Well over $100k in the higher cost of living states, too. And as the article states, that’s typically about double what the median salary is for a single person in most states.
I’d like to point out that AES states - while maybe they didn’t have all the same quality or quantity of consumer goods - were able to able to to provide a comfortable life for everyone without all the predatory that US workers currently have. And don’t take my word for it, take it from the neoliberal queen herself, Angela Merkel. When asked about life in the former GDR, she described it as “almost comfortable”. Now before you mention that “almost” is an important qualifier, note that the context of her quote was her trying to criticize the former GDR but she grudgingly conceded the comment above.
$89k and rising. My water bill jumped 9% this year, because the pipes have been bursting at record rates thanks years of heat waves. My electricity bill can get north of $600/mo during the worst of the summer. My grocery bills have been steadily climbing while shrinkflation eats into the size of what I’m bringing home. My car is getting towards its last legs and everything on the market appears to be a few grand over MSRP, because every dealership insists “Sorry, we only have a few left in stock!” Can’t get out of a vet visit for less than $500.
Seems like everything I buy that I think is an upgrade ends up falling apart faster than what its replacing, too.
Walls really feel like they’re closing in everywhere.
Few months ago I dropped almost $700 for a mattress that replaced a shitty no-name one from 2002. The new one is already sagging in the middle and I’m not even that heavy. Serta won’t honor the warranty because the sag isn’t significant enough according to them.
My old mattress was pushing 20 years old before it started getting any noticeable sag. But the new one already feels like I’m sleeping in a crater.
As much as I hate boomer-ass “old thing good, new thing bad” takes, there has definitely been a notable enshittification of furniture, appliances and other things that should be lasting closer to a decade and not a fraction of it.
Honestly the boomers are right. The base price for things used to be way higher, but they lasted way longer.
A lot of home appliances already existed in the perfect form, many things have been solved. But we can’t have that because then why how would we sell more?
Washing machines need to have hot/cold settings, and different agitation settings. I don’t need wifi telling me it’s done because I know how long it takes and can set a timer, or front loading, or fabric softener slots because I don’t use that.
A dryer is solved, it gets warm and it turns around. My dryer from the 80s is front load.
induction is a pretty good leap in stove tech, but the actual oven part has been solved a while ago. Oven get hot, keep temp within a couple degrees, have lights, maybe have a broiler, maybe have a fan for convection.
Microwaves are all shit because the popcorn button doesn’t work, but apparently some microwaves actually have a usable popcorn button, but how tf are you supposed to know if yours actually has a moisture sensor, or just a preset time?
i have a commercial dryer and washer that came from rental units or other some institution so they are really simple
parts are common too i just swap out the heater coils if they go bad, did the timer once. the washer keeps chugging
i will never buy a smart appliance. my fridge is also a commercial model, the kind you find in breakrooms
capital isn’t quite at the level of screwing it’s own kind (YET) so buy “commercial” models of stuff and preferably with no smart features. it’s like fleet vehicles but for appliances
You can look at the model number and ask whoever makes it.
It’d be nice if there was a clear thing on a spec sheet that you can filter by while shopping around for this.
I can easily tell how powerful a microwave is by the wattage, but because microwave manufacturers put deliberately misleading buttons on their units that don’t do anything useful, it makes it hard to shop around.
When you buy the cheapest base-model car, the car companies at least have the decency to put blank buttons in for the features that aren’t on that model.
Holy fuck $600
Texas electric fuckery. The gas power plants will collaborate to spike the price of electricity from the prevailing $15-30/Mwh up to $3000/Mwh during the hour of peak usage.
similar boat here. over the past 2 years I went from feeling stable and moderately comfortable to feeling like no matter what I do I’m a few years away from being priced out of living. the place I’m renting flooded twice last year but rent has doubled everywhere.