Its absolutely important that you listen to me now: dont take advice from reddit. It can do you no good.

Seriously the average demographics on reddit is very very young and most teens are at best very naive, at worse cynical arseholes. Mute some subs and live happy.

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Probably pretty good. The problems people worry about are the ones they solve

100% agree. Not to mention what passes for "political discourse" is aggressively divisive and lacking critical emotional intelligence skills such as empathy.

The US is amazing if you earn far above the average. It really is almost impossible to beat. However, it can also be quite suffocating on the lower ends of income. Future issues in the US will not affect you if you're a top income earner. I make ~300k and my wife makes ~175k and we are not remotely worried. I do think things will get worse for the bottom % of earners though.

Depends on how the next decades worth of Presidential and Midterm elections go.

Do you genuinely not believe that you and your wife making that money won't have your physical lives at risk if people become increasingly desperate over the decade and we continue this course? Honest question.

The Trump years (ugh) revealed just how deeply rotten the entire US system is. It's really easy to end up on the wrong side of the cops, really easy to get fucked for medical bills, and you are surrounded by the most ignorant religious assholes that you can imagine. If you wanna roll the dice on that, go for it, but I think it's clear that it's pretty fucked.

yeah, that 'bottom' 90% or so is gonna have some trouble, but things are looking great for you!

OP asked a question about prospects in the US with a good income so I gave it. I realize there's always gonna be people that get upset when I list what I make.

I am of the mindset that we are now and have been a fascist nation for at least the last 40 years. They are just coming out in the open about it now, but what we are seeing is the end stages of fascist creep, not the beginning. Ultimately, over the course of my lifetime, I believe the US will descend into a series of neo-feudal states headed by corporations, who will eventually supplant and dismantle the government entirely.

If the left continues down the path they are currently on it will be just like south America. Socialism with a some domestic terrorism.

Not really. I live in a LCOL-MCOL area in a house valued at 200k. I don't live much different then my neighbors. Got a high-school teacher on one side and a fireman + nurse on the other. The only people who are acutely aware of our income is my parents when I paid off their mortgage so they could retire.

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I’ve been “earning decent” at every job until I wasn’t a few years later despite reasonable raises. Cost of living will tear you a new asshole unless you give up considerable comfort. MANY moving here severely underestimate it.

I have to pick up jaws from the floor whenever I tell my visiting foreign family how much I make and how much is left after my necessary expenses.

Define "decent" and ask yourself who is allowed to earn "decently."

There already exists a massive divide between the rich and poor. The thing thats changed, is that the middle class is getting squeezed as well.

The corporate oligopoly don't want some of the money. They want all of the money. Thats going to leave less and less for working people.

As the contradictions between the promises and realities of capitalism become more apparent, the violence will only increase: the USA already had one attempted coup and one months long uprising against police brutality. This is only going to increase.

As climate change continues unabated the extreme weather events are going to get more frequent and more extreme.

The question you are actually asking is, "do I earn enough money to isolate myself from all this" and I'm afraid unless you're a multi millionaire the answer is no.

The problems wealthy people worry about are, by in large, the ones that get solved.

The US may not be that great in the future, but other countries will be worse.

With the whole geopolitics and climate change, one thing good about America is we are pretty self sufficient in terms of natural resources. It's a big country with different ways of living. No adjacent enemy states is also a big plus. Worst come to the worst, the US may just go back to the old policy of neutrality and non-interventionism like it did before the second world war. Our budget may not support a global military presence anyway, but definitely enough to defend North America.

Most countries in the world depend on other countries to feed them, to provide for the energy, as well as raw material to manufacture essential goods. The "global south" is also more vulnerable to climate change. Countries like Japan and New Zealand have high standards of living, but prone to natural disasters. Europe, on the other hand, has its own cost of living and refugee crisis.

But the above is just for basic living. I think in America the odds of running out of essentials is pretty low. We will have food on the table. As a surgeon though I do recommend people to live near a metro area. Lots of rural hospitals are shutting down and they are not coming back.

Agree. The young generation will inevitably lean more and more left. We will see federally and state governments grow bigger, which will drive taxes up. One may be earning decent salary but the take home pay will decrease. The economic growth will be dampened so the chances of landing a high paying job will get slimmer.

The problems wealthy people worry about are the ones that get solved for wealthy people

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Respectfully, this is a short-sighted but common view. America cannot be better than 90 percent of its inhabitants in the long run.

