So growing up, I had this idea that the American dream was about that if you put in an honest amount of work, you would be rewarded with a good life. This would mean you would be able to take care of yourself and your family, afford a car and a house. In my view, working one job would probably be enough.
Nowadays, I get the idea that the American dream has become about working your ass off in order to have a chance to become a millionaire. Somehow glorifying “the grind” appears to be a part of it too now.
The american dream was for the boomers who were promised pensions and social securitybin an era where the dollar had some semblance of value. We will never ever have those things. Even the boomers who get 800$ in SS are eaten alive with rent and forced into starving or living out of their cars in today’s economy.
The american dream is called that because, you have to be asleep to believe it. We are much more awake as a society to the systems reality. Most of us are wagies that only exist in the eyes of the govt and corpos to pay taxes and generate profit until we get too old then put to pasture. The average life expectancy is 75, most of the boomers who retired at 65 maybe had 10-15 ‘golden years’ they couldn’t enjoy cause they were too old
You don’t need the american dream. You don’t need to work your whole life to pay off a 500,000$ mortgage on some shitty suburbanite hellhole with a terrible hoa. You don’t need to go the common path most people do. I feel pity for anyone who got tricked into being an indentured slave to the banks/economy because they were a thoughtless monkey in their 20s who signed the dotted line on 50k in debt for a worthless degree and another 300k debt on a house because “family/kids”. The only way to really be happy is to gibe the finger to the normal path and do something alternative.
Work hard, learn to save/invest in actual assets, don’t squirrel away your money in a bank account forever since inflation will eat away its value if you just have it sit there. Have an e-fund of 3k to 6k, buy a van and convert it into a semi-living/camping space. Develop hobbies with actual skills, start your own small concession business. Don’t buy a house buy land and develop the skills to build one yourself while living in a canvas tent. Plainly put, most people are too stupid, lazy, and unwilling to go without modern convinence. It takes a surprisingly little amount of money to live a comfortable lifestyle if you are intelligent, creative, driven, adaptive, and open to new experiences even if the outcome may be uncertain.
So just rent your whole life and do what for food?
No you live out of your car for a few months while you work and pay yourself the 800-2500$ in "rent’ you become your own landlord and save that money towards a used van or boxtruck you want (stay away from RVs campers trailers and skoolies they are all money sinks maintenance wise) it wont ve comfy living out of a suv or prius but plenty people have done it, helps if your short. for cooking and heat you get a Coleman propane stove make sure to do research and install detectors. Showers either boil some water and do farmers bath or get a new pump sprayer spay paint it black and solar warm the water. You pee in a bottle and go water a tree. You have a sealable poop bucket. Get a shower tent if you need. You buy nonperishable foods or use a cooler with ice. Summers will be rough without air conditioning, no lie. Either tolerate the season with plenty of water and shade or invest in enough solar+power station or fuel gens to run air conditioning in a small canvas tent. Or go to a colder higher elevation, nice benefit of nomadic living is being able to go anywhere anytime. Live well below your means, become your own landlord, become a resident of a state like Nevada where they don’t do property or income tax and get some nomadic living in. Explore the country and all its beauty before its all gone. If you work hard for part of the year and save really well and live cheap you can get by on a year or even a year and a half no work. Or you can put the nose to the grinder/get a skilled high pay position to save up 10-15k and buy a plot of land somewhere with natural resources like wood and water then plop a little cabin on it.
Or i could get a job and skip straight to the end.
I have a good job though, $15 an hour in a low CoL area, and I only have like 3 hours of work a day.
Before this i made about $21 an hour plus like 8 hours of overtime amd that job was gravy until we got a bad manager that made all of the experienced employees quit.
How can you live on only $45 / day, $225/week, $900/month?
I get $120 a day. 8 hours at $15. I only actually need 3 hours to get my job done if that and I have 8 hours to do it in.
Here’s the whole story in a nutshell.
WW2. Government imposes strict wage and price controls and pushes unions. Capital falls in line because they are makign money hand over fist.
Post WW2 the USA keeps a lot of FDR’s New Deal policies in place and everyone is doing great. In 1960, minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the price of the average home was $11,000.00. Unions are strong and college is cheap.
- LBJ decides that the low level fighting in Vietnam has gone on too long. He decides to go for a massive push to knock out the Commies. Turns into a quagmire and he realizes he’s screwed. He didn’t want to raise taxes, so he prints money instead. By 1968 people are starting to notice.
1968, Nixon becomes President. Says he wants peace, but increases the War spending using LBJ’s print money plan. Inflation is now a thing.
1970s Oil Embargo really devastates the economy. Prices skyrocket and inflation is getting worse.
- Reagan elected. Giant tax cuts for the wealthy and cuts for the poor. Homelessness is now a thing.
Before Reagan is elected, Middle Class is defined as one income supporting a family of four. $1 million is a vast fortune.
By the time Bush Sr. leaves office, ‘middle class’ is two incomes, and $1 million is what a rich guy pays for a party.
Further, the prosperity of past generations was in the wake of WWII and destroyed economies around the world. The US was virtually untouched and had a boom-time that is unrealistic under any other circumstances. The US literally started on third base and our parents or grandparents thought they hit a triple.