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Where we failed is that $120k was supposed to be a middle-class income when living costs this much. The fact the median is 63k is a sign that all the excess value has been sucked out of the masses and funneled into the coffers of the billionaire class.

I honestly don't even know why this upsets me so much. I am 50 and all set. I don't have children and barely any debt. I never considered myself particularly patriotic but somehow this whole thing gets under my skin. I guess it sours my achievements and fruits of decades of struggle (it took three generations of planning and hustle to get us out of poverty). It's like being a kid having a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese by yourself while all your friends are locked outside and you can see them through the glass windows.

Here's what happened in a nutshell.

Lyndon Johnson had great plans for the US, but wanted to win the Vietnam War with one huge push. That quickly turned into a giant quagmire. LBJ and later Nixon, ordered bombing of the North. That meant the US factories were working 24/7. Nice for factory owners and union workers, but LBJ was paying for it with paper money because he didn't want to raise taxes. Ironically, Nixon ran for President as an anti inflation and pro peace candidate.

Nixon and Kissinger doubled down on the bombing and inflation started to spiral. Also, those factories were getting a bit worn down. Unable to met the deamnd for the bombing and supply foreign markets the US ceded local steel making to Germany and Japan. This is going to bite the US in the ass when the Arab Oil boycott hits. US steel is much more oil dependant than the newer factories, so suddenly Toyotas and VWs are the hot cars, and US manufacturing takes a huge hit.

Carter tried to control inflation and cut oil use, but got kicked out over the Iran hostage mess. Reagan came in and cut taxes for the rich. This increased the debt, but gave the economy an unrealistic jolt.

tl dr. In 1960, minimum wage was $1.00/hour. The average house was $11,000.00 and $1 million was considered a vast fortune.* Middle class meant a High School graduate with a Union job supporting a family of four.

By the time Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr were done, 'middle class' was two college degrees supporting the house and $1 million was what a rich guy paid for a party.

• In case anyone tells you that $1 million is 1960 would be $10 million today, tell them that in 1960, $100,000 would buy a mansion in Beverly Hills.

https://www.rd.usda.gov/sites/default/files/fact-sheet/508_RD_FS_RHS_SFH502Direct.pdf

the federal government will loan you the money for the house at below market rates, and if their rate is still too expensive, they can give you a deferment.

my effective interest rate today is 1%.

please take money from the federal government.

fuck the banks.

Smith explained how, just a few years ago, $60-$70K a year would have been sufficient to qualify for a home.

Yeah, no. It was more than a few years ago.

I think that this has been trouble since 2007. Financial institutions went from giving lots of home loans to only giving corporations and the elite loans.

This happened because people were lulled into voting for the very people who gave their fair share of corporate profits to the rich. Looking at you, Republicans, especially Ronald Reagan.

Poor tax laws on the richest 1% killed the American Dream.

A friend was looking at getting a home lately and I offered to look into co-signing with them, so we gave our information to see what they would qualify for. With both of our details, they offered them a home loan of something like $100k, really not even enough to get anything that's on the market now except for the worst crack houses possible. I then looked at what would be possible if I just applied by myself and if I applied for a home loan for a place that I would rent out. Not sure if it was considered a business loan, but I wouldn't be the occupant, it would be an investment property for me. Suddenly, by myself, I qualified for a $300k loan, same loan agency, just different terms. I do have great credit, so maybe that helped, it's just weird how they come up with the numbers sometimes. Like you would think two people together would qualify for more than what a single person would qualify for.

TL;DR: Americans now need to make $120K a year to afford a typical middle-class life and qualify to purchase a home. Minimum.

Maybe in the middle of nowhere America. Meanwhile my wife and I make well above that in Los Angeles and we can't afford the monthly on a two bedroom house in a sketchy neighborhood.

Good thing investment "firms" are buying up all the rental properties, right, guys? Neofeudalism for the win!

Just a reminder that high prices are a markets signal to build more.

Let people build housing, is it too much to ask for?

This is what happens when most people think the disparity in wealth should grow.

It does.

Mr Realtor can blame his own industry for a good portion of the problem.

Smith explained how, just a few years ago, $60-$70K a year would have been sufficient to qualify for a home.

"Most people are carrying student loan debt, which is at an all-time high, and the average payment in the country is $500 a month for your college degree. [There are] some people I'm seeing in my comment section saying ‘$500, I wish, it was $1,200 a month for me’," said Smith.

"If you are someone who bought a house before 2020 and you have it paid off or you have a 3% interest rate, you are not burdened by the housing costs like the 2024 adults are now," the relator said, explaining how debt, especially college debt, housing costs and childcare are burdening millennials and Gen Zers starting their lives.

It’s scary how everything seemed to change so fast, yet the ingredients for this very situation have been simmering for some time. It’s no coincidence that since student loans ballooned it didn’t take much for the dominoes to really begin to fall and have drastic effects on everything else downstream.

If you want the results of the American dream the only way to do so is crime. Probably always been true, but boy is it truer than ever now.

Yet disability pays $11k a YEAR that'sthe same as $5.42/hour.

Note that the source of this opinion piece is TikTok. The salary needed for a middle class existence varies wildly from city to city.