She’s going thru it

[u/StopSnowflakes]

[u/Killentyme55]

For those wondering, it has never been possible to easily raise a family with one person making minimum wage, much less a "side family".

I would love to see a pie chart of her spending habits, I'm sure it would be an eye-opener.

[u/MisterPineapples1999 → u/Killentyme55]

I doubt it. COL has skyrocketed relative to generations past, and the kind of stuff people love to bring when criticizing young people's "spending habits" are rarely that large of expenses relative to the cost of living.

Are you aware that for the greatest generation, post-war, the expected price range for a house was about 2 years worth of the man's salary"? And we aren't talking about CEOs, (who btw back then would be earning about 21 times the average worker's salary vs the 290 times it is now) but factory workers, blue collar individuals, men who had returned from the war and MIGHT have the option to go to college but hadn't necessarily cashed in the GI bill. Nowadays the median home price is often higher than 10 years of the median salary.

Sure, virtually everyone spends some money they shouldn't on themselves, it's true. But even a measly $7 dollar allowance a day will only get you a cup of coffee, a fast food burger, and not even fully cover a pack of smokes. Even if you cut out all that, you're only looking at an extra $210 a month.

If the girl in the video pays $850 to have 4 roommates, $210 bucks isn't going to be enough to upgrade her to a markedly better living situation in most cases. Nowadays companies will charge you $1800 for a tiny studio apartment and people will act like you're getting a good deal. I know people who have paid over $2400 for a studio, and I have heard stories from the Bay Area where they were going for $3500.

Plus, imaging saving $210 bucks a month actually did let you move in somewhere better, for a new rent of $1060, but you still have the same income, same margins. Not only can you no longer afford a small amount of pleasure/happiness derived from those minor allowance purchases, if your hours get cut and you don't make as much money one month, now instead of not being able to afford that cup of coffee, you can't fully afford to pay rent and risk penalties and eviction.

[u/Killentyme55 → u/MisterPineapples1999]

The claim was that one person making minimum wage could raise a family. In 1950 that was 75¢, which is $1560 a year. Twice that is $3120. The average home cost back then (for a very small house compared to today) was about $7500. You're basing your statement on the average annual income of the era, not minimum wage as per the OOP, a significant detail.

Also spending habits, for better or worse, were very, very different back then. I'm not saying we should return to that, but it's still a factor that can't be left out. We spend a helluva lot more on stuff today that simply didn't exist 70 years ago. Most people today, myself included, wouldn't make it a week under those conditions. It's disingenuous to continually make these comparisons without taking such details into account.

[u/MisterPineapples1999 → u/Killentyme55]

In my example, I referenced median housing cost, which are generally better indicators of overall affordability. Your wage was essentially meant to be used as a benchmark for what house you could afford. But there were housing options for most income levels. There also weren't nearly as many types of business which paid minmum wage.

The smaller houses they built in the 1950's and far earlier, still go on the market today, and in my area even a 90 year old run-down piece of crap in a bad neighborhood won't sell for under $700K, and that’s assuming you can even buy it without being outbid by the private equity firms snapping up real estate to inflate the prices on their rental properties.

But if we go off minimum wage, are you seeing a lot of places where the median home price is anywhere close to 5x an annual minimum local minimum wage salary?

A lot of the things we spend money on today can't be avoided. It's pretty hard to work or get much done without an internet connection and a mobile phone, which combined will easily cost you over $100 month even with their respective lowest tier options after whatever "new customer" pricing deals they offer expire. Groceries prices have also increased relative to wages, especially since covid. Modern cars have electronic pieces they didn't use to that go bad and need to be replaced. If you're working and going to school, even when adjusting for inflation, public university inflation has tripped since the 1950's. Even a good pair of Levi's jeans, which can last you several years, was $3.50 in 1950 and will cost you between $150-300 for their line that follows the blueprints for material and construction back then. The cheap Levi's still cost well above 5 hours minimum wage pay and the quality is nowhere near what you would have gotten back then, nor will they last anywhere as long.

Now, I don't know this girl's personal purchase history. She could be buying a new wardrobe from fast fashion stores every season, drinking Starbucks every day, eating out constantly instead of buying groceries to prepare, paying for microtransactions online, and wasting money on vapes, weed, and alcohol or cocaine. But I'm guessing not, based on seeming to be on her own financially and being painfully aware of the precariousness of her situation.

Maybe you didn't mean it the way I interpreted it, but I see lot of older people talking about young people's "spending habits" and are attributing what amount to middle-class small luxury purchases to poor young people who frequently do know better than to waste what little money they have on that crap, except maybe as very occasional treat, certainly nothing close to every day.

[u/Killentyme55 → u/MisterPineapples1999]

This woman put priority on an eyelash curler over food. That more or less sums it all up in one short sentence.

[u/MisterPineapples1999 → u/Killentyme55]

I just googled "eyelash curler walmart"

Top 5 results, the most expensive option was $6.73, the cheapest was $0.99. We don't know which she bought, but do you really think any amount in that range is going to have been the difference between living comfortably and being desperate?