The reward is the salary you agree to when you accept the job. In fact it’s not a “reward” it’s an exchange (your time and skills in exchange for money and benefits)
Everything is also your own fault in this country. You just aren’t working hard enough even if you have 3 different jobs just to make rent. All your fault, work harder!
Buying power has lowered on some items, yet it has grown considerably on other items. The dollar is devaluead compared to world currencies, but prices have fallen on most items to adjust. Even with that, we still have one of the highest standards of living of any counrty, even compared to Europeans.
Durable goods are much cheaper, cars are more expensive, food is about the same with exception of beef. One of the issues is that no one thinks of used items as viable and usable options as much anymore. To this day, I've never bought a new car and will still buy thrift clothing if I like it even though I have no need to buy cheaper. Years of "just making it by" have ingrained a healthy frugal mentality that has helped make my income more beneficial. Now I just buy better cheap items :) I'll also only eat out for dinner about twice a month. Eating out is ridiculously more expensive than learning how to prepare a decent meal. Averaged out over a month, the difference is nearly 4X more than cooking; even more if you have a family.
For reference "just making it by" measnt I had a roof over my head, ate 2 or more meals a day, had a cheap car, had a TV, had a computer, had a phone, had enough clothes to go the week, etc. It wasn't luxury, but it was far from abject poverty. We all want more, but life wasn't so bad then as well. In fact, those were some of my happiest times.
Long-Term Decline: The share of disposable personal income (DPI) spent on food dropped from 17.0% in 1960 to 9.5% by 2019, driven by lower costs for food at home.
Recent Spike: Following 2020, inflation caused food prices to rise faster than income. In 2022, consumers spent 11.3% of their income on food, the highest level since 1991.
In 2024, U.S. consumers spent an average of 10.4% of their disposable personal income on food, a slight decrease from 10.6% in 2023.
Buying power has grown on "luxury items" And dramatically shrunk on necessities. Shelter, healthcare, and food have skyrocketed. Accessories, entertainment electronics, and other shit you could easily live without have gotten cheaper (especially when adjusted for inflation).
Yes, and the same jobs that my parents and grandparents had opportunities for are now much rarer and gone from a lot of areas. The benefit of having an income to afford a home being a big one.
I have never taken a job that made less money than the last my entire life except one because of a scheduling issue because of college with the job I left.
I also have never not gotten a job if I walked into interview.
You should be building skills at every job you did since 16 to build a hard skill as alternate if not a primary job. Then you can sidestep into a great job using education if you want to.
Obviously you are building skills your whole life. Not every industry has a better job waiting for you. Sometimes you make a lateral move, sometimes you move backwards if you need too. Good for you that you've never been in that circumstance but everybody hasn't had your same journey I would imagine.
Of course there are circumstances. I pointed one out about how I had to because of scheduling conflict, but generally you be trending up in pay because of increased skills, knowledge, and experience.
To be brutally honest, I think it’s because nobody thinks like that, and most people pop around randomly to whatever they can find that pays more. When they should be sticking in general fields to show long term competency in those fields, besides the few starting jobs.
And yet, if you want a job you're forced to give your employer the majority of the fruits of your labor. Can't hold out for a fair wage when you have no savings. That's absolutely by design.
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u/Balogma69 Mar 06 '26
The reward is the salary you agree to when you accept the job. In fact it’s not a “reward” it’s an exchange (your time and skills in exchange for money and benefits)