u/Manitoba-Chinook

And I’m not just talking about $7.25—I mean any minimum wage in any state. I made the mistake of looking at houses to buy. A simple three-bed, one-and-a-half-bath home is around $350,000 to $500,000 depending on the area. Even in my town—which is a very low-cost-of-living area—a place that needs a mountain of work still costs $275,000. The average wage here is about $2 less an hour than what I make (20$). It’s insane to me that banks are even opening these loans thinking anyone can actually afford them long-term, especially without factoring in property taxes, rising costs, or local job stability. Minimum wage in my area is about $15 an hour, but realistically, the only people earning that low are para-educators. Almost everyone else makes a bit more, but it’s still nowhere near enough.
The point is, saving money is nearly impossible. Every time you get ahead, prices jump just enough that you’re either back to square one or forced to work two or three jobs just to survive.
Everything feels completely unsustainable. My town can’t even afford to maintain basic infrastructure. There are holes in the sidewalks big enough for cars, no parks anywhere, and a total lack of maintenance. The city has lead pipes they’re slowly replacing, but because many of them are in lower-income areas, they’re taking their sweet time. I work in one of these neighborhoods. The community is actually great and the neighbors are kind (rowdy at times but it’s whatever), but the systemic neglect is obvious. I once saw someone take a two-block ambulance ride to the only hospital in town, and the bill was astronomical. Close to 500k.
On top of that, the soil around here is so contaminated and depleted that you can't even grow your own food without spending years trying to rehabilitate it. Because I live near a food desert, I have to drive 20 minutes just to get basic groceries, or 45 minutes to find decent prices. Buying furniture? Forget it. The only places nearby are rent-to-own shops predatory enough to target people who can't afford to buy outright.
Yet, the city somehow had the budget to put up Flock surveillance cameras on every damm block. Meanwhile, providing police with a detailed physical description, exact location, and interior layout of a sexual assaulter wasn't enough to get an arrest—because to them, the victim apparently isn't worth the effort.
My partner and I are currently stuck in an apartment, trying to decide whether to buy a house or move to a better rental. We realized our current rent is the cheapest in town for our amenities. We know there’s no mold, though we did just find two cockroaches trying to crawl under the door. But given that our last apartment had black mold and flooded constantly from broken water lines, two roaches in three years feels like a step up. That’s how low the bar is.
You can no longer just "get by." You're trapped in constant debt. Nobody can afford a 7% interest rate, let alone a 15% increase in food prices. My employer is already strapped for cash and barely getting by, so my own job is on the line. I don’t know how things will look over the next couple of months, but it isn't looking good. I honestly don't know if I'll even be able to afford the gas to get to work after bills are paid. Thankfully, it's a two-hour walk one way—it’s dangerous because I have to cross a couple of highways, but at least I can physically get there by 7:00 AM.
It’s completely insane.

— A rant from Rockford, Illinois

We’ve put in tickets to have it fixed but it’s not.

There’s no way I could safely walk or bike to work and it’s only 3 miles.

For the first time in my life, I had the opportunity to go on vacation. Nearly debt free too. I’m a simple man who doesn’t need much and isn’t particularly fancy. For a week, my boyfriend and I stayed at a private lake, about an hour’s drive from several major cities.

The local stores were all the same: Dollar General, Walmart, Menards, and so on. The closest we came to experiencing local culture was a fishing store that clearly belonged to a man who pretended to sell his personal fishing gear to please his wife. Don’t get me wrong, we did stock up on some new fishing strings, lures, and bait, but otherwise, we could have done everything we needed to do there at home. There was nothing unique or special about the place.

The closest thing we got to something unique that we couldn’t do back home was a darkness park on the lake next door. Our lake was equally dark, so I guess it is the same thing—a quarter-mile wouldn’t change much.

Otherwise, local stores are now antique shops at this point. Or pop-up strip malls that are just recycled Dollar Tree products, at three times the price.

I don’t think you’re going to find a local bread store where they grow their stuff locally anymore. Just a simple diner that is the same as what’s back home, with another waitress with the same menu 600 miles from home.

No, I think all of those shops are closed down.

I’m not seeing anything unique unless it’s the variations of graffiti in a restroom stall.

For the most part, there’s nothing local anymore. No local foods and even few local-only things. It’s all the same.

I’ve lost interest in budgeting. If I need gas, I can’t wait until payday anymore— it’s cheaper now rather than tomorrow or next week. I’m stocking up anywhere I can.

I’ve lost interest in budgeting. If I need gas, I can’t wait until payday anymore— it’s cheaper now rather than tomorrow or next week.

I’m stocking up anywhere I can.