Thanks for explaining how I missed your point. I am glad to address your point and you are correct. The American "Middle Class" is shrinking. The Elites are bleeding it to death.
Right now there is no social contract that defines what is the proper reward for each class of labor we are all free agents competing with each other.
You believe and I believe that college educated adults should be able to afford vacations and be on a path to home ownership by their early thirties, except for those living in large American Cities as they are so constrained housing wise as to be barely affordable even for upper middle class professionals.
Even 30 years ago when I was single with no kids I would have struggle to save enough for the down payment on my first house at age 30 if it was not for a windfall. (all expenses paid remote job assignment for 18 months)
You obviously have the reverse situation with $10,000 in medical debt.
In the current competition based employment culture you are starting with a handicap and will struggle to close the gap with your peers.
If labor was more organized then pay would be negotiated for a group and not individuals so there is no cut throat competition to put the disadvantaged further into a deficit.
Back to your personal situation, you are where you are and while it is precarious and lean it is probably not going to get better for you in the U.S. except maybe longer term we will see more improved health care, maybe, depends. It is not like raising the minimum wage will help you. Maybe you will find a better job. Maybe that better job is in a different country and maybe that country has a lower cost of living. Maybe relocating inside the U.S. would help. I have lived in Maine, California, Florida and now live in Louisiana but I have never lived in a big city. I live a half hour outside of New Orleans. Cost of living here is less than the numbers I put in my other response. My peers who live in the city are less able to save. They spend more on housing and also on the entertainments of the city. Their commute is as bad or worse than mine because our place of employment is on the edge of the city nearer my home and is in what most consider a "bad neighborhood."
Your premise and criticisms of the current American Society is well founded. If it is going to get fixed it will not be anytime soon. The United Neo Liberal/Conservative Plutocratic Oligarchic Elites have a lock on the levers of power that are bleeding the middle class for their benefit.
TEK
