People who say 'the rich get richer, the lazy live for free, and the middle class pays for it all' don't realize how expensive it is to be rich and how close middle class is to being below the poverty line.

⁨0⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world⁩ to ⁨showerthoughts@lemmy.world⁩

source

Comments

Sort:hotnew top

Tedesche@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Username tracks.

source
ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Screwing the poor is a time honored tradition in capitalism.

From Cracked’s article, 5 Cruel Ways Being Poor Is Expensive

Household Goods Like Toilet Paper Cost More For Poor People

The IRS Audits Poor People More Frequently Than Rich People

Poor People Have To Pay Extra To Access Money They’ve Already Earned

"New Customer Fees" Are Thinly Disguised Penalties For Being Poor

Nutritional Inequality Goes Much Deeper Than Food Deserts

From another article, 5 Screwed-Up Ways The World’s Stacked Against Poor People

"Period Poverty" Is A Very Real Problem

"Transit Deserts" Keep People From Finding Work

Low-Income Housing Is Leaving Residents With Massive Energy Bills

Low-Income Neighborhoods Experience Longer Emergency Response Times

Low-Income Families Are More Likely To Be Audited

Finally, Why We Can’t Stop Hating The Poor

We Have Laws Designed To Make The Poor Look Like Assholes

The Hate Comes From Some Unexpected Places

Poor People Smell Bad

The Poor Remind Us That Sometimes The System Is In Fact Bullshit

We Have To Believe People Deserve What They Get
source
Silar@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Middle class, at least the income bracket that was middle class has been butchered.

source
Furbag@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Lower, middle, and upper class is such an antiquated way of dividing people into groups to keep them at odds with each other.

The fact of the matter is, there are truthfully only two classes. The working class, and the capital class. 95-99% of individuals fall into some strata of working class. If you earn a wage, a salary, or a commission in order to purchase basic necessities- you are working class. If your money makes you money simply by existing, and your assets passively appreciating in value mean that you do not have to work for a living in order to buy basic necessities, then you are in the capital class.

source
- Tetragrade@leminal.space ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Image
  
  source
- FahrenheitGhost@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The working class and the capital class = The slave class and the ruling class.
  
  source
- Miaou@jlai.lu ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The GP earning 6 figures for prescribing boomer cunts opioids is clearly in the same social class as the construction worker whose life expectancy is below the retirement age.
  
  source
  - Furbag@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The construction worker and the doctor have more in common with each other than either of them do with the billionaire.
    
    That mentality, that the two working class individuals are too different from one another to ever unify because of the fact that one makes more money than the other, is exactly the kind of mental attitude that the wealthy elite have cultivated for years to keep us at each other’s throats instead of theirs.
    
    source
- iii@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Most people are a bit of both, no?
  
  source
  - zbyte64@awful.systems ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Most people are living paycheck to paycheck… But if you mean owning stock or a retirement portfolio makes you a capitalist then I think that is still incorrect. People who actually own the company of whose stock you “own” can make decisions that will ultimately decimate your retirement savings while enriching themselves.
    
    source
  - Furbag@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Ideally, everyone would be in a position to break into the lowest strata of the capital class by the time they reach retirement age and can no longer work. For most people, that translates into a, IRA or 401k built over decades of years working, assets like a house appreciating in value (so that you can borrow against that increased value), and perhaps a pension or some other form of investment that yields dividends.
    
    Even then. I’d argue that if you retire knowing that if you live within your means, your funds will last you for 20 years, you’re not actually in the capital class. It doesn’t matter for most people, because few people expect to be able to live for that long past retirement and they can always adjust their spending habits to push the number out a bit farther if it looks like they will outlive their retirement savings. But that’s just it, it’s more like a savings and not endlessly accumulating more and more wealth. For the true capital class, their money passively grows and generates more wealth faster than they can spend it.
    
    source
- DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  www.jstor.org/stable/487921
  
  source
- Rooster326@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  It’s class warfare
  
  Always was…
  
  source
brendansimms@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Let the Leftist infighting commence!

source
- TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  pretty much. this entire thread is just folks arguing over the meanings of middle class, and most of them denying it exists as if that is going to create class solidarity. it won’t.
  
  source
  - iii@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    In Belgium lower income people also tend to vote more extreme. It’s even shown that whenever extreme right parties grow, it’s usually because they convinced people that previously voted extreme left.
    
