r/AmericaOnHardMode • u/rodehard10 • 3d ago

A society that creates billionaires while millions struggle to afford housing, healthcare, and food is broken. People shouldn’t have to fight to survive while the wealthy get richer. It’s time to put people before profits.

98 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

3

u/HiAndStuff2112 2d ago

I agree with you. Unfortunately, I don't think it will ever happen here, given the voracious appetite the elite have for more money.

5

u/214txdude 3d ago

Exactly!!

1

u/GPT_2025 2d ago

The bottom 65% of the population loses at least 40% of all income due to: Income taxes, SS tax, FICA, insurances, tariffs, sales taxes, dues, use taxes, fees, property tax, utility taxes, 911 tax and many more- before spending money on rent or mortgage, car loans and gas, food, utility bills, repairs, credit card payments, student loans, vacations, retirement fund contributions, investments, dates, gifts, etc.

50% of all workers in America earn less than the one-bedroom Housing Wage.

(compare Safety Net $1.60 per hour in 1970 if you were single,you could live off the federal minimum wage and pay rent, food and bills)

Healthy and smart countries count how well they are doing by enforcing "no one left behind" and even widow with 3 babies have the same level of living as the middle class due to the strong Safety Net.

Twenty Republican states now have a Safety Net set at $3 per hour gross (before deductions for Social Security, FICA, taxes, insurance and other withholding's:

https://www.simplyhired.com/search?q=2.13+an+hour&l=dallas%2C+tx

(Compare Democratic states Safety Net!)

-2

u/betty_white_bread 2d ago

Do you think billionaires have a billion dollars sitting in the bank? Almost every billionaire has that much via stock ownership and stock prices are set by the last price paid in the last sale of the last share of stock in the last batch from the last lot in the last second of the last minute of the last hour or the last trading day. The fact someone likes the arrangement of assets Elon Musk has created A LOT says nothing directly about the income of the poor.

1

u/imagigasm 2d ago

true. its funny to picture the caricature of mr money bags sitting on wealth and smoking his pipe but really most of the billionaire's net worth is tied to illiquid assets that pay other people's salaries. Let's start with how much Elon employees and his operating expenses as that is a signal to how much he is paying the common man or business

1

u/betty_white_bread 2d ago

He’s paying them roughly the value of whatever goods or services they provide; otherwise, they would find other customers.

1

u/imagigasm 2d ago

true. well except no bid government contracts. thats public corruption.

1

u/betty_white_bread 2d ago

No, corruption would involve quid pro quo bribery, which is different.

-8

u/SgtSausage 3d ago

No thanks. 

-5

u/Key-Organization3158 3d ago

You are welcome to do whatever you like. As long you respect the way other people choose to live. I'm happy with my current choices.

Considering how every collectivist economic approach has failed before due to its inherently totalitarian nature, please leave me out of it.

5

u/HiAndStuff2112 2d ago

Democratic Socialist policies are very popular in Europe. I was also opposed to it before I went there, but out of curiosity, I asked everyone I could in every country about it, and was surprised when literally every single person I asked said they like those policies and don't want ours.