What is Digg?Sponsored by Threadless
571 Comments
- inactive, on 05/04/2009, -31/+260$400,000? That's about £250,000. Can you hear the sound of me playing the world's smallest violin?
Seriously, that is a decent wedge, I can't see how anyone earning that has much to whinge about. - LunusMaximus, on 05/05/2009, -28/+199I somehow find it very hard to care about stories of decently high level earners and upwards having to come to grips with the impact of the recession on their overblown sense of entitlement.
What's the phrase that comes to mind... ahh yes, 'suck my furry beanbag'. - Aleman360, on 05/05/2009, -9/+178It's all relative, I bet there are people getting by on a few bucks per day that would scoff just the same at you.
If you get locked into a certain lifestyle and its expenses then it's hard to change. We all live with lots of luxuries that are easily taken for granted. - Julie188, on 05/05/2009, -10/+117I once read a study that said that no matter how much you earned, you never felt rich -- rich was always that gal that earned a lot more than you. I'm pretty sure I'd like to try a $400K wage and "not feel rich."
- Cerialthriller, on 05/05/2009, -10/+116are you kidding we need to take up a collection right away to make sure they can keep their 5th Avenue apt and send their 3 year old and 9 month old to private schools so they wont have to mingle with those disgusting paupers!
- eraofk00l, on 05/05/2009, -6/+87More money, more problems.
- donjo, on 05/05/2009, -9/+70And this is why they will likely continue to be rich for the rest of their lives. They are covering their bases in case times get tough and if they get hit with 3-6 months of joblessness they won't be standing around yelling "dey took errr jawwbbbs".
- mustafya, on 05/05/2009, -5/+65Most of you are missing the point. It has to do with the rampant consumerism that corporate america has convinced us is the right way of life. Most people consume so much and save so little that even though they make 400k they are still tottering on the edge of disaster. All it takes is one bad event and their entire life is turned upside down.
Consumer spending has got to cut back in this country for our futures to be stable. Instead we have a government that wants us to spend spend spend so that their buddies in corporate america can get rich.
Personally, me and my wife live the same now on 80k as we did on 25k. We just put that much more into savings. - mark4d, on 05/05/2009, -18/+78I'm sick of the class envy / warfare that seems to be taking over this country. Why should you care that they make $400,000? Does it make you feel inferior? At what annual earnings do you automatically hate someone for make too much money? Frankly, I would expect a dentist and someone with a PHD from MIT to make more than that, and would think they earned it (not deserved it, very different). I have my own business and will make around $70,000 this year for my family. Do you hate me?
I appreciate the hard work, commitment, and expenses that go into getting a good education and getting a high-paying job or running a business, and I believe in the American Dream that you should be able to reap the rewards of your hard work and investments. I hope to someday earn at least $400,000 a year because I think my work will someday be that valuable. Sadly, it seems the general attitude (at least on Digg) is that nobody deserves to reap the rewards of their own hard work. Can you say socialism? Read your history, it doesn't have a great track record.
@bobburn1: do you have a family? Do you live in New York? Do you care about providing the best life possible for your children? Go judge yourself. - coldeh, on 05/05/2009, -5/+61Take a 0 off that and you've got my salary :)
- gizram84, on 05/30/2009, -22/+72no one is disputing that it's a decent wage, the point is that everyone grows accustom to their lifestyle. when hard times hit, it's unrealistic to simply think that these people can immediately sell their house, forgo their friends and social life by instantly moving to a cheaper area, pull their kids out of school, sell their luxury cars and buy jalopy's.. they are struggling just as much as everyone else. yet today it's really cool to hate these people because they worked hard and succeeded in life, trying to provide a great life for their children.
- Gr00ver, on 05/05/2009, -14/+62I'd like to try to get by on $400,000 a year. Where do I sign up?
- FredFredrickson, on 05/05/2009, -14/+58I don't care if you've earned it or not, if you can't get by on $400,000 you're a ***** failure.
