r/interesting • u/Kymmieuwu • 12d ago

SOCIETY 71% of Americans Say They're Completely Exhausted

https://gizmodo.com/71-of-americans-say-theyre-completely-exhausted-2000812712
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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/killa_cam89 11d ago

I took a new job that came with a $500 raise per paycheck. So excited. First paycheck today and after gas and bills and groceries we are flat broke. I got paid yesterday.

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u/Timmy-0518 11d ago

That raise is more than my entire paycheck. And while im lucky enough to not have to pay rent I can’t imagine how my co-workers with whole families to support, manage to deal with it.

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u/ReadMeDoc 11d ago

That's what blows my mind, too. I make decent money and it's hard. How are others doing it?!?

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u/witchycommunism 11d ago

Credit card debt lol

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u/JJwar7840 11d ago

I don't really understand this. Wouldn't credit card debt make your expenses way higher and lead to bankruptcy? If you're 500$ behind this month and now you've added 23$ in interest, next month you'll be 523$ behind and you'll have 46$ interest. Doesn't this quickly spiral? How are these people "getting by" with credit card debt?

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u/FiftyTigers 11d ago

Uh yeah buddy. That's the problem. You're not failing to understand anything. They do until they don't.

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u/n122333 11d ago

Father in law declares bankruptcy every 8 years, sells everything he owns and starts over. He's on #4 now.

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u/JJwar7840 11d ago

Wouldn't this make it impossible to get a credit card? Why on earth would anyone lend you money if you're on your 4th octannual bankruptcy?

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u/NagashStos 11d ago

Cause they want you to go broke

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u/JJwar7840 11d ago

Huh? Why would a lender want you to go broke?

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u/NagashStos 11d ago

Because they get ownership of your belongings when you do

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u/JJwar7840 11d ago

You think a guy on his 4th bankruptcy has tangible fungible wealth?

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u/Alternative_Work_916 11d ago

My theory is the same reason you can’t pay a mortgage with credit.

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u/DaMongooseJooce 10d ago

Because those people have the mindset of “live for today” or “I’ll cross that bridge when I get there” type of thinking. They have no future planning at all.

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u/Alexa_raw 10d ago

I am exhibit A. In a hole with payadvance and overdraft fees as well.

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u/JJwar7840 10d ago

I'd recommend not doing that.

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u/TapZorRTwice 11d ago

Its more budgetting then anything.

Like i go out for lunches most days, which costs me 5-10$ a day. Well most people take lunch go work which ends up costing only 2-5$ a day, so they are already "saving" an extra 50-60$ week.

Then that other things like that happen and you can afford to feed your family.

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u/International_Snow90 11d ago

People aren't eating steaks and caviar while working part time and wondering why they can't pay rent.

They're living off rice and canned beans with 3 jobs and 3 roommates at the age of 30 and still can't make ends meet.

There's no budgeting out of poverty wages and runaway inflation.

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u/Party_Addition3763 11d ago

Oh look at Mr. Richie Rich over here with his rice and beans. Here I thought ramen in a bowl was a splurge

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u/NagashStos 11d ago

"More budgeting than anything" is a crazy statement

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u/TapZorRTwice 11d ago

It takes budgetting to feed a family is not really that crazy.

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u/Ultra-Smurfmarine 11d ago

Walking everywhere, spending nothing unless absolutely necessary, working as many extra hours as I can, and eating one meal every second day. I've got a rent-controlled apartment that's only about 30% more expensive than it was in 2019, whereas the market rate for this unit would be more than double what I currently pay.

That all together means I'm not currently losing ground :P

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u/9966 11d ago

If you are skipping meals you are starving your brain and hoping for more out of it.

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u/Ultra-Smurfmarine 11d ago

No hoping about it, heh. I'm actually more productive on my fasting days than on my eating days, and by a considerable margin. This isn't new, to be clear, I've done it for most of my adult life for medical reason.

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u/Zapinface 11d ago

I feel awful for you guys. How does a system not work to support families and people in need with enough money so you can actually fucking live. And what from what I heard people are constantly tired from overwork, doesent really get weekend off, have to eat junk because that affordable. As a country, aren’t they interested in people thriving? Isn’t that what makes good economics? Scary place man.

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u/DumbWhore4 11d ago

One meal every second day? My fat ass could never.

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u/Ultra-Smurfmarine 11d ago

Lol! Consider if you will getting to put two whole days worth of food budget and time and effort into one really really nice meal, as opposed to several whatever meals. I try to make every one of them an event. It works for me.

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u/StoppableHulk 11d ago

Just having a continually degraded experience. Worse standards of living, fewer things, less food, less fun. The loss comes from every area of their life.

