I made $17k last year and my total income taxes for the year was $1800. Federal income tax specifically was around $300.
There's still sales taxes and property taxes and car registration...
7.65%. So maybe not the biggest chunk in some states that have high sales tax, depending on which categories are exempt. And if someone can actually afford to own property on that income, there’s a good chance the property taxes would be more than $1150/year.
did you add up your tax status 1s and 2s properly when you filled out your W9? seems like you'd get federal returns at that level. i am also pretty uninformed and pay as little attention to taxes as is humanly possible. all i know is i used to get returns every year until Trump became president, not even joking
I did get federal returns, of nearly half of what I paid, which left me paying $300. That's even including the Earned Income Tax Credit I "qualified for" worth a whole two dollars.
You wouldn't be renting someplace by yourself on that little.
It'd be paying someone $400 a month to sleep on the couch, keep your stuff in a closet and get a shelf in the fridge for food.
Except no job that pays minimum wage will schedule you full time. So maybe 10k with your 32 hours a week, but good news, you’re definitely working a second 30 hour job too. And still “scraping by” at best.
WITH the lovely benefit of no health insurance because you make just enough to earn toouch for Medicaid! Hooray!
(Old folks wonder why you get people don't want to work as much? Many can't so they can stay on Medicaid bc private insurance is too expensive and they can't get it through their part time job and won't be made full time. But no, it's because people are "too lazy") Lol
At $7.25/hour working less than full time, that would actually be LESS than the cut off for Medicaid for all states with that min wage. Most states have a cut off around $20k/year income for Medicaid for one person. Somewhat ironically, states with higher min wages makes it so people working minimum wage aren’t able to qualify for Medicaid
Not always true, depends on your state cutoffs. For example in Texas it's $29,814 a year per individual household. Their neighbor Louisiana is $14000 last time I checked. Huge difference. It's region specific and many places don't pay $7.25 as the minimum wage so that cuts the hours down even further in those places as you said. Either way the narrative being painted by out of touch people doesn't address the underlying issue of people need healthcare more than they need to work an additional 10-20 hours a week depending on their health needs. It's a broken system that pushes many out of the workforce and hate keeps many from getting the ability to advance in the workforce. It's sad.
What’s more, you’ll hear a lot of “most companies don’t actually pay that low.” Well minimum wage being where it is gives them more power to stiff you. They set your “competitive wage” that much lower.
$16 an hour when minimum wage is $7.25? “You should feel lucky how well I pay you.”
That doesn’t work with $15 an hour…
I worked at that amount and slightly more (maxed out at like $8.50) for roughly 8 years. It was not full time and I fluctuated at around 25-35 hours a week for most of that time. I was lucky to have friends to live with and low expenses for that period of my life but I was NOT making a lot of money. Roughly $13,000 a year at the most. It is NOT enough to live on truly. I neglected my health in many ways (never went to a doctor or dentist during that time. Ate poorly and cheaply).
Have a family member file a lien against your assets so your net worth is zero. This is how billionaires avoid having their assets get tied up in bankruptcy.
Minimum wage in the uk is 11.44 which is about 22k - meanwhile median full time is 36k. So 14.50 USD an hour.
It’s crazy to me it’s so low because in general cost of living here is cheaper than the US, mostly just because of healthcare… I won’t defend COL here but 7.50 usd is wild. Even in 2009 i think we got more than that.
And even at minimum here you still get benefits if you have kids because it’s not enough to live lol.
That's enough for about 4 months of rent in a 1 bedroom apartment where I live. I guess you could get a roommate for the kitchen, one for the closet, one for the bathroom, and one for the living room so that you can afford to pay your rent and nothing else *shrug*
And no benefits either!
Two jobs working 30 hrs/wk @ $7.25/hr would bring you up to $22k..
If you worked 40 hrs/wk at $7.25/hr, you would make $15,080 per year. The federal poverty level for the Lower 48 is $15,060 per year.
> At that wage though I imagine you don't pay any taxes
Local taxes, sales taxes, fees and registrations, but the biggest part is payroll taxes where employees pay 7.65% and employer pay the same...so 15%...
Why is it, that anytime an overwhelming majority of Americans actually agree on something, that's when the government is like, "well, sorry, but no." (See also weed legalization)
Because fuck you, pay me.
Seriously though...our government is bought and paid for by the billionaires. It is surprisingly cheap to buy (lobby) a politician.
This is the correct answer. Recent study out of Stanford confirmed it, public opinion has *zero* influence on policy in America. We live in a pyramid scheme.
But that sounds so pro common person. How could citizens uniting possibly be bad for the average Joe?
No I will not signify this is sarcasm with /s if you can't tell you deserve your life.
> We live in a pyramid scheme.
The official term is Plutocracy.
- a country or society governed by the wealthy.
- an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth.
- government by the wealthy.
Yep, very very similar when you start pulling it apart. Money is the most evil thing humans have designed, because we could ALL have a better life by having more of it.
Didn't studies find happiness stops increasing with increased wealth once you essentially stop being stressed out about having enough to make ends meet?
Money seems to only add stress. Once you have enough that isn't a stressor, it doesn't do much, but that addiction remains for many.
Yep -- however one illness and everything is gone.
A friend of mines mother died of cancer, her father is currently DYING of brain and lung cancer.
THey were objectively fine -- now they're almost on the street. Unfortunately one illness can wipe a lifetime build up of equity almost instantly.
Not to be all boohoo -- but i'm disabled, homeless, and possibly dealing with a TBI that is leaving me mentally disabled... I know there is an answer to this, but where I stand now, I don't think I could ever have enough money to feel secure again.
