4 ms·

It's also wordplay to cover for the fact that many live beyond their means. Earn more, spend more. Lifestyle inflation is more common than we like to admit. W

It's also wordplay to cover for the fact that many live beyond their means. Earn more, spend more. Lifestyle inflation is more common than we like to admit. When I made $30k per year I lived paycheck to paycheck. When I made $50k per year I moved into a larger apartment and lived paycheck to paycheck. When I made $80k per year I bought a new car and starting ordering food with UberEats, and well, you get the point.

sterlind 4y ago
my partner managed to save up over a period of a year until their car died, and had to spend all their savings buying a used one (the most they could afford) which will probably not last long. they also spend a majority of their income paying off debt, mostly the monthly minimum on credit cards they ill-advisedly used to pay rent when they lost their job. being poor is expensive.
- autoexec 4y ago
  > mostly the monthly minimum on credit cards they ill-advisedly used to pay rent when they lost their job. What is advised in that situation? Homelessness? A lot of people found themselves dealing with that during the pandemic and they ate up all their savings and/or ran up debt just to keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables. If I had found myself in that situation I'd probably have broken the lease and moved in with friends/family but not everyone has others who they can depend on to take care of them like that.
ModernMech 4y ago
When you almost tripled your income, you surely started saving more though, right? It's not really living paycheck to paycheck if you're putting away savings. The multimillionaire in the mansion down the street lives paycheck to paycheck too - he's got a lot of homes and properties to maintain - but if he loses his job he has millions in assets to cushion him. It's not the same thing as someone making $30k living paycheck to paycheck.
- jandrewrogers 4y ago
  > When you almost tripled your income, you surely started saving more though, right? You'd be surprised how many people don't in this situation. I've known people that earned $200k+ for years with essentially no assets because they spent it all.
sarchertech 4y ago
“Living wage” isn’t a self reported statistic based on whether people think they can afford a nice house and UberEats. I couldn’t easily find the exact formula for this study but it’s usually based on necessities. For example I checked a popular living wage calculator from MIT for the county I grew up in. Food was listed at $9 a day.
- coryrc 4y ago
  Well, 100% of people living in NY are living, so maybe "living wage" is not so accurate a measurement if 60% aren't "living".
  - sarchertech 4y ago
    By that logic every homeless person is earning a living wage. Living wage doesn't mean you'll die if you don't make that, it means you can't afford to support yourself and will require additional resources--often from government assistance.
    - coryrc 4y ago
      So the same people pushing "living wage" are also calculating "excessive cost of government" like zoning restrictions and property taxes? No, it's just deliberately misnamed propaganda tool.
      - sarchertech 4y ago
        The term living wage has been around for well over a hundred years. What term would like them to use? Minimum wage already has a specific meaning. We already have well established term for the concept that everyone understands. Do you want people to change their vocabulary because a word offends you?
        Jensson 4y ago
        > The term living wage has been around for well over a hundred years. Pretty sure that "living wage" means something very different today than 100 years ago, the term isn't the same if the definition changes. "Decent wage" is a much better word since it shows how arbitrary it is. The headline should be "Fewer than 40% of New Yorkers earn a decent wage". That word makes sense, since they choose "living wage" to be the amount you require for a decent living, "decent wage" seems much more appropriate for the wage you need for a decent living.

sterlind 4y ago

my partner managed to save up over a period of a year until their car died, and had to spend all their savings buying a used one (the most they could afford) which will probably not last long. they also spend a majority of their income paying off debt, mostly the monthly minimum on credit cards they ill-advisedly used to pay rent when they lost their job. being poor is expensive.

autoexec 4y ago
> mostly the monthly minimum on credit cards they ill-advisedly used to pay rent when they lost their job. What is advised in that situation? Homelessness? A lot of people found themselves dealing with that during the pandemic and they ate up all their savings and/or ran up debt just to keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables. If I had found myself in that situation I'd probably have broken the lease and moved in with friends/family but not everyone has others who they can depend on to take care of them like that.

ModernMech 4y ago

When you almost tripled your income, you surely started saving more though, right? It's not really living paycheck to paycheck if you're putting away savings. The multimillionaire in the mansion down the street lives paycheck to paycheck too - he's got a lot of homes and properties to maintain - but if he loses his job he has millions in assets to cushion him. It's not the same thing as someone making $30k living paycheck to paycheck.

jandrewrogers 4y ago
> When you almost tripled your income, you surely started saving more though, right? You'd be surprised how many people don't in this situation. I've known people that earned $200k+ for years with essentially no assets because they spent it all.

sarchertech 4y ago

“Living wage” isn’t a self reported statistic based on whether people think they can afford a nice house and UberEats. I couldn’t easily find the exact formula for this study but it’s usually based on necessities. For example I checked a popular living wage calculator from MIT for the county I grew up in. Food was listed at $9 a day.

coryrc 4y ago
Well, 100% of people living in NY are living, so maybe "living wage" is not so accurate a measurement if 60% aren't "living".
- sarchertech 4y ago
  By that logic every homeless person is earning a living wage. Living wage doesn't mean you'll die if you don't make that, it means you can't afford to support yourself and will require additional resources--often from government assistance.
  - coryrc 4y ago
    So the same people pushing "living wage" are also calculating "excessive cost of government" like zoning restrictions and property taxes? No, it's just deliberately misnamed propaganda tool.
    - sarchertech 4y ago
      The term living wage has been around for well over a hundred years. What term would like them to use? Minimum wage already has a specific meaning. We already have well established term for the concept that everyone understands. Do you want people to change their vocabulary because a word offends you?
      - Jensson 4y ago
        > The term living wage has been around for well over a hundred years. Pretty sure that "living wage" means something very different today than 100 years ago, the term isn't the same if the definition changes. "Decent wage" is a much better word since it shows how arbitrary it is. The headline should be "Fewer than 40% of New Yorkers earn a decent wage". That word makes sense, since they choose "living wage" to be the amount you require for a decent living, "decent wage" seems much more appropriate for the wage you need for a decent living.