    People who vote for the socialist party are typically retired or work for the government in some capacity.
    
    source
  - DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The middle class exists, and it sides with capital in its class interests.
    
    source
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If you don’t work with your hands but still need to work, you’re middle class, no?

source
- TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  plenty of manual laborers make bank dude.
  
  source
I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If you don’t have the poverty scar on one, or both, of your arms, I don’t want to hear shit about what you have to say on the topic of poverty.

If you don’t know what the poverty scar is, and you live in the US, then I will just assume you’ve never struggled, nor been around those who do.

source
- Alaik@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Oh damn. Well you can’t give plasma until youre 16, but I guess being homeless, having sleep for dinner and all of that growing up isn’t poverty because I couldn’t pass for a 16 year old as a child?
  
  source
- SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Are you gatekeeping poverty?
  
  source
  - I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’m pointing out a major, physical, sign that someone is, or has, struggled with poverty and knows first hand how hard that is.
    
    I see way too many “hot takes” on how poverty works from people who don’t have the scar, or even know what it is. To me, that’s a big red flag that they don’t know wtf they’re talking about as they haven’t experienced it.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- Furbag@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I presume you are referencing people who donate plasma as frequently as possible to earn extra money to survive?
  
  source
  - TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    apparently you’re not in poverty if you donate plasma? that’s a new talking point.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Bingo
    
    source
- ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I dont have a poverty scar but I know what it looks like… also I have been to the US. In many circumstances it is actually hard for me to believe that is the richest country on earth.
  
  source
stringere@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

how expensive it is to be poor

For anyone that needs the read, Terry Pratchett said it so well it is an economic theory now, the Boots theory.

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. … A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. … But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socio-economic unfairness.[4]

From Men at Arms by Sir Terry Pratchett

Also, a history of “people don’t want to work” bullshit going back to 1894: thunderdungeon.com/…/nobody-wants-to-work-anymore…

source
- Devial@discuss.online ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  In general it can be said that poor people to not have the capital to make upfront investments which become profitable over time. Not even just literal investing, but investing in things like a more fuel efficient car, upgrading the insulation in your house/apartment to save on eating, buying non-perishables in bulk when there’s a good deal, buying a dish washer instead of hand washing…
  
  So many things that let you save tons of money in the long run, require relatively large upfront investments, that poor people can’t afford. That’s a big reason why poverty can be such an insidious vicious loop, that can be extremely hard to escape from.
  
  Two identical households, with identical income could have vastly different financial situations, just based on if their income was previously low, and they weren’t able to afford any of these investments, vs. If their income was previously high, having allowed them to previously make these large investments to reduce their long term monthly costs, and secure enough liquidity to be able to continue occasionally making these investments.
  
  source
  - stringere@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Thank you for the expansion.
    
    source
- ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  People don’t want to work and are lazy is a bullshit talking point even older than 1894.
  
  The first ever modern self-help book ever published (literally called self-help) was made a man with a lifelong history of business and financial failure and yet also still believed that it was no legislation or social assistance, but personal ‘morals’ and ethics are what gets people out of poverty and into comfort.
  
  It was bullshit then and bullshit now. It is such a dark realization that what causes so much quality of life increases is not productivity or technology but… legislation!
  
  source
  - stringere@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    It is such a dark realization that what causes so much quality of life increases is not productivity or technology but legislation and policy.
    
    And that’s how we got Prosperity Gospel: rich folk trying to justify their lazy asses hoarding wealth and complaining about the people who actually do the work wanting fair compensation for their time and effort.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
melsaskca@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
That used to be true, pre-1980’s, when the middle class was way, way bigger than it is today.

source
InputZero@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Because middle class is used wrong in North America.

Poverty class is simple, you don’t have enough to live.

Labor class is divided into three;

Low labor, your barely paid enough to scrape by.