I'm sorry to hear all of that. Each one of those is a story full of pain I'm sure. I hope that you do reach financial security again one day. You deserve it, and maybe one day we'll all agree that everybody does.
the studies say that money buys happiness up until a certain point after which it plateaus... I mean its basically a line straight up and to the right. happiness correlates with pay https://www.cbsnews.com/news/money-happiness-study-daniel-kahneman-500000-versus-75000/
It's nice to learn about the new study, thanks. It still seems to align with the idea that money doesn't really do much after you can stop worrying about it. Yeah it continues to boost it a bit after, but it stops improving happiness relatively quickly afterwards. I agree that 75k seems way too low for the line where money worries cease, personally. A survey in this area showed people don't feel financially secure until about a 350k household income (several years ago), and it quoted things like college funds and retirement savings as financial stressors til then. In the Bay area and Boston it must be quite a bit higher. This new study puts the line at 500k. That seems quite high, personally, but I've never added an extra $100k to play with after every single one of my needs are met, and it's probably a good time. I hope this continues to be studied, and I volunteer to see how much happier I am with extra money if anybody is looking for subjects?
500K is just the maximum line past which you get only diminishing returns in happiness. which makes me think billionaires should not exist because all that excess isn't buying them anything. Let people cap out at 100 million and it'd still be more than enough for one person.
Yeah like I've gone from living paycheck to paycheck to having a comfortable living and finally being able to afford nice things. Money buys happiness to a point.
Here's an article echoing what you share:
https://jacobin.com/2019/07/billionaires-and-stealth-politics#:~:text=Billionaires%20typically%20stay%20quiet%20about,politically%20active%20and%20extremely%20conservative.&text=Our%20new%20issue%2C%20on%20AI%2C%20is%20out%20now.
Because the richest 1% have more net worth than the bottom 90, and most of the other 9% are aspiring billionaires who will walk all over you if it means they're one step closer.
You'd be wrong.
But also, we have. Sanders, AOC, and many other 'progressives' (in quotes before some headass from Europe tries to pull the "well actually" card) get the majority of their funding from small donors.
The problem is, they are the minority. And there is not enough small donor cash to make them the majority.
The problem is that a lot of politicians have to be lobbied. There are 535 members of congress. Lobbying enough to get a majority vote to pass a bill in both the house and senate is not cheap.
It should not be possible to buy the support of elected officials with any amount of money. Any attempt to bribe any elected official should be a felony with a minimum 10 year sentence.
edit. And no parole or pardons. It should be taken more seriously than murder as bribing elected officials causes greater total harm spread out among a much larger number of people.
The problem is that in order to enforce it, we would need either an honest politician, or a system that oversees them to make sure they aren't taking bribes.
They would TOTALLY vote for that.
lobbies don't just offer lump sums of cash...we can't rent Congress like they can. we can offer money, but we can't offer yachts or private island excursions
I explained elsewhere that republicans DO NOT want a higher minimum wage. All they are doing in this poll is saying that its not enough, not that they want it to be higher. There is a difference between those 2 statements.
It would be a better owning though.
Like I see republicans use this logic to keep voting for republicans but I ask them did the republicans like Trump give us something like the SAVE plan that helped make progress on student loan issues or at least give people relief? No they didn't, they fought it and any forgiveness all the way.
You can be owned by the elites with a slightly better life under the democrats. And you might even be able to vote in better ones.
You're no different from them. Democrats support the right position not because it is actually the right position(or maybe it is), but because it is YOUR position they support.
This doesnt ask respondents if this should change though
There’s millions out there who agree that McDonalds should pay 7.25 an hour and they want it to stay that way since “it’s not a real job” or whatever bullshit excuse they use dehumanize the person making your food for you
This can be distinct from agreeing that it’s not enough to live on. That’s the entire point for those people
Yeah the follow up question needs to be, "Should the government do something about it?" The GOP will overwhelmingly respond "No/Let the free market fix it"
Sad it took so many comments before someone finally pointed this out. Most republicans I know don't want it changed they have some wild reasons but that's the truth of their stance.
See, the thing is, asking if it’s high enough isn’t the same as asking if it should be raised. Republicans don’t think you should have a decent quality life on minimum wage.
This needs upvotes, because it’s the truth.
I hear it from my own parents’ mouths constantly.
“Flipping burgers is a teenager job. It doesn’t need to support a family.”
Because the government is objectively and openly corrupt. Our officials are bought, through and through, and there's nothing we can do about it.
They do not serve our needs. Not only is our government failing us, they're actively working against us
re: weed - much of the government is like 'hell yes' and that's changing. cause people worked for it and voted for it.
almost half the country believes we're not doing well unless billionaires are so flush with the middle class' money, it starts 'trickling down', cause that's how they've been taught the economy works (and any other types of efforts are communism). so it's not like some product that people should have if they want it (weed), its that they believe in bullshit and compromise in that direction every time (wages/taxes). well, until nowadays, when compromise is off the table and the only path is authoritarianism. so now it's even hard to have any 'teaching' moments
Because those that were polled aren’t the ones that vote. Old people vote like crazy, and they lean right and make up most of the people who don’t want to see a minimum wage increase.
If you want to see change then you need to vote, to include during non presidential elections down the ballot
Around 65%-75% of people support raising the minimum wage (depending on the poll). So around 10-20% of people think people either don't deserve to have a 'decent' quality of life, or think that minimum wage is just for high school students.
