Post B0dVtgxqpdEMPdYSFk by tess@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by tess@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #B0dVtgxqpdEMPdYSFk by tess@mastodon.social
       2025-11-26T01:41:22Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       This is an insightful but deeply upsetting article about why everyone in the US feels poor, and why the current political situation emerges as a direct result.TL;DR: the *actual* poverty line in the US for a family of four with two young children is about $140,000, and there isn't much improvement in quality of life between $40K and $100K.https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
       
 (DIR) Post #B0dVtif8WBRtgAoXMO by JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange
       2025-11-26T11:43:29Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       JFC, this section has me infuriated every time I reread it.But there was one number I had somehow never interrogated. One number that I simply accepted, the way a child accepts gravity.The poverty line.I don’t know why. It seemed apolitical, an actuarial fact calculated by serious people in government offices. A line someone else drew decades ago that we use to define who is “poor,” who is “middle class,” and who deserves help. It was infrastructure—invisible, unquestioned, foundational.This week, while trying to understand why the American middle class feels poorer each year despite healthy GDP growth and low unemployment, I came across a sentence buried in a research paper:“The U.S. poverty line is calculated as three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963, adjusted for inflation.”@tess
       
 (DIR) Post #B0dVtnDfZjRtoR0Ak4 by tess@mastodon.social
       2025-11-26T02:03:48Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       This does suggest Democrats could win with a Mamdani-style platform of Medicare for All and free public transit.(I mean we already knew this, but I'm glad someone is explaining it in a way the CFAs can understand.)
       
 (DIR) Post #B0e8Iusu0i035Ch9YO by jeffcliff@shitposter.world
       2025-11-26T18:54:32.860498Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       @tess @risperdoll ( ~1.332 BTC / y in global units )