Over half of Americans claim they're nowhere near achieving their definition of financial freedom, with 36% saying they have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts.
It’s a completely similar experience, mainly because your status as a wage slave basically doesn’t change as your income increases. Your discretionary income changes your purchasing power but you tend to incur more debt and go on more vacations and consume more, but your financial security doesn’t change significantly.
I’ve been at the bottom of the barrel economically, and now somewhere around $140k (before taxes, so really more like $80-90k) and the main differences are negligible. I can be more flexible with my diet, can afford to vacation, I can put some money into savings, and I can outright purchase larger consumer items without saving.
But at the end of the day this financial advantage is only marginal; I’m dependent on my employment continuing. With rising costs for everything, my debt-to-savings ratio is still not where I’d like it to be. I’m nowhere near ready for retirement despite being 49 already. I still feel overall trapped within the system of capitalist wage slavery and do not have the freedom to pursue interests or activities that I would with true “financial freedom.”
I have worked since I was 12 yrs old, went to both college and university, and have never once made over $100k per year.
Currently I’m on a fixed income, have limited job opportunities and recently had to downsize to a rooming house as I couldn’t afford my bachelor apartment anymore.
Do not equate your hardships with those of us who are facing living on the streets with one missed cheque.
I will equate my hardships with yours because I’ve been there. I know exactly what it’s like. And that’s why I know what it feels like to get a little breathing room from that situation.
But I also can’t pretend that six figures is some kind of luxury experience. It’s still largely hand-to-mouth, you can still live relatively insecure and underhoused (especially with this market), and with the cost of living even a person earning six figures is very vulnerable if you’ve set up a lifestyle that can’t weather unemployment. If my income is $6,000 a month and my outgoing expenses are $5,600 and I lose my job, I’m maybe 3 months from calamity.
Lastly, I’ll say that six figures isn’t what it used to be. It’s a fairly common salary in 2023 to meet the basic needs and costs of the modern world.
I can be more flexible with my diet, can afford to vacation, I can put some money into savings, and I can outright purchase larger consumer items without saving.
These things are not negligible. I understand what you’re saying, “more money, more problems”, but being able to put money into a savings account and take a vacation are things that a large portion of people will never be able to do.
It’s hilarious for you to call me wealthy or privileged. In 2018 my income was about $17,000 and I was completely dependent on my partner.
I’ve worked for $6.85 an hour, I’ve been a dishwasher and a janitor and I’ve been unemployed and on welfare for long stretches, living off $600 a month.
I know where I am and where I’ve been. And it doesn’t change the basic framework of the capitalist meatgrinder.
@NathanielThomas @tider06
No it’s not similar in any way, shape or form. Good try tho.
It’s a completely similar experience, mainly because your status as a wage slave basically doesn’t change as your income increases. Your discretionary income changes your purchasing power but you tend to incur more debt and go on more vacations and consume more, but your financial security doesn’t change significantly.
I’ve been at the bottom of the barrel economically, and now somewhere around $140k (before taxes, so really more like $80-90k) and the main differences are negligible. I can be more flexible with my diet, can afford to vacation, I can put some money into savings, and I can outright purchase larger consumer items without saving.
But at the end of the day this financial advantage is only marginal; I’m dependent on my employment continuing. With rising costs for everything, my debt-to-savings ratio is still not where I’d like it to be. I’m nowhere near ready for retirement despite being 49 already. I still feel overall trapped within the system of capitalist wage slavery and do not have the freedom to pursue interests or activities that I would with true “financial freedom.”
@NathanielThomas
I have worked since I was 12 yrs old, went to both college and university, and have never once made over $100k per year.
Currently I’m on a fixed income, have limited job opportunities and recently had to downsize to a rooming house as I couldn’t afford my bachelor apartment anymore.
Do not equate your hardships with those of us who are facing living on the streets with one missed cheque.
Do not equate your poor planning to a universal hardship
I will equate my hardships with yours because I’ve been there. I know exactly what it’s like. And that’s why I know what it feels like to get a little breathing room from that situation.
But I also can’t pretend that six figures is some kind of luxury experience. It’s still largely hand-to-mouth, you can still live relatively insecure and underhoused (especially with this market), and with the cost of living even a person earning six figures is very vulnerable if you’ve set up a lifestyle that can’t weather unemployment. If my income is $6,000 a month and my outgoing expenses are $5,600 and I lose my job, I’m maybe 3 months from calamity.
Lastly, I’ll say that six figures isn’t what it used to be. It’s a fairly common salary in 2023 to meet the basic needs and costs of the modern world.
@NathanielThomas
You do you I guess.
These things are not negligible. I understand what you’re saying, “more money, more problems”, but being able to put money into a savings account and take a vacation are things that a large portion of people will never be able to do.
Which is why slavery is a spectrum, not a binary condition.
We’re both part of the same struggle but my income allows me to suffer a little bit less than some others.
“suffering a bit less”. Wow. Just unimaginable.
Climb down off your cross and read about class warfare.
The sheer audacity of saying you’re a wage slave at 6 figures almost made me upvote because it was so funny.
If you have to work for a living because without that income you’d die, you’re a slave.
If you’re unable to pursue your interests and passions at any moment of the day, you’re a slave.
If others dictate or control your destiny because they have power over your employment and therefore your ability to sustain yourself, you’re a slave.
Just because I make more money than you do doesn’t mean we’re not in the same struggle.
This is class warfare. The billionaires want you to envy me. We’re not at war. We’re at war with the billionaires who pit us against one another.
This isn’t class warfare, this is obscene ignorance about slavery born of your immense wealth and privilege.
Also I make 6 figures.
It’s hilarious for you to call me wealthy or privileged. In 2018 my income was about $17,000 and I was completely dependent on my partner.
I’ve worked for $6.85 an hour, I’ve been a dishwasher and a janitor and I’ve been unemployed and on welfare for long stretches, living off $600 a month.
I know where I am and where I’ve been. And it doesn’t change the basic framework of the capitalist meatgrinder.
I once made $9k in a year, and yet I am still wealthy now with my current 6 figure income.
You’re not wealthy but maybe you live in an area that makes such an income very useful.
I am literally in the top 10% of income in the US, which does indeed make me wealthy.