Just work a little harder

I'm German.

I used to be poor as fuck, didn't have a job, had lots of medical issues due to being very overweight, was depressed and dysfunctional, also a stoner on top of all that. That was basically how I lived from 2000 to 2009.

But the state paid my rent and gave me some money so I would at least not become homeless. And then, a guy at the "Jobcenter" said hey, wanna have a two-year state sponsored job training? It's 18k Euros, but the German state will pay for it. All you gotta do is see a doctor every month and have him certify to us that you're off drugs.

I said fuck yeah, let's do it. Last chance to get my life back on track.

Fast forward to today.. I'm married, have a well paid job as a software architect, earned enough money I could probably live independently for over two years, have a handsome ETF portfolio.

In America, I would have been fucked. If you're poor in Germany, there's always a way out if you just get your shit together.

bUt mY tAxEs!!
Heart warming. Are they this kind to immigrants? I've been thinking about heading that direction for a few years. People keep telling me EU is in decline. But they still seem nicer than the Americas
- People are kind, a state can't be kind, it just is.
  I'm sure Germans are generally kind of folks but by and large states do not extend social welfare benefits to non-citizens.
- Well, I'm not quite sure which requirements there are for immigration to Germany, and which conditions there are on getting welfare once you got here. They obviously would like to avoid having people immigrating into the welfare system.
  And of course, Germany isn't the land where milk and honey flow either, many people struggle too. I had a bit of luck for sure. But I very much feel Germany is a much more forgiving place to live. That's why I would never move to the US under any circumstances, even for a tripled paycheck.
Gratuliere, freut mich. Solche Geschichten hört man viel zu selten.
Nur den Mythos der Sozialschmarotzer der immer gerne genutzt wird.
- Danke dir. Ich hatte natürlich sehr viel Glück, dass sie im Jahr 2008 gerade Geld im Topf für sowas hatten - und dass ich einiges an IT-Vorkenntnissen hatte. Sonst wäre der Jobcentertyp nicht auf die Idee gekommen, mir das zu bewilligen. Aber ich bin dem heute noch extremst dankbar für die Chance.
Yeah, but bootstraps...

I think this is slightly unfair. I think if we Americans work hard we probably still won't be able to afford basic necessities

Don't forget be extremely lucky.

7-18-27-34-38-51
- Work 7 days a week, 18 hour a day, 27 days a month, 34 years of your life, additionally 38 years of your life, 51 weeks a year?
Or give up some years to the world's largest military.
- Oh that's a terrible plan. Veterans are far more likely to end up poor than rich, and that doesn't include the ones who never come home.

Reading this while working a shift that will put me at 85 hours of work this week. Will be able to buy groceries this month and pay for the surgery my cat needs. Also, am tired AF.

See, now I have to know what’s wrong with the kitty.
- Update, if anyone is interested. Kitty is ok, but things ended up being worse than the vet realized. Externally everything looked good except needing a cleaning and the vet thought maybe a tooth might need extracted, but when they did X-rays 4 of his teeth were being resorbed by his body and the roots were basically gone, so they needed to be pulled. Poor guy is doing good, very unhappy about his current life situation and will be medicated and in a cone for the next 2 weeks, but I'm glad it's taken care of and he's home.
- Yeah, will the kitty be OK?
  (Also, all the best for you, I hope things change for the better real soon.)
I'm sorry :( I hope your kitty will be okay. I have a $4K vet bill to pay too, but i love my cat, as I'm sure you do yours, so we make it work, no matter the sacrifice. Anyway, best of luck <3
- Vet bills are the worst, but my cats don't have the option to do anything about their situation or choose to work different jobs or change things about their life so it feels wrong to decline medical care and potentially make them suffer when they don't get a say in the matter. I can make that choice for myself and my own medical care, but it feels cruel to make that choice for them, you know? They're stuck in whatever life I give them, so I try to make it better than mine.
  I hope your cat is ok!
I wish my ADHD and other issues would let me work 85 hours a MONTH with my toddler around all day every day. I'd be able to pay myself a very decent salary for the part of my country that I live in right now. If I could consistently work a reasonable 150 a month, I'd have the deep into 5 figures amounts of debt my ex put me into, paid off in 2 years. Worst part is, I used to be able to work over 200 a month easily, but I wore myself out like that and now that I'm an exhausted single parent, it's so, so hard to get anything done.
Best of luck to you and your kitty. It sucks that you need to work so much to be able to afford necessities.
- Oof, I don't know how I'd function if I had a toddler. Single parents amaze me, I can barely function as a single person. I have pretty bad ADHD and work is an absolute white knuckle struggle, but I have absolutely no one since my last relationship failed and I don't want to be homeless so I cry a lot at home and then slap a smile on and grind through my shift.

I've been in psych care (not anymore, as of a few days ago. go me amirite) for 30 years. I've paid nothing for it. On top of that, I've not worked for some of that time because disabled. The government paid me welfare for it. I feel bad for Americans, they would actually pay LESS if they adopted socialised healthcare

yeah i know. thanks. how do i get the fuck out of here. alternatively, euthanize me cap'n.

