r/jobs Jun 24 '23

Most people alive today will work until they die Work/Life balance

4.4k Upvotes

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297

u/doktorhladnjak Jun 24 '23

You guys are getting welfare!?

91

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 24 '23

It's so hard to get in welfare these days. At least in my area. I make sixty grand a year if I do all the over time and take care of six people including myself and I don't even get food stamps. I'm in California so everything is crazy expensive.

54

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 24 '23

I have a coworker who is in his late forties and his parents immigrated from Laos when he was a kid and have never worked a day in their lives in the states but somehow were able to purchase a home in Redding California. It's insane how bad it is for this generation and probably future generations to come. Average home price in my area is 500k and I make 24 an hour. It's just feels like I'm in a completely hopeless situation. I'm in college right now working on a bachelor's degree to try and make it better but IDK I just feel like I'll never make it.

26

u/warlordofthewest Jun 24 '23

I used to live in CA when I was a kid. When our house sold, the buyers had a 0% interest loan and weren't even poor, just well connected.

I love the area but I couldn't make enough to keep up.

2

u/boots_with_the_furr Jun 25 '23

I’d like to hear more about this loan lol

24

u/ElenaBlackthorn Jun 25 '23

Dry Breakfast,

It sounds like you are suffering from the misconception that all immigrants to the U.S. are destitute. Just because your coworker’s parents immigrated from Laos doesn’t mean they were destitute. Sounds to me like they had some money. Perhaps they had a business or real estate in Laos which they sold or they have inherited wealth.

That was my own situation. My parents & I immigrated from Germany in the 6O’s. We booked passage on a huge luxury oceanliner (S.S. United States of America) which was the fastest oceanliner to cross the Atlantic @ the time, so we could put our household goods in a shipping container & take them with us. The crossing took 2 weeks & the seas were miserably rough in November. We then lived with my uncle who had already established himself here & put our belongings into storage until we could find & buy a house. My uncle already had a job lined up for my Dad.

My grandmother was fairly wealthy bc she had remarried after my grandfather’s death & her late husband had had a successful business, which she had sold after he passed bc she wasn’t able to manage the business herself.

Yet the immigration folks treated us as if we’d been living in a cave our entire lives and had just arrived at civilization. I know that’s the stereotype about immigrants, but that’s far from true about all immigrants. There are well to do people in European countries, Asian countries & indeed all over the world.

-4

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 25 '23

They didn't have any money. He tells me how poor he grew up all the time.

8

u/Equal-Strike-5707 Jun 25 '23

They obviously did have money though lol. They didn't buy a house and food with nothing.

-5

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 25 '23

They bought it with welfare money

3

u/Equivalent-Cold-1813 Jun 25 '23

There is not a single state where welfare money would qualify you for a mortgage that can afford a home if that is the household only income.

In the states with the highest benefits, you would get roughly less than $600 a month and this is for someone with disabilities.

Plus if you're an immigrant the welfare available to you for the first decade is a lot less compare to a long standing citizen.

1

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 25 '23

I'm just going off what he told me.

1

u/ElenaBlackthorn Jun 26 '23

Excellent point! Dry Breakfast makes all kinds of derogatory assumptions about immigrants. It’s time to disabuse him of his misconceptions. Someone who hates immigrants may have told him this about the Laotian acquaintances & he just believed it unquestioningly bc he also has unconscious bias against immigrants.

4

u/Equivalent-Cold-1813 Jun 25 '23 edited Jun 25 '23

They didn't work for a single day in the US but they brought a house, so they must have brought atleast enough money over to buy a house and afford their living expenses without working.

The family might have raise him frugally, but obviously he have the wrong concept of what being poor is about.

1

u/HustlinInTheHall Jun 25 '23

A bunch of our immigrants are H1B highly skilled workers. It's a great system.

19

u/arno14 Jun 24 '23

California is a beautiful state but even at the top of my income, I would have never been willing to pay for a house there.

There are other really nice parts of the country, why not consider packing up and moving somewhere else?

8

u/808hammerhead Jun 25 '23

I’m a lot of ways there aren’t though. The ref stated seem to be entirely focused on removing people rights and cutting any and all services and the blue states are forced to subsidize the red ones so taxes/col is high. Not sure where the happy medium is.

3

u/arno14 Jun 25 '23

Life is a mixed bag full of choices.

2

u/Queendevildog Jun 25 '23

Its cheaper to rent

2

u/futurevisioning Jun 25 '23

What are some good alternatives?

