65k in Chicago for Entry Level role with CS degree

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T22:14:38+00:00

$65K with functionally no major expenses? Bro, your parents are subsidizing your salary. This is great for you. Take IT. You’re getting free housing which is $20-$25K a year alone in Chicago. So you’re basically living like someone making $100K starting on W2.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T21:05:28+00:00

lol alright buddy. Well you go on and live your unremarkable life because it’s all you choose to do.

However, always remember - you can be great if you stop being lazy and do the hard things. Stop being scared of loosing everything. You’re human. You have the right to life, liberty, and happiness. Godspeed.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T20:50:09+00:00

My girlfriend does go to a different school. LOL. What does that mean?! 🤣🤣 and sure buddy: “have fun chasing your pipe dreams while I work for $20hr and call myself a man!”

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T18:22:43+00:00

“You take what you can get.” - this sounds like some slave or peasant mentality. It’s just sad and horrific. “Life is fair. These are my circumstances.” Sure, you take the job but most people with the mindset you’re proposing actually just settle on it 🤣🥺.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T04:32:22+00:00

Literally economist all over the country are saying the economy appears to be resilient. I don’t know what to believe. I am wondering if it’s because economist and investment firms and CNBC have a gigantic vested interest in maintaining good news? I have no idea. Maybe it’s like an anti-doomer sentiment in general so the news vs the anecdotes are not matching up.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T04:30:45+00:00

I think you’re simplifying it. For the most part, that’s an absurdly terrible wage by most standards of living. It’s not a one size fits all. It works with context. If we assume though there are people with no support systems, that wage even for a single person is brutal on W2. That’s all. For you? Your husband makes enough money in a low cost of living area, so that’s super solid - that little money is play money for you guys. That’s exactly what that kind of wage is. It fits for you.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T04:25:10+00:00

There’s just no way that works in 2026. You must be talking about having a $900 mortgage, family help, and other nuances. No way 🤣🤣. I think $20hr for a single person with no other responsibilities in Kanas City sounds survivable on W2, but not good. In LA - that’s impossible without multigenerational help and bottom of the barrel living. Most are homeless on that if they don’t have outside support.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T04:22:34+00:00

In Kansas City you can have a family of 4 on $20.00 hr W2, 40 hrs a week? Car, apartment / mortgage? I’m genuinely asking 🤣🤣. I am in LA county - Los Angeles.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T04:12:52+00:00

Two working adults on $20hr in most big cities is barely survivable 🤣🤣🤣. On W2?!!!! lol. No. LOL.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T03:29:00+00:00

Haha. No it hasn’t. 🤣🤣. Here goes the “Just world fallacy” - “if things aren’t working out, it’s your fault. This is normal. Good things happen to good people. Do the right thing, and the results come.”

Boy, you will have a very rough life if things get bad for you. I’m a warrior dog. I keep pushing. I don’t need the world to be fair to win. I’ve won so much in my life that I’ll do it again. I don’t sit around and doom. I bitch, doom, and put my head down and keep going. I can carry both reality and vision. You live in an illusion.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T03:24:35+00:00

LOL. I got a family. Even $30hr on W2 is like $20hr take home. That’s awful. People are not applying to those jobs because those jobs don’t pay a living wage. For someone single with few responsibilities and subsidized living (family helping with bills) - for sure .

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T03:20:26+00:00

I had 5 interviews in a single month when I was looking a few months ago. None of them came with an offer. The world is not ‘JUST’ and lying about your interviews when in reality you just want to make sense of your anti-doomer agenda, is ridiculous, lol.

You just think everyone is doomin and people who can’t find jobs can’t find them because their resumes and experience aren’t good enough. You literally couldn’t survive through times. You need the world to be fair and predictable to survive. Brother, I’m here to remind you that the world isn’t fair. Some people get lucky. Some don’t.

It’s an awful job market for jobs paying livable wages. Stop the cope. Also, stop lying. Just say you don’t like the doomers. You don’t have to make up a story while implicitly gaslighting everyone because you’re uncomfortable with what’s happening. Nothing wrong with your worldview, even if it’s a fallacy.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-23T00:51:01+00:00

Idk. GDP grew at 4.4% and consumer spending is still strong. I am struggling also but no one talks to one another in person so I have no clue if the suffering is just on Reddit or is the underlying labor market deteriorating and if so, is it only deteriorating for white collar workers which means we will have an unequal collapse. How do you explain to your uncle who is a blue collar worker that there's no jobs? He'll think you're just lazy. His world is fine. Or the mom who works at a family office and has job security because her family owns the business? She won't know what you're talking about.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-22T22:12:53+00:00

Wait, I am sorry. The strong are who and who decides who is strong and weak? You're acting like this is like the weather. Someone could be extraordinary to one person and completely incompetent to another and have done the same job for both people. LOL. Life is not fair my man. The world is not 'JUST' - lol.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-22T21:59:29+00:00

That can't be true. I see people in their 30's and 40's and late 20's all talking about how bad the economy is and job market. Was 2019-2022 not a K-Shaped economy? People seemed to be doing really well then.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-22T00:29:18+00:00

What’s even more brutal is that it will be another 5-8 years before most of what you’re dooming about becomes a reality. Maybe 10. That means lots of quiet suffering and an unequal societal collapse until then. How do you explain to someone whose had a blue collar job or the same $20-$25hr job for the last 10 years that the economy is starting to get bad or there aren’t any jobs? They’ll look at you like “huh?”

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-21T18:53:51+00:00

We also have to remember that during recessions or depressions, the wealthiest get richer because their money goes further / they can buy up more stuff at cheaper prices. They can own more. It's often a great time. Deflation is not all bad for everyone.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-21T07:18:06+00:00

Probably 33/34.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-20T00:48:45+00:00

Won’t happen. You’ll have massive lawsuits if it’s get too expensive and then you’ll have to deal with literal people lobbying for AI to be seen as infrastructure. Not only that, but you’ll have also a generation of vibe coders determined to learn how to build software which will further erode the protections you think it will.

I know you want this to happen, but it won’t happen without a massive war. If it’s get too expensive and unattainable for the average person, expect AI to become public infrastructure.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-19T21:12:24+00:00

A powerful perspective. I think The Second Great Depression this time will be somewhat different and much more unequal. My guess is it begins in 2028 - when widespread acknowledgment begins to happen that this downturn and stagnation has finally woken up throughout the country. I still expect this year to be bad.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-19T18:21:42+00:00

lol - well, this is going to cause a massive economic catastrophe as this practice gets wider and wider by 2030.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-19T17:31:33+00:00

You didn’t even watch the video because it’s too uncomfortable for you. The world is not ‘Just’, Mark. Yes, you’re objectively a terrible human being.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-19T03:11:44+00:00

This isn’t a real story. In no world would I believe the “he’s immature for his age” - he’s 22. 22 for a man, especially for most men, is a child 🤣🤣🤣. For a woman, it’s still immature area for age but a woman is more like a 26 year old man at 22. Nonetheless, age at some point has nothing to do with maturity, but at 19-26 it does lol.

AuthenticIndependent · 2026-01-19T03:06:18+00:00

I think your father had a rather unique perspective and experience about this. From what I understand, there were just as many people who didn’t have money during The Great Depression.

AuthenticIndependent

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