Middle labor, your paid enough for your work to live.

High labor, you’re paid well for your work. Perhaps you own your own small business.

Middle class, you aren’t paid a wage or salary anymore, you’re income comes from the things you own. As rich as a politician or nobility but not much political power.

Upper class, in old Europe this would be the nobels. Duke’s, Earls, Lords, that type of stuff. In modern north America this would be the ultra rich. You have political power and you own a lot of stuff. This is where most representatives are.

Politician class, former Royal class. You rule, extreme political power and wealth.

Most people in North America think they’re in the middle class when really they’re in the Labor middle class, it’s very different

source
- ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Even well paid doctors are labor class mostly. Because even in the past doctors weren’t as well paid as today.
  
  source
  - dubyakay@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Were you really born in 1944?
    
    source
  - TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    most doctors come from wealthy families. and if you are anything above a PCP, you’re making like 300K+ a year, you’re not labor class. you’re part of the 1%
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- FlyingCircus@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  If you’re going to talk about class society, you might as well use the Marxist terms: proletariat, petit-bourgeoisie, and bourgeoise.
  
  source
- SippyCup@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Working class is everybody who must work to live.
  
  Upper class is everybody else.
  
  There is no such thing as a middle class, that is a lie. Everybody seems to think they’re in the middle class, because that puts somebody below them, and gives them a reason to continue working under wage slavery. This is the purpose of the lie.
  
  source
  - squaresinger@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The fun thing is that everyone thinks they are middle class. When I was making €45k a year I thought I was middle class because I had an university degree and a leadership position. At the same time my boss, who had just spent €5mio acquiring a 50% share in a second company and owned three houses (two of which he rented out) also considered himself middle class because he wasn’t a billionaire.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - DarkAri@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    A better metric is homeownership to me. Someone who is middle class is secure and doesn’t have to rent nor pay debt. They only really have to work when it’s mutually beneficial. That is basically impossible to achieve in the modern world with the hundreds or thousands of micro taxes and cartel controlled corporate markets and complete lack of land for the lease it’s to live on without virtual indentured servitude. Even if you did spend your entire life buying a house the state would just take it away from your children with the brutal taxation. Without a home you are always going to be a slave and have to work at any shitty job just to have food and a roof over your head.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - khaleer@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I once had a friend, which gf had to send him like 10Euro per month, for him to get monthly more than minimal wage which was considered “middle class” for some fucking reason in this country.
    
    He was so emotional about this shit, that I am still not sure if he was for real about that or not…
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
hayvan@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
There is no middle class. There are only working class and wealth class. Just because you are high earner in an office job doesn’t mean you’re not working class.

source
- Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Where is the line though? Many people that could be considered middle class are realistically rich enough to never have to work again if they didn’t want to. But they want their flash cars and private school for the kids so they do need to work to keep that level of luxury. Even if they could still live comfortably without working.
  
  If I was to start van living (hard as I can’t drive) and rented out my house I wouldn’t have to work another day in my life. Does that make me part of the wealth class, despite having always been at/close to minimum wage? Getting enough rent to pay for my mortgage and leave me with many hundreds extra would not be difficult. Go for a HMO and turn the living space into more bedrooms like a standard scumlord would possibly even leave me with over £1000 a month. The only work I would have to do is paint over some mould occasionally.
  
  source
  - TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    pretty easy. if you had a million in the bank at 4% return you’d have a income of 40K a year. if you could live on that income you’d be all set and not have to work.
    
    so scale that up a bit, say 5 million in the bank at 5% return, that would be an income of 250,000K a year.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - FlyingCircus@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I don’t know why everyone is avoiding the Marxist terms, as they are far more accurate than low/middle/upper or whatever people are talking about in this thread.
    
    Those wealthy workers are petit-bourgeoisie. They own enough capital so that they no longer have to struggle in the rat race of capitalism, but not enough to be controlling entire industries or multibillion dollar companies like the bourgeoisie.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    Where is the line though
    
    The line is “do you need to work ever to maintain at least the current living standard”. That’s the division between working class and wealthy class.
    