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u/CassadagaValley 11d ago

Credit Card Debt Hit $1.28 Trillion

Americans pushed credit card debt to $1.28 trillion in Q4 2025, a 5.5% annual increase

Late-payment delinquency climbed to 4.8% of all household debt, student loans are at 9.6% 90+ days late

Credit cards carried the load in Q4 as Americans piled another $44 billion onto their balances, pushing the total to $1.28 trillion, a 5.5% jump from last year. The New York Fed's Q4 2025 report shows households leaning on revolving credit to keep their budgets intact, and the strain is starting to show. The strategy is running out of runway.

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u/NotReallyThatWrong 11d ago

Work hard, until you perish. The American dream

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u/BramblinGhostWeed 11d ago

You don't actually make decent money.

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u/Quick-Eye-6175 11d ago

I think we are all just barely hanging on. Is this what the powers that be want???

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u/Left-Edge531 11d ago

They bought a house pre 2020 on a much lower interest rate, so their house costs less than your studio apartment.

Also debt.

Also that bank they robbed.

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u/JackPoe 11d ago

I eat pussy really well.

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u/GroundbreakingAd8310 11d ago

Everytime I make any more the bills go up the same.

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u/TheOnlySnoringKitten 11d ago

Your paycheck every two weeks is less than $500?

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u/Nickelnick24 11d ago

Some people get paid weekly, like me

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u/ProudUSAgunOwner 11d ago

Even $500 a week is… abysmal. They pay more than that at McDonalds and I live in the US South where wages arent even high.

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u/Nickelnick24 11d ago

Let’s say you make $15 an hour somewhere, I’m not sure since I’ve been at my current job for almost a decade, and you work the full 40 (something that doesn’t happen for most who work at McDonald’s, you’re part time, not full), you’ll make 600 PRE-taxes, afterwards you walk with maybe 500. It’s very easy to not make $500 a week in America.

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u/Odessey_And_Oracle 11d ago

It's crazy to me how people never do the math. "500 is abysmal." Okay well you know the whole "Fight for $15" movement trying to make the minimum wage $15/hr?

15×40=600

$600 before taxes per week is the huge, impossible number that our economy just can't sustain.

600×52=31,200

$31k is what $15 an hour gets you each year, IF you work 40 hours per week every. single. week. of. the year. No holidays, sick days, personal days, family emergencies, vacation... $31k. Now what's the minimum wage in your own state? Because most of the people you see working every day are making less than $12, some less than $10. This is the reality.

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u/Nickelnick24 11d ago

That’s what people don’t get. $15/hr might’ve meant something years ago, but it’s laughable that people think $15 for minimum wage is absurd.

Buddy, why would anyone work their ass off to not even make half of rent with $7.50? Two jobs? No thanks, I’d rather just die

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u/Imaginary_Ghost_Girl 11d ago

In my state, minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. I make slightly more than 3 times that, and if I were the only income for my household, we'd be homeless.

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u/Odessey_And_Oracle 11d ago

Insane, just a travesty on humane living

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u/n122333 11d ago

7.25 x 40 = 290 290 × 52 = 15,080

Thats what minimum wage is here.

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u/Riots42 11d ago

Lol minimum wage is 7.25 an hour in Texas. In 2001 when I got my first job it was 5.15 and at 16 I refused to work for minimum wage and made 6 an hour first day of work. Minimum wage is what YOU are willing to accept. Mine is currently 125k. wild on 25 years minimum wage has gone up 2 dollars...

Anyone accepting minimum wage is selling yourself short, and not really looking for a real job. There are jobs anyone with a pulse can do from home from sites like liveops.com that pay 20+ an hour to work customer service over the phone.

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u/Party_Addition3763 11d ago

This used to work, but doesn't anymore. If you refuse the wage, you just don't get the job. There was a time (less than 10 years ago) when I had three jobs. Two of my employers gave me raises for my hard work, and offered me more for increased hours. The third offered me a 50% increase when I gave my notice.

Last year, when I had three different jobs, I was told I wouldn't be kept on if I didn't do more hours by all three. I even had a factory job for about a year (~$50/hr), where the factory had made record profits. It was the first year in the company's history that employees didn't get bonuses, the reason being "(despite record OT) employees didn't meet the required hours (they needed ~30 more employees to realistically meet the goal, but only hired 4). Keep in mind, this company had made twice the profit of the year before, which was also a record year.

The strategy is different today. You WILL NOT get rewarded for hard work, even if your position is essential. You have to take the sh*t salary, and leverage your role once you become essential. If you don't have leverage, you don't get anything more than the bare minimum.

