Needs to be fleshed out a bit. There are tens of millions of individuals that earn a low income for non-economic reasons (disability, illness, foreign-born residents with a lack of cultural familiarity and language skills and family emergencies/parenting) as well as those that earn a low income due to mass affluence (college students living off their parents, early retirees, etc). Once these individuals are excluded from the calculation and you add a very simple “have a college degree” and “work full time” condition, earning 100K is extremely common. As long as you are an able-bodied person with reasonably good English skills, a college degree, and work full time; the chance you make >100K soars exponentially.
Yes, hand wave away 80% of population as disability/illness/foreigners/suffering from emergency family situations.
Yeah nonsense - the vast majority of US households have positive net worth which can’t happen if they live “paycheck to paycheck”. Around a third of US individuals over 25y/o have college degrees, the top 10-20% is not some super exclusive club, it’s basically every white collar worker in mid-career.
You do realize, if you buy a home, your net worth increases over time even if you are living paycheck by paycheck . And as long as you are making 401k contributions, your net worth will also be increasing. About 78% of Americans leave paycheck to paycheck. 100k is not enough to live a comfortable life in just about all US major metros. Why don't you go move to somewhere in the US, make 100k, and see how "affluent" you feel. For the top 10 metros in US, you need a household income of at least 250k to enjoy a comfortable life. For cities people actually want to live in like Bay Area/New York/Seattle/Boston/LA/San Diego, you need minimum 350-500k (Building on top of your, "Bob", decent home for a family, 2 cars, childcare for 1 child, healthy diet, enough for entertainment / vacations. No McMansion, home in a slightly above average school district). The costs of everything in US cities are ridiculous, and has become much more so since 2020.
You are just so out of touch with reality that I feel it is pointless to engage any further on this topic. I have brain cells to preserve.
Should start taking bets on the first big American company to go bankrupt.