Yeah it's the democrats that constantly give huge tax breaks to the wealthy and scraps to the rest of the nation. Since Reagan it's been the same story each time a republican get elected, tax cuts that benefit the highest earners.

America is an oligarchic plutocracy. But it will be okay for a couple more decades, I think. The best jobs to be in are probably government jobs, as they are the slowest to change.

I'd encourage people to go visit other countries where there is virtually no middle class and one might get a glimpse of things to come. I don't think it will be full on Thunderdome, but things may be very different in fifty years. Of course, things were very different fifty years ago, so maybe this is just the natural progression.

What events over the past 40 years would help corroborate this theory? What makes you think this

How much ever you earn, you will always be one medical bill away from bankruptcy

Tl;dr - touch grass please

enjoy your bubble, when the rot comes, and it is coming, you're going down too

As long as you understand that Democrats and Republicans are equally horrendous, useless and unfathomably dangerous. And basically the entirety of the government is set up to fuck the citizens out of their lives, energy, and money, while protecting a bunch of Rich burdens. and they only seek out to extract the livelihoods of the citizens to cushion their own finances. And will trade millions of lives (globally not just domestically) for the sake of bitch money.

Their solution for not being able to pay for retirement, is just to have every citizen work 10 years longer. So goodbye retirement. Goodbye social security. Etc. And unless you luck out, and land a lucky lawsuit or something like that. You should probably be content with the fact you're going to work till you die. Don't rely on any of the government resources because they'll take it away as soon as they feel like it/has no actual value anymore.

And you're going to have to desensitize yourself to the excessive gun violence/ hate crime culture. The only country in the world whose highest cause of death for children, is gun violence.

Understanding that "freest country in the world" was a bastardized self-proclaimed title, because history can show and does that it has never experienced true freedom and peace. And in comparative to other developed countries it's honestly quite pathetic and understandably why America sits at number 13 in the freest country. Fuckin bozos

Highest incarceration rate in the entire world. surpassing North Korea by a mile. Has been involved in war for 96% of its entirety. Race riots, that continue today, just to treat people like fuckin PEOPLE, Unfathomable amounts of taxes for the citizens but loopholes for the burdens in suits, resulting in over 75% of Americans living check by check. So any change in their livelihood will absolutely decimate their financial standing. And that almost 90% of Americans will cripple their financial standing with an emergency $300 hospital visit.

Since Trump's bitchass 1 term presidency, the amount of American citizens denouncing citizenship has skyrocketed almost 200%. And it's honestly deserved, the old generation hates the Young generation, because the Young generation doesn't care about the prosperity of the country, they don't care about the money, they don't care about the power, they will gladly watch the shithole burn and dance in the ashes of a falsified flag. It's not that the Young generation is lazy is that we understand we're going to work till we die and we don't care to do that. If you want to go stroke your boss's dick till you're 60-70-80, go on ahead. but personally, guillotining rich people sounds way more adequate and enjoyable.

America has a lot of opportunities to be an amazing country but it's definitely not something to be proud of. And before other people from other countries, decide America would be a good place to move, do research about the better countries. Every country has its flaws but Jesus Christ, America is pathetic.

Once the mass migration of climate refugees begins, nowhere will be decent.

They’re being dramatic, Reddit skews HEAVILY left leaning and trump really brought out the loonies on both sides. We’ll be fine…maybe

It's extremely plausible. And the rest of the world will follow. Just read, Tragedy and Hope...

just find others from your country that have moved here and ask them what they think. I'm American and think we're a great country to come to, but I'm going to be biased, of course. the media makes us look really bad, but that's what it's like to have full freedom of speech

I'm not sure that sucking resources and dirt cheap labour from across the world is being self-sufficient

we need to also worry about the dictatorship. we now know that trump tried to organize and stage a coup. that's BIG. but people, especially on the right, don't seem to care. that's the thin little line between our current democracy, and becoming the next Belarus or Russia. it can happen. it happened in those countries within my lifetime. it can happen here. not taking things like that seriously is how it can happen. they're going to easy on the moron tacti-cool larpers on jan 6th, but at least most of them are getting at least a few years. history repeats itself. people being "apolitical" is how it happens. (which is ironically what most of the Russians in street interviews say now when asked political questions, if that isn't a clue)

now I think it's the loudest ones are the ones we hear thing. I think most republicans didn't like trump, at least after a while, and were pushed away. I don't think trump has a chance now. but the oligarchy problem usually goes hand-in-hand with dictatorships/autocracies, so it's something we need to take more seriously

and for the special trump lovers, courts just revealed basically all of the Fox News hosts did NOT believe the election was stolen or that there was fraud. we have screenshots of their texts among each other now. but sadly idiots like Marjorie T green will still repeat this stolen election crap. (how did we let clowns like this get into office???)

