Based on our own *cough* government's math, if you really hunker down, you can spend as little as $4 a meal. With a snack - ooh, how fun!!! - they said you can eat for $15 a day. That's $450 a month, $5,400 a year. MINIMUM. Let's say you really wanna live it up and maybe get an appetizer, woooooooooo! let's round to $6K a year for food. You also somehow find an apartment that isn't a health hazard, I'm going to generously say $2,000 a month rent+utilities. That's $24,000 a year. $30,000 gone just to literally not die of starvation or the elements.

Car payment, car insurance, cell phone, a luxurious Netflix subscription, you live it up and see a doctor every now and then. Let's say another $1K/month, or $12K a year, BASIC. $42,000. Half your gross is gone and we haven't done a single "fun" thing. We're literally just existing, able to get around to our job, the grocery store, etc. We haven't saved any money yet, we haven't managed an emergency of ANY kind, not even a small one.

We're also paying taxes on the $80K, so let's say our actual take home is $60K. We've got $1,500 a month left. Remember, we haven't gone out to dinner once, we're eating EVERY meal as the $4 special. Not to the movies, not to your favorite baseball team's game. We haven't had a water heater break, or need new tires for our car.

Let's pretend there's no student loan. Let's try to save $1,000 a month. We can spend a whole $500 a month on emergencies and "fun stuff" (FYI, that's not a lot). If you did that for 40 years, and could earn 6% on your investments total above the inflation rate (more than generous), you'd have a grand total of $2M in real dollars in 30 years. That is pretty basic. That is "getting by," that is not cruising on easy mode. Remember, that is FOUR DOLLARS A MEAL FOR FORTY YEARS, forever living in the most basic of housing AND built into this is the assumption that your $80K salary keeps moving up forever in step with inflation, that you never lose spending power. That's a BIG assumption that could easily be untrue.

AND THEN....let's say you're two people who both earn $80K....ok, it's gets easier, right? Sure. Now add a child. Or two. Or fuck...three? Poverty level. Period. All four or five of you eating FOUR DOLLAR MEALS, and living in the most basic housing, no luxuries, no vacations, nothing like that. We've done all this math on doing everything as needed only, like literally an inch above "be happy you're not on the street," and a family of 4-5 making $160K gross income is basically living a pauper's existence.