There’s no such thing as a reasonable quality of life on an average income anymore. People who don’t prioritize money will live like poor students for the rest of their lives renting with roommates. They will never have a family, healthcare, hobbies, or respect from their community.
Stop pretending that not prioritizing money is an option. It’s incredibly condescending. In most parts of most developed countries you need at least a top 20% income just to live with dignity.
But, "They will never have a family... hobbies, or respect from their community." This is completely out of touch. Plenty of Americans in flyover country accomplish all of these on an average salary. Source: They're my neighbors.
In America, you really do not (I don't know about other parts of the world). We have lots of really sweet towns and things where you can live on a totally average income. Just visited my cousin in the rural midwest (town of like 1000 people) and she and her husband live a great life, with their own plot of land, their eight kids, and a normal income (single income -- only husband works). And before I get the 'oh well that's only for white people' response, we're brown-skinned; she's an immigrant; and she's not only accepted but embraced and actually holds elected office.
In my experience, the people making these kinds of claims have some innate bias against these places. But they're like a dime a dozen. We passed by dozens of similar towns on our four hour drive from the nearest airport.
On top of that, bad luck in America can be very expensive. the wrong illness can make living a low stress life difficult
Therefore an American that sees a pile of debt in their future, the kind of career that can pay for that kind of debt, and therefore lead to just being reasonably content and independent, is not all that far from one where you end up in the neighborhood of being rich. It's definitely what happened to me: The difference between not having a lot of economic stress and 'oops, I could retire tomorrow' was about 5 years.
Accordingly, everyone is fighting to make enough money to not get fucked over during each of our cyclical "economic recessions". During each recession more and more people permanently fall into poverty and everyone who is left fights even harder to not be a victim the next time the economy goes south.
otoh, Where I come from , we have a proverb that’s hard to translate but describes our misery quite accurately - “we don’t even have enough water to wipe our anus after we poop”.
So that’s why I seek wealth. Not because I’m not content, or stressed out or whatever. Because the people I was born with, my cousins, brothers, relatives - they are still digging ditches. I am no smarter than them perhaps, but because I chose to pay a little extra attention at academics, atleast I have some money to buy some water so I can wash my butt after I poop.
Don’t hate on people who want money. The world outside your tiny bubble is very, very poor.
> Don’t hate on people who want money.
Why would I?
> The world outside your tiny bubble is very, very poor.
I have a hard time understanding this tiny bubble part. Both my parents came from poor farmer families. My father was a carpenter who maintained a tiny farm before and after his daytime job. My mother helped with that and took care of the children. My father saw the sea for the first time aged 65, though it is only 200km.
I try to put things in perspective... I read the average water consumption per person per year in USA is on average 90000 litres. That is our yearly household consumption.
Last week I took my kids and a friend to dinner. We spent about 50$. Not much for us for 4 people. But for quite a lot of locals we just blew a months earning or more in one evening. This income difference baffles me every time.
Myself I am out of work for a year, and while I saved some money, if I don't find some remote work soon I'll have to pack my bags and move my whole family back to Europe to file for unemployment. But I am not complaining because at least I do have that option. The people here around me don't. So despite my situation I am still privileged.
When it comes to young people choosing careers in the US the money choice is more prominent.
Maybe a cliché but... my advice would be to try to get most out of each simple experience. Today my spouse and kid went for a long walk together with me... while I could have been doing woodworking. I _tried_ to teach the kid the joy of walking without having too much on his mind. I also started conversations with strangers while waiting in the ice cream queue. There's always something to learn from that. I guess you by now understand my advocating for contentment.
i really wish i'd spent more effort on making, and saving, money 20 years ago. i wouldn't want to spend my life on it, and no amount of money will keep me from dying, but right now i'm spending a lot of my life coping with the consequences of not having it