He meant relatively self-sufficient.

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Self sufficient when you take into account neo-colonialism and the fact that the US remains the world’s superpower. Even not factoring that in, OP’s point about the US’s natural resources makes it one of the more self sufficient countries.

It has weaknesses, but it’ll probably get on pretty well relative to most other countries.

I am 45 years old and they have been saying the same thing about America my whole life. Don’t believe the hype of the conspiracy theorists or the Trumpsters.

Depends how many more trains spill dangerous chemicals into major water ways.

What will do you when those awesome neighbors of yours start losing their homes? Don’t think it won’t happen in your lifetime. I honestly hope it doesn’t, but start thinking about what your response is going to be.

If you're a top 10% earner US is and probably always will be one of the best places to live since most policies benefit the top 10%. If you earn above average but below top 10% you are probably in a similar position as people in western europe that are in the same income bracket. Below that and the US is not so great anymore. I don't think there's any reason for this to change in the future either tbh.

What do you do to make $300k? I live in a HCOL area but they pay like we live in a MCOL Only people who make money like this are surgeons, politicians and VPs, CEOs etc around here

I agree

Many young people on Reddit who don’t shit about shit, have never traveled to a third world or developing country and it shows, romanticize European countries and what could be but political realities are all too real in each country.

Every country has their own pile of shit they deal with everyday. On it’s worst day, America is still better place to wake up on than most. I’m a first generation American and my parents are immigrants. I’m raising children here and understand the fears and of course have reservations about the future but I gotta say, the grass isn’t always greener

Sounds like something two kids in a trench coat would say… /s

But for real, do actual research and question everything.

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The fact we're a minority ruled country and have been done Reagan.

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Eat grass got it.

Lmao I bet USA will have paid subscription for air

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US is heaven if you are a high-income earner. It is hell if you are poor or bottom earner.

So your income decides whether usa is great or not.

Why are people going to lose their homes?

What can we expect?

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As an aside, part of our culture is to worry about our own demise; and as the ascendant culture, the USA is currently exporting that part of its culture.

>have every citizen work 10 years longer.

the system is set up to respond to the reality of the situation: which is the coming demographic winter. it doesn't matter how much "money" there is; it matters how many able bodied citizens there are in proportion to the elderly and disabled and unable to work. that we'll have to work until the day we die is more a question of demographics than political systems.

"Truth is: if not for covid, Trump would have been reelected in a landslide. So we evaded Armageddon for good old store brand oppression.

But if a leader more savvy..
And less sociopathic..
With true fascist aspirations come along its gon tragic.

74 million proved if the right rhetoric is used we could end up on the wrong side of Workd War II 2."

Our problem is that our government is so divided, even good ideas are voted against out of partisanship. Look at the Infrastructure Bill. We needed that desperately, in fact, I think it one of the prime achievements of safeguarding our role as world innovators. Look at other countries like Japan, with their bullet trains. Look at Europe with their public transportation hubs.

The one bit of bright news is that we got a domestic microchip manufacturing bill passed, that was absolutely essential. We need to aggressively be pursuing energy independence by switching to 100% wind and solar, just as a minimum.

Capitalism destroys the world in this timeline. People learn the hard way that you can't eat a dollar. The pursuit of wealth and power completely destroys the world around us until you are simply a cog to keep the money flowing. It is already happening. Pay attention.

I think there’s a lot worse places to be if you’re poor

Well we have an authoritarian running again in the next presidential election and this time I believe he will go all in, he's old and has nothing to lose. They already have their uniforms and salutes for him. Even people making a decent living are living paycheck to paycheck, I don't know a single person who isn't now. 4 years ago it wasn't this bad, I didn't have to see so many crying faces it was mostly smiles and laughs back then. Things got dark and cold very fast, it's only a matter of time before things get deadly.

Don't listen too much to people on reddit is the first important step.

Go outside more, see things for yourself and decide.

