
Millennial men with different incomes - jawns
http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/money/news/a48020/four-millennial-men-four-incomes/
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tuna-piano
I assume many people here are earning amazing incomes, >$100k.

Does anyone else feel extremely guilty about this? When I read about the guy
who takes two trains a bus and walks a mile to get to work, while trying his
best to save just $1100 for a car, my heart breaks. The work I do is easy - I
sit in front of a screen in my own house. When I go to a fast food restaurant
and order from a woman in her 40s, who likely has kids at home, I can't help
but feel a sense of guilt (and also luck). Even as I earn more money, I feel
guilty spending it, so I end up just saving a large part of it.

Not sure there's a point or a problem or something I'm trying to solve, just
wanted to share my feelings and see if others felt the same way, and hear any
advice or thoughts they had.

Edit: I do take some (perverse) solace in the fact that it seems many
extremely poor people across the world seem happier than the average wealthy
office worker I know. Add up: long commute + winter weather (and darkness) +
unfulfilling work + expenses that expand to their level of income =
potentially a pretty unhappy person, even though they are high income.

Edit 2: Reading about how the low earner saved up for a $160 pair of shoes
also gave me some warm feelings. Maybe that's why rich people do challenging,
but relatively pointless things like hiking mountains. We don't have enough
challenges in our daily lives, so we invent them so we can feel good about
ourselves after.

~~~
belovedeagle
Why do you associate public transit use and not owning a car with low income?
I make $100k+ and I don't own a car; I commute to work every day on public
transit (with two transfers on the return journey, something a lot of people
say high earners won't do) and I use public transit to get around whenever
possible.

~~~
rfrank
[http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-
infrastructur...](http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-
infrastructure/gov-public-transportation-riders-demographic-divide-for-
cities.html#data)

~~~
belovedeagle
So 92% of Seattle (the city, not the region, which is a weird way to look at
Seattle transit, but sure) transit commuters are above the poverty line...?

That's literally all the data actually said. If your no-content comment was
supposed to convey something else, I'm afraid it's lost on me.

~~~
rfrank
[https://imgur.com/a/DV6Nd](https://imgur.com/a/DV6Nd)

you could try actually reading it.

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greenshackle
3 'more or less' typical millenials? 3 CEOs and one poor guy? Really?

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patmcguire
The WSJ had a similarly out of touch cross-section a while back
[http://www.wsj.com/news/interactive/WEALTH0105](http://www.wsj.com/news/interactive/WEALTH0105)

~~~
breitling
Wow, this just takes it to a whole new level

~~~
michaelchisari
Why does the single parent with $260k a year income look so sad? In fact, why
does everyone in this look like they're in a Ken Loach film about a miner's
strike?

~~~
zodPod
Because of those cuh ray zee tax increases, of course! /s

Not sure seriously. I'm with you, these people all look so sad. I'm not sure
if it's a work life balance thing or if I'm just crazy thinking that, if I
could insanely increase my income, I'd be happier...

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rayiner
The comments about taxes are really interesting. There is a perception in the
U.S. that the wealthy don't pay enough taxes, but in reality the top 10%
carries a much a larger share of the tax burden (relative to their share of
income) than in countries like the U.K., France, Germany, and Sweden:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/05/ameri...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/05/americas-
taxes-are-the-most-progressive-in-the-world-its-government-is-among-the-
least).

So the question is: where does this perception come from? Is it this way in
other countries? Do people in Sweden complain that the rich don't pay enough
taxes? Or is it something cultural in the U.S.

~~~
michaelchisari
This comes up a lot in a discussion about taxes, and there's a big logical
problem with it.

We have a much higher wealth gap than those countries. So tax burden as a
percentage isn't a useful metric.

If we had a healthier lower and middle class, they would be paying more in
taxes, which would ease the burden on the wealthiest considerably. But our
middle class is shrinking, and the rich are becoming extraordinarily rich. So
of course their tax burden as a percentage of the whole is going to be more.

The concern people have is about the taxes that individuals in the top
brackets pay in relation to the middle and lower brackets, but also this acts
as a proxy for concern about infrastructure, safety nets and an ever shrinking
middle class.

~~~
rayiner
> We have a much higher wealth gap than those countries. So tax burden as a
> percentage isn't a useful metric.

Which is why I compared tax burden as a percentage of total taxes to income as
a percentage of total income. In Sweden, the top 10% make roughly a quarter of
the income and pay roughly a quarter of the taxes. In the U.S., they make
about a third of the income, but pay almost half the taxes.

~~~
michaelchisari
As pointed out above, though, top 10% is not a very useful metric.

~~~
dogma1138
Are the bottom 10% a better statistic? In the UK the bottom 10% pays 43% of
the tax burden, many of them do not pay income tax at all. This is what you
get when you have both direct and indirect taxes, income tax in the UK is only
29% of the total Tax Revenue corporate tax revenue is on the other hand only
8%, capital gains taxes are <1% of total tax revenue while things like VAT
~15%, National Insurance at ~19%, Fuel (both gas and heating) and Local taxes
at 5% suck the poor, the working, and the middle classes dry.

People always claim Europe this Europe that look at how well they tax the
rich, well sorry but they aren't taxing the rich well, and the European
taxation system isn't progressive it's regressive.

The majority of the tax revenue in virtually every EU country does not come
from progressive taxation, it doesn't come from taxing the rich via capital
gains or corporations it's done by taxing nearly every item you buy and every
service you use at a flat percent that doesn't cares if you are rich or not.

~~~
nicky0
Bottom 10% pays 43% of tax burden - are you sure? That doesn't sound like it
can possibly be right.

~~~
dogma1138
My wording wasn't optimal, I meant to say that the tax burden on the bottom
10% is 43%, that's the percentage of income they lose to taxes while the top
10% only lose 35%.
[https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/unfair_...](https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/unfair_and_unclear.pdf)

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tuna-piano
Does the $1.5M earner not add up to anyone else? His expenses are $6K a month
($72k a year, but call it $100k). His after tax income, call $800k. That
leaves $700k unaccounted for - and he's talking about saving $15k for his kids
college, or not being able to retire for 15 more years? I don't get it.

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nwah1
He didn't say how many kids. Or how many mothers.

~~~
infinite8s
He said he put away 15k in a tax advantaged account for his child (singular).
But agree - his annual income doesn't square with his desire to save more,
bring his family over from the UK, or pay off his mortgage.

Edit - actually his family status says getting married next year, and
rereading the statement about the education savings he could be speaking in
the future tense.

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bryanlarsen
> We have more opportunity, but the price of living is unbearable.

The cost of basic groceries & clothing is down dramatically over the last 50
years. The price of housing could be too, but we've decided that it's more
important to keep prices rising and supplies limited.

~~~
michaelchisari
Cost of healthcare has skyrocketed. As has housing, as you've mentioned. Those
are much bigger expenses than groceries and clothing, so those lowered costs
are not offsetting the biggest jumps.

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drewrv
Education as well. Healthcare, education, and housing (near a good job) are
the tickets to a stable middle class life and they're out of reach for many.

~~~
dtemp
Don't forget, for most parts of the country, a car too. The fourth guy is
being limited by his lack of a vehicle.

