Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good steak is nearly $20 a pound now — it used to be around $10. We can’t even enjoy a simple nice meal anymore. Having kids feels financially impossible, and even with a bachelor’s degree, it’s hard to get ahead. I’m not saving anything at this point.

Yes, much better off. Both kids are out of college. The stock market hovers around 50k. I’m making more money. I have no complaints.

I eat fish and chicken, not steak.

My spouse and I go out for a nice dinner once a month. By nice I mean roughly $300 plus tip. Other than that we cook or make salads. We do take out once a week.

Our 2022 grad already has $100,000 in savings that he is going to invest.

A number of college students started OF pages during the pandemic.

No. My spouse was DOGED so our HHI fell $150,000. They screwed up his pension and health insurance and there are insufficient numbers of employees at OPM to help sort it out.

My sibling owns their own business, and tariffs on their products have been difficult to fully absorb. They have hurt sales.

My other sibling now pays $1600 a month more for health insurance through the health insurance marketplace. They own their own business. Sole proprietor. And they aren't sure they can maintain that business because of these costs. They likely will have to go find a job with health insurance coverage. If possible.

My cousin's new boyfriend got stopped in an ICE checkpoint (which I didn't think were legal outside 100 miles from the border) and was harassed but not taken. He's a 66 year old Army veteran. Immigrant but naturalized.

Besides me, my entire family is Republican and voted for Trump. Reluctantly. They aren't full MAGA. But I guess they hated Kamala Harris more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good steak is nearly $20 a pound now — it used to be around $10. We can’t even enjoy a simple nice meal anymore. Having kids feels financially impossible, and even with a bachelor’s degree, it’s hard to get ahead. I’m not saving anything at this point.

So, take a break from beef. Watch for sales. Pork is cheap. Chicken is affordable. Be creative. But, I don't know where you shop, but i can purchase steak for well under $15/lb. Except for tenderloin and that type of cut.
But, I can pick up sirloin at a reasonable price.


Of course, I grew up in a frugal household where steak was a treat--not a staple.
Beef prices will go down in a year or so. There was some disease a couple of years ago that required killing cattle. It will come back.

This. Americans need to stop shoving globs of beef down their throats anyway. Very unhealthy and treating the ensuing health issues is quite expensive. In some cultures meat is more or less a side or topping, and the people aren’t the size of blue whales. When traveling abroad, you can easily tell who the Americans are simply by their girth.

Americans were healthier 50 years ago when they ate more red meat, butter, and drank more milk delivered from the milkman.

If anything, the reduction of red meat has led to obesity as carbohydrates have run amuk as the diet staple

So does it cause cardiovascular issues or not? Should we be slathering steak with the finest French butter or not? For most of us here our ancestors at wild game and got humanity this far.

Your ancestors did not survive mostly on wild game.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good steak is nearly $20 a pound now — it used to be around $10. We can’t even enjoy a simple nice meal anymore. Having kids feels financially impossible, and even with a bachelor’s degree, it’s hard to get ahead. I’m not saving anything at this point.

So, take a break from beef. Watch for sales. Pork is cheap. Chicken is affordable. Be creative. But, I don't know where you shop, but i can purchase steak for well under $15/lb. Except for tenderloin and that type of cut.
But, I can pick up sirloin at a reasonable price.


Of course, I grew up in a frugal household where steak was a treat--not a staple.
Beef prices will go down in a year or so. There was some disease a couple of years ago that required killing cattle. It will come back.

This. Americans need to stop shoving globs of beef down their throats anyway. Very unhealthy and treating the ensuing health issues is quite expensive. In some cultures meat is more or less a side or topping, and the people aren’t the size of blue whales. When traveling abroad, you can easily tell who the Americans are simply by their girth.

Americans were healthier 50 years ago when they ate more red meat, butter, and drank more milk delivered from the milkman.

If anything, the reduction of red meat has led to obesity as carbohydrates have run amuk as the diet staple

So does it cause cardiovascular issues or not? Should we be slathering steak with the finest French butter or not? For most of us here our ancestors at wild game and got humanity this far.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, net worth just surpassed $10 million. Both sons have great jobs. No debt.