Reddit caters to people who want to listen to people and talk to people who only agree with them. It's not a place for unbiased anything.

Hey now some of us are OLD and foolish too!

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North America will tend to be insulated from global instability caused by climate change because it has much lower population density than any other big developed country.

The geography of the United States isn't that bad for climate change, but the big benefit is like there's only like two big countries besides the US and there's just not that many people compared to almost everywhere else in the world.

So there's basically like no way that's not a significant benefit and like as long as Yellowstone doesn't explode or something North America will probably be the premium location on the planet for many decades.

But of course you have to be able to put up with Americans and that might be a significant challenge.

The downside is that you know Americans have been on top too long and they've kind of gotten fat lazy and disconnected from reality so you could argue America is a bit more mentally fragile and most certainly spoiled.

Awful political systems create environments people don’t want to have children in. How do we break this feedback loop?

good point. i suppose one idea is that the minimum wage should keep pace with productivity & inflation, which would make the min wage $30/hour or something now.

Some people never grow up :P

Reddit hates EVERYTHING, don't worry and just live your life. Go to any mountain biking, gaming or car subreddit and see for yourself.

Depends who you are.

Private public partnerships and ESG will be a big part of the destruction of freedom. The national security apparatus will also grow and target people more.

If being poor in the US is hell, you haven't seen a hard life. Maybe in your mind a few countries take care of the poor, but the fact is the vast majority of the world being poor means you are being sold into slavery, being raped, abused and/or murdered and nobody bats an eye.

Whatever you’re worried about, just change the channel. You’re listening to the wrong propaganda. America will be just fine.

Too early to tell. If the GOP wins all three in the next election cycle dont come here if youre not a straight white financial christian

Liar liar liar liar liar this bothsides bullshit is just right wing propaganda to keep you useless.

You are living in a fantasy world. You need to get in touch with reality.

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I was a principal data engineer at a fortune 5 insurance company. Now I transitioned to senior director and run multiple core platform teams. At my current company thats 2 bands off VP.

Top comment right here. Most of what you'll find on the main reddit subs are either children or adults working crappy, un-skilled jobs complaining about rich people. Never take financial advice from gas station clerks.

I’m homeless with 3 jobs. I own a business that employs 8 people and has done 1 million+ in revenue 6 years running.

It’s unfathomable how tough it can be when you’re on your own.

If you have friends or loved ones to team up with, things can be a lot easier.

Data money is good! That sounds awesome!

America is already run by a collection of oligarchs, they buy up all the politicians or they themselves run for political seats. The ideas of aristocracy, feudalism, dictatorship, its all short sighted, these are hyper capitalist entities, that really don't give two flying flips about political alignment. All they care about is profit, and money. The sooner people realize that we aren't going to ever defeat them by having elections every 2 years the sooner we might make some progress.

But Both sides are rightwing

It is really not. While both sides are not the same on the surface, both Republicans and Democrats participate in insider trading on the stock market, they both use capital to influence political decisions away from the best case for the people. The Republicans and the Democrats have been for a near century the same party, it has not been until recently where they have diverged enough to have actual disagreements on things. The belief that Democrats will save you from Republicans or Republicans will save you from Democrats is literally taking the steps to hand authoritarians reins to government. Which I mean cool I guess, you get internet points for not being the other guys, when you should not want want to be any of them.

I agree, dems and republicans prior to the mid 2010s were the same party. But the democrats are being taken over at the local level and at least pretend at the federal. Republicans will turn us into a christian theocracy, democrats want universal healthcare - maybe. You're the one trying to get internet points here boy, stay in your lane or start bringing facts.

really? Both sides are trying to turn us into a christian theocracy?

I figure US decline will go slowly, then all at once, and it’s virtually impossible to know how long the slow phase will last; it could easily last through my lifetime.

Smoke grass got it.

At the rate it's going, we're looking to end up in the same situation as The Outer Worlds. It's not really going to be a dictatorship, it's going to be a corporate wonderland. The upper middle class and lower will essentially be born into debt and be required to work off that debt as it passes down generation to generation as the highest class continues to grow their generational wealth into infinitum until the day comes that some serious economic collapse causes the entire system to upend and either result in mass loss of life as the top class seek to maintain their way of life through desperate measures, or a war is fought between corporate entities just to lower the number of mouths to feed and then continue working the remaining population at a higher pace to ensure no loss in productivity.

