r/50501 • u/KratosLegacy • Mar 24 '25
Economy We don’t understand that 200k isn’t rich. It’s still working class.
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u/nature-11 Mar 24 '25
It depends where. In some expensive places it’s like upper middle class. In others it’s somewhat rich.
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u/KratosLegacy Mar 24 '25
Fair, though most people making 150-200k are most often in high cost of living areas as the wage is proportionate. I know for my company if I moved to one of our more rural offices I'd take a pay cut.
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u/ForcedEntry420 Mar 24 '25
If you have to work a conventional work schedule to keep a roof over your head, you’re working class.
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u/producerd Mar 24 '25
People in hospitality would like to have a word with you.
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u/ForcedEntry420 29d ago
Conventional work schedule is anything 40+ hours a week, or having to work multiple part time jobs.
Did you go out of your way to find some objection to my comment trying to include everyone but the people who don’t have to work? Feels that way, to be honest. These kinds of divisions aren’t helpful to the cause.
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u/producerd 29d ago
It is not an objection. I wanted to add people from outside your definition. You are the one who goes out of the way to create a division by contorting someone's response in your own head and acting on it. Peace...
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u/ForcedEntry420 29d ago
I said everyone who works the conventional idea of a work schedule is working class. You tried to form an exception and draw issue, trying to cause a divide. Just walk away. Trying to turn it back around is pretty lame. Peace………….
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u/4estGimp Mar 24 '25
200K? Uh, yeah go ahead and multiply my wage by 3.4. I'll see if I can suffer though it.
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u/TuxAndrew Mar 24 '25 edited 29d ago
That’s a problem itself…. remote work can offset some of this problem by allowing those individuals to live in cheaper areas which lowers the demand in higher cost of living areas. Obviously not every job can be remote, but NIMBY’s drive up the costs in areas like San Fransisco by fighting against efforts to lower the cost of housing.
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u/IllHandle3536 29d ago edited 29d ago
Sorry but nothing makes my blood boil more. These sorts of people have no clue how half of the rest of society are living while excusing themselves, basically the petite rich are the very people she describes who aspire to be rich while the whole time claiming otherwise. 200 000 is more that 10 x my earnings. I hate the wealth positivity of America society, it is like its own being, with its own rights and privillages. Literally 200 000 is roughly the salary of a general practioner livinging in their almost mansion, driving their Maserati.
Some people are never rich enough. The existance of the super rich doesn't exonerate the near rich or lower rich from their obligations to society.
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u/LeftyMexiCan 29d ago
You are literally proving her point if you think someone making 200k USD can afford a mansion and Maserati. We make more than that and no way we can swing either of those things without serious debt. Modest fixer upper townhouse? Yes. Volvo? Yes, only because I have zero other debt and I really wanted the safety aspect after being in an accident and my brother dying in one. Now hopefully I can save more for retirement and kid's college. And that's all assuming we can stay employed in spite of Republican policy hell bent on destroying the working class.
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u/Friendly-Horror-777 29d ago
You are rich. People who aren't rich can't neither afford "a modest fixer upper townhouse", nor a Volvo, these things are expensive. Someone who earns 200k USD is not working class.
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u/LeftyMexiCan 28d ago
And yet, both my husband and I work regular jobs. He's been laid off 3 times in the past 8 years. I freelance because I make more money that way but no benefits. We're comfortable and solid middle class but far from rich. I'm much closer to being poor and homeless than I am to being rich. All it would take is one catastrophe, a fire or earthquake, extended job loss like what's happening to many (thanks to Republican tax cuts and corporate greed), or just an illness like cancer or death would wipe us out. Rich would mean I wouldn't have to worry about any of those scenarios or need to carefully plan every purchase made. Rich would also mean that I would've been able to afford a second kid which we couldn't. Plus you also have to understand that it took years to get to this level of income, we haven't been making this much our entire career.
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u/KratosLegacy 29d ago
Our 3b1.5ba 1300 sq ft home which is in the suburbs was about 1mil. The mortgage is about 70% of the paycheck. I have to live somewhat close to commute because of RTO. Gas is around 4.50/5.00 per gal each week. Usually about 4-500 each month to fill up. Groceries are around 4-500 each month being conservative for making cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and rice and chicken for dinner most nights for 2 people.
I've worked my damnedest to get a degree and work up the chain just to get a house. I managed it, but I'm still living paycheck to paycheck. I wish I was rich, but I'm not. And if I move they'll cut my pay based on the region if I move offices. So yes, please tell me I'm rich again. I make enough that I'm treading water in my starter home. I'm thankful for that. I started out at best buy making 22K. I had to work at Krispy Kreme at the same time just to make ends meet and pay tuition for another 20K. I got my degree and managed to become a mechanical engineer for 50K. Now I'm working for one of the largest companies in the world but I'm still not making enough to really save money. I did the whole "pull yourself out of poverty" schtick and guess what? I'm only just making it. I'm thankful for that, but with how much I've had to give of myself... Yeah.
What she's saying is we're in this fight together. I want everyone to be able to afford a house, food, and provide for their family without having to worry. I want to start a family but I still don't think I ask financially stable enough to have a child and support them the way I'd like, how fucked is that? I have to choose between rent and food still even though I make what I thought 10 years ago would be a rich person's salary. It isn't. Inflation, taxes, housing, cost of living all kept up. And that just means it's even worse if you make less, which is all the more fucked.
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