Hyperbole is for good storytelling, not nuanced discussion or argument.
I had a grocery store clerk eyeballing my checkout yesterday with absolute amazement at the "luxury" of buying TWO boxes of name brand cream cheese. We live in two completely seperate worlds at this point, and I don't think you have any idea how bad things have gotten for the bottom 90% in this country earning <$100k.
Like, me and my wife have a very decent combined income of over 100k, but even then - 10 years ago I would have thought that with that kind of money we'd be living like kings, but in reality it just lets us save some money at the end of the month and not a whole lot else. If we actually wanted to move up from our 900sqf house or get a slightly newer car, it would eat up into all of that quickly. I think we've reached a point now where I literally don't understand who in this country is buying all these new cars and goes on holidays twice a year(forget expensive ones - I mean a few days in Spain with a budget agency). And I definitely don't understand how a teacher on £27k a year(or a nurse) is expected to make ends meet. It feels like an erosion of society from the very core, where unless you are in the top 1% you just aren't even playing the same game.
I feel like I am the only person in my friendship group who can afford things like a decent place to live and good quality groceries. This is all from me working hard to move into Software engineering from a languages and humanities degree. Honestly feel that the system is severely broken if the only way to afford a decent quality of life is to get into one of the most lucrative professions out there. Most of the people in my job have been screwed over by the market and have way more rent than me as well, so are probably not even able to do the things I can.
I feel a lot of pressure to get into FAANG or something in order to hope to ever get a house in my lifetime. Especially since my landlord threatened to put up my rent by like £400 the other day and my boss told me my raises will never keep up with inflation. But I'm a humanities person. I don't see myself becoming some sort of 10x engineer without it making me miserable. So, since the absolutely fucked announcements from my landlord and boss, I'm thinking of any way to leave this economic shithole of a country.