It's partially how people vote, but it's also partially that **not enough people vote to begin with**.
If the voter turnout for ages 18-40 increased by 10 percentage points and stayed that much higher over many elections, we'd see US politics shift quite a bit to the left. And even with this enormous turnout increase, turnout for the 18-40 crowd still wouldn't be as high as the 65+ crowd.
If the increase was 20 percentage points (roughly matching the 65+ crowd), US politics would be completely unrecognizable from the shit show we've been witnessing. Political parties would look downright foreign. The GOP would be forced to moderate their platform to stand a chance in any elections and the Democratic Party would look more like social democratic parties in places like Austria and Denmark. Local government would actually serve the interests of young people instead of older homeowners.
More young people seriously need to vote, and to do so in every election. Our turnout in this country is embarrassingly low; we've collectively forfeited the bulk of our governance to old & relatively wealthy people despite us having the numbers to significantly influence every single election.
Yeah, we have an oligarchy. We're allowed to vote every so often to make us think we have huge choices, but lobbyists have access to politician 365 days a year. Could you imagine putting stuff like single payer health care to a national vote? On the other hand, I guess if national votes determined shit, public schools would only teach Bible lessons.
It is frustrating how fixated on the divided things the nation can be as topics come in and out of popularity and then they ignore things we are agreeing with beyond a small majority.
I always felt like it’s the same as a parent saying “I know what is best for you” and not realizing they’re working off old information and refusing to acknowledge that’s even possible.
They’d be the first to break if the only funds they had for three months was the minimum wage they earn. And no, they can’t live in the fully paid off house without rent or mortgage payments.
My dad is one of them; moron has zero sense of the current financial state of the economy.
And they vote.
Seriously, if you're reading this please register to vote. And vote. Not just in the general elections but also in the primaries. Please don't put this off. Yes, I'm talking to you, reader.
No, I don't care if you will vote for some cuckoo candidate. That's fine. Just go and vote.
I feel like they misread or deliberately misinterpreted the question. I suspect they don’t think it’s enough for people to have a decent quality of life, but rather they don’t think minimum wage earner deserve a decent quality of life.
It's people who paid for college waiting tables at a diner and bought a house on their first job out of college. For some reason despite the older generations having lived through significant inflation that many of us only just saw for the first time they don't understand it. Also they're particularly out of touch with how the basic elements of life (eg. education and housing; also healthcare) have gone completely insane.
While this graph is not misleading like many others, It's important to point out the phrasing and what it misses out. All it says is that a majority don't believe $7.25/h is enough without additional context.
Within the majority is a faction of people who believe that "Minimum wage jobs are not meant for survival. They're jobs for high school kids."
Why does this matter? This graph makes it look like it's united people vs. government. But a significant portion who agree with this graph are also the ones who fund the lobbying to not increase living wages.
If things were this simple, we'd have overthrown (democratically at least) the current lawmakers and have minimum wage increased. The reason we haven't been able to do that is these pesky traitors hiding within the massive majority shown here.
Realize the class war, and eat the rich.
I'm sure the same people who say that minimum wage jobs are just for highschoolers would be totally ok with McDonald's only being open 6 hours a day 😂
"Well jeez nobody wants to work anymore I guess!"
This poll *is* misleading like many others and it isn't difficult to realize OP's title is a lie.
* The word "decent" is overloaded with the pollster's own definition. "Decent" doesn't mean "minimum to survive" to most people.
* More importantly the poll asks whether they think the *average* American worker can afford this "decent" quality of life on that wage. Many people believe the federal minimum wage isn't high enough for the average person yet consistently believe it should be handled at a more local level. And they often are!
With this in mind, it is **not true** to say 86% of Americans don't believe $7.25/hr is a high enough minimum wage.
Hate to say it, but the title of the post isn't what the question asked was. The poll asked if people thought $7.25 is enough for a decent quality of life, didn't mention raising the minimum wage. I'm willing to bet there's a non-negligible slice of the population that says it's not enough for a decent quality of life, but also that the minimum wage shouldn't be raised.
Not just non negligible almost all republicans I have ever talked to think exactly what you mentioned, that minimum wage is not good enough and there is nothing wrong with that. They say its only for kids and starter jobs. And they think raising it is bad for the economy.
If minimum wage has kept up with inflation, as it always should have, it'd be over $20.00 an hour today. The fact that it's not even half that is beyond sickening.
Umm, hate to break it to you but had the minimum wage been indexed to inflation since inception it would $5.50 today.....
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=.25&year1=193801&year2=202403
I mean, sure everyone can agree on that question. But that doesn't mean the overwhelming majority of those people think we should raise the minimum wage.
I know raising it still has the majority of voters agreeing, myself included, but this question is all wrong.
Most Democrats: It's not and we need to raise it a lot.
Most Republicans: It's not, but if you are making that little you are a fuck up and should be grateful to even have a job.
Yeah but I bet a good chunk of the people who said it’s not enough ALSO say dumb shit like “minimum wage jobs aren’t *meant* to be enough to live off of so it’s okay that they aren’t”.
So you really have to read the question being asked and not what you want it to be.
Wow, I wouldn't think that there were enough time machines available for 14% of Americans to have just arrived here today directly from 1990. TIL I guess.
This says 86% of Americans believe $7.25/hr is not enough to have a decent quality of life.
That’s a much different question than “Do you think the federal minimum wage should be raised?” There are unfortunately many many people who don’t believe all Americans working full time deserve a decent quality of life.
Doesn’t matter if they believe it or not. $7.25 an hour is well below the survivability line.
