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Its funny, I am nor have I never been in the top 1%. My parents combined never pulled in more than 100k / year until I was going away to college. They saved up a reasonable amount of money to send me but I still had to take out over 80k in student loans.
Now I have a job making 50k a year as an engineer. I pay over $900 / month in student loans, $650 / month for housing plus utilities, and I have to pay the same high gas prices as everyone. Between income tax and social security I get over $200 of my paycheck taken out weekly, thats 10,400 per year. Between all my bills and straight up living expenses I do manage to save some money at the end of the month for my bank account. By no means am I living extravagantly.
Sure I'm not quite at the poverty limit but if I ever had a large expense come up suddenly I would be fairly cleaned out.
Yet because of my salary I am entitled to no special government benefits and I get taxed so heavily it impacts how much I'm personally able to save for my future. Hell if I had the extra $70 a week that gets taken out from social security I'd be able to save an extra 3000 a year that I could invest and actually do something with. Instead I'm paying for a government program that won't even be around when I would finally get to use its benefits. By the time I retire I will have lost over 120,000 to paying for social security. Doesn't make much sense to me.
Usto its funny you mention that, because I see "Help Wanted" signs on plenty of stores yet there are still poor, homeless people walking around.
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