What's amazing for US millenials in particular is just how much we've got and how little we appreciate it.
Nobody can help you if you are fiscally irresponsible, it's not an unobtainable path to freedom though.
$500 apt
$150 car insurance
$100 utilities
$ 50 media (Netflix, Spotify, etc)
You're taking home about $1800 a month, so that still leaves another $1000 to fill out the rest (food, gasoline, etc). That's plenty of money. You aren't going to be making regular trips to Hawaii, but that's more than enough to do whatever you'd like.
My shitty apartment in a small city (80k) was 615 a month.
100 dollars a month for gas/water/power?
You need internet for that media consumption.
You need gas for that car.
Cell phone?
Food?
In the town nearest where I grew up, $500 will get you a 2 bed, 1.5 bath apartment on a golf course.
I once cut my power bill during the winter by sleeping in a closet with a space heater. Other times, I hung out in coffee shops to avoid having to be home and having to turn on the heater. May be that's the kind of living you imagine that isn't crazy, but I don't imagine everyone is willing to live like that.
I agree it's a much better position to be in than say, indentured servitude, but it's naive to just expect or declare that people be happy living like this and stay happy living like this for the foreseeable future.
You deff had help from your parents to so blithely discount those expenses.
This also assumes 30k per member of a household. And don't forget a good 3k to 5k going to tax depending on your state.
Its also ignoring any savings, so your old age will be deplorable, and any accident or sudden loss of work will also be extremely rough.
Don't get me wrong, you wouldn't want to live like this for 30 years (though if you had good credit and then got your own house, you could easily reduce those costs, too), and it takes sacrifice, but the entire reason I mentioned 30k is because 30k isn't that hard to make, and despite that, you still have an easy road to it and (some) disposable income.
If you want more, you have to work harder, not shocking, but what you can do on 30k if you try is astounding. It's certainly not the impoverished, destitute slavery some people are acting like it is.
In my opinion, the average American income should be able to support a family. At least 1 kid and a stay at home parent. That feels like that 30k gets stretched pretty thin in that case.
And if it was an option to make more by working harder, I'd say fine, but I'm not so sure it is. I think you can only make more by working smarter, and thats going to come at an investment of both time and money. Not sure where in the 30k the money would come from.
I'm still not convinced by that budget of yours though.
If you live remote so that your rent and food cost gets down to 500$ and 200$ a month, you'll need a car. Which is itself a 30k purchase. So now you've got one loan already, lets say 200$ extra a month. Then the gas will eat another 100$ at least.
500 rent + 200 food + 200 car + 150 car insurance/maintenance + 100 gas + 100 phone/internet + 100 utilities + 100 medical/dental insurance + 50 media. That's 1500$ already.
Now you need to furnish your appartment, get a laptop, a TV. Lets say you do all that for 5k. And amortize it over 3 years, say you got another loan for it. Now you've got 150$ per month downpayments for that. Now we're at 1650$ a month.
Now with income tax, you only have 2000$ a month, assuming you live in Iwoa. So you're left with 350$.
I feel at least another 100$ needs to be added for clothes and household goods. So 250$ left a month.
At this point, all you do is work, consume media and eat at home always. And your saving maybe 250$ a month.
I feel that's more realistic a budget. Again, I see no room for any dependents, no kid, no partner that's not also working.
So while again, I agree with you, this isn't terrible, it sounds quite unfulfilling. There's barely any wiggle room for any kind of hobby, travel, lesson, etc. And obviously any health issue or temporary loss of job will mean lots more dept will accrue.
Anyways, I think all that would be totally fine if we had cheap or free education and a free or cheap healthcare and a slightly better unemployment benefit. Without that, I don't really see where are the opportunities to make more. You can't afford school, you can't afford to switch jobs, and you can't afford to get sick or old.
The median income in the US is not far off $30K[1], so what do half the population do?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_...
For what it is worth, the median income in Canada is also ~$30K[1].
[1] http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/f...
it's enough that you won't starve to death.
[1] https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Nader#Personality_and_ch...
What about the other side of that initial assumption? Are there causes other than the 30k-thing that might be why people don't seem to care as much about freedom? I suspect the confusion between 'democracy' (which can be pretty imperfect; starting wars and all that) and 'freedom' (which is a very generic concept) might be a part of it. It also might be just the usurpation of the theme of 'freedom' to back conservative opinions (e.g. freedom to discriminate).
I earn more now, and am considerably more free. I don't wish how I lived on anyone, and I am under no delusion that most well adjusted adults in the richest country in the world would be willing to live how I did. I realize you aren't making this argument, I'm more replying to who I replied to initially.
Might I add I had good healthcare due to my university...and my department waived my tuition (and hence paid for my healthcare). Could you imagine life without that? Or if I couldn't defer my loans?
It was pretty tight at times but we made it work.
I switched to a different company and make around 4-3x that now and live pretty comfortably.
Welcome to a world that isn't California (and to an extend New York)
Think about it.
Taxes/Medicare/SSI chops of 30%, you're left with 21k.
Rent is 500 a month in a cheap city with a roomate, youre left with 15k.
Utilities are 100 a month with a roomate, that leaves you with 13000ish.
Food and ALL OTHER living expenses including clothes, transportation/gas, etc are (living frugally) 250 a week.
That leaves you with 1k a year...