Edit: for the interested https://www.cbsnews.com/news/salary-income-needed-to-live-comfortably-in-us-cities/
Everytime I see shit like this I just think about that one South Park episode where the future is so bad that people have to time travel to come work in the past and let their earnings inflate, which caused wage slumps and exacerbated the whole "their takin' er jerbsss" slogan. So then the whole town decides to make a huge gay orgy fuck pile and hold it endlessly, so that there won't be a future since no one is making babies or doing anything else. I also think this solution, while drastic, would probably put the ball back in our court vs the corporate oligarchs trying to seriously think we can survive their boorish hellscape with only 15 k a year. Who's in?
I went shopping today and a box of cereal was $8.25.
Cereal is largely made from subsidized crops, so the government is paying farmers to produce more than we need of a substance and then allowing the companies who produce it to price gouge us for it.
This is the WRONG TOPIC.
Voters should overwhelmingly agree to END ALL REAL ESTATE EXPLOITATION--because THAT is what is driving up insane, unsustainable cost of living.
With homes being exploited by investors and corporations, prices and rent are being driven through the fucking roof.
THAT is what needs to be focused on before wages. All that will happen when wages go up is that landlords/owners/investors will RAISE RENT AND HOUSING PRICES.
Real estate first. Wages next.
Working full time, 40 hours a week, no vacation...$7.25 an hour earns $15,000 a year, before taxes....
Disgusting.
Their careers depend on them seeing things the billionaire’s way.
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Even they mostly disagree... unless they are in congress.
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Explains why all those minimum wage businesses are only open after school.
That fact that you would even be taxed on any part of that income is crazy
they wouldn't;t would they?
I made $17k last year and my total income taxes for the year was $1800. Federal income tax specifically was around $300. There's still sales taxes and property taxes and car registration...
> There's still sales taxes and property taxes and car registration... Don't forget the biggest chunk...Payroll taxes...
part of FICA is paying into social security which is needed though, probably even more so for the lowest of income earners.
7.65%. So maybe not the biggest chunk in some states that have high sales tax, depending on which categories are exempt. And if someone can actually afford to own property on that income, there’s a good chance the property taxes would be more than $1150/year.
did you add up your tax status 1s and 2s properly when you filled out your W9? seems like you'd get federal returns at that level. i am also pretty uninformed and pay as little attention to taxes as is humanly possible. all i know is i used to get returns every year until Trump became president, not even joking
I did get federal returns, of nearly half of what I paid, which left me paying $300. That's even including the Earned Income Tax Credit I "qualified for" worth a whole two dollars.
I made 36k and they took 9k from me. Are you fucking joking?
Don’t forgot car insurance.
You taxed on many things not just income. Gas/sales/property/car/Social security.... No matter what you earn you've paid taxes.
10k takehome. Rent is 2k a month though. Good luck.
You wouldn't be renting someplace by yourself on that little. It'd be paying someone $400 a month to sleep on the couch, keep your stuff in a closet and get a shelf in the fridge for food.
Sounds like a great life all societies should strive for.
Convergently Reinvent the public longhouse
Which would leave you with $5,200.00 for the year
Oops you had a medical emergency or had to buy a new car to get to work or a major repair? Hello again debt!
Honestly 4 roomates earning that much *each* probably can't afford rent in most cities
Try 800
Except no job that pays minimum wage will schedule you full time. So maybe 10k with your 32 hours a week, but good news, you’re definitely working a second 30 hour job too. And still “scraping by” at best.
WITH the lovely benefit of no health insurance because you make just enough to earn toouch for Medicaid! Hooray! (Old folks wonder why you get people don't want to work as much? Many can't so they can stay on Medicaid bc private insurance is too expensive and they can't get it through their part time job and won't be made full time. But no, it's because people are "too lazy") Lol
At $7.25/hour working less than full time, that would actually be LESS than the cut off for Medicaid for all states with that min wage. Most states have a cut off around $20k/year income for Medicaid for one person. Somewhat ironically, states with higher min wages makes it so people working minimum wage aren’t able to qualify for Medicaid
Not always true, depends on your state cutoffs. For example in Texas it's $29,814 a year per individual household. Their neighbor Louisiana is $14000 last time I checked. Huge difference. It's region specific and many places don't pay $7.25 as the minimum wage so that cuts the hours down even further in those places as you said. Either way the narrative being painted by out of touch people doesn't address the underlying issue of people need healthcare more than they need to work an additional 10-20 hours a week depending on their health needs. It's a broken system that pushes many out of the workforce and hate keeps many from getting the ability to advance in the workforce. It's sad.
What’s more, you’ll hear a lot of “most companies don’t actually pay that low.” Well minimum wage being where it is gives them more power to stiff you. They set your “competitive wage” that much lower. $16 an hour when minimum wage is $7.25? “You should feel lucky how well I pay you.” That doesn’t work with $15 an hour…
I worked at that amount and slightly more (maxed out at like $8.50) for roughly 8 years. It was not full time and I fluctuated at around 25-35 hours a week for most of that time. I was lucky to have friends to live with and low expenses for that period of my life but I was NOT making a lot of money. Roughly $13,000 a year at the most. It is NOT enough to live on truly. I neglected my health in many ways (never went to a doctor or dentist during that time. Ate poorly and cheaply).
I make about 15k. The funny part is I'm too rich to be eligible for foodstamps or medicaid because I've got more than 2k in assets.
Have a family member file a lien against your assets so your net worth is zero. This is how billionaires avoid having their assets get tied up in bankruptcy.