Have you heard about our trains?

The question and how it's raised is like 100 red flags in the first place.

The fact that we have to specify "for those who earn decent" is indicative of a future society that still finds a way to omit the poor from leading respectable lives. In other words, the exact same as present day America.

It'll suck if we still reject part of our populace from receiving care, goods and services even after AI are widely available and the majority of diseases have been eradicated. Just the way this question had to be phrased to remain realistic is telltale of our failure as a society.

Ideally, it'll be great for everyone who lives here or wants to live here. Ideally, classist divisions of power based on wealth will no longer exists. Ideally, "liberty and justice FOR ALL" will be a reality rather than just a fleeting promise. I want to believe that's possible but it's highly unlikely. Especially with have and have-not attitudes persisting long after Capitalism and false scarcity no longer exist.

I think American foreign and military policy is the reason other poor countries are worse off.

Reddit is a very small minority that has a very loud echo chamber.

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Liar liar liar. All of this left vs right bullshit is just fascist propaganda to keep their natural enemies at each other’s throats over things that the fascists couldn’t care less about like abortion or gay rights. How many issues do the masses on the left and right agree on that somehow continually get swept under the rug? Gotta vote for that lesser evil!

Funny that universal healthcare and Christian morality laws are both things that can be used as tools to increase the power of the fascists while also not being things they actually care about in and of themselves.

HAHAHAHAHA yes, those are both the tools of facists. Paying for your healthcare and kiling you if you dont pray, same diff.

I remember being in middle school

When the only thing you care about is increasing state control of everything, then yes.

HURR DURR STATE BAD BEZOS GOOD SAVE ME BILLIONAIRE DADDYYYYYYY

I disagree. Both sides serve the corps but only one side is actively trying to take away medical rights for girls, attack the LGBT community, and hamper education. I understand corporate greed and capitalism are problems, but they’re not the ONLY problems. The way I think of it is that both sides policies are unsustainable, however republicans are actively evil and try to make peoples lives worse.

While it’s true in general not to take reddits advice as it’s generally just a bunch of strangers, the left leaning subs tend to have very accurate criticisms of American problems.

lots and lots of dumb gunnuts ain't ever gonna go away

It depends on what you like. I've been living in USA (NYC - FLORIDA) for 8 years. And I'm ready to leave I'm already fed up with all the companies basically scamming me every day and there's nothing you can do about it. I'm talking about insurance companies, services companies, banks and everything in between. This system is basically designed on obtaining the most amount of money at any cost. The lack of actual culture is insane. Everybody be trashing everything. Nobody recycles, nobody cares about environment, cities are dirty. All this without even getting into guns and different stuffs that are broke.. Country is divided and everything is linked to politics. Idk kinda throwing a rant out here. Looking to move to Germany.

(Edit: Keep in mind I’m talking about political institutions, not voters.)

No, both sides are using the fascists to maintain power. Gop use Christian theocrats to garner political power, Dems use the threat of Christian theocrats to get people to settle for nothing

Neither has any intention of changing the status quo. They are both owned by the same business interests and lobbies, both represent corporate interests - the difference you see is marketing

Military, police, healthcare, debt, education, and foreign policy - both parties have the same goals; whatever offers kickbacks to the people who fund them. Both parties are owned. The difference between them are wedge issues.

Sometimes genuine fascists are elected to the GOP and sometimes people who genuinely want to improve the world are elected to the dnc but both parties are run by people who would lose power and money if status quo changes.

Contention is profitable. Abortion rights at risk is good for fundraising. GOP being a fascist threat is good for fundraising. But the dnc doesn’t believe their own rhetoric. For example; Biden could take manchin off of his committees, limit his reach until he falls in line. But he won’t because manchin is playing the role of heel. The ones who donate to manchin also donate to the dnc. It’s all a game to them

I dont care about the fantasy you believe in. It is an objective fact, a stated one by many, that republicans want to turn america into a theocracy. I dont care that you think all government is bad. We are talking about the real world, not an ideal fantasy where you can flip a switch and get the all star third party we dream of.

Lol you asked

No, I asked if both sides were trying to turn us into a christian theocracy. You came back with a dodge and a rant about how joe biden isnt doing enough for you.

You asked and that was my answer

Just as long as were both clear you did not answer.

