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The perspective from over here in HN land is very skewed. According to the US Census, median household income in 2024 was $80,000. Add federal and state income tax* of 30%, and you're left with $56,000. Rent in lower-cost areas is around $12,000 ($1k/mo.) and health insurance (assuming ACA, not fancy private plans) is another $7000. Utility prices vary wildly but average something like $450-500 (so $6000 per year). if you don't live in a particularly high-cost area and skip luxuries like home Internet service or media subscriptions. That's just over $30,000 left over per year for all household expenses, including "luxuries" like food, clothes, and car and home maintenance. Heaven forbid you have loans (car, student, etc.) or any revolving credit debt. The difference between $5k and $10k in fuel costs is therefore easily 15% vs. 35% of total "inessential" spending. With food and other goods consistently been driven up by inflation and tariffs, there's just no margin for an "average" family. (Sources vary for the above; US Census comes data from its own website, rent from TIME, health costs from Forbes, and utilities from move.org. Feel free to find better reference numbers if you doubt the above.) *- yes, not all states charge income tax; most of the ones that don't have other taxes (sales, gas, property) to make up the gap |
In fact, at $80k in some areas you'll qualify for medicaid for the family (or at least the kids) - up to $108k in CA for example: https://www.coveredca.com/pdfs/FPL-chart.pdf
The clanker says that "median family with kids" makes $105k and pays total tax (including property, sales, income, etc, etc) of about $23k.