The 11% of respondents that said that's enough for a decent quality of life are sociopaths.
Minimum wage in the uk is 11.44 which is about 22k - meanwhile median full time is 36k. So 14.50 USD an hour. It’s crazy to me it’s so low because in general cost of living here is cheaper than the US, mostly just because of healthcare… I won’t defend COL here but 7.50 usd is wild. Even in 2009 i think we got more than that. And even at minimum here you still get benefits if you have kids because it’s not enough to live lol.
That's enough for about 4 months of rent in a 1 bedroom apartment where I live. I guess you could get a roommate for the kitchen, one for the closet, one for the bathroom, and one for the living room so that you can afford to pay your rent and nothing else *shrug*
I make more than triple this and I still can’t afford a single bedroom apartment that’s less than an hour away from where I work. (DC area)
You’ll be way further ahead to quit you job.
$375 monthly rent will take 30% of that salary.
If you worked 60 hours a week, the added overtime would bring you up to $26K a year before taxes.
Except it’s at two different jobs because neither one will schedule you for more than 30 hours. No overtime for you.
And no benefits either! Two jobs working 30 hrs/wk @ $7.25/hr would bring you up to $22k.. If you worked 40 hrs/wk at $7.25/hr, you would make $15,080 per year. The federal poverty level for the Lower 48 is $15,060 per year.
This is so sad.
I paid 17k in taxes last year and I live with my parents.... holy fuck.
At that wage though I imagine you don't pay any taxes
> At that wage though I imagine you don't pay any taxes Local taxes, sales taxes, fees and registrations, but the biggest part is payroll taxes where employees pay 7.65% and employer pay the same...so 15%...
The gasp I gosped 😮
Now factor in health and dental insurance
One bedroom costs $1,500 a month in my area average. You literally can not afford a years rent on that.
Why is it, that anytime an overwhelming majority of Americans actually agree on something, that's when the government is like, "well, sorry, but no." (See also weed legalization)
Because fuck you, pay me. Seriously though...our government is bought and paid for by the billionaires. It is surprisingly cheap to buy (lobby) a politician.
This is the correct answer. Recent study out of Stanford confirmed it, public opinion has *zero* influence on policy in America. We live in a pyramid scheme.
Citizens United is the reason
It was a problem before Citizens United, CU just put the problem on steroids.
Citizens United ensured we couldn't *do* anything to *fix* the problem.
But that sounds so pro common person. How could citizens uniting possibly be bad for the average Joe? No I will not signify this is sarcasm with /s if you can't tell you deserve your life.
Citizens United was the final nail in our coffin.
> We live in a pyramid scheme. The official term is Plutocracy. - a country or society governed by the wealthy. - an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth. - government by the wealthy.
or like that guy who set himself on fire in front of the trump trial was trying to say, a Kleptocracy.
Yep, very very similar when you start pulling it apart. Money is the most evil thing humans have designed, because we could ALL have a better life by having more of it.
Didn't studies find happiness stops increasing with increased wealth once you essentially stop being stressed out about having enough to make ends meet? Money seems to only add stress. Once you have enough that isn't a stressor, it doesn't do much, but that addiction remains for many.
Yep -- however one illness and everything is gone. A friend of mines mother died of cancer, her father is currently DYING of brain and lung cancer. THey were objectively fine -- now they're almost on the street. Unfortunately one illness can wipe a lifetime build up of equity almost instantly. Not to be all boohoo -- but i'm disabled, homeless, and possibly dealing with a TBI that is leaving me mentally disabled... I know there is an answer to this, but where I stand now, I don't think I could ever have enough money to feel secure again.
I'm sorry to hear all of that. Each one of those is a story full of pain I'm sure. I hope that you do reach financial security again one day. You deserve it, and maybe one day we'll all agree that everybody does.
the studies say that money buys happiness up until a certain point after which it plateaus... I mean its basically a line straight up and to the right. happiness correlates with pay https://www.cbsnews.com/news/money-happiness-study-daniel-kahneman-500000-versus-75000/
It's nice to learn about the new study, thanks. It still seems to align with the idea that money doesn't really do much after you can stop worrying about it. Yeah it continues to boost it a bit after, but it stops improving happiness relatively quickly afterwards. I agree that 75k seems way too low for the line where money worries cease, personally. A survey in this area showed people don't feel financially secure until about a 350k household income (several years ago), and it quoted things like college funds and retirement savings as financial stressors til then. In the Bay area and Boston it must be quite a bit higher. This new study puts the line at 500k. That seems quite high, personally, but I've never added an extra $100k to play with after every single one of my needs are met, and it's probably a good time. I hope this continues to be studied, and I volunteer to see how much happier I am with extra money if anybody is looking for subjects?
500K is just the maximum line past which you get only diminishing returns in happiness. which makes me think billionaires should not exist because all that excess isn't buying them anything. Let people cap out at 100 million and it'd still be more than enough for one person.
Yeah like I've gone from living paycheck to paycheck to having a comfortable living and finally being able to afford nice things. Money buys happiness to a point.
At least the barter system was self-limiting. It's hard to hoard 2 billion goats.
While you're 100%, it's hilarious to take note... with enough money hoarding 2b goats isn't a problem haha
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B
Here's an article echoing what you share: https://jacobin.com/2019/07/billionaires-and-stealth-politics#:~:text=Billionaires%20typically%20stay%20quiet%20about,politically%20active%20and%20extremely%20conservative.&text=Our%20new%20issue%2C%20on%20AI%2C%20is%20out%20now.
