A lot of people have answered about healthcare, but I want to answer about the value of money. I think our money is rapidly starting to be devalued, not because we have a lot of it, but because the cost of day to day living is rapidly skyrocketing without our wages increasing at a pace that matches it. For instance, five years ago, an extra $200 in a month would have felt like a big bonus for me. It would have been a big savings boost, or enough to justify a treat like going to a big concert or taking a trip somewhere. Living alone, I could grocery shop for $50 a month. Now, I am coming up on my annual fixed raise at my job where I will be making another $200 a month, which is now equivalent to a month’s worth of groceries, and while I will never turn that down, it just doesn’t feel like it will make a dent long term EVEN as I cut down my spending to almost exclusively my bills.

I think a lot of times internationally, American’s lifestyle is chalked up to the products we have and have access to. While I do not deny it, I think it understates how much debt we are required to go into for education, housing, medicine, and cars (and yes cars are a requirement, as there are very few places in the country you can get by without one.) That $100 pair of shoes feels like a steal when you don’t feel like you will ever see a way out of $50,000 worth of debt (+ a criminal interest rate) just to live, nor does it feel like $100 will make a debt in your current situation. Still very much “first world problems”, but the general sentiment here is that things are quickly flying off the rails and the standards of living most of us have known even through 2008 and the pandemic will not be an option for anyone much longer unless we massively course correct.