We’re not given much choice.
You simply don’t exist as an American without a car and a phone and internet and an address with your name on it. Anything below that is considered fringe, poverty or societal reject. Good luck getting a job without a smartphone and your own car, don’t expect public transportation to be of any help, it doesn’t generally exist outside the larger cities and what there is of it, often sucks and takes hours out of your day. Our “public” internet is mostly coffee shops who make you buy something to sit there using their slow-ass wifi. If you fall on hard times, you have to apply for aid, which comes with stacks of provisions, like having an address and a phone, and this kind of aid is only available temporarily and if you accidentally make too much money they will cut you off.
If you’re savvy you can learn to use things like libraries and carpools and food banks and other resources for the needy. But it’s really, really hard to get out of poverty once you fall down. Most institutions and companies that provide services of any kind charge you more and more the less money you have. You need to have over a certain amount in your bank or you pay fees. You need to pay your bills on time or they charge you twice as much, you need to keep a credit history maintained even if you’re broke, because most employers include credit checks in their hiring process.
Most of the “middle class” you see here are suburban families working multiple jobs 6 days a week or more. Two people working often requires two cars, now your monthly transportation costs outpace your living expenses. Have kids or want to have kids? Good fucking luck figuring out childcare or daycare and paying for that too. It’s okay, smartphones and tablets will raise your kids. Keep the machine moving.
Cocopanda@futurology.today 4 days ago
Country is car centric. You can not live here without a car. It’s next to impossible. Especially for the handicapped. They can’t get anywhere easily without personal transportation. We suck at mass transit.
LodeMike@lemmy.today 4 days ago
Americans are also bad with money.
Cocopanda@futurology.today 4 days ago
Not all of us. I’m sitting on 60k+ in my checking. Plus I paid off every debt I had but my school loans. Those will never be paid off ahead of time. Fuck the GOP for not helping students. But hopefully I have 20% set aside for a home in the next year or two.
barnacul@lemmy.world 3 days ago
helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 4 days ago
You can do school loans if you start paying bigger. Not sure what your debt is or how large your financial cushion needs to be, but if extra cash is sitting in checking not earning interest, its loosing value while your student loan interest keeps ticking up.
For me after setting aside money for savings, I kept what I needed + plus a small amount for whatever and the rest got dumped into loans, had that shit payed off in a few years. Think my total interest payed was around 3k, I know some people basically end up doubling their debt over the 10 years with some crazy interest rates. (Went to state school, so loans were about 50k for everything, I know some private schools are triple that)
(Also open a saving account or something, your checking account shouldn’t have access to all your funds in the event of debit card theft, especially if you use that online)
LodeMike@lemmy.today 4 days ago
Yes, as with most large groups presented as an object or subject there’s usually an implied “most”.
satans_methpipe@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Lol I would like to offer you a loan.
ThatGuy46475@lemmy.world 3 days ago
And if your handicap is the vision test you’re just stuck