How and why are so many people struggling?

[Nigerianwonder]

Hes not wrong..



You wernt even exaggerating.. my parents house, bought brand new built, bay area, was around $22k in the early/mid 1970s ( I wanna say 1973/1974), let alone the 60s.. My mom was a banker in Vallejo at the time, her yearly salary was $6k and that was considered good..

You could definitely find quality houses for $5-10k in the 1960s and my dad bought his at the time, 1 year old Chevy, for $400...

and this was the bay area.. still at the time more expensive than rest of the nation for the most part

Bumblefukk alabama you could probably find houses $2-5k

You dont even have to go back to the 1960's to see how cheap things were.. They had $1 movie theaters just in the 1990s... How much a movie cost today $14-20 and shyt You get Soda and a pop corn its over $30 for 1 person

I remember in the early 90s as a kid I could go down to the corner store with a dollar and have a whole meal with a drink.

In addition to the cost of living there are whole new services folks our parents age never had to worry about but are essential today. Internet and cell phone Bill's for example didnt even exist back in the day.

 

[UpAndComing]

You lose your manufacturing base, you lose your economy. Plain and simple

You lose your agricultural base, you lose your economy. Plain and simple


And America has lost both of them. America got the public fooled to think trade and agricultural jobs are "lesser" jobs, and you see where we are at now

 

[MadameMoreaux]

Medical debt is the number 1 cause for bankruptcy in the US. Im 8.5 months pregnant and have already spent over 5k out of pocket for my pregnancy. What’s fukked up is that if we weren’t middle class then my pregnancy would be free.

 

[Supercoolmayo]

You lose your manufacturing base, you lose your economy. Plain and simple

You lose your agricultural base, you lose your economy. Plain and simple


And America has lost both of them. America got the public fooled to think trade and agricultural jobs are "lesser" jobs, and you see where we are at now

They are more efficent and done by less people than ever before

 

[UpAndComing]

They are more efficent and done by less people than ever before

 

[mamba]

The economy like everything in America is basically high priced from food, clothes, electricity/gas bill, cars (whether leased or owned), cable & satellite etc you name it.

Another thing is that people act like making $100k in yearly salary is living wealthy & "big ballin shot callin" lol you can make $250k for one week playing & winning family fued if you get lucky.

In most states $100k is still near "poverty" level it's not even middle class take into account of that state's own economy system like unless you're deep into the hundred thousands you ain't rich either stop frontin .

Damn near the whole Coli claims to be making "six figures" when in America alone most Americans don't even make that much or close to it unless you're in a certain field & with The Coli full of DuckTales galore somebody's lying & living in fairy tales so many dudes on here struggling to get women yet make "six figures" .

Average American will never reach $100k salary.

 

[ultraflexed]

People ain't got no certs, it's just that simple

Black men with advanced degrees(40k) make half as much as white men(80k) with no degree..

 

[Taadow]

What? Why are nikkas dapping this?

Because it's true, that's why.

I remember when I was a boy and gas (in L.A., no less) got up to $1.09/gallon.
My Pop was tripping because when he started driving gas used to cost 7 cents.

We moved from L.A. 25 years ago, my folks sold the house to a friend.
That same house today is worth 7x what my parents bought it for.

The same stuff costs more money now.

 

[Absolut]

Lol @ 100k being near poverty in “most states”

There’s like 10 metro areas where that’s the case. And even in the Bay Area it’s not “poverty” it’s just making ends meet. That’s not poverty. Your budget is all kinds of fukked up if you’re making six figures and not in nyc, Bay Area, San Diego, Austin, Seattle or dc type areas and struggling to keep your head above water

 

[pete clemenza]

This can't be true cause everybody is ballin' out and livin' their best life on The Gram

 

[Micky Mikey]

The real reason is why aren't Americans rioting in the street. If this were Europe or any other country people would be throwing malitov cocktails and flipping police cars.
The real reason is that half of America is brainwashed to accept their dwindling wealth and are conditioned to use immigrants and minorties as a scapegoat. The real culprits are the billionaire class.

