Well over $100k in the higher cost of living states, too. And as the article states, that’s typically about double what the median salary is for a single person in most states.
I’d like to point out that AES states - while maybe they didn’t have all the same quality or quantity of consumer goods - were able to able to to provide a comfortable life for everyone without all the predatory that US workers currently have. And don’t take my word for it, take it from the neoliberal queen herself, Angela Merkel. When asked about life in the former GDR, she described it as “almost comfortable”. Now before you mention that “almost” is an important qualifier, note that the context of her quote was her trying to criticize the former GDR but she grudgingly conceded the comment above.
the article isn’t about resource consumption, it’s about budgeting (50/20/30) for savings and retirement and how unrealistic that is given the price of housing and food compared to income.
It’s a weird contradiction caused by global inequality that the average american both does consume insane amounts in terms of natural resources, but also can barely afford rent.
Just ran the numbers for my budget and I get 71/6/23. Fortunately I’m an insane person who hates spending money, but that’s just not possible for the average person. I spent $500 on the extremely broad category of “entertainment” last year. The vast majority of that 6% discretionary spending is on my car that I don’t drive anymore lol.