Debt is increasing at an insane pace, while birth rates are declining. We have an increasingly arrogant and violent police force. Housing is expensive. We have an increasing homeless population. Healthy food is expensive. The quality of our tap water is declining. I don’t know where you are moving from if the US will be any better. But the US is not the great country it used to be.

I am nearly 100% confident that USA will stay a democratic Republic.

Also for all the people in the comments yelling "Lobbyists" I have a question for you.

Can you name a single time the congress has passed a law that the voter base did not want but the corporations did?

Corporate Lobbying does not seem to outweigh voter interests in my perception but I would like to be shown otherwise if possible.

Reddit's "left leaning subs" are a cesspool of misinformation and idiocy.

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I did, I acknowledged the Christo fascist threat and said the Dems are complicit

Life is getting tougher everywhere, just in slightly different ways. Americans like to pretend their living situation is getting so bad... but if you roll some random country generator - you'll find that living conditions in the resulting country are much worse.

Trouble with USA is that it's very expensive, has very little government support for healthcare and has a workaholic culture. On the plus side - earning potential here is one of the highest.

My father kept moving around trying to find an ideal place to live, after a lot of work they relocated to New Zealand. Lived and worked there for a while - found out that pensions there are tiny and the country was getting expensive. Had to move back. Now retired to Bulgaria, it's cheap and fairly nice - but turned out that Healthcare is awful and there are year long lines to the clinics with good Healthcare. Plus a lot of beurocracy and they almost force you to learn Bulgarian to get through it.

It's very difficult to move permanently to a lot of countries and be able to work. Many nations don't really allow it, or only allow it for some professions and you have to do a lot of work to get through their systems. And that's before language barrier comes into play.

"Neither has any intention of changing the status quo"

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No, you did not. You downplayed what the right is doing and brought up past bad behavior from the left.

I didn’t downplay it. I said the Dems are complicit. You’re kind of being a baby

Saying that theyre not trying to change the status quo is downplaying what theyre doing right now.

…No it’s not. I am not endorsing it? The us has always been run by christo facsists - that is the status quo

Im guessing youre a straight white man? Thats not an insult, you just seem insulated. Brother I dont know how to tell you this but the status quo for 50 years was roe v wade. The status quo was mail in voting. The status quo was you could at least say the word gay in class if a kid asked about it. These werent where I wanted them to be, but you are not paying attention. Wake the fuck up.

I’m a trans woman lmao nice try tho

I didn’t say the state was bad, and I didn’t say billionaires were good. The fact that billionaires exist is a huge problem with the world.

If you have so little interest in what anyone else actually says or believes that you immediately resort to bizarre straw men without even trying, why bother posting about politics in the first place? Seems like a total waste of time for you.

Is that where you learned to respond to things you don’t want to hear with childish retorts?

Hey, just goes to show that living through the struggle doesnt mean you get the struggle. I notice you only refuted the thing you could, which is fair.

We have our problems with corporate greed and government corruption. It's trending towards a tipping point, but to actually win we need new politicians on both sides, RNC's trending towards Christian nationalism and the DNC's trending towards central distribution and surveillance if the citizenry.

My wife and I bought our first home at 29yo last year. We both have our masters and can afford to go on multiple vacations a year. We live in a central suburb to Philly, an affordable city. Between the 2 of us we earn 140k a year, our sallaries likely could double in the next 10 years if we get a good career path. Were investing a solid 12% of our income so we should be able to retire early. Even if you earn less than us or are single you could buy a condo or townhome in an affordable city with a decent trade job or something comparable. And have a pretty nice standard of living.

As long as you go to an afordable college or tradeschool, get a job that you don't hate, and develop your career, and live in a city with housing that you can afford. You should have a better standard of living than 95% of people alive.

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Reddit is a tiny minority of the overall USA population. It's also a population that consumes a lot of news, which is usually negative and click driven. I would not take Reddit seriously and just go touch grass.

Jesus Christ dude

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> average demographics on Reddit is very very young

That was true back in the day, but currently 18 to 29 and 30 to 62 are almost exactly equal, and account for about 70% of users.

Kinda crazy …

So minimum wage for large portions of America are at near the highest levels in the past 50 years.

Healthcare coverage is also at some of the highest levels for the past 50 years.

Median household income adjusted for inflation is about the highest it has been in the past 50 years. (if anyone is interested: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/psdt_01-10-20_economic-inequality_1-0/ )

Unemployment is about the lowest it has been over the past 50 years.