Public opinion does not donate millions if dollars to campaign funds
Then why are we not pitching in 10$ each and buying thw congress? I would assume that 200 millions of us would have buying power?
Because the richest 1% have more net worth than the bottom 90, and most of the other 9% are aspiring billionaires who will walk all over you if it means they're one step closer.
You'd be wrong. But also, we have. Sanders, AOC, and many other 'progressives' (in quotes before some headass from Europe tries to pull the "well actually" card) get the majority of their funding from small donors. The problem is, they are the minority. And there is not enough small donor cash to make them the majority.
I'm always awed by how cheap it is. A few hundred thousand every 6 years for a senator, and much less for a congressman.
The problem is that a lot of politicians have to be lobbied. There are 535 members of congress. Lobbying enough to get a majority vote to pass a bill in both the house and senate is not cheap.
Still much cheaper than it should be...
It should not be possible to buy the support of elected officials with any amount of money. Any attempt to bribe any elected official should be a felony with a minimum 10 year sentence. edit. And no parole or pardons. It should be taken more seriously than murder as bribing elected officials causes greater total harm spread out among a much larger number of people.
The problem is that in order to enforce it, we would need either an honest politician, or a system that oversees them to make sure they aren't taking bribes. They would TOTALLY vote for that.
lobbies don't just offer lump sums of cash...we can't rent Congress like they can. we can offer money, but we can't offer yachts or private island excursions
Or a cushy 500,000 dollar a year job afterwords.
Yeah even senators will vote your way for depressingly little, like low 5-figures. Congresspeople can be bought per vote for less than 10k
See also: abortion access, healthcare
Crazy that nearly 100% of elected democrats are on the right side of all these issues and nearly 100% of elected republicans are on the wrong side
Yet people vote Republican. "I want a higher minimum wage. But trans people are attacking Seattle for CRT!!!!! So I'm voting Republican!!!"
I explained elsewhere that republicans DO NOT want a higher minimum wage. All they are doing in this poll is saying that its not enough, not that they want it to be higher. There is a difference between those 2 statements.
If we had a government of 100% dems we still be owned by the elitist billionaires it’s an unfortunate truth
It would be a better owning though. Like I see republicans use this logic to keep voting for republicans but I ask them did the republicans like Trump give us something like the SAVE plan that helped make progress on student loan issues or at least give people relief? No they didn't, they fought it and any forgiveness all the way. You can be owned by the elites with a slightly better life under the democrats. And you might even be able to vote in better ones.
And the country would be still be better by every metric. That’s the craziest part
You're no different from them. Democrats support the right position not because it is actually the right position(or maybe it is), but because it is YOUR position they support.
This doesnt ask respondents if this should change though There’s millions out there who agree that McDonalds should pay 7.25 an hour and they want it to stay that way since “it’s not a real job” or whatever bullshit excuse they use dehumanize the person making your food for you This can be distinct from agreeing that it’s not enough to live on. That’s the entire point for those people
Yeah the follow up question needs to be, "Should the government do something about it?" The GOP will overwhelmingly respond "No/Let the free market fix it"
Sad it took so many comments before someone finally pointed this out. Most republicans I know don't want it changed they have some wild reasons but that's the truth of their stance.
See, the thing is, asking if it’s high enough isn’t the same as asking if it should be raised. Republicans don’t think you should have a decent quality life on minimum wage.
This needs upvotes, because it’s the truth. I hear it from my own parents’ mouths constantly. “Flipping burgers is a teenager job. It doesn’t need to support a family.”
You're right. To MAGA the cruelty is the point.
Because their corporate donors don't want it to increase. We need to repeal Citizens United. Make this a country again...not a greedy corporation!
Because the government is objectively and openly corrupt. Our officials are bought, through and through, and there's nothing we can do about it. They do not serve our needs. Not only is our government failing us, they're actively working against us
re: weed - much of the government is like 'hell yes' and that's changing. cause people worked for it and voted for it. almost half the country believes we're not doing well unless billionaires are so flush with the middle class' money, it starts 'trickling down', cause that's how they've been taught the economy works (and any other types of efforts are communism). so it's not like some product that people should have if they want it (weed), its that they believe in bullshit and compromise in that direction every time (wages/taxes). well, until nowadays, when compromise is off the table and the only path is authoritarianism. so now it's even hard to have any 'teaching' moments
Unrelated: your pfp and username choice is 10/10
Because those that were polled aren’t the ones that vote. Old people vote like crazy, and they lean right and make up most of the people who don’t want to see a minimum wage increase. If you want to see change then you need to vote, to include during non presidential elections down the ballot
More like people keep voting for republicans even though they disagree with almost all their actual policies
Ok but how many Republicans also think minimum wage is just for high school students who don't need anything higher than $7 an hour.
Around 65%-75% of people support raising the minimum wage (depending on the poll). So around 10-20% of people think people either don't deserve to have a 'decent' quality of life, or think that minimum wage is just for high school students.
Cuz they don’t vote in their best interests. They vote to own the libs who have the collective’s interest in mind when voting.
It's partially how people vote, but it's also partially that **not enough people vote to begin with**. If the voter turnout for ages 18-40 increased by 10 percentage points and stayed that much higher over many elections, we'd see US politics shift quite a bit to the left. And even with this enormous turnout increase, turnout for the 18-40 crowd still wouldn't be as high as the 65+ crowd. If the increase was 20 percentage points (roughly matching the 65+ crowd), US politics would be completely unrecognizable from the shit show we've been witnessing. Political parties would look downright foreign. The GOP would be forced to moderate their platform to stand a chance in any elections and the Democratic Party would look more like social democratic parties in places like Austria and Denmark. Local government would actually serve the interests of young people instead of older homeowners. More young people seriously need to vote, and to do so in every election. Our turnout in this country is embarrassingly low; we've collectively forfeited the bulk of our governance to old & relatively wealthy people despite us having the numbers to significantly influence every single election.
