Centrist pundits take issue with Bernie Sanders’s frequent claim that 60% of Americans are living “paycheck to paycheck.” His critics’ attempts to debunk this statistic aren’t convincing.
  • Surp@lemmy.world
    11·
    2 days ago

    I make 100k a year living paycheck to paycheck because before that I was poor, very poor. Had to pay off all my student loans and car payments. Now that that’s finally all said and done the cost of rent increased so damn much along with utilities and a bag of groceries costing $120 for practically nothing. I also have a three year old and I’m a single father. Anyways, after taxes, retirement funds, and funds I’ve started for my child so when I’m dead he at least has a foundation that no one in my family has ever seen before I’m basically left with nothing. It’s crazy I somehow keep finding better jobs every few years but by the time I do the cost of living increases so god damn much that it doesn’t matter. I don’t live in New York City or anything either I live in a shitty two bedroom apartment in a crappy city that a bunch of wealthy people randomly started moving to in COVID and kicking everyone else out that’s lived there for their entire lives by buying the rental properties and increasing rent to the point of where they can’t stay anymore. Problem is I’d have to move like an hour and a half away from my job to find anything affordable and I can’t do that because then I’d have zero time with my kid after work which I value higher than anything else on this planet.

  • GoatTnder@lemmy.world
    14·
    3 days ago

    My family is comfortable, in a house with a mortgage and cars that run and a bit in the bank. We are not “paycheck to paycheck” in that a missed check will doom us. But loss of income for any longer than a month or two would be disaster. I think that’s what this statistic also includes.

    • Wanpieserino@lemm.ee
      1·
      2 days ago

      So basically, Americans don’t have a safety buffer. In a country where your government doesn’t really give you any social security, I would advice against it.

  • andyburke@fedia.io
    33·
    3 days ago

    Conservatives don’t care what’s true, they govern off vibes.

    Well, here is a perfect vibe check: y’all feel like most people you know are financially all set? Not worried about work or a sudden medical expense? How’s it feeling out there?

    Does it feel like Trump and his billionaire boys club are helping you?

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 days ago

    I make what most people here would consider a good salary but am somehow in the ranks of paycheck to paycheck. A huge part of that is supporting a family, ridiculous housing costs, and loss of college financial aid.

    If you reply that I should be able to do better, you’re probably right. However since divorce I was finally able to set aside an emergency fund and start saving the max toward retirement, but financial aid considers those part of the family contribution to my kids college, so I can’t win. Divorce also cost me a mortgage lasting until I’m almost 80, yet college financial aid counselor asked me to extend that with a reverse mortgage