goodbyeranch

Someone needs to make about $60 per hour to afford a home at the median USA price and fully fund a 401k every year with zero debt and have money left over for a car note and student loans. The only way out of that is don't go to school, don't drive, save nothing for retirement and rent small apartments with roomates in undesireable areas. Or have generous parents buy you a degree, a car and a house while they're alive then give you the rest when they die.

I make between $35 and $55 per hour depending on differentials and overtime and whatnot. And I work 50-60 hours per week. Seems like a lot, right? I should be loaded. I make double the median US household income. So I kept asking myself why I'm not rich and live a fairly modest lifestyle in a cheap apartment.

So I made a spreadsheet and here is what I found out. In order to buy a home at the median US price of $350k and fully fund a 401k account annually (19.5k), someone needs to make about $60 an hour and live in a state with no income tax in order to have money left over for a student loan payment and car note. Now imagine trying to do that in NYC.

Whatever you think of unions or retail workers or minimum wage or living wage, or free markets - anything less than $60 an hour falls short of The Median American Dream. It means small homes in less desireable areas, renting, roomates etc. It means deciding not to have kids. It means not being able to afford that $20 burrito chips and a drink at Chipotle. It means charging a $250 emergency room copay on a credit card and pyaing 29% interest. People can feel that. I can empathize with anyone thinking they deservce more. Especially living in NYC in an architectural dream for the worlds richest corporation. But I think their efforts are better spent getting a job as a barber or licensed electrician or going back to school to work in a field with a starting salary of $120k.

They are contemporary Max Headrooms - Glitchy, unlikable and powered by hubris.

mikethemartian said:

Dr. Dre threw a woman down a flight of stairs in public and then joked about it and Tim Cook loves him.

Dre's biopic was pulled. Dre was managed out of Apple.

If you have a problem with everyone guess what you're the problem.