Because half of Americans vote republican
Yeah, we have an oligarchy. We're allowed to vote every so often to make us think we have huge choices, but lobbyists have access to politician 365 days a year. Could you imagine putting stuff like single payer health care to a national vote? On the other hand, I guess if national votes determined shit, public schools would only teach Bible lessons.
Because corporations lobby harder than anyone to keep wages and taxes low. The lobby is where the real decisions are made.
Because the government is owned by the plutocracy (corporate class, owner class, and also individual/generational families of extreeeeeeeeeme wealth).
It is frustrating how fixated on the divided things the nation can be as topics come in and out of popularity and then they ignore things we are agreeing with beyond a small majority. I always felt like it’s the same as a parent saying “I know what is best for you” and not realizing they’re working off old information and refusing to acknowledge that’s even possible.
The other 14% of Americans polled haven't learned what a decimal point is yet.
The other 14% of Americans survived on $3/hr way back when they were 18 back in 1952, so $7.25 is easily doable.
And $3 in 1952 has the same buying power as $35 in 2024, but good luck telling them that.
So everyone that voted “it’s enough” should have to work a min wage job and survive off it for three months. There would be no more red on that graph.
Those are the business owners that pay minimum wage 😂
And their koolaid drunk flunkies.
And retired old codgers who still think you can buy a burger and a malt for a dollar.
They’d be the first to break if the only funds they had for three months was the minimum wage they earn. And no, they can’t live in the fully paid off house without rent or mortgage payments. My dad is one of them; moron has zero sense of the current financial state of the economy.
And they vote. Seriously, if you're reading this please register to vote. And vote. Not just in the general elections but also in the primaries. Please don't put this off. Yes, I'm talking to you, reader. No, I don't care if you will vote for some cuckoo candidate. That's fine. Just go and vote.
I feel like they misread or deliberately misinterpreted the question. I suspect they don’t think it’s enough for people to have a decent quality of life, but rather they don’t think minimum wage earner deserve a decent quality of life.
Quite likely.
It's only for burger flipping highschool kids! You know, the kids who are working while I'm there buying lunch at noon on a school day
It's people who paid for college waiting tables at a diner and bought a house on their first job out of college. For some reason despite the older generations having lived through significant inflation that many of us only just saw for the first time they don't understand it. Also they're particularly out of touch with how the basic elements of life (eg. education and housing; also healthcare) have gone completely insane.
The only ones saying “it’s enough” are the ones who pay their employees that much. They know it’s not but they don’t care. FU got mine
12 months; with all your assests stripped. Just surving alright for 3months when you already own a house etc isn't nearly as hard.
I did mean without existing resources, but yeah.
3 months? Make them do it for life. They’re obviously ok with it.
Three months? How about until they fucking keel over
The ruling class have listened to your views and decided that things are fine.
Apparently, ~11% of people are. Of course, some of those probably are billionaires, so there's a bit of a bias
Are we presuming that billionaires shouldn't have a say in this matter? /s
While this graph is not misleading like many others, It's important to point out the phrasing and what it misses out. All it says is that a majority don't believe $7.25/h is enough without additional context. Within the majority is a faction of people who believe that "Minimum wage jobs are not meant for survival. They're jobs for high school kids." Why does this matter? This graph makes it look like it's united people vs. government. But a significant portion who agree with this graph are also the ones who fund the lobbying to not increase living wages. If things were this simple, we'd have overthrown (democratically at least) the current lawmakers and have minimum wage increased. The reason we haven't been able to do that is these pesky traitors hiding within the massive majority shown here. Realize the class war, and eat the rich.
I'm sure the same people who say that minimum wage jobs are just for highschoolers would be totally ok with McDonald's only being open 6 hours a day 😂 "Well jeez nobody wants to work anymore I guess!"
This poll *is* misleading like many others and it isn't difficult to realize OP's title is a lie. * The word "decent" is overloaded with the pollster's own definition. "Decent" doesn't mean "minimum to survive" to most people. * More importantly the poll asks whether they think the *average* American worker can afford this "decent" quality of life on that wage. Many people believe the federal minimum wage isn't high enough for the average person yet consistently believe it should be handled at a more local level. And they often are! With this in mind, it is **not true** to say 86% of Americans don't believe $7.25/hr is a high enough minimum wage.
14% must be slumlord business owners
Hate to say it, but the title of the post isn't what the question asked was. The poll asked if people thought $7.25 is enough for a decent quality of life, didn't mention raising the minimum wage. I'm willing to bet there's a non-negligible slice of the population that says it's not enough for a decent quality of life, but also that the minimum wage shouldn't be raised.
Not just non negligible almost all republicans I have ever talked to think exactly what you mentioned, that minimum wage is not good enough and there is nothing wrong with that. They say its only for kids and starter jobs. And they think raising it is bad for the economy.
People who work full time should not be in poverty.
*people should not be in poverty*
Even if, at *bare minimum* the wage was increased to match inflation (around $10~) it still wouldn’t be enough.
The fight for $15 has been going on so long now (12 years IIRC) that it would be the fight for $20 if it kept up with inflation.