    If I was to start van living (hard as I can’t drive) and rented out my house I wouldn’t have to work another day in my life
    
    Not maintaining at least current living standard.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
Tlf@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Depending on how you were raised you might think that this class is living in luxury until you realize that your parents relied on tull time double income to make that middle class happen. Marketing for this class is horrible for fighting class divide. It gives the impression that wealth is achievable for everyone which is just a lie.

source
radiouser@crazypeople.online ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Yeah, I think people who say that don’t realize a few key things.

First, they don’t understand the ‘poverty tax’ - how not having money for things like a security deposit, reliable transportation, or bulk buying actually costs you more in the long run.

And second, they don’t see how thin the margin for error is for most middle-class families. One medical bill or job loss is all it takes to fall behind

source
- Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Earn 3 times the amount of a proposed rent? You’re golden.
  
  Earn below 3 times the amount of a proposed rent (but still enough to pay it each month)? Now you have to pay a guarantor to back you up. Last estimate I got was $800 for that service. You’ve gotta pay that before a landlord will accept you.
  
  So if you earn less, you’re forced to pay more. It’s so fucking backwards.
  
  Source: currently homeless, on numerous “waitlists” for low-income apartments that can take years to get through, housing lotteries that have 10s of thousands of people also hoping for a home, and attempting to scrounge the bottom of the barrel with tiny studio apartments (which, even if I apply to immediately, I’m behind others who somehow got to them faster.)
  
  The system is absolutely fucked. I’m just grateful I enjoy my job (which, yes, I work full time, and earn above minimum wage for. Modern US society has no mercy for any of us.)
  
  source
Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
They also don’t understand that the impact of the “lazy poor” is exaggerated by the rich to turn your attention away from The Big Theft.

source
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Middle class IS below the poverty line.

The poverty line is a number made up by the wealthy to keep the “less poors” at odds with the “more poors” So that we don’t join forces and guillotine the motherfuckers.

source
- thingAmaBob@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, we do a lot of inner fighting and it is difficult to get through it. I even find myself getting frustrated at people, who earn twice as much as me, complaining about how they live paycheck to paycheck. The cost of living is not high here (and I save a lot myself), and I think about the wealth I could build if I had their income; basically I think, “why are you complaining??” But we have to remember we are on the same team. We are all ultimately getting screwed over by the owner class.
  
  source
  - TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    a lot of people are just idiots who don’t understand that money in has to be less than money out.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - Adderbox76@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That guy earning twice as much as you is still far closer to you than to the guy above him. He may make twice the amount as you, but the guy above both of you makes literally 400 times as much (per day sometimes). It’s like you said, we’re all on the same team.
    
    source
- oce@jlai.lu ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  There are conventional definitions of the poverty line. In France, it is defined by the national institute of statistics as:
  
  The poverty threshold is conventionally set at 60% of the population’s median standard of living. It corresponds to a disposable income of €1,288 per month for a single person and €2,705 for a couple with two children under 14 years old. www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/5759045
  
  source
khepri@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
There’s the Working class, who can’t live in society without trading their time for money in some way, or being given charity. And the Capital class, who can live in society without doing either.

source
- Tlf@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I will add this to my vocabulary as I find it captures the issue in an easy to understand way.
  
  source
  - khepri@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Thanks, viewing it this way really puts retirement into perspective as well. The big promise of modern capitalist countries is that if you, the Worker, take 25% of your paycheck every day for 40 or 50 years and pump it into the stock market, that perhaps you’ll be able to live in the capital class (aka off money you already have) at an extremely low level for a few years right before you die. That’s really all we’ve been promised and what a lot of people dream of as the peak achievement of trading half your waking life away for decades, to someone who is making more off your work than you are making.
    
    source
BanMe@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s soooo much easier to be a class traitor when you don’t realize you’re part of that class

source
lechekaflan@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

‘the rich get richer, the lazy live for free, and the middle class pays for it all’

This is what the country subreddit I abandoned more than a year ago became this fucking mentality. Like they’re toying with the idea of eugenics and limited voting rights.