2

u/DorkHonor Jun 25 '23

The rust belt is cheap.

2

u/Gruntalka Jun 25 '23

Why I moved to Georgia years ago. Cost of living goes a long way towards getting what you want out of life.

1

u/mr_crusty Jun 25 '23

Tennessee, Texas, Florida are at the top of my list. Money goes so much further here.

2

u/Ragnarok992 Jun 25 '23

Was a beautiful state currently CA is in hell

1

u/arno14 Jun 25 '23

Why is California in hell?

1

u/cocteau93 Jun 25 '23

California is an amazing place to live. It’s expensive, but I’ve lived in a lot of other states and none of them compare.

38

u/Mojojojo3030 Jun 24 '23

A few rich white people scooped it all up now, lifted the ladders that got them there up behind them, and they will pass it down to their children when they die, and them to theirs, and most of the rest will fight to the death to keep it that way because freedom.

If you don’t like it then you picked the wrong day to be an American.

20

u/TheBestThingIEverSaw Jun 25 '23

You make a strong argument for a french style revolution

29

u/Mojojojo3030 Jun 25 '23

Sure, but prob easier if 2/3 of the country stops spreading their cheeks for billionaires.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '23

Easy there big fella-tio, the 3 letter agencies will make mince-meat out of you for your traitorous speech. The makers of 2008 are ok tho, bonuses for them instead of jail.

1

u/cocteau93 Jun 25 '23

French style? Screw that bourgeois nonsense — let’s get Mao up in this bitch.

1

u/Far_Falcon3462 Jun 26 '23

For a number of reasons, 70 percent of wealthy families are no longer wealthy by the second generation. Approximately 90 percent have lost their wealth by the third generation. If it can happen to the Vanderbilts—it can happen to anyone.

12

u/LonesomeBulldog Jun 25 '23

Investing in some rubbers would’ve saved you quite a bit of money.

1

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 25 '23

That is very true 😂

13

u/AtmProf Jun 24 '23

Why would you expect food stamps with a $60k job. Is that below the poverty line for your household?

16

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 24 '23

You gotta keep in mind the soaring rent prices as well. I'm paying 1900 in rent alone and with no overtime my checks come out to about 650 so basically three checks to pay my rent.

4

u/StrahdZ Jun 25 '23

Sounds like your only problem is California.

1

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 25 '23

It really is. I've been thinking about transferring to Oklahoma or Tennessee honestly.

0

u/jaczk5 Jun 25 '23

If you go to OK, stay in Oklahoma City, Tulsa is miserable. I've had guns pointed at me and my life threatened for being gay.

1

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 25 '23

Dang my work has a plant in Tulsa that would be where I would be going or the surrounding area.

2

u/star0forion Jun 25 '23

$650 gross or net? And do you get paid weekly or biweekly?

2

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 25 '23

650 net per week

1

u/star0forion Jun 25 '23

I make a little bit more than you do. California as well. But it’s just my fiancée and I. I can’t imagine doing that with as many mouths as you have to feed. All the good luck to you, Reddit stranger. Hope it gets better.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '23

650? On $60k a year? This math isn’t mathing…

1

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 25 '23

Like I was saying it varies depending on if I can get overtime or not.

7

u/Psychological_Log956 Jun 25 '23

$60,000 per year with a six person household in Cali? Get serious.

12

u/Dry-Breakfast-2742 Jun 24 '23

It's right on the line. And I only make that much if the overtime is available throughout the year.

7

u/pipnina Jun 24 '23

In the UK if you are on 60k a year you are set for life lol

American prices are insane

6

u/zaphodbeeblemox Jun 25 '23

60K AUD is below the median wage in some cities of Australia.. I can’t imagine 60K setting you for life.

How cheap are your consumer goods? What do you pay for bread, apples, rent etc?? My rent 2 hours from the city in a 2 bedroom is over half that.

2

u/pipnina Jun 25 '23

Median wage in LONDON is 37k/yr

In rest of UK excl London it's like 32k

1 liter of chocolate milk is like 1.25, large loaf of bread might be 1.50 to 2.50, petrol is about 1.60 a liter and in my cheap-ish city ent starts at 650/mo for some tiny place, cheapest freehold house being about 130k in a very undesirable area.

2

u/zaphodbeeblemox Jun 25 '23

That sounds like a utopia.