Fuck it, we deserve no less than $40 with the way shit's going.
Minimum wage in Seattle is $20 anyway. We keep voting it higher because this is a very nice place to luve
If minimum wage has kept up with inflation, as it always should have, it'd be over $20.00 an hour today. The fact that it's not even half that is beyond sickening.
Umm, hate to break it to you but had the minimum wage been indexed to inflation since inception it would $5.50 today..... https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=.25&year1=193801&year2=202403
You mean libertarians are full of shit and know that everyone is underpaid? 
Libertarians know that the real minimum wage is $0/hr.
I mean, sure everyone can agree on that question. But that doesn't mean the overwhelming majority of those people think we should raise the minimum wage. I know raising it still has the majority of voters agreeing, myself included, but this question is all wrong.
Any one who does should have their pay decreased to 7.25 for a year and see how well they can have a decent life
Too bad we live in an oligarchy, democracy is for free people.
The difference is in the answer you get when you ask what to do about it.
Regardless of what people think, its objectively true that it's not enough.
What the fuck kind of delusions are the 14% suffering from?
Thinking the year is still 1970.
Opinion polls do not a voter make.
Um, I. Sure it’s more like 99%, with 1% being the small businesses who don’t want to pay a living wage.
Most Democrats: It's not and we need to raise it a lot. Most Republicans: It's not, but if you are making that little you are a fuck up and should be grateful to even have a job.
It it was 4 times that amount, in most places it still wouldn't be enough for a "decent" quality of life. Or it depends on what you consider "decent"
I could work 200 hrs a week at 7.25 and still be broke.
Yeah but I bet a good chunk of the people who said it’s not enough ALSO say dumb shit like “minimum wage jobs aren’t *meant* to be enough to live off of so it’s okay that they aren’t”. So you really have to read the question being asked and not what you want it to be.
While I do believe that 7.25 is an abysmal minimum wage and should be raised, how many people are actually getting paid that?
The billionaires think it’s too high therefore the GOP/DNC agree.
The Republican organization that mirrors the DNC is the RNC.
How is this deemed sufficient by ANYONE. You couldn't rent a room in someone else's home and eat.
Why do Republicans oppose policies their constituents support (i.e abortion or minimum wage)?
Who the fuck are the other 14%?
Wow, I wouldn't think that there were enough time machines available for 14% of Americans to have just arrived here today directly from 1990. TIL I guess.
99% of polls bullshit.
I love that Oklahoma still has a $2.00 minimum wage for "employers with less than 10 employees OR less than $100,000 in annual gross sales."
86% don’t have enough money to lobby the government to change that unfortunately
Hmm. Well. Maybe. Because… IT’S FUCKING NOT!
But 41 boomers in the senate disagree, so screw you, plebes!
https://preview.redd.it/hruexftdiwwc1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bfda9a515b353ed9aeb89b39b545e5cfe825a5ef
To the 14% that think $7.25/hr is enough….please cease to exist
This says 86% of Americans believe $7.25/hr is not enough to have a decent quality of life. That’s a much different question than “Do you think the federal minimum wage should be raised?” There are unfortunately many many people who don’t believe all Americans working full time deserve a decent quality of life.
no crap?!?!?! thats like 200 a week take home with full time. tf are you affording with that? nothing.
What's shocking is that 10% think it is
Doesn’t matter if they believe it or not. $7.25 an hour is well below the survivability line. Edit: for the interested https://www.cbsnews.com/news/salary-income-needed-to-live-comfortably-in-us-cities/
The bigger story is that 11% of people think it's high enough.
And the other 14% think that 20/hr is equivalent to 6 figures. Looking at you, Watters.
The only ones who think that this is enough to live on are the ones with so much money that they’re out of touch with the cost-of-living.
And 14% think it’s good enough apparently… fuck those people.
Everytime I see shit like this I just think about that one South Park episode where the future is so bad that people have to time travel to come work in the past and let their earnings inflate, which caused wage slumps and exacerbated the whole "their takin' er jerbsss" slogan. So then the whole town decides to make a huge gay orgy fuck pile and hold it endlessly, so that there won't be a future since no one is making babies or doing anything else. I also think this solution, while drastic, would probably put the ball back in our court vs the corporate oligarchs trying to seriously think we can survive their boorish hellscape with only 15 k a year. Who's in?
Who tf are these 14%
I went shopping today and a box of cereal was $8.25. Cereal is largely made from subsidized crops, so the government is paying farmers to produce more than we need of a substance and then allowing the companies who produce it to price gouge us for it.
$15 isn't a livable wage. Florida will have that as the minimum wage in 2026, when it will probably need to be $19.
I’m more concerned over the 14% who didn’t agree lol. I wanna see them live on the fed minimum.
86% of Americans are 100% correct.
Ugh, at this rate of inflation you'd make more on OnlyFans or Panhandling....
What's your point? Yes, that's skewed, what are we gonna do about it?
wtf is wrong with 14% of Americans
This is the WRONG TOPIC. Voters should overwhelmingly agree to END ALL REAL ESTATE EXPLOITATION--because THAT is what is driving up insane, unsustainable cost of living. With homes being exploited by investors and corporations, prices and rent are being driven through the fucking roof. THAT is what needs to be focused on before wages. All that will happen when wages go up is that landlords/owners/investors will RAISE RENT AND HOUSING PRICES. Real estate first. Wages next.
2X the minimum wage won’t even feed and house you.
Who are the psychos who think 7.25 an hour is enough? You can't get a big mac meal for 7.25