this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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What's a current or growing trend only you seem to have concerns about? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I've definitely turned into the paranoid nutcase within my friend group in recent years, I hate that everything is "smart" nowadays requiring an app/internet connection & account, just to do basic things that didn't require any of that before.

What's some things currently making you ramble like an old man?

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (7 children)

The increasing inability for what was once considered "high earners" in the six figure range to even have enough to have a family or hobbies. Less than a decade ago, 100k was seen as upper class and now its becoming closer to middle class for a generation of professionals as rent and food costs increase. It's certainly not as bad as anyone trying to make less than 50k in this day and age, but I feel like everyone in the working classes blue and white are being squeezed. If we can't afford enough for our creature comforts and the things we like to do, what does that mean for personal growth at all income levels?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You are being proletarianized. No remaining vectors for new growth, means corporations are now also cannibalizing white collar workers.

The welfare states in northern Europe were created as a bulwark against the threat of unions "going Bolshevik," that threat has been gone since 1991 so those concessions are being revoked. Elevated wages are also being revoked. Very explicitly in the case of France and Germany.

Americans are buying up EU assets for cheap, the USA is cashing out on their investments during the marshall plan. Either workers (through their unions) regain enough leverage through strikes or capitalists take everything since workers have no leverage.

Crazy rent price increases in metropolitan centers are also really just clawbacks on white collar wages.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

This is very true. I have always dreamed to have a job like I have now, my wife and I make nearly 250k EUR together. Of course taxes take a large part of it, but what is left still doesn’t feel as much as I thought it would. We can live a comfortable life, but if we start thinking about buying a house or having children, the math gets difficult.

It’s hard to complain about this, as I know the realities of most people are vastly different. The key thing is, I feel like we’ve been fed a lie, as we worked crazy hard and progressed well in our careers, yet we still can’t seem to reach the lifestyle that came easy to many a few decades ago (e.g. owning your own house with a garden).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

all income levels

There's an income level that only worries about not getting more and larger glass-bottomed yachts than last year. lord-bezos-amused

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I make 100k total comp (90 salary, 10 bonus) and I’ve found myself having to deliver for DoorDash to have some breathing room as my salary is just making ends meet and nothing more. This is primarily down to the cost of my mortgage (no advice needed, bought the house when married and dual income and I’m aware of my situation and have ultimately chosen to stay in it for a number of reasons), which eats about 60% of my take home pay.

I should be rolling in it and being able to really dive into a hobby or two. Instead I have a side hustle 2-3 days, 8-12 hours a week.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Earning 104k as a single person or 150k as a family of four is officially considered "low income" in several counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.