I read that half of Americans couldn’t cover an unexpected $1,000 expense. This sounds crazy to me. I understand that poverty exists, but the idea that an adult with a job doesn’t even have that amount saved up seems really strange.
What’s your relationship or philosophy with money? What do you credit for your financial success, or alternatively, what do you blame for your failures?
For the extra brave ones: how much savings do you have, and what are you planning to do with them?
I made a few bad moves in my 20s because I had no basis of understanding when it came to money (parents are bad with money too and never taught me anything useful), have spent my 30s desperately treading water trying to get ahead, but it seems impossible with rent going through the roof, food going crazy, plus now I have medical debt on top of my school debt… my really big mistake was wanting to help people by becoming a social worker.
What pisses me off the most is that if you’re a plumber you get to walk in and demand whatever price you feel like, but if you’re someone who helps society, society gets to cram it up your ass and tell you to smile about it. Same goes for anyone who works for society: teachers, cops, firefighters, EMTs, social workers, librarians, nurses, etc… I don’t get why we don’t all just join together and let society fucking die until they agree to pay us what we’re really worth.
Edit: to clarify, I’m not saying plumbers aren’t helping society. I’m saying when inflation goes up, plumber’s prices go up to match… If you’re being paid by tax money, you don’t get to do that. Nothing against plumbers, it was just an example.
Everyone is getting fucked in our capitalist nightmare, but if you work for Walmart, WALMART investors are fucking you over… If you work for any of those jobs I listed above, SOCIETY is fucking you over (yes, I get that at the end of the day it’s still those Walmart investors fucking us over because the same 1% own everything and stop society from paying us what we’re worth by refusing to pay their fair share of taxes)
What makes you think plumbers aren’t helping society? Same goes for all trades…like damn.
Fucking entitled white collar douchebags. I guarantee plumbers help society more than fucking social workers.
Sure hope you never need to find out
“Society” doesn’t pay plumbers… Like, you don’t get your plumbing fixed and bill Medicaid you know? Individuals pay for their own plumbing, and plumbers get to set their own prices… The jobs I listed are most often paid by society as a whole, and society as a whole are screwing these professions over… Don’t get me wrong, most workers are getting screwed, it’s just different.
Society does pay plumbers, the fuck are you talking about. Where do you think the money comes from? If someone needs to hire a plumber, then they pay the plumber directly instead of their taxes doing it. It sounds like you’re salty that the government pays you vs making more being in the private sector.
As a plumber I can assure you that this is not how it works. I charge 60€ / h which may seem high but that’s not what I pocket from it.
YOU charge… I don’t get to charge for my services… I just have to take whatever society offers… In fact, with a lot of those jobs I listed, they are legally not allowed to stop working (strike) to get better wages BECAUSE it would fuck society so bad. I’m also in the US, so my apologies if it’s not the same where you are
You’re being paid a wage for the work you do, which is effectively the same as charging for your services. I also don’t understand why you think I can just charge my customers whatever I want. There’s a certain price range that plumbers in my area operate within, and if I set my prices higher than that, nobody will hire me.
It’s not like society is forcing you to be a wage slave either - you’re free to start your own business, just like everyone else.
If inflation causes your costs to go up, can you, and all the other plumbers in your area just go ahead and raise your prices to make up for it? Yes… People who are paid by tax money can’t just raise their rates. Even if they go private, Medicaid (in US) tells them what they can charge.
Anyway, I didn’t mean to disparage plumbers. I was using them as an example of an equally important part of society, but that gets to adjust their prices as needed instead of having to wait for a literal act of Congress to adjust prices and pay for inflation.
Fair point. That indeed I can do.
dont wanna pile on… but idk, man… next time you use a functional toilet, you might want to consider what you just said.
plumbers are likely in the top 5 of all time life savers on this planet. just sayin’.
respect you social work immensely, but everyone’s contributions are undervalued in this world.
C’mon man… My list includes 5 jobs that literally save lives… Your figurative life saving can get right outta town
ok,
Share of the population using safely managed sanitation facilities
above Current Statistics with additional source links
but, as you said, all of these figurative people can get right outta town.
plumbers through history have saved countless lives, whether you think so or not. I say they are in the top 5 all-time life saving professions.
edit: upvoted you cuz you responded :-)
Indoor plumbing indeed is one of those things people hardly pay any attention to untill it stops working. The fact that you can just take a dump, flush and it’s gone is a luxury not even kings had few hundred years back. Cities used to have raised crosswalks so that you don’t have to step into a river of shit when crossing the road (granted that was mosly horse shit)
Okay… I guess maybe I wasn’t thinking of the entire spectrum of sanitation/plumbing workers… Certainly clean water is a life saver
You’re right that all workers are undervalued in our capitalist society