 

[LunaticVillage415]

For some people in certain areas of the country, poverty is hard to break out of. Imagine being broke with a criminal record and black living in the hood in a city with no black middle class. That's how it is where I'm from in San Francisco. Black folks stay in the projects in SF. That's it. And SF projects have been rated as some of the most unlivable places in America. No black upwardly mobile upper middle class like you have in ATL or DC/PG. The Bay Area might be a tech hub, but black people are almost nonexistent in the tech world out there. You don't have folks who go from Harbor Rd in Hunter's Point to running Silicon Valley. Black folks and poor folks in the Bay who do make it are supreme hustlers who own their own successful business ventures or know how to work the system to the max. But those are the outliers. And SF is the most expensive big city in America.

But it's the same song in many places across the land. Imagine being broke in Baltimore. Same shyt. The reason why Jeff Bezos and Amazon are thriving so much is because he knows that there is a largely untapped workforce of ghetto people nationwide who suffer from structural unemployment who will jump for joy at the thought of $15 an hour in a warehouse or $150 a day delivering packages. But you don't become a billionaire by being a nice guy and Amazon can get away with hiring and firing everybody in the hood in every major city because Amazon has created unrealistic quota sweatshop labor conditions in America.

But also, how you are supposed to survive when America is designed to keep in you deep debt for the rest of your life? How can you survive going tens of thousands in debt for a college degree that hardly ever even qualifies you for a living wage job? How can you survive when blue collar jobs are being taken by illegal immigrants in many areas of the country and all of the good paying white collar jobs require that you know the right people and be a whitewashed ass kissing c00n? Getting a good job is often like playing the lottery. You have to take a test and get your name selected at random. And once you get the job, it might not be a good fit for you and you get canned.

It's rare that folks go from dirty poor to middle class in America. Why do you think Hip Hop is so popular? It's because people champion the idea of folks from the worst conditions making out of poverty alive to tell their stories. Bootstrappers who act like shyt ain't fukked up in Amerikkka are always cacs or non-whites who came from families that had money in nice neighborhoods. That's the reason why no one wants to hear Mike from IT record a rap album.

 

[SNG]

They are more efficent and done by less people than ever before

Even though that's true you still need a good manufacturing base in order to support a good economy as a whole. The top percent can't do it all alone especially in a country where companies and capitilism run the country. America is the biggest consumer based country in the world if the job market tanks alot of the companies around it fold. Your starting to see it now with all these companies dropping like flies. America is in for a rude awakening and shyt will get real in the next few years.

 

[Michael's Black Son]

It's called capitalism. A system where people who own the means of product are the master of those who don't. Those who own the means of production are incentivized and by law, obligated to maximize the value of the capital that they own.

One of the ways to do this, is to invest in technologies that increase productivity.

Another way is to pay people as little as possible.

In the USA, we are in late stage capitalism. Meaning we are a highly advanced, post industrial, service based ecomomy.

There are no more gold rushes. There are no more new and exciting industries. There are no new frontiers. Human beings aren't needed for many services to function.

People are being phased out of the economy
If you don't have the advanced and deep knowledge in computer science, cyber security, IT, high corporate finance, engineering - the disciplines that are foundational to the function of a post industrial economy, you ain't making real money. However, those jobs are limited and require a significant investment in education which is expensive in the USA.

You need to make 22 an hour just to have an apartment in the USA. That's not the average hourly wage in the USA.

If you wanna be rich and wealthy with no real effort - go to Africa or Asia. That's where most of the wealth is right now and that's where most corporations are looking to invest. A late stage capitalist nation is a nation with a rigid economic hierarchy and gross inequality. People ain't buying shyt anymore besides services to make their slavery tolerable.

Africa and Asia are have some of the most underdeveloped nations in the world.

If you think there is riches to be made in the West, you haven't been paying attention the last 40 years.

If you wasn't shyt in the Dotcom boom and the post Dotcom boom, you struggling. That was your last chance to make easy money.

all of this.

and it's a sobering reality no one really wants to admit because it's basically a death sentence unless you have some undeniable talent like athletics or performance art that a TINY fraction of the population here actually have.

 

[Jalether]

• wages are stagnant and not keeping up with inflation

• student loan debts and cost of education
• Legacy of slavery and racist policies keeping marginalised black people poor
• consumerism culture/disease means people do not live within their means and are knee deep in debt in order to buy shyt they don't need and can't afford