People are doing well.

The problem is wealth inequality. Others are doing better and we are not all sharing in the growth of wealth.

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I am pessimistic and optimistic at the same time. My pessimism is that it will always be a plutocracy. My optimism is that as our oligarchs and representatives die off and the next generation replaces them they are going to use that power for more progressive ideology.

How much do you make and how much do you have left after necessary expenses?

My guy, any amount of people without health care in a so-called 1st world nation is a crime against humanity.

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Pre-tax annual ~115k between me and my wife, monthly take-home after tax, SSI, healthcare, and savings deductions ~6,500.

I’m not gonna list all my expenses, but we live pretty frugal sharing one car, but rent in a HCOL area in Southern CA. I’ll be lucky to have 2k in fun money at the end of the month, but it usually falls short. I would love to own a home here and that’s where the leftover should be going toward, but that’s unlikely within the decade.

Honestly, I’m not worried about it. In fact with all our land and natural resources (talking food and water) I think the U.S. is frankly one of the best places to live in terms of climate change, and IMO that’s a bigger deal.

Politically, you need to understand that very few Americans under the age of, say, 45 are the kinds of right-wing whack jobs who are causing problems for the rest of us. 10 years from now the electorate is going to be overwhelmingly dominated by Millennial and Gen Z voters, who are arguably more progressive/liberal-minded than any generation in history.

We will need to deal with a minority of angry, violent conservatives, and they could cause problems. Like, think of ‘The Troubles’ in Ireland: bombings, shootings. Things like that are already an issue and will likely worsen. But we can deal with that and the more that shit happens the more it will harden the rest of our resolve to build a better society.

I am worried about many things, but not our politics. Oh, and besides, these people who are trashing us - what do they suggest? Move to Europe? Aside from being massively overpopulated and lacking a good resource base on its own, it’s not like they don’t have the same problems with fascism that we do here. In fact in some regards the situation there is even worse politically. No. Stay here and help us make this country a good place to be.

When Obama got elected my dad said “that’s it we’re a communist country now. We’re all going to have to stand in line for bread.” When trump got elected my friend said “that’s it. We’re a dictatorship now. Pretty soon the government is gonna control every aspect of your life.” Both sides are paranoid and think the worst of the other party. Trump is an idiot. I don’t believe he was Hitler. Obama wanted to redistribute the wealth in this country but I don’t think he was trying to tear down the free market system. It’s all fear and half the people are only repeating things they have heard. I will say this. If we don’t change are attitude. Violence will come from are inability to work together and find common ground.

I fully agree with your message but I am honestly confused how you could think that 2k in fun money PER MONTH is not very much.

21% of redditors are 10-19 so you missed a big group that are considered Young. 50% of redditors are under 30 with average age being 23

Thank you for this comment! Reading stuff like this on reddit spoils me to almost having a depression. Yes, there are some world issues, but it's still a heck of a lot better than almost all of human history.

I don't think it will get worse. There are just ups and downs and we are just in downs at the moment.

From what I know, people spread negativity so effectively, ignoring the positives. Reddit it a prime example.

In my opinion, it's best to tune out the news and negative reddit subs, start learning new things and enjoy the single life you have.

I wasn’t arguing the point, just adding to it. Looked up the stats in response to the comment and thought it was interesting.

Not necessarily sucking resources from other countries. US is a net producer/exporter for lots of stuff. Oil, natural gas, corn, soy beans are good examples of that. Even enemy states such as China needs to purchase them from the US, particularly corn and soy beans, even in these tense geopolitical times. People gotta eat.

You actually listen to what people say on the internet?

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how is that even remotely anarchy? it's authoritarianism. it's HOW they make money. they go strong arm companies. russia sent KGB (FSB, but let's be real here) into companies and forced them to sign them over to government officials at gunpoint. go watch a documentary on the magnitsky thing if you haven't. it's insane. the magnitsky act that the UN used to sanction russia came from the name of the lawyer that was killed by the Kremlin for defending an American businessman that they tried to do the same thing to, but luckily he was smarter than them. unfortunately the brave russian lawyer died for his bravery. trump would do the same crap here. he was already doing shady shit WHILE in office. like forced govt. trips to stay in his hotels, and then price gouged them more than their normal price. that goes beyond conflict of interest. but I digress

I'm not saying there isn't any truth to some of what you said, as there is certainly a lot of corrupt lobbying going on, as we know large corps basically have a huge influence on politics. but that doesn't excuse the ONE party that is openly trying to burn the country and democracy to the ground while pulling a russia and falsely trying to redirect the blame

I’m supposed to be saving for a goddamn house.