Yes we know it is a K shaped economy. You are in the upper part of the K, but does not help the lower part of the K.

I grew up in poverty. It’s possible to create your own prosperity in our country.

This is true but for most people that comes at great cost (college, grad school, student loan debt). Most millennials have no 401k and nothing saved for retirement. This is while cancer rates are going up for younger and younger demos and mortality and fertility rates are actually decreasing for the first time in modern U.S. history

Even small businesses, entrepreneurs are being pummeled by venture capitalists.

You also forget that everyone’s being taxed yet the federal government does not use these taxes for the purpose of public services. It’s mostly going to subsidize defense and a Medicare and Social Security fund that frustrates seniors

It must be difficult living as a victim your entire life. Meanwhile, life is great for many of us.

Carry on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good steak is nearly $20 a pound now — it used to be around $10. We can’t even enjoy a simple nice meal anymore. Having kids feels financially impossible, and even with a bachelor’s degree, it’s hard to get ahead. I’m not saving anything at this point.

So, take a break from beef. Watch for sales. Pork is cheap. Chicken is affordable. Be creative. But, I don't know where you shop, but i can purchase steak for well under $15/lb. Except for tenderloin and that type of cut.
But, I can pick up sirloin at a reasonable price.


Of course, I grew up in a frugal household where steak was a treat--not a staple.
Beef prices will go down in a year or so. There was some disease a couple of years ago that required killing cattle. It will come back.

This. Americans need to stop shoving globs of beef down their throats anyway. Very unhealthy and treating the ensuing health issues is quite expensive. In some cultures meat is more or less a side or topping, and the people aren’t the size of blue whales. When traveling abroad, you can easily tell who the Americans are simply by their girth.

Americans were healthier 50 years ago when they ate more red meat, butter, and drank more milk delivered from the milkman.

If anything, the reduction of red meat has led to obesity as carbohydrates have run amuk as the diet staple

Americans were not healthier 50 years ago. They died 10 years younger on average, mostly from chronic diseases.

Health is not just about life expectancy. It’s about metabolic syndrome. Obesity, fatty liver disease, diabetes, dementia /Alzheimers (now called type 3 diabetes by experts), cancer, was much lower in the 1970s.

Life expectancy in the U.S. has decreased in recent years. U.S. life expectancy has generally increased from 72.9 years in 1976 to a peak of nearly 79 years around 2014-2016, but recently declined.

Modern life is not set up for fighting chronic diseases. Sitting at a desk 8-9 hours a day is terrible. On top of the 2 hours spent commuting! People eat convenience food because they’re exhausted. (We actually cook in my house and have never used DoorDash but we know we aren’t the norm.)

Not much has changed for me. Income and expenses both up more or less proportionally with the rate of inflation. Living in the same house, driving the same cars, enjoying the same recreational and social activities. All good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good steak is nearly $20 a pound now — it used to be around $10. We can’t even enjoy a simple nice meal anymore. Having kids feels financially impossible, and even with a bachelor’s degree, it’s hard to get ahead. I’m not saving anything at this point.

So, take a break from beef. Watch for sales. Pork is cheap. Chicken is affordable. Be creative. But, I don't know where you shop, but i can purchase steak for well under $15/lb. Except for tenderloin and that type of cut.
But, I can pick up sirloin at a reasonable price.


Of course, I grew up in a frugal household where steak was a treat--not a staple.
Beef prices will go down in a year or so. There was some disease a couple of years ago that required killing cattle. It will come back.

This. Americans need to stop shoving globs of beef down their throats anyway. Very unhealthy and treating the ensuing health issues is quite expensive. In some cultures meat is more or less a side or topping, and the people aren’t the size of blue whales. When traveling abroad, you can easily tell who the Americans are simply by their girth.

Americans were healthier 50 years ago when they ate more red meat, butter, and drank more milk delivered from the milkman.

If anything, the reduction of red meat has led to obesity as carbohydrates have run amuk as the diet staple

Americans were not healthier 50 years ago. They died 10 years younger on average, mostly from chronic diseases.

