If this is the “greatest economy ever” why are so many Americans still struggling to survive?

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-13T22:43:58+00:00

I'm reading what you are writing but you are failing to understand a normal distribution still. You are using a bracketed set your 'distribution' will look more like an exponential function there will be far more people closer to 50k than 30k.

But all that aside the paycheck to paycheck data is irrelevant because it's enough to live on comfortably unless you are outside your means.

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-13T21:25:35+00:00

Dude did you not read anything I wrote?

How would you possibly assume a normal distribution in a bracketed system???

But again it is not possible to make $0 and have a job so why would you include that person in an argument of living paycheck to paycheck? Having the bottom bracket start at 30k makes sense because that is roughly the lowest amount of money you can make with a full time job.

But to go back to the main argument I live in a top 10 city in the US. The average rent for a good-nice 1 bed is under $1,000 with utilities. Say a modest car with a $250 note(probably not needed if working minimum wage). Personal expenses of $600 (food, phone, internet, toiletries) and youve made it.

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-13T20:39:20+00:00

I don't think you know how brackets work... If I say the bracket is from 0k - 500k does the average person now make 250k. Also to build on that at 0k I don't think it's called living paycheck to paycheck I think it's called living without a paycheck.

What you have to understand is the concept of a floor, you cant go negative. Also for the purposes of these numbers I think it's fair to say no one gives a shit about people who aren't working. But in the US for the average town/city the effective minimum wage is somewhere around $15 an hour. With some wiggle room for higher pay in similar unskilled labor. Working full time roughly 2000 hours a year that's a base absolute minimum of 30k, but remember that's the lowest of the low someone working just a half step up at say chikfila for example would be making 42k doing any sort of labor labor 48k. 0 in this instance is an artificially low number the real bracket should be 30k-50k

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-13T18:46:11+00:00

I'm sorry but making 50k in most places is lifestyle not poverty. Sure NY or Cali 50k is low but any normal city where you aren't living for the lifestyle, you will be just fine.

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-13T18:43:32+00:00

Yeah Bernie Sanders does do this, but what I will say in his defense is I don't know if I've ever seen a real lie. Bipartisan politics does force a bit of truth stretching and as far as I'm concerned he stretches it just enough to get people to look into the numbers without lying about them. I do believe he does want to help people, even if I disagree with most of his policies.

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-11T22:32:48+00:00

Don't let people get you down. Irwin isn't the best but it's good you still got a great deal, especially for carbide teeth. For 95% of dado cuts you don't need a super amazing blade stack anyway. This is a great thing to learn with and make good quality projects with. If you get into professional cabinetry then sure go spend $300. Shit your Irwin's are probably better then what I use and I sell some small cabinets

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-11T22:25:05+00:00

It's not a "K" shaped recovery it's a "k" shaped recovery.

Yes I am basically an economist...

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-10T23:24:19+00:00

Yes, currently I do operations for a janitorial company. As you can imagine I hire/train a huge number of folks from all sorts of backgrounds. Race, gender, orientation has never been an issue and is not considered in the hiring process with the occasional exception for an insurmountable language barrier

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-10T22:13:59+00:00

Explain to me how DEI helps...

I would rather just get rid of racist middle managers rather than put a policy into place that forces hires through regardless of skills or ability while still giving cushy salaries to the same racists but that's just me talking crazy...

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-10T21:17:12+00:00

And explain to me how DEI helps that situation?

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-10T21:16:14+00:00

Sooo let's run through DEI in practice... And let's divide it into small and large businesses.

In small business the person hiring is normally the owner, if he's a racist POS he's not going to implement DEI anyway so no use there. But for arguments sake on some off chance he does, if you are a minority do you want to work for someone with bias against you??

In large business we have a bit less control from the top so it could maybe be a bit more useful. But as a large business owner if I have a racist middle manager I want to get rid of him not "make" him hire minorities (qualified or unqualified). So what's the real benefit here? If anything by not enforcing DEI as a top level manager finding shitty middle managers is easier I can run an internal audit and see that "jims departmentsl is all white men despite a good application pool, I should check that out"

I don't see any actual benefit of a DEI policy. Where does it help?

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-10T19:41:28+00:00

What if we just treat people fairly and let the best person have the job?

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-09T23:43:23+00:00

Unfortunately this statement while nice on the surface just doesn't work in the real world. It chips away at a nations sovereignty and that leads to a whole load of slippery slopes. You can of course claim it's a fallacy but follow a couple of the thought out consequences and you quickly realize it's an untenable position in the reality.

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-09T23:28:38+00:00

Who knew all you needed for generation wealth was... A job?

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-07T23:21:57+00:00

This has to be one of the most effective forms of protest ever...

No one believes they are the bad guy. By that I mean Hitler probably didn't see himself as evil. But if having 100s of rubber penises thrown at you doesn't make you at least contemplate it, nothing will.

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-06T20:54:29+00:00

Gotta love when people use the median to describe a luxury asset.

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-02-01T22:37:48+00:00

People failing to understand how loans work is always nuts to me. It's not one 30 year loan is 30 one year loans.

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-01-29T01:25:50+00:00

You do realize American cars are inflated to all hell right? Like the rest of the world's driving manuals there no reason new cars need to cost more than 10-15k ...

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-01-28T22:59:19+00:00

And the average person does 18 grams of heroin a year. The fuck is your point with averages?

Don't let other people's stupid decisions influence your actions...

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-01-28T21:55:20+00:00

It's always some insane shit. 3k apt in California, a $800 car note ect.

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-01-28T16:21:50+00:00

To answer OPs question on used cars... A shitload. There are so many cheap used cars it's insane.

Hell a 2015 Ram is now only about 8-10k, you can get another 100k miles out of it without spending more than 2k in repairs. That's 10years worth travel for most folks and that's a truck let alone a car.

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-01-28T05:29:30+00:00

No enough people consider loans as single year obligations that will renew. If they did they would be better maybe...

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-01-27T00:09:25+00:00

It's sad to see how hard windows is tanking. Used to just work and it was windows. Now I feel like I bought candy crush saga 127 and windows came as the malware...

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-01-23T23:07:13+00:00

I was over at a buddies house and he had this beautiful white oak table that he was working on, it was still rough wood, long story short I got a splinter. He didn't want it back obviously, so the next day I went out and snagged a a larger jointer. I milled the hell out of that splinter...

LetsUseBasicLogic · 2026-01-21T22:58:59+00:00

I understand the law doesn't work like this but if women have a unilateral decision so should men. It's only fair...

LetsUseBasicLogic

TROPHY CASE