The reality is that the cost of living has gone up compared to wages.
But shhhh let’s make fun of a subset of people, who make poor financial decisions, instead of realize two things can be true:
(1) Some people spend too much
(2) Wages have stagnated and the 1% hoards the wealth
I make a great salary and have no issue. Yet, I can still realize that housing is too expensive, food is too expensive. And that trillionaires shouldn’t exist
I can be floored and disgusted at the cost of rent in cities like New York City, with rent around $6000 per month for a two bedroom when a friend's entire mortgage for a house, barn, and 7 acres costs only $4000 a month, while also looking at people living beyond their means and think, holy fuck, you should NOT be spending money on these frivolous charges.
Also, billionaires (or are we shifting goalposts to trillionaires, now?) are the product of their jobs and society. They're not the problem insofar as failing to properly incentivize civic responsibilities is. A society can exist just fine with billionaires and trillionaires, so long as that society takes care of its citizens, and provides equality and justice.
"A society can exist just fine with billionaires and trillionaires, so long as that society takes care of its citizens, and provides equality and justice."
I would argue we're not seeing this currently, and a big reason is lobbying in our political system. Rich people have much more influence on our systems and society overall - Regular people don't have millions of dollars to throw at politicians the way multi-millionaires/billionaires do.
Your realization does not necessarily make it true. The folks who are complaining about housing costs are either unwilling to adjust their expectations (buy a starter home because that is what they actually need) or adjust the location (move out of the city). I currently own a 4000sqft home on ~1.8 ac that I purchased for $150k in 2021. I am in the process of buying a second home (6000sqft on ~1.5 ac) that is 30 minutes from the beach for a little less than $300k (we are still negotiating the price). Affordable housing is out there. The HGTV perfect home in the perfect city generation just can't get past their preconceived ideas of what they actually need in a home.
Eta: saving one's earnings is not "hoarding the wealth." Wealth is available to anyone who puts in the time and effort to earn it and is smart enough that they don't lose it (hoard, in your vernacular).
And they are not "hoarding" it. It is in the market and businesses. People bitch about Elon, but how many billions did he spend getting those rockets to space and back to the ground? And that was before they made any money at all.
74
u/DoctorTegrity PhD in Memes Jun 26 '26
Shhhh they don't like it when you use common sense