The Cost of Living a Decent Life in America is 96,000 Annually
The Cost of Living a Decent Life in America is 96,000 Annually
The crux of this issue, why everyone has something to say about it: is because the word 'comfortably' seems open to interpretation. But it's defined in a way that makes sense here.
For the purposes of the referenced study https://smartasset.com/data-studies/salary-needed-live-comfortably-2024, they used the MIT Living Wage Calculator https://livingwage.mit.edu/ and extrapolated out total compensation needed to maintain the 50/30/20 rule, where 50% of your total income goes to necessities, 30% to entertainment and wants, and 20% to investments or debt payments.
So it's really not up for debate unless you'd like to argue against the figures presented in the MIT Living Wage calculator or the 50/30/20 'rule'.
yup. pretty much 100k in a city of any appreciable size at least.
The national average is dragged upwards by cities like NYC, and San Francisco. You can live for much less money in thousands of places across the USA. That said, the cost of living has skyrocketed over the last 4 years by an insane amount. Our inflation index is being manipulated and doesn't accurately reflect how much real prices have increased. We've all seen dozens of products that are more than double the price from a few years ago. But if you point this out, the data heads will call it vibeflation and claim it's not real.
A bit misleading picture. So one adult is 96k, and a family of 4 is 235k. 2 adults would be around the 160k I guess, since they hare rent/mortgage. 2 children then cost around 75k.
Still, 96k for one adult? Seems high. They must factor in the highest rent and most expensive (middle class) car and vacations.
What is the source?
Yeah, their definition of “comfort” seems to be a solidly middle class experience of going to Disney world and…other middle class stuff? I live alone in nyc and I’m plenty comfortable, but I’m not making 140k.
Living a decent life alone in America. The costs go up if you want a family.
In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living.
The minimum wage should be $96,000 right now.
Doesn't the picture next to it show the cost for a family?
I still remember six figures being the key to posterity. And now you may still starve.
We hit a point where it was a nice landmark and then when the moment passed we all got locked in on it. It’s not as fun to say the modern equivalent is some messy number far above it so we just got stuck instead.
Define comfort.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comfort
You might want to get a device that connects to the interwebs and has a 'searching engine.' I've been using AskJeeves for years and haven't had a problem yet.
Looks like these numbers came from a report by SmartAsset, which took it's numbers from the MIT Living Wage Calculator. Here's a link to their methodology:
https://livingwage.mit.edu/pages/methodology
Relevant definitions:
At its simplest, a living wage is what one full-time worker must earn on an hourly basis to help cover the cost of their family’s minimum basic needs where they live while still being self-sufficient.
There are eight basic needs – food, childcare, health care, housing, transportation, civic engagement, broadband, and other necessities – that make up the cost components of the living wage, with an additional cost associated with income and payroll taxes.
EDIT: It looks like the SmartAsset report used their 50/30/20 rule to estimate their "comfortable" living wage. 50% needs, 30% wants, and 20% paying down debts. The MIT calculator bundles some needs and wants together, so it appears that SmartAsset teased out the expenses they categorize as "needs," e.g., food, housing, and transportation, and then they doubled it.
You can eat and sleep inside (something)
As long as that thing isn’t a car!