Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 07/06/2025 4:47:09 AM PDT by Libloather
The American dream is slipping away.
Most US citizens no longer enjoy “a minimal quality of life” due to skyrocketing costs, a depressing new study has uncovered.
Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity conducted research into the economic well-being of the country’s residents, defining “minimal quality of life” as the ability to pay for a “basket of American dream essentials”: housing, food, transportation, clothing, medical costs and basic leisure expenses.
The leisure expenses included access to cable TV and streaming services, as well as the ability to pay for six movie tickets and two baseball tickets per year.
The Minimal Quality of Life index goes “beyond traditional cost-of-living measures to provide a more comprehensive understanding of what it takes to secure a foothold on the bottom rung of the American dream ladder and have a real opportunity to climb it over time,” the authors wrote.
The bottom 60% of American households by income fell well short of that threshold, the researchers damningly determined.
“The MQL reveals the harsh reality that the American dream, with its promises of well-being, social connection, and advancement, is out of reach for many,” the authors concluded. “Rising costs in essential areas like housing, healthcare, and education significantly outpace wage growth, leaving millions struggling to attain even a minimal quality of life.”
An average American couple with two children would need to spend $120,302 per year to cover the minimum quality of life expenses, the researchers determined.
Skyrocketing costs over the past two decades are to blame...
**SNIP**
“I get tired of the ‘Stop your Starbucks latte habit’ [advice], because in reality it’s not people’s fault,” financial planner Laura Lynch told CNBC in relation to the study. “The structures around us have created an expectation of a lifestyle that is increasingly becoming unreachable for folks.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Wage growth actually has only increased significantly under one POTUS in about 20 years+ (by my memory). So on face value the statement that many Americans are struggling or falling behind, especially after the Biden inflation, is believable.
The main problems with wage growth is it will be tied to production of products. We have deported our manufacturing, imported engineers and doctors, and basically undercut America at every turn. Then, you have to have some control of government spending, or currency devaluation makes it worse.
Articles like these scream for American manufacturing, balanced federal budgets, and a POTUS that pushes for both.
What did we think was going to happen when we offshored our manufacturing and tech jobs?
When you have a never ending flow of new foreign labor of a couple of million a year, legal and illegal from 2nd and even 3rd world countries to drive down and then continue to drive down and forever keep wages lower and lower, with a never ending generation after generation competition of foreigner to native to see who can work the cheapest in America, then the middle class is going to die and class distinctions become more rigid and fixed and America becomes a less fluid society of worker/servant and the upper crust.
However, things are looking since illegals are self deporting and giving Americans the jobs and wages they should have had in the first place.
PLUS, no tax on tips, overtime, and social security!
.
“I see a lot of Escalades, Mercedez, BMW’s driven by people that I would bet shouldn’t be”
When you think you need a vehicle that costs more than the crackerbox you’re living in your priorities are out of calibration.
And that’s what most of these perceived problems are.....wrong-headed thinking about what is most important.
How much of that is because illegal border crossers were given lodging at hotels, free meals and spending money? Trump stopped most of that.
“no tax on tips, overtime, and social security”
You sure about social security?
Unless I’m mistaken social security tax didn’t make it into the BBB.
discipline and work ethic
Society is such now that one can not function without a cell phone, not even a computer or internet because that’s how things are communicated.
When I see someone refer to people as “folks” I discount whatever they are spewing.
You are so right and it’s a shame that others here don’t see it.
Those are nice cars. We’re OK with our paid-off 2012 Honda Accord which we’re considering replacing, and 2020 RAV-4.
If we were to buy another car, I’d like it to be something from the ‘60s or ‘70s. New cars have no character and they all look alike. No interesting colors or shapes.
Yep.
Things I do not have and do not covet.
And I certainly am not roughing it nor living the simple life.
I would say I'm comfortably and unfashionably middle class.
But I have not been to a movie in a theater since the 1990s.
I don't care for the ambience of movie theaters.
Cable TV and movies in theaters when I have the internet? { snicker }
I think we’ll know whether or not our economy is successful is when a husband is able to provide well for his family and the wife can stay home and raise her children. It used to be that way, pre-feminism. Kids had Mom and home, and there were fewer hooligans.
" I haue shewed yow of which folk ye shul take youre conseil and of which folk ye shul folwe the conseil."
I guess this lefty has completely missed all of the TicTok vids of peeps showing how they spend their $3,000/mo EBT at Costco, Walmart and Target.
You know ... the ones (somehow) driving new cars, wearing designer clothes and dining out more than the average, hardworking Americans.
I think she is saying that just functioning in day to day life without luxuries is out of reach for most people. On a base level, look at the expenses for things just to conduct life business like internet, cell phone, paid tv versus 3 over the air channels, no real radio, taxes on every single thing, the need to eat out more especially for the young because their jobs are now 24/7 with technology and no time to cook, etc. I could go on......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.