Is it really that easy to make a lot of money in the U.S?

[Independent voter]

There are large groups of people who live below the poverty level, mostly living in rural areas. These bring the national average way down. In Appalachia people make as low as $8K a year. How do they live off of so little? A little farming, a little hunting, a little fishing, some trading etc.

You're better off finding out the average wage of a city. Like New York, the average wage is $70K, Houston TX is $60K and so on.

[Exeris]

you proly have to keep in mind what that number really translates for you,where i live lowest income are at around 400$ a month,that may sound low,but shit is also cheap,thats more than enough if you live alone,and in usa averege people spend half their lives paying school debts and they go bankrupt if they get seriously ill,you proly have none of those issues,we also have free public transport so thats also a huge financial gain over time

Talking about how expensive stuff is.

https://graphics.wsj.com/table/BEER_062415
Click sort by average supermarket price, I live close to Oslo, we need our high salaries. :s

[God Save The King]

There are large groups of people who live below the poverty level, mostly living in rural areas. These bring the national average way down. In Appalachia people make as low as $8K a year. How do they live off of so little? A little farming, a little hunting, a little fishing, some trading etc.

You're better off finding out the average wage of a city. Like New York, the average wage is $70K, Houston TX is $60K and so on.

That's why you remove part time people from the equation and only look at the median, not the average. Full time median doesn't care if some hillbilly in Appalachia works 25 hours a week making $10k a year. Comes out to about 39.3k

[kail]

1. That looks like some BS number to dictate success/failure.
2. It's not easy unless you land a rare job that pays plenty for nothing or you got lucky (lottery, stocks, BTC, big lawsuit, etc). You're working for it, physically and/or mentally.

[Independent voter]

That's why you remove part time people from the equation and only look at the median, not the average. Full time median doesn't care if some hillbilly in Appalachia works 25 hours a week making $10k a year. Comes out to about 39.3k

Depends on what your data set looks like, doesn't it?

If I take a data set that has a median of $40K, then I remove everyone who makes less than $15K, say 20% make less than $15K, that will raise the median, right?

I'm asking.

[God Save The King]

Depends on what your data set looks like, doesn't it?

If I take a data set that has a median of $40K, then I remove everyone who makes less than $15K, say 20% make less than $15K, that will raise the median, right?

I'm asking.

Obviously, I'm not sure why you're asking that. The median is what the person in the middle makes, and the data set you want depends on what you're asking.

In this context, the question is "how easy is it to make 75k a year". So, obviously removing part time, unemployed, and retired people make sense, since you're not realistically making 75k in those situations.

If you want to include every living soul in the nation, then only like 6% of people make more than 75k, instead of 14.42% like you get in the restricted data set. So the answer becomes "it's very rare". If you need the context spelled out like that, there you go. But no one in the field is going to consider children, retired, disabled, and unemployed people in the data set when answering this question. You'd want to look at full time people.

I assume you wanted to argue that my restriction makes my point look better when in fact it makes it look much worse.

[Spectral]

Depends what stage of life you're at and what your talent level is, but yeah, it's not particularly difficult to make $75K/year if you're talented and make earning money a fairly high priority.

[The Scourge of Azuremyst]

I'm not sure how accurate this site is btw and it's from 2014.

edit: If it's accurate I just got jealous of Switzerland.

3 Zambia $4,330.98

What the hell?

[Spectral]

Nope. Anyone who says that is a moron. That is well above the average income for the US.

True as far as it goes, but worth a mention is the difference between different demographics. This tool is a nifty way to look at that. For a male from Gen-X with a bachelor's degree, $75K is almost exactly median income. That lines up with what I said in my other post - lot depends on what stage of life someone's at and what their talent level is. For someone that's talented though, making $75K by the time they're around 40 is a pretty reasonable expectation. On the flip side, making $75K as a high school dropout nearly puts someone in the top 1% of that group - it's really hard to make a good living below a certain bar of talent and work ethic.

