• PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    It takes $44,737 for a one-person household to maintain a “minimal quality of life”?

    Stagnation of wages and increasing prices are causing a crisis, no doubt, but is that really the number we’re looking at for a minimum?

    According to this, I’ve only ever personally known (at least well enough to know their income) two people affording a ‘minimal quality of life’.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      3 days ago

      Reverse inflation says that 1970 dollars that would be about $5400. Don’t know how useful that is without knowing (remembering, which I don’t) the cost of things then.

      On another note, the current poverty line is $15k for a single person. I can’t see how someone could afford a place to live and eat with that in most places. I guess if you share a place with a few other people.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I live under the poverty line. It’s doable with a ‘nonstandard’ way of life (ie I don’t own a car and work online), a low CoL area (though even here rent eats up most of my income), and government subsidies from living in a Blue State (thank you, Medicaid), but otherwise I’d be screwed.

        It’s also not great, in case that needs to be said.

        • faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
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          3 days ago

          I’ve been underemployed with health problems, but hey, the government gives me $5 a day to cover my food costs.

          The only reason I can even afford to be sick is because I have a partner, live half an hour by car from the grocery store and rent would be more than twice as much in the city. We pay a little more than a half of our combined income on rent.

          Its fucked up, because I really need to go back to work, but Medicaid patients get sent to the end of the line. I woke up today shitting blood and puking, then check my phone and see a voicemail letting me know that my June 3rd appointment got resheduled to June 30th, and this is to discuss biopsy results from April.

          Luigi did nothing wrong.

        • Maeve@kbin.earth
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          3 days ago

          Now imagine being in a red state. Add being a minority in the Deep South. Undocumented immigrant even. No public transportation. Food desserts. This is what hyper -individualism and entertainment culture did for us, on top of how bad it could be for then. Farther south, the worse it gets. That’s why slaves feared being “sold down the river.” Speaking of which check out the difference in prison/jail conditions and treatment the farther south. I won’t speak on more right now except to add women not having bank accounts, charge cards, right to vote or divorce and the legality of beating them by the rule of thumb.

          • turtlesareneat@discuss.online
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            3 days ago

            Just having your car breakdown in a red state is a major crisis, debilitating event - There is no walkable infrastructure, no public transportation. But yeah, everything is like that down here.

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
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      3 days ago

      It’s shocking, isn’t it? And yet, consider how many people are living on a USD/day. In that context, I feel incredibly blessed.