source
NatakuNox@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
There is no true definition of middle class. People making only $30k a month consider themselves middle class and people making $1 million also think they are middle class.

source
- L7HM77@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  If we guesstimate middle class by comparable lifestyle when the term was coined, it starts around 250k in today money. Comfortable house, lots of kids, multiple cars (but not luxury), at least one real traveling vacation every year, never worrying about paying bills or buying food, all while saving enough to retire by 55. There aren’t many people in the US with the income to match that. I’d say the middle class is dead.
  
  source
  - WALLACE@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I always take the middle class as the threshold where you have sufficient passive income to afford a dignified lifestyle without needing to work anymore but may choose to.
    
    Examples would be landlords with a decent portfolio, business owners where all the work is done for them, and people with substantial savings and investments.
    
    If you have to work to pay the bills, no matter how much you’re on, you’re working class.
    
    If you’re so rich that you no longer need to care about the value of money then you are upper class.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - NatakuNox@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s a lot of caveats.
    
    source
- GuyLivingHere@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  There is no ‘middle’ class. There is only ownership and labour.
  
  source
  - howrar@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    There are people who are fully owners and don’t do any labour, and those who subsist entirely on their labour and don’t own anything. Would it be fair to say that the middle class is anyone who works but still owns a non-zero amount of appreciating or revenue-generating assets?
    
    source
  - Taldan@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I would argue there are at least 3 classes:
    
    The impoverished class that makes their living from the charity of others
    
    The working class that makes their living from their labor
    
    The ownership class that makes their living from owning things
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - rekabis@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    There is only ~~ownership~~ parasites and labour.
    
    FTFY. You’re welcome.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Still waiting for that class revolution

source
- ivanafterall@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’ve been revolting since I was born.
  
  source
Cyberflunk@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Statistically, middle class is not close to poverty, the issue is, there’s no more middle class

source
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Who says that?

source
- ivanafterall@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  So many people.
  
  source
boaratio@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s really hard to even decide what the working class is. I have a good job, good benefits, savings and retirement account, but if I lost my job we’d be homeless in 6 months.

source
- WALLACE@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’d take that as working class personally. You could be earning 500K per year but if you still need to sell your time and energy to pay the bills then you’re not middle class yet.
  
  source
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
As I’ve always said, the greatest trick the idle wealthy class ever pulled was convincing the middle class that the working class is the enemy.

source
- SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The middle class is the working class.
  
  source
  - TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    working class is dirty. middle class is clean.
    
    my parents hated my working class friends and their parents because they saw them as dirty gross people.
    
    source
Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The difference between a million and a billion is about a billion. Millionaires are closer to zero than they are the ultra rich.

source
- Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Sadly for your arguments, currently it is easier to lose any amount of money than to win it.
  
  source
- SparroHawc@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Millionaires don’t count as ‘rich’ any more.
  
  source
  - OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I disagree.
    
    Low millions, like your net worth in your 60s when you own a home, potentially two cars, and a retirement fund. 1-4 million? Sure, not rich, well off by most standards.
    
    Closing in on thay double digit millions? Yeah you’re rich. Hell, in most of the US, having a net worth of 7 million dollars is the ‘eccentric millionaire’ level for most of rural America.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  most people middle aged people with six figure careers are millionaires. that’s why the number of millionaires keeps going up.
  
  source
  - jjjalljs@ttrpg.network ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Some of my peers should be rich enough to retire, but fell victim to lifestyle inflation. Sure they’re making $250k/year, but they moved into a $5k/mo apartment, go on expensive vacations, and just do whatever in their day to day. I don’t know where their money goes. Maybe they are secretly investing.
    
    Meanwhile I live like a goblin on less
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
Today@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I say all the time how expensive it is to be poor now!! You kinda need a phone; you might find a cheap car but the insurance will be $$; i can barely leave my house without getting on a toll road; you might find a cheap apartment but the rent will include $200 in fees. Every interaction is designed to be profitable for someone and we’re losing.

source
roofuskit@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.” - James Baldwin

No truer words.

source
Asafum@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Image

source

-> View More Comments