After years of working and saving, I can now afford to miss ONE paycheck. I’m no longer poor! /s
Having to work to survive is the default state of nature, unless you are a baby or an elder. It doesn’t mean you’re oppressed.
What about our modern world makes you think humanity exsists in a default state of nature?
We don’t live in a post-scarcity society, so the rules of nature still apply. People need food, water, shelter, energy and someone has to work to provide those things.
My fellow Lemmy user, we dont live in a post-scarity world because profits matter more than people in our Capitalist Society. We could live in a post-scarity world, but that would come at the cost of profits for the 1% who do effectively zero work.
And yet, there’s a class, that neither me or you belong to, who dosen’t need to work a day of their life to survive.
And yet many of them do anyway. And what percent of that class has never worked a day in their life? Most of them probably have years or decades of experience in their career and had to work hard to get to where they’re at.
Maybe you didn’t read the entirely of OP picture. “If you HAVE to work to survive you are working class”. Some of them still work, to keep their power and privileges, or to pursue their personal needs on the arts and other alike.
Why do we keep trying to pervert defined terms?
The working poor are those who work at least 27 weeks a year and still have income below the poverty line.
Because that definition is woefully inadequate to describe the conditions of people experiencing poverty.
I’m not sure how broadening it to include like half the country helps them?
Lots of people live paycheck to paycheck because they have to - other people live paycheck to paycheck because they want to drive a BMW and have a house 50% larger they can afford. They’re not the same.
Fast forward a few years and the size of house I will be able to afford is a shoebox.
There is a range of working class. Some get paid more for their work. They are still working to survive.
As many of the higher wager earners disagree with how the lesser wage earners spend their meager earnings as the less wager earners disagree with the high wager earners.
This is crab mentality. You need to unlearn yours or accept yourself as part of the problem. Some may have larger claws than others but we are all crabs in the same bucket.
Good meme
Trying to label everything in concrete terms like this does nobody any favors.
I know plenty of very high earners that are just stupid with money and blow it as fast as they get it. People making $300k+ and living paycheck to paycheck with no savings or retirement because they bought two $100k+ cars, overextended themselves on buying a house, spend hundreds a week on restaurants and shopping, etc.
Are they the “working poor”?
As far as working class goes, sure if you want to break it down into only a two class structure then yeah. You’re either working class or owner class. That ignores a lot of nuance though within the working class. There’s quite a bit of difference between someone at the bottom of the working class and someone like a high earning professional that still needs to work, but has a much higher standard of living.
There’s quite a bit of difference between someone at the bottom of the working class and someone like a high earning professional that still needs to work, but has a much higher standard of living.
True. But they have much more in common with each other than they have with the owner class. We’re often fighting amongst ourselves while the billionaires are laughing all the way to the bank.
That really depends. A landlord with 10-20 units and a management company may not have to work, but they have a lot more in common with the working class than they do the Waltons or Buffets in the owner class.
In terms of net worth, sure. 10-20 million dollars is pretty much a billion dollars away from being a billion. But in terms of paying taxes? Unearned income pays the least in taxes. Psychology? It depends. If they have big mortgages and have to do a lot of the work themselves and be really careful with money? Then they might not feel rich (and may actually have a low net worth). If they own it all outright and have a employees take care of it all? That’s pretty different.
People who make high incomes from wages/salary are still working class, as they don’t own the capital. However the higher the income (relative to necessary living expenses, mind you) the more incentives they have to have interests more aligned with the Capitalist class and can become “class traitors”.
But anyhow, 99% of the people who will read this post probably aren’t making $300k