Good thing for us, except for the fact that when economic chaos happens, we will have a view of others dying while we feel first discomfort, and then hardships.
Newfie wrote:Folks like my kids with mortgages and car loans and school loans.
Ibon wrote:One of the points that KJ often brings up is how privileged US citizens are compared to the rest of the world. Having lived in many countries that are economically much poorer than the US I have also thought a lot about why do countries so much poorer than the US have citizens who are so much happier and not feeling squeezed as that author points out.
Here in Panama for example the wages are so low compared to the US but the cost of living for basic goods and services is a fraction. An indigenous farm laborar earning $ 12 a day has a smart phone and chats using Whatsapp staying connected to his family for a fraction of the cost that one would pay in the US. This is just one example. I buy food for my staff. A single farm worker weekly food bill is around $ 15. No processed food, its rice, corn, beans, plaintain bananas, a couple pounds of chicken or cheap cuts of beef, potatoes, onions, a bottle of oil, salt, sugar and flour.
Here is what I realized. In each market in each country the economy develops around the purchasing power of the majority. So here in Panama the cell phone providers tap into a market of the vast majority earning under $ 20 a day. So they come up with a product, cheap smart phones for around $ 35 and little phone cards you can load that come out to about a monthy phone service of around $10 - $ 15 a day. The phone companies here set up the same microwave towers and communications system like 4g etc like in the US and provide solutions accordingly.
In the US every sector of the economy is trying to maximize and squeeze the vast majority for whatever they can. Phone service, cable service, health care, drugs. Or food. All processed and expensive in pretty packaging and boxes! This has caused an inflation that is never actually reported accurately. This creates this insane situation as the author pointed out that a family of 4 living in San Francisco is considered low income earning $ 117,000 a year. Imagine If I would tell this to my Panamanian contacts here who earn under $ 20 a day?
Because of how rigged the system is rewarding the top 1% the US middle class is being raked over the coals like no other middle class anywhere else in the world.
There is a pressure mounting regarding this inequity. It's not happening here in Panama or even in other richer countries like in Europe or Canada. But it is happening in the USA. For a good reason. No other market in the world fucks over their citizens as egregiously as you see in the USA with the current disparity. Maybe Venezuela.... ha ha ha
Anyway, the pressure is mounting folks. That big feeling of being squeezed is not going away. And that squeeze is happening because the system is rigged.
KaiserJeep wrote:Newfie, "something better than what you have" has no bounds. Nobody would ever be satisfied. The "good old days" were always a myth.
Cog wrote:What I'm saying Newfie is that if you go through life with no financial plan, it is not the system's fault when life reaches up and bites you in the ass. I'm also not obligated to feel sorry for you. You and I both have worked for and with people who made more money than us but were perpetually broke. They had no plan and it showed.
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