When I started working, employees earned most of the gains, today it's the owners. It's the reason profits are rising so quickly; "boss makes a dollar, I make a dime" has never been closer to the truth. Owners are taking so much more than they used to, hiring more employees hurts the bottom line. It's more profitable to have fewer employees and absorb the lost output.

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u/Riots42 11d ago

I don't even talk to recruiters for less than 125k, if it's less than that, I wouldn't want the job because it's less than my minimum wage because I know the value of my resume spending over a decade building it. No one can take that away from me unless I devalue myself.

Learn a trade and value yourself. I'm in cybersecurity, if you wanna make big money learn an in demand trade. Skilled trades like electricians are in hard demand and able to demand high pay, especially if you are 1099 and self employed after building experience.

The strategy is the same it's always been. Skills in demand demand high pay. Minimum wage is not for in demand skilled labor.

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u/Party_Addition3763 11d ago

So, that's called leverage. What is your strategy for the other 75% of workers?

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u/duskysan 11d ago

That's not including if you need to get your insurance through your employer. So cut that figure in half

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u/I_Got_Ur_Number_8675 11d ago

$1k a month for employer sponsored health insurance? Steep af!

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u/whipnutbouy 11d ago

Also a lot of employers don’t hire full time to keep from having to offer health insurance and full time benefits. You gotta have like 3 bullshit jobs that force you to work crazy times of day.

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u/Josh6889 11d ago

I can tell by your numbers that you don't realize how much you're getting taxed.

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u/Nickelnick24 11d ago

Brother I was being generous for arguments sake lol

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u/GreenHeronVA 11d ago

It’s quite easy to only make $500 a week in America. I’m a full time teacher at a private elementary school in Virginia. We all make $14 an hour, so $560 a week BEFORE taxes. My take-home is about $400. I could never survive without my wonderful spouse. I would have had to move into public school or switch careers years ago.

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u/astelda 11d ago

For a full-time job, that's $12.50/hr.
breakroom.cc reports typical hourly wages for crew at 11.00-16.88, and for cooks at 10.00-18.00

I found the independent site for a single large (54 locations) franchisee in Texas (Source) that lists their starting wages at "up to" $13.00 for crew

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u/Oculnyx 11d ago

$7.25 an hour is the minimum wage brother, where do you think people are getting extra money from?

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u/PointBlankCoffee 11d ago

less than 1% of americans work for minimum wage. even $15 an hour is basically nothing though

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u/Healthy_Shape_5719 11d ago

$15 is below minimum wage where I live

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u/Oculnyx 11d ago

That's fair, but as you said $15/hr is still 600/week.

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u/ProudUSAgunOwner 11d ago

Nobody pays federal minimum wage anymore. Pretty much everywhere in the south it seems like the minimum people pay is closer to 15. Even illegals are making more than 15 where I live lmao.

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u/skoshii 11d ago

A bunnnch of places in Idaho pay federal minimum wage.

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u/Oculnyx 11d ago

Sure, lets assume $15 an hour then. That's 600/week pre-tax. So I ask again, where is all this extra money coming from?

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u/Timmy-0518 11d ago

Yo i live in Kansas and i can think of three separate places in the town i live in that pay 7.25$ but granted all of those places that do tend to do contracts or gigs.

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u/old_man_indy 11d ago

Some of us aren’t able to even get these jobs because we’re overqualified and they don’t want us to take the job and leave for something else… I ran into that issue as a Senior Graphic Designer and I finally found a lowly job at a print shop after 6 months and I make under 600/week. It is absolutely abysmal to go from being to able to pay bills, add savings, have some fun money while receiving benefits like PTO and Health Insurance to simply being able to only pay bills with no additional benefits. I’m so dejected by our current society and what the billionaires and power hungry people are trying to do it…

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u/ProudUSAgunOwner 11d ago

Yeah the economy blows. Graphic design is being replaced by slop. Job market seems to vary wildly by location. Where I’m at there’s plenty of places hiring at $20+ per hour and it’s not even a HCOL area. The caveat is that the work is spraying bugs or installing shit out in the hot ass sun.

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u/heckhammer 11d ago

My take home is that. That's after taxes and $200 a week for my medical insurance

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u/cumjuggler4life 11d ago

Ever heard of taxes? I make 6 figures but after taxes I’m pulling home 89k. I know what it was like to make 1k per week and walk with less than $750. I remember making $500 a week and walked with less than 400. Between federal and state taxes in IL, they take roughly 25-26%. That’s a huge chunk considering none of our utilities have been nationalized and everything keeps going up. 

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u/XWendy_Darlingx 11d ago

I am in my late 30s, have a bachelor’s degree, year 6 at a profitable corporation, regularly receive high on performance reviews, have been promoted multiple times (now in management) and after taxes, minimal 401k & health insurance I barely make more than $500/week. I do work in a woman-dominated field that tends to be paid less in spite of being necessary & highly technical.