- - - Updated - - -

I went for Computer Science initially, and I worked in one of the most expensive areas in the nation under a major tech company, and I only made 90k, which felt like poverty after rent. I moved somewhere cheap after a few years, make about half, but I do consulting work remotely and my rent is less than 1/5 of what I paid previously. So even if you manage to make above that mark, you can still feel poor if you live in an expensive area..

Yeah, when I made mid-60s as a postdoc living in the DC area, I certainly didn't feel like I was making a good living. When I moved to a cheaper area for a job and moved in with my then girlfriend, the amount of surplus cash I had on hand skyrocketed without any actual change in my pay. Looking at raw salary without consideration of local conditions is a pretty easy trap for people to fall into.

[gutnbrg]

if ur a hot girl that is willing to show off her body, yes it is very easy

[enigma76]

just sue someone

[Afrospinach]

Yeah I don't think it's very accurate, but Zambia is seemingly doing well atm.

Oh no, they were not back then and they a certainly not now. Definitely a clerical error or out outright fallacious. Minimum wage is less than 80$pm.

https://tradingeconomics.com/zambia/unemployment-rate

Maybe this explains it, ~4000ZMK pm "family living wage", that is about 300 USD. Sounds like that figure in the table but, wrong currency.

[Celista]

It's easy if you have no morals/are willing to exploit others for personal gain.

[Ghostpanther]

I never found it easy. The amount of money I have made working, always required some sacrifices. And some jobs where physically hard. Like a engine block blaster. Hot, dirty and I would get home exhausted. But it paid well. And some where mentally exhausting. Like supervising a 3 shift operation with 35 people. Also, would come home mentally drained. But it paid very well and offered a much better future for my family.

[Cruor]

This year I will make about 160k, the people around me make a similar amount. Want to know what we are doing? No joke: Playing video games, watching movies and sleeping. Occasionally other people in the office get into nerf gun fights. Tech support for UAVs in the middle east. I deploy 3 months a year and other deploy 6 months a year but are off 6 months a year. Easy job good pay. Yes, if you look you can easily make 75k or over. If you want to be a philosopher... well then good luck.

[Theodarzna]

It's easy if you have no morals/are willing to exploit others for personal gain.

I'd add, AND/OR have wealthy parents and start off with a lot of capital, to begin with.

It is easy to make money once someone already has money to begin with

[Exeris]

Oh no, they were not back then and they a certainly not now. Definitely a clerical error or out outright fallacious. Minimum wage is less than 80$pm.

https://tradingeconomics.com/zambia/unemployment-rate

Maybe this explains it, ~4000ZMK pm "family living wage", that is about 300 USD. Sounds like that figure in the table but, wrong currency.

That is probably correct.

They also messed up the neighboring country Angola, nr. 32 on the list at $2,650.03. I checked your link and they should be at $440 right below Iran at nr. 131 close to the bottom, a lot more believable.

And I'm still jealous at Switzerland, your link puts them at 6291 CHF or $6,300.

[Doctor Amadeus]

It depends on who you are and what you do. Easy in this instance can vary.

[Ghostpanther]

I'd add, AND/OR have wealthy parents and start off with a lot of capital, to begin with.

It is easy to make money once someone already has money to begin with

So true. The prosperity I have now, is the results of decades of hard work and self sacrifices working from the ground floor and up. When you are so poor you are sleeping on straw beds in a barn with dirt floors, only way to go is up.

[sopeonaroap]

45 million americans live below the poverty line, so no. hard work doesn't really pay off as much as it used to (you get exploited and used up and then thrown out with the trash), college is a scam that MOSTLY has negative affects on peoples' lives but it's still borderline necessary. you are better off being lucky and likable than smart/hardworking/reliable

lucky and likable can get you a long ways, but you can't have self respect like that, you have to become this caricature of yourself that you'll regret one day