- WhiskeyLemur, on 06/30/2009, -12/+56Seriously.... Cry me a fraking river. Your 5th Av apartment suddenly too expensive? Sell the goddamn thing and move to Queens, or Long Island, or (gasp!!!!) New Jersey - according to the article, the place is *still* worth more than when they bought it. If either my husband or I lose our job, we're gonna be out of a house, PERIOD - it wouldn't be "oh, I can't have my glamorous Midtown condo, QQ, what will all my yuppie friends think??" If one of these poor downtrodden folks lose their job, they're *still* going to make more than both of us put together, so pardon me if I neglect to shed a tear when they have to shop at WalMart and skip a couple of trips to the movies.
- defenswens26, on 05/05/2009, -23/+66Oh boo hoo.
- inactive, on 05/05/2009, -23/+60The comments are enlightening. Here's an article demonstrating that even high earners are affected by a down economy. No one is asking for your help or even your sympathy, yet a majority of the commenters feel wronged and respond by being dicks.
This is why we can't have nice things, btw. - chuckDontSurf, on 05/05/2009, -2/+38Just remember that the majority of the world feels the same way about anyone who makes over $40k. Okay, I picked $40k arbitrarily but you see my point. There's always someone with more money, and the people who make less find it hard to believe those with more have trouble getting by.
- puter, on 05/05/2009, -2/+37These articles always make me wonder. I read about the high earners like these people talking about how they're having to look for sales and how they only go out to eat once a month.
I make $60k a year, I am able to go out to eat more than once a month, I buy those occasional gifts for myself, I have a nice apartment, and I still save nearly 40% of my paycheck towards a house.
What is it they are doing wrong in managing their money that they make $400k a year and yet are struggling. Other than their expensive apartment...it seems to me like they are really not spending that much...maybe a bit more than me.
There has to be something else that they are spending money on that they aren't talking about, something that takes up a lot of that $400k a year. Given how comfortably I'm living on $60k, I can't feel bad for them...I definitely don't feel bad about their complaint of not having savings - that is their own damn fault. Yes, they do have more investments at risk...but they still have $400k of INCOME a year..plenty to live off of regardless of what their investments are doing.
As for the high housing expenses. They could DRIVE a little ways, or take a bus, or a train, and drastically reduce their housing expenses. There is absolutely no reason why they need to be paying that much for housing except to seek status by living in a certain location.
In the end, this really sounds to me like a lack of money management by the rich. If you are making that much money, you should be saving a lot for a rainy day. If you choose to live the high life and spend every cent you make, then it's your own damn fault when that comes back to bite you in the ass. - WhiskeyLemur, on 06/30/2009, -1/+35inajeep - you don't have to live on 5th Ave to work in NYC. Most people who work in Manhattan (NYC proper) commute from one of the neighboring boroughs or neighboring states: that way you can still get the NYC salary but not incur NYC living expenses. It does mean a commute, of course, but that's the point at which you need to run a cost-benefit analysis and see which way it stacks up for you. The point is that there are other housing options to be considered - the couple in the article absolutely CAN reduce their living costs without sacrificing salaries.
And, as someone mentioned below, you don't HAVE to send your kids to a private school - NYC has some really fine public school options as well; it's not all inner-city "Dangerous Minds"-style schools. The point is that if you have that much money, it's 100% up to you how to spend it - but if the economy tanks and you find yourself living beyond your means, you have WAY more options of how reduce expense than a family which makes 40-60K a year (not even to mention people subsisting on minimum-wage jobs). 400K a year (yes, even if it's pre-tax) cannot be considered subsistence living by ANY reasonable estimate. - shark72, on 05/05/2009, -1/+35Reading the article will reveal the answer:
http://mit.edu - a0me, on 05/05/2009, -14/+47Have you even RTFA? They're not complaining about their current earnings.
- theuserdylan, on 05/05/2009, -6/+38File this under making $400,000 in NYC is liking making $200,000 in Houston. Seriously. Look it up.