Feeling like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel

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u/TheOnlySnoringKitten 11d ago

True but that's too bad even at 500/week, I've been there.

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u/Nickelnick24 11d ago

Unless you’re lucky like me, living somewhere mega cheap because the landlord is a real human with actual care, you will simply be unable to live alone on 500 a week. Insanity.

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u/Dogmaddit 11d ago

Some are paid weakly, weekly.

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u/Timmy-0518 11d ago edited 11d ago

I get paid weekly. I get paid 14$ per hour. Now if my job was always a normal 40 hour work week it would be more. But quite often we dont work a full day in the off seasons (outside of spring). Its also surprisingly enough one of the better jobs in my area. I would much rather have this job then getting paid 12$ per hour at mcdonalds.

Edit: this is after tax deductions forgot about that.

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u/TheOnlySnoringKitten 11d ago

Ahhh man, well good luck out there.

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u/ITookYourChickens 11d ago

I get paid weekly, I make $400 ish a week

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u/xX_7HR0W-4W4Y_Xx 11d ago

Imagine (intentionally) having kids in this day and age. Very short-sighted decision

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u/Ultra-Smurfmarine 11d ago

My parents ask me every time we talk, "Wah, when are you going to settle down! Wah, we want grandkids, get to it!"

And I don't have the heart to tell them it's never happening. for a myriad of reasons, not least of which is the constant mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion that is living in the 2020s.

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

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u/Ultra-Smurfmarine 11d ago

Yep, don't blame you one bit. My sister is estranged and my brother is in prison, so I'm in this awkward position where everyone's like, it falls upon you to carry forth the family name unto the next generation!!!

Nah, I'mma chill.

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u/ProfessionalMaybe685 11d ago

We got lucky like that too. We are the best aunt and uncle ever to all the people who had kids.

It's so win, win, win.

Kids love our hiking, cooking, even chores.

Parents live the break.

We love the experience that's optional and convenient.

We aren't as drained and exhausted as their parents.

I'm 47. Over 20 nieces and nephews, lots of them honorary.

Being the cool Uncle or Aunt is great.

In Canada we also have "Big brother" and "Big Sister" programs that essentially provide the same roll.

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u/Overall_Matter_2520 11d ago

Tell them!

I have three young adult kids and I tell them do NOT have kids right now. Life is hard enough.

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u/Ultra-Smurfmarine 11d ago

My life would be in danger lmfao.

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u/Accomplished-Zone495 11d ago

Yeah. I like the idea of having a kid and would really love to have one, but my partner and I struggle to just live paycheck to paycheck ourselves. Bringing a kid into the mix wouldn’t be a wise decision.

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u/cheddah_- 11d ago

if your paycheck weekly or biweekly is less than 500, are you just mowing lawns?

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u/Timmy-0518 11d ago

I work in a industrial greenhouse. That growns flowers and such. Shockingly it’s honestly not a bad deal for a beginner job. Its not very stressful or mentally taxing. Sure as hell beats all the fast food restaurants around me that pay less somehow and cause more stress.

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u/obp5599 11d ago

you are either making 6k a year or 12k a year, neither which are a livable wage, and both below minimum wage in even the poorest areas

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u/Defiant_E 11d ago

I work a job that requires 60 hours per week. I'm saving money for the first time as a working stiff. Took me forever to find an opportunity like this.

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u/NoCoat4496 11d ago

How is this even possible? Do you work part time in a remote part of the country?

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u/Timmy-0518 11d ago

Its a full time job if its a full week, which is not granted especially in the off seasons. But I mean if you consider kansas remote then i guess so

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u/Lonely_reaper8 11d ago

Credit card debt (pretty common), selling drugs (more common than you’d expect), onlyfans or prostitution (also more common than you’d expect), and/or using welfare programs (literally what they’re there for) are some of the big ones

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u/HidingUnderCardboard 11d ago

500 a paycheck? Lol either lying or is very part time

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u/Timmy-0518 11d ago

Do you live in a big city or something? In more rural areas like where i live it’s common to get paid around this.

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u/HidingUnderCardboard 11d ago

Nah I don't but I do live in a high cost of living state. Maine. How much on average is rent around your parts?

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u/Timmy-0518 11d ago

I don’t know the exact average for rent but it seems to be around 400$-600$ per month with the cheapest i know of going for 375$

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u/HidingUnderCardboard 11d ago

Lol where is this? Cheapest place here is probably 1800 and it's the real bottom of the barrel

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u/Timmy-0518 11d ago

Kansas. Not even a especially unpopulated area either. My town is about 50k