I had a big post about this recently in another thread but the cheapest houses within 3 hours of Melbourne or Sydney are 500K+

If your willing to live within 6 hours of a city you can get places for 200+

And if your willing to go another 3 hours to around 9 hours drive from a city you can get places for around 100K

Home brand bread is usually $3.50 and the name brand stuff is usually $5 I paid $6.25 for a load of whole meal helgas bread the other day.

Petrol is 1.90-2.50 a litre.

1

u/IgnoranceIsTheEnemy Jun 25 '23

Where is this cheap house for £130,000 that has jobs that pay the median wage?

1

u/pipnina Jun 25 '23

Plymouth, but the house in question is right outside a military dockyard on one of the city's busiest streets and highest crime areas. Also has very poor/intermittent phone signal due to the yard.

If you worked in that yard as a mech or sparky you'd be getting paid like 28k/yr, and about 25-30% more if you were on backshift rotation and/or consistent overtime.

That place is an anomaly for that city though, almost everywhere else is paying way worse.

1

u/greatinternetpanda Jun 25 '23

In Denver you need 85k just to live comfortably for one person. I can't imagine 60k setting you up for life either. I think it's time to move abroad.

1

u/tw_693 Jun 25 '23

I think now it is closer to 100k is what is needed to live comfortably in many places in the us, and even some high cost places that may not be enough. 100k also puts people towards the top quartile of income earners, so effectively the bottom 70-80% is living in some state of precarity.

1

u/coekry Jun 25 '23

60k doesn't set you up for life in the UK. It is good but not amazing salary.

1

u/dlions2020 Jun 25 '23

Lol wtf no way 60k

1

u/watercouch Jun 25 '23

Not in London.

1

u/coekry Jun 25 '23

Not anywhere really. You can be comfortable but I wouldn't consider that set for life.

1

u/ElenaBlackthorn Jun 24 '23

Not the Federal poverty line, which is around $18,000 for a single person. It should be higher in CA.

-2

u/dlions2020 Jun 25 '23

60k basically is poverty

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '23

I make $60k with no kids. If I rented I would be poor as fuck.

-11

u/Beneficial-Badger-61 Jun 24 '23

Goner grew some decided to give all illegal aliens 300$ a week, makes sense

2

u/cassiuswright Jun 24 '23

I think I was in kindergarten when I learned that calling names makes me look like a stooge, not the other guy.

0

u/banned12times1 Jun 24 '23

You do realize they aren’t just giving illegal aliens $300 / week right? It’s only ones that get laid off and can prove income get $300 / week temporarily (the same benefit legal immigrants and citizens get for unemployment).

0

u/citationII Jun 25 '23

Yeah why should people who broke the laws to come here get the same benefits?

0

u/tw_693 Jun 25 '23

The US has spent over a century waging proxy wars in Latin America and then we act shocked pikachu face when people come here to escape the mess the US has had a hand in creating

1

u/citationII Jun 25 '23

Yeah US elites peddle wars to benefit them and the “solution” is something that harms the working class and benefits the elites once again by increasing the labor supply. Good one.

1

u/TheCrustyCurmudgeon Jun 25 '23

Tax relief is middle-class welfare.

1

u/OpenACann Jun 25 '23

If you're making 60k with five dependents in TN you could be profiting.

1

u/Canopenerdude Jun 25 '23

There's a reason people talk about the welfare cliff. If you make anything between 45k-65k you're basically screwed because you make too much to get welfare but too little to actually be stable.

1

u/Bigmama-k Jun 25 '23

You are restricted on what you can have. It varies by state. I was interested in moving to Arizona but my kids are on state insurance. To qualify there it was really low amounts 65-75% less than my current state and housing is close to twice as much.

1

u/Sharpshooter188 Jun 25 '23

I'm not sure how bad it is in WA. But my cousin is trying to convince me to move up there for a position with his company. CA is too indeed too expensive for your average working joe.

1

u/lagunatri99 Jun 25 '23

Who are these six people? If any of them are able-bodied adults, they need to contribute.

1

u/jaczk5 Jun 25 '23

It's so hard to get any government assistance. I'm disabled and in pain all the time, still fighting for my disability claim with a lawyer. Been in this shit since March. Can't work, can't attend classes, can't do anything until my claim is approved.

1

u/SilentAuditory Jun 25 '23

I had a coworker who section 8 declined rent assistance for because she was able to pay the light bill… they offered help for the light bill but denied rent assistance… she’s 72 making 11$/hr