I enjoy work .I work really freaking hard on my own businesses. I have since I was a teen. This goes deeper than just corps making employees the equivalent of surfs.
I live in a “cheap” city and live fairly frugally. Here's a list of general, necessary expenses for a relatively modest living:
- Rent: $2000
- Car: $500
- Food: $450
- Health care: $450
- Utilities: $350
- Internet: $110
- Taxes: assuming ~30% of total income (especially if you're self employed)
Let's say you try to follow the advice of “50% to need, 30% to fun, and 20% to savings”.
Accounting for taxes in the 50%, were talking ~$203k/yr to make those “modest” expenses.
Counting post tax income, that's still $132k/yr to hit those ratios.
In a nation with:
- a single payer Universal health care
- robust public transportation system
- a regulated non-oligopoly food supply
- a properly regulated non-monopoly energy supply
- a non-artificially reduced housing supply
Here's what those same expenses would look like:
- Rent: $1000
- Transportation: $50-100
- Food: $150-200
- Healthcare: $0
- Utilities: $150
- Internet: $35
- Taxes: ~50% of income.
That would allow the same standard of living for ~$71k/yr vs $132k.
The US economy is set up to make you fail unless you're big enough to take part in sucking the system dry.
It's unsustainable and is killing everyone.
Edit: mostly formating