FHA is not an option. A 10% down payment is literally $90,000+ anywhere within 30 mins of where my wife and I work. Ideally, I would love to put down 20%, and even then I’m still competing with cash offers.

Sure, an extra 2k is a lot for someone who likes living paycheck to paycheck. I don’t like that. I won’t like being a forever renter. I don’t want to start a 30-year mortgage when I’m 40. I want real estate to pass onto my kids because this economy will be even more fucked in time.

With the affordable care act, healthcare is available to everyone in America. Anyone without healthcare has chosen to not get healthcare.

Easy to blame problems on things you can’t control

I was a lobbyist on left leaning issues and now work in sales for a gov contractor so I maybe can't control it but can influence potentially.

I get what you mean, but gas station clerks and the like are people too. And they are suffering. Why would you judge how worthy this country is by exclusively measuring the satisfaction of it's financially secure people? That doesn't make sense to me. We don't judge other countries by how happy and robust their middle and wealthy classes are exclusively.

I myself am comfortably middle class and yet I still see that dissatisfaction is growing among all social and economic classes that aren't property owning or financially stable. That's a lot of people in America, and we need them for our society to function. Are we going to just tune out their dissatisfaction and suffering? Seems a bit callous to me...

I don't think people worried or complaining about America's future are all whiny cynical teenagers.

No one asked, nor does anyone care

Lol username checks out.

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Are there stats?

I have to imagine Reddit has aged — I know I have, lol.

But, also, the how-to content is huge now. It was a lot more niche when it was first rolling.

Now that I think about it more, reddit has been around quite a while. I'm sure a lot of the user base aged with it. I think it's been around for 20 years right?

I had to look it up — 2006 founded by Aaron Schwarz, who they killed for his contributions…

He would shit if he knew what corporate tool its become.

I got on in 2008 when the internet was still wild and free and beautiful…

In 2011 you could find out everything you needed to know to buy <almost> anything you wanted on the darknet via Reddit.

Vendors used to run specials- you could interact w them. Hell, you could still chat w Dread for a few years after come to think of it.

The Establishment just had NO idea

Man, when all that collapsed — when those FBI banners sprang up all over the deepweb, it was like you just knew it was the beginning of the end.

Reddit cracked down shortly after … as usual, they cracked down on stuff that shoulda been locked down long before (underage/sketchy nudes), and used that as an excuse to just shatter all the libertarian communities (small ‘l’, not like Ron Paul).

Ha ha— that little date look up sent me down a memory hole, lol!

That is incredibly fucking ignorant of you but I don't have the time or energy to explain how some people work two or three jobs but still don't have enough money to pay for health insurance, and even if they did, how little coverage cheap plans actually offer.

The USA is the only country in the world where "medical bankruptcy" is a thing and thats a fucking crime.

Yeah my main account was created in 2007 or 08. Sadly I deleted it when I was going through a life transition. Really wish I still had that account would love to look back at some of the things I posted

I could explain the word "crime" to you, but it seems like you live in your own little world with your own "facts"

Is everything perfect? Of course not. Hell not even close.

Are most people doing better based on median income, higher minimum wages, more people with healthcare.... for those that live in the real world , undeniably yes.

Something can be morally a crime without being legally a crime. I shouldn't have to explain this to you.

"Things are shitty but marginally less shitty than they were a while ago" is such a low fucking bar and you should not settle for it.

Fixed your response… “I’ve worked on some left leaning think tanks and I have definitive knowledge of the subject with advanced degrees in music and English literature. You peasants are clueless, go get an education”

I don't think there will be a dictatorship. However, there are political movements that are actively censoring people which is reminiscent of fascism and Soviet Russia/China happening here in real-time in the west. Continuation of this censorship is going to start to cause the populace to revolt in anger and cause civil unrest. Ostracizing a demographic of people based on their values results in people turning to extremism new research shows. With the cost of living increasing exponentially and men not going to school at the same capacity the west will ultimately collapse unless policies are laid in place to make school malleable for men again. There are a lot more facets and focal points to address but the west is heading toward a decline with the destruction of the family ideology.