Quote:
Originally Posted by dxu05
Henry,
I cannot picture how you don't understand that the mass majority of americans can live very happily on 30k a year without a job. I don't know whether you feel shunned socially for not going out to Flemings every meal, but most people don't. Also, 30k a year is far from a lifestyle of "frozen chicken and big cans of stuff," I feel like you either live in new york, or have not been in any grocery store for decades. Probably because you've mentally delegated that to the servants.
See, the problem with this is the demographic of this forum. It's probably 80%+ single males under 30. Whenever these types of debates occur, someone always says "30k is PLENTY". That same person probably doesn't have kids, hasn't thought about their college, probably doesn't own a house etc.
A mortgage on a really really cheap house (especially if you live in CA) is 900-1200. That's basically 33%-45% of your 30k right there. Then you have property tax, home owner's insurance, utilities, car payments, internet bills, cable bills, food, etc etc etc.
The point being is that it's like when people argue about winrates in NVG. "LOL EETS SO EZY TO MKE 500K PLYING 2/4 6MX, JST PLY LKE 10K HNDS/DAY AND WIN FER LIKE 5PTBB"... Yes, conceivably it's in the realm of possibility you could live off 30k/year, but I think the vast majority of adults who have kids, a wife etc, would agree that it's pretty low. If you're talking pre-tax, it isn't even an opinion anymore, it's just flat wrong.
FFS, the city of San Jose, CA has the poverty line set at nearly 50k, just for reference.
EDIT: LOL, Thremp beats me to it. King Cobras all around!