Hi, I've been traveling for 15 yearsish and it is an absolutely dynamite financial decision in terms of saving money and accruing capital. It costs about $500 usd per month (rent, utilities, wi-fi/data, groceries) to live in most countries.

If you're a fluent English speaker, you have a guaranteed job with nearly 2 billion English students looking to pay you $10 to $100 per hour for a skill you've been practicing your whole life.

If you want any info/details/context, ask here, the Travel community, or message me.

But you’ll only be able to afford them in the limited time that you’re deemed useful and subservient by the ruling oligarch pedofile cabal.

What is the actual baseline for american to at least afford a cheap house and live a just-ok life, assuming you're single? As in you can afford food, transport, and just tiny bit of saving? I've been hearing that it's bad, but not sure how bad it is.

Depends on your area (because of the housing market and local cost of living), but in my area in California, if you are not making $150,000 or more annually expect to be in a lot of debt and never owning a home.
- I'm assuming that's a pretty high cost of living area compared to Bumfuck, NW though. Sucks for anyone working a low wage job in said HCoL area of course, but this is somewhat of a state issue rather than a federal one, since HCoL states and areas should have higher minimum wage than federal minimum wage. And I mean California is at least doing that already, but I think even Cali needs to double its current minimum wage.
  Note: I'm not even American, these are just my ramblings.
I'm trying to think of different places I've lived, because the cost of housing / food / other changes. For example, when I lived out in the sticks, rent was cheap but food, gas, and incidentals were hella expensive. I'm near a big urban area now, and it's expensive rent, cheap gas (due to using less), moderate food, moderate incidentals.
Anyway, more relevantly, I know people who can get by with incomes of ~$18.00/hr full time jobs. Anything that is unexpected kills them though, whether it's car trouble, medical issues, or otherwise. You won't be in a house though, unless you're renting a room. You won't be in a rat-infested hole, but something like a one bedroom apartment or two bedroom with a roommate. I know of a few folks who are raising a family on that salary, with the caveat that family helped them with housing (either an inherited property or similar). This is in an area where you can find cheap housing due to natural disasters and generally 'rural' areas that are basically paying developers to build cheap housing (i.e., looks like it's decent but is basically matchsticks and glue).
I helped people budget when they were making $11.00/hr full time, and that's where you start seeing a lot of compromises made (it was also 10 years ago, so things have probably gotten worse). Kids and parents are stuffed into tiny rooms in bad apartments, a car is held together by tape and a prayer (and if anything happens it's going to be scrapped and they'll try to scrape by with a wreck they could get running, and then hope they never get seen by a cop for its numerous problems / lack of insurance/registration), and hopefully they'll be able to get a few government benefits to get the kids help for medical benefits.
I've worked with people making the federal minimum of $7.25/hr, and they rely on the government to have any hope of a not-horrible life. They're either in government housing, or in a trailer with 5 people living in it. The car is shared between several people; they walk to work, even if it sucks and is an hour+walk, because they'll be fired in an instant if they don't show up; they're probably on food stamps, utility help,etc.; medical is basically call ems and get to an emergency room if they're keeling over (and hope that the er can fix it, i.e., that it's not something that just gets 'stabilized'); bills are always piling up... it wasn't pleasant.
So, all that being said, I'd peg it somewhere around $25.00/hr. That's where my higher paid coworkers seem to start looking at houses, and talk about starting families. I'll have to go look at the numbers (and we know that those are probably fucked due to the administration right now...) but I think that's near or above median income in america. That would mean 50% of the population isn't going to be living "just ok," which really sucks to think about.

If you are a complete psycho and absolutely bloodthirsty, you have a bright career in the military. And if you are not the military can turn you into the desired psycho!

But only if the billionaires and politicians agree... Duh.

1 Millions kids of 14 Million live in poverty in Germany.

All those replying are unable to comprehend the context between my comment and what is actually written in the post.

In a country where there is an actual social security network, not least free healthcare. The rate is much higher for the US, which doesn't have any of that, so being poor in the US is much much worse than being poor in Germany.
- Americans who have never left America dont realise that dirt fucking poor looks largely the same around the world. The fact that we have socialised medicine doesnt turn not having the money for groceries into a utopia.
In the US 36 million people, about 11 % live in poverty. Another 2 % rely on SNAP and similar aid to keep above the poverty line.
In the US 10 out of 73 million children live in poverty, about twice the rate of your claim.
Also, please link your sources.
Using a different way of measuring. Using the same way, USA is 1 out of 5.
Which is abhorrent, but for scale it's one out of six in America so...

The American dream 🦅🗽🇺🇸

What country "guarantees" basic necessities to all their people? Food? Housing? Clothes?

Education, healthcare...
And yes, the state can put the means to provide affordable housing and even affordable food, but billionaires will tell you that's a commie thing.
(Well, not billionaires themselves but their paid puppets)
- Why you still need to whitewash billionaires? Do they owe you money /j
China does. And in Western Europe no one needs to live on the street (if they agree with getting the help they need) and is provided with some income for basic necessities?

Holy victim complex at least you have any access to them at all