this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2024
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Um, OK. I'm on board. Are we supposed to argue now?
Nah, I'm good
Not OP, but good on you two.
Id argue middle class are now also the working poor
I had the same thought but (in complete sincerity) then I thought that might be my privilege telling me that. We (my family personally) have it rough on what is legitimately a decent salary and are very much paycheck to paycheck, but there sure are a lot of folks worse off than we are, either in creature comforts, living situation, income, or all three.
On the other hand, I think measures that help the true working poor seem unlikely not to also help the struggling middle class, who seem to be slowly getting absorbed into the working poor in any case. So I think a rising tide will float all boats anyhow.
I have thought the same thing before - used to live in a house where the windows didn't even close, calculate food budget to the cent, could feed myself dinner for 35c and would spend two hours driving for an extra hour of pay. Not there any more fortunately.
I think saying "we shouldn't complain as others are worse" is putting thinking in the wrong direction. If you can't enjoy your life with enough to get by then that also needs to be fixed - don't short your own efforts and struggle.
I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't at all feel “we shouldn’t complain as others are worse”.
My situation is not nearly as bad as your former situation, nor that of many others. If I use the same terms to describe my situation as theirs, I feel I'm minimizing their difficulties by doing so. Yes, it would only take a couple of substantial setbacks to put us in that situation now, but that's a very different thing than already being there.
In any case, I do think prioritizing the "working poor" is fine, and also that the "struggling middle class" are likely to be co-beneficiaries of many improvements that help the working poor if steps are taken there.