in my backyard, the birds flying from perch to perch, my cats chirping at it all from the window behind me. Playing guitar, not to make money or to try to be better than anyone else but just because it's fun to do. Catching up on old videogames I bought used years ago and never had time to play.
Then we formed a polycule with another couple. They're great people and I love the situation overall, but... They both grew up poor in the south, then moved to the Bay area and eventually started their own business. Then decided to move to a lower cost-of-living area and came to our small city. They make 4-5x what I do, probably in the top 5% of households in the city. They take a week long vacation roughly every 2 months, usually 1 or 2 of those trips each year being international. They usually go to an ultra expensive restaurant at least once a month. Go out to bars for drinks and order takeout a few times every week. Get their groceries delivered by one of those meal plan websites. Buys the latest AAA videogame on launch day. Watches movies in theaters as they come out. Constantly having packages delivering various trinkets and gadets and decorations.
The thing is... They don't seem happy or at peace. They're constantly searching for the next thing to buy. As soon as they come back from a trip they're talking about how to be more extravagant on the next one. They seem more interested in finding greener grass than appreciating what's under their feet.
Ope that's rough. My wife and I are like you and yours, though we both grew up upper middle class and experienced rapid and aggressive downward mobility despite similar careers to our parents.
And yeah financial compatibility is so important, including in secondary relationships. I'm romantic, but I'm "reasonable bottle of wine, and a home-cooked meal" romantic, not a "let's go on an extravagant trip for an anniversary" romantic. Anyone who can't be cool with that about me is going to have a hard time, and I've found some people through polyamory who don't really get living like this.
Yep, if you learn to live on lentils you won't have to serve the king. This is an anarchist space, and this is one of the cultural things I appreciate about anarchism. I'm too old to live like a crust punk, but I still buy used first, I live in a smaller home than I can afford, I drive a smaller car than I can afford, I make what I can, and I use community where possible.
I ain't going back to sleeping in my car. I ain't going back to skipping meals because I don't have money. I ain't going back to asking myself how far I can stretch a dollar or what I can trade for a bit of fun now and again. And to do that I live within my means and save the rest. And so when the government in my state got hostile to me I was able to bail without going hungry or sleeping in my car.
Some people ain't got more fat to cut from their budgets. They deserve to take what they need from those who deny them a decent life. But some folks live outside or up to their means and so they feel every difficulty and stress that comes their way really fucking hard.
This is absolutely it. So many people simply were dealt a shitty hand and are struggling in this capitalist hellscape because of it. But the flip side is that there's also many people who are struggling because they are choosing not to live within their means. Through my friend group and family, I can see examples of individuals and families that are struggling because of bad luck, struggling because they choose to spend more on stuff they don't need than they can, and struggling because they choose not to pursue better jobs (or in a couple of cases, any job at all).
But as someone who is careful to live within my means, as my career has taken off, I'm now finding myself in a financial position I never thought I'd be in. But I'm also at the financial point where I could absolutely very easily spend everything I make on things that dont actually make me happy, like eating out or buying crap I don't actually want, or subscriptions I don't use. Spending within your means definitely can get crazy because one might simply not realize just how wealthy they truly are (or could be with better choices)
I agree... People have too much pointless stuff. And many complain about not having money at the same time.
Hmmm. 2k a month for 700sq ft in a mid area. Not sure how much more I can reduce.
have you tried being homeless! imagine the money you can save, not paying rent! you can afford to buy a house in ~20000 years (in the irradiated zones)...
It's not that uncommon. People do that. It's actually nice to not have "stuff" and reconnect with what it really means to be a self reliant human.
People live in their cars for awhile. Some people even just get a camping net and sleeping bag and do urban camping.
Phone, gym membership to shower, and a job. You get a more exciting life experience.
Some people even prefer it. You don't have to have the things you're told you need to be happy. I've realized it's all like shitty drugs anyway. Sober or not so many people are sold escapism like it's something they are supposed to have. Getting rid of all your stuff can be a blessing, like a detox from all that's unnecessary. Lifestyles people roped into are marketed to them to make other people rich, not to make your own life better.
It can be difficult to get a legitimate job without at least a mailing address.
Good point. I was lucky to be able use a past address that still was lived in by family.
in many parts of the world, it's a criminal offense not to have a permanent residency with a mailing address registered to you.
vagrancy laws first existed due to health and wealthfare concerns (albeit this was a lie), but reality is these laws remained.
as a result many employers, when they do background checks and discover you don't have one, have to deny you as your a liability.
if your already employed, if your employer finds out, they can fire you and request compensation, due to violating liability insurance clauses.
the only way to typically do this successfully is to be self employed or to be a day labourer.
this is all before the tax issues that apply...
as some one who spent many months homeless while employed and hiding it from their employer because they didn't make enough to continue living in a sublease... yeah... most people that prefer that typically are on a ton of copium to avoid society or actively are doing it to skirt legal requirements, to maintain a "lifestyle"...
that said, all the more power to anyone's personal choices. I personally hate the system that makes the bare minimum include being homeless.
I had roommates until I got married
I mean most of my friends who have their own places live in 1 room studio apartments unless they're living with somebody.
Yeah I have two kids. They have rooms, I sleep on the floor. Saving up to leave them a house. But the difficulty is getting real dumb.
Oof, single parenthood is rough. Best wishes and give the 'lil rascals some extra head pats.
Next headline : younger generation are killing the restaurant industry with their « staying at home » attitude
I just want to comment it's awesome seeing paycheque spelled correctly.
Otherwise the world order sucks balls, I also think that's accurate beyond British spelling of cheque. If people made their demands known perhaps people could all enjoy a bit more of what our labour gives the higher classes. Mean that is bit short sighted given the population difference and all.
Wait I forgot which community this was, I hope it's appropriate. I kept forgetting to check out what mop was about but always seemed to jive with my thoughts.
They are Canadian eh, and we keep using the "u" in colour, and honour and neighbour as well!
I'm Canadian as well so works out too eh? I just thought it was silly they dumbed down the spelling usually and usually see check and I have to confirm from a quick reading if had pay in front but cheque is simple to know it's money related.
I keep forgetting the u in neighbour though now that I think of it. Though rarely type that one. Mostly my neighbours are nice enough I don't have to complain and type it heh.
But its not a neighbourhood without "u"!
I mean, I live like I'm impoverished. Rarely ever go out to eat, most of my meals are cooked by myself and extremely cheap. I wear clothes with holes in them because I can't typically afford to buy more, and when I do have enough to shop I go thrifting. My days are spent working, and my nights are spent pirating media because I can't afford subscriptions, or playing free to play games. I'm absolutely miserable, and still, still am nowhere close to ever saving enough money to afford a downpayment on a house.
It's never an issue of us "living within our means." The issue is the billionaires at the top hoarding money like dragons.
Yeah it’s a very centrist mindset to think this is a problem of people’s spending habits and not the economic system of exploitation taking from us.
As with all shit takes: "ok. you first."
Excellent advice for your billionaire class.
