they also have massive corruption, which is the biggest problem the russians have.

the russian military was massively undertrained, underequipped, and underexperienced. all of their ‘stats’ were massively inflated due to the instiutional corruoption rampant form bottom to top that inflated everything.

rabies wouldn’t be something they ordinary test for.

it’s a city with a lot of money. but nobody shows it off the way they do in nyc/la. it’s very ‘modest’.

people with 50million in the bank drive a 30K prius and wear eddie bauer and agonizing over their property tax going up $500 as if it will bankrupt them.

poor people never could live in cities. because they have the stuff rich people want, and they push out the poor people.

and the people who live in impoverished neighborhoods in urban areas, also don’t have access to any of that.

because those things all require lots of money. where i live opera tickets are cheaper than going to see a local band in a bar. but both are going to be a minimum spend of 50-80 dollars.

who? the ultra religious/conservative types?

22-25 is way too young to be doing either of those things.

No, i’m telling you there are many well-off people who think anyone who isn’t as rich as them should not exist and view anyone the top 5% of incomes as subhuman scum.

those are the people that go to the cultural events, and they don’t want disgusting poor people near them.

ok, you should go down to a poor area and start lecturing those people how they should live their lives. see how they respond.

the poverty line isn’t about any of that.

it’s a financial threshold. it has says nothing about what people spend the money on, or don’t.

I never felt impoverished until rich people told me i shouldn’t be alive because my life doesn’t meet there inflated living standards.

Just like my 150K a year salary feels rich to me, and they tell me it’s shameful and a poverty wage.

What you don’t understand is that you don’t get to determine how other people live, or their living standards. They do.

You can feel bad for people like me for ‘suffering’, but what you don’t get is that to us it was never suffering. it was a normal life. If you think my life was impoverished, it’s likely because your own was so privledged. and to think anyone who doesn’t live their life by your standards is ‘less than’ you is pure arrogance.

depends on who you ask. depends on the size of the bedroom.

for a rich person, it would be a much higher threshold than for those who are poor. that’s all about ‘standards’ of living.

i grew up on canned/frozen foods, and yeah ate a shitload of mac and cheese and other horrible foods. i hate plenty of calories, even if they were unhealthy. but it’s what we could afford. i also only had cheap fall apart clothes. but i was never hungry, or cold. i didn’t shared a bedroom, but many of my friends did. like a lot of poor people, we spent more on certain things like clothes because we could not afford nicer things that lasted longer. but where i lived… everyone was like that so it wasn’t a big deal.

most of my peers where i live now, think i grew up in poverty, because they grew up much wealthier. i’ve been on first dates where the person lecture me how my parents were irresponsible to have me if they could not afford to pay for my college or buy me a new car at 16, etc. i usually laugh at their absurdly high standards, but to them it is a ‘bare minimum’ and anyone who doesn’t have those things shouldn’t exist.

for a family of 5 living in a 1 bedroom eating shitty food, any minor improvement would feel like a huge success. but waht rich people don’t get about poor people is they tend to appreciate that they aren’t homeless and starving, and don’t really have a concept of nicer/healthier food because it doesn’t exist in their social peer group. i never ate healthy food until i got to college because it was the first time in my life it was ever available to me. nobody in my rural working-class down ate that stuff, just like we didn’t go to live performances, own luxury cars, or a ton of other stuff.

the fact that you made this comparison tells me you are rich

I grew up in a rural area 2 hours city of the city, because it’s all we could afford. i had no culture into i got to college.

am i suppose to feel like i was therefore impoverished or something?

when you can’t pay for necessities. food, housing, clothing.

if you can afford these things. you aren’t in poverty.

dude, everyone is one medical issue away from bankrupcy. if i got cancer i’d go bankrupt.

yes, as long as you pay rent, have heat, and other necessities you’re not poor in in poverty.

i don’t know what your standard is, but i grew up with a roof over my head, food in my belly, and zero luxuries. we were considered middle class. not poor. our houses were old and crappy, and our cars were used based models. the only ‘luxury’ we had was cable tv.

the issue is now ‘middle class’ seems to mean ‘upper middle class’ as if if you can’t lve in the best towns, with teh best schools, and travel to europe with your family every year, you are ‘poor’. where i live people lve in posh expensive years, have the $5000 in electronics or more, are leasing new model cars, and traveling abroad 2-3x a year and claim they are ‘in poverty’. because their salary is ‘only’ 100K.

and while there may be a limited subset of circumstances where that money isn’t sufficient, that’s not what poverty is.

bingo. where i live everyone thinks they are in ‘poverty’ because they can’t afford luxuries like expensive cars, expensive vacations, and luxury housing. they are not anywhere near true poverty. but since most grew up wealthy/middle class, they think they are.

as someone who grew up lower-class, it blows my mind how poor most people are with money, and how they blame society rather than their own budgeting skills. i know people who make 40K a year who spend 10K a year traveling, and then cry poor.

vast majority people in actual poverty spend their lifetime in poverty. about 10% make it out, mostly via education for gifted kids.

140K is more 85% of the USA population.

It’s upper middle class. it’s about 5 grand a month in disposable income. assuming a 1/3 tax rate and 3K in rent/mortage

it’s also what I make, and yeah i have that much disposable income per month.

yeah but is your income going to go up? or are you like 50 and it’s maxxed out?

context is everything. if you’re 25 and your salary will double in 5-10 years your situation isn’t bad.

blows my mind in my city how many 22-25 year olds scream how poor they are when they are just starting out their lives and think their 50-60K wage is ‘poverty’ when it will be 100K in 5 years.

plenty of people live in these cities on less than 140K and are doing fine.

I live in Boston and I do great and a few years ago I was only making 70K.

that’s because your real estate is bought up by people like me with 150K salaries who think your 1800 rent is dirt cheap. In Boston a studio is over 3K now.

i know people who moved to Maine to find cheaper housing because none is available in Boston area. and the people who live in Boston fight any/all development to expand the housing supply, including renters. like i have friends who rent, who pay 3K a month, and then go to town meetings to fight new housing developments, and then complain went there rent goes up another 10%

The poverty line is about 32K for a family of four, and 15K for a single person.

fed minimum wage full time is a income of 15K per year. this of course, varies by state, w/ CA min wage becoming 36K a year.

sanctions on russia don’t ban russians from traveling.