Health is not just about life expectancy. It’s about metabolic syndrome. Obesity, fatty liver disease, diabetes, dementia /Alzheimers (now called type 3 diabetes by experts), cancer, was much lower in the 1970s.

Life expectancy in the U.S. has decreased in recent years. U.S. life expectancy has generally increased from 72.9 years in 1976 to a peak of nearly 79 years around 2014-2016, but recently declined.

Once again, 50 years ago people were dying younger, mostly from three chronic diseases: heart disease, cancer, and stroke. As a population, we were not healthier.

That does not mean we have no serious problems left to fix, but it’s misleading to claim people were on average healthier in 1976. Plenty of people with “metabolic syndrome,” i.e., the precursor to heart disease and type 2 diabetes, existed. They simply went on to die of heart attacks. Fewer people had dementia because fewer people lived to the advanced age where dementia is likelier to occur.

You are pining nostalgically for a time when everyone smoked cigarettes, breathed smog, ingested lead paint, and had homes full of radon and asbestos. The fact that obesity and colon cancer have increased in the intervening 50 years is a real problem, but do not pretend like a population that now lives 10 years longer is less healthy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care costs have skyrocketed since the Affordable Care Act.

You must have a short term memory because they were skyrocketing before the ACA and rises actually slower a bit after ACA was implemented.

DP to add and once the ACA subsidies dropped, over one million people dropped insurance so are definitively worse off than they were before.

More than likely, these are the people who did not carry any health insurance pre-ACA. So they are not worse off. They are slightly better than they were because they did receive some healthcare treatment while on the ACA.

The question was are you better off than 2 yearz ago. ACA was passed in 2010.

Trumo has objectively made those people less well off.

No.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good steak is nearly $20 a pound now — it used to be around $10. We can’t even enjoy a simple nice meal anymore. Having kids feels financially impossible, and even with a bachelor’s degree, it’s hard to get ahead. I’m not saving anything at this point.

So, take a break from beef. Watch for sales. Pork is cheap. Chicken is affordable. Be creative. But, I don't know where you shop, but i can purchase steak for well under $15/lb. Except for tenderloin and that type of cut.
But, I can pick up sirloin at a reasonable price.


Of course, I grew up in a frugal household where steak was a treat--not a staple.
Beef prices will go down in a year or so. There was some disease a couple of years ago that required killing cattle. It will come back.

This. Americans need to stop shoving globs of beef down their throats anyway. Very unhealthy and treating the ensuing health issues is quite expensive. In some cultures meat is more or less a side or topping, and the people aren’t the size of blue whales. When traveling abroad, you can easily tell who the Americans are simply by their girth.

Americans were healthier 50 years ago when they ate more red meat, butter, and drank more milk delivered from the milkman.

If anything, the reduction of red meat has led to obesity as carbohydrates have run amuk as the diet staple

Americans were not healthier 50 years ago. They died 10 years younger on average, mostly from chronic diseases.

Health is not just about life expectancy. It’s about metabolic syndrome. Obesity, fatty liver disease, diabetes, dementia /Alzheimers (now called type 3 diabetes by experts), cancer, was much lower in the 1970s.

Life expectancy in the U.S. has decreased in recent years. U.S. life expectancy has generally increased from 72.9 years in 1976 to a peak of nearly 79 years around 2014-2016, but recently declined.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, net worth just surpassed $10 million. Both sons have great jobs. No debt.

Yes we know it is a K shaped economy. You are in the upper part of the K, but does not help the lower part of the K.

I grew up in poverty. It’s possible to create your own prosperity in our country.

This is true but for most people that comes at great cost (college, grad school, student loan debt). Most millennials have no 401k and nothing saved for retirement. This is while cancer rates are going up for younger and younger demos and mortality and fertility rates are actually decreasing for the first time in modern U.S. history

Even small businesses, entrepreneurs are being pummeled by venture capitalists.

You also forget that everyone’s being taxed yet the federal government does not use these taxes for the purpose of public services. It’s mostly going to subsidize defense and a Medicare and Social Security fund that frustrates seniors