If the system cannot provide us with Healthcare, social security, or even a living wage, then what’s the point?

My wife and I are both college educated, employed full time, and bringing in $130,000 of household income, total. We just found out that Daycare is going to cost us about $1000/month starting next month. We ran the numbers, and the math isn’t mathing unless at least one of us picks up a part time job. All this while social security and other programs that our taxes are meant to pay for are under constant threat of being scrapped, so people who already have more money than they can spend in several lifetimes can have more. Not only do these people make billions because of wage theft, they don’t pay taxes either.

Growing up, both of my parents were teachers. We had enough money to have a decent house, two cars, an old speedboat that we took to the lake all the time. We took multiple vacations a year, and my parents never had to worry about having enough money for basic living expenses. They raised three biological kids and as many as five foster kids at once. My wife and I had plans to take one vacation to Hawaii next year. It would be the first one we’ve had in three years, and that now looks like it’s not going to happen. There’s never enough government money for social programs to help the average American, but there seems to be an unlimited amount for perpetual war, corporate bailouts, and subsidies for people who need them the least.

The poverty level for a family of three in my state is $25,820. That is an incomprehensible amount, and I feel awful that there are people who have to try to live on that. I bought a house in 2017, so I’m one of the lucky millenials who got in before that dream became unattainable for so many. I would be fine with a collapse of the housing market though. First, because whatever happens to the value of my house will happen to every house. Second, because at least then some more millenials and Gen Z might be able to buy a home.

If things are this bad now, how bad are they going to be when my two year old grows up? How can I look my only son in the face at that point, and tell him that I did nothing about it? I’m supposed to just grin and bear it while things get harder all the time when they don’t need to be? I know many people my age or younger who don’t want to have kids at all because of the sorry state of things. The American dream has been stolen from us, with the help of the politicians who were supposed to be protecting our interests. We have been left fighting over the scraps of what rightly belongs to us.

One large medical bill, or either my wife or I losing our job could tank us completely. Americans who work full time shouldn’t have to live with this fear, yet hundreds of millions of us do. The whole point of civilization is to make life easier, but now it feels like it’s making life harder. Please don’t suggest therapy, or running for a local government office. Before giving budgeting advise, understand that that we shouldnt be trying to do more with less, we should be asking why there is less to begin with. Even if you arent currently struggling, you are infinitely closer to being homeless than you are to being one of the billionaires who are ruining this country. None of these suggestions will solve the massive problems facing this country either.

Edit: Learn to read, people. My wife and I make $130,000 together, total. Not $260,000.

I’m seeing a lot of financial wizards with assumptions or terrible takes about my spending habits. I just checked my credit score, and it’s currently sitting at a 798. You don’t get that kind of score if you are irresponsible or making poor spending choices. If your score is lower than that, keep your advise to yourself, thanks. My only debts are my mortgage, my car payment, and about $400 on a credit card, which will be paid off in a few months.

I’m also seeing a lot of “make cuts”, “buckle down”, etc. There are definitely cuts we can make, and we will do that and whatever else we need to in order to provide for our child. But a lot of you seem to be missing the bigger picture. I’m seeing too much “buy a shit box car for $1500”, but not enough of “why are the vast majority of Americans living paycheck to paycheck”, or “why is everything much more expensive while wages have been stagnant for decades?”, or “why can’t people affors to take vacations anymore? You’re not outside the system because you bought a hooptie, you’re being owned and controlled by it. I’m doing better than a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean that this country isn’t fucked.

Apparently many of you now believe that vacations, cars, and even children are “luxuries”. Jesus christ…