- centran, on 05/05/2009, -3/+34The record company does take too much of the profit. They use a little bit of hollywood accounting and then would you look at that!; that album didn't make any money what-so-ever. Can you believe the record company lost money on that top billboard topper! What a mistake producing the number one album for 10 weeks straight....that was stupid of them.
Music artists make a majority of their money from touring. - shadus, on 05/05/2009, -5/+36Even if they lost one of their two jobs and the income was halved... that's still in the top 5% of income earners in the country. I don't spend what they're making a year in 5 years and I earn a good wage where I live (NE Ohio). I could retire and be perfectly happy the rest of my life on ~3m saved... which they get every ~7 years.
God how I'd love to make 400k a year... even 250k a year. My family is the same size as theirs too. 4 Members.
I feel fortunate to have what I have... many of my friends and family don't have because of hoover, timken, and losing the steel mills... and these people are whining about potentially having a drop in income to half of what they currently have which is 3-4x what I have. What a bunch of tools... I'd like to drag their asses downtown to the soup kitchen and show them what really suffering and what really not having enough means. - dattaway, on 05/05/2009, -1/+32Take two 0's off that and you've got a college student's salary.
- chuckDontSurf, on 05/05/2009, -1/+32Exactly. Just the fact that people are on an internet message board bitching about this says something about their income levels, and how they have more than the most in the world.
- canewediggit, on 05/05/2009, -1/+28add a one and two zeros to that and we've got a deal!
- shark72, on 05/05/2009, -2/+29Sigh. I'm being dugg down for directly answering the question. Let me elaborate:
The family makes $400K a year because they got good educations and good jobs. He went to MIT. This meant that he had to apply himself, get good grades, and stay focused on his education. His wife went to dental school -- this also required excelling in her education and keeping at it for many years.
Maybe all that hard work isn't for you? Maybe you don't have the patience to stay in school for so long and incur thousands of dollars of debt in student loans? Maybe your grades simply aren't good enough? That's fine -- MIT isn't for everybody. But asking "where do I sign up?," as if this money was simply given to them, isn't the best approach. - Narcism, on 05/05/2009, -13/+39Oh the humanity. God forbid their child goes to preschool in a public school board.
- NathanielJ, on 05/05/2009, -2/+27"All they have to do is cutback on the vacations, the movies, the dining out, and perhaps by the 2nd-most-expensive item in the store, not the most (or if you want to go really cheap, buy the generic brands, they're just as good usually)."
Isn't that exactly what the article said they're doing? - McGuinness, on 05/05/2009, -9/+34So dont ***** live on 5th Avenue. Is there any reason they -need- to? Everyone else in the world commutes why cant they? And dont get me started on sending their kids to private school, plenty of good ones in the burbs. Face the fact that you shouldnt be living on 5th Ave.
Cry me a ***** river. - Residents, on 05/05/2009, -18/+4240,000 would be a pretty large raise for me. $400,000 and even with two kids I'd have mad amounts of excess. Jerks.
- inactive, on 05/05/2009, -3/+27Yes because there is a lot of things you can do with minimum wage.
- TwistyMcFister, on 05/05/2009, -23/+47This is about as bad as music artists who are millionaires and then complain that the record company takes too much of the profit from CD sales. How about they drop down to $40,000/year and see how they do.
- inactive, on 05/05/2009, -9/+32Hallelujah! There are people on digg with a brain. For ***** sake these people worked for what they have. A dentist and a PhD only make $400k?! That is crazy to me when I know a dentist in town that makes $650k alone with his practice.
You ***** slackers can suck my dick. You're ***** throwing ***** because you are jealous they worked harder than you in life and make more than you ever will. - inactive, on 05/05/2009, -8/+30You sign up by applying yourself in school and working hard bitch. ***** ***** these comments piss me off. These people worked hard to get where they want to be in life and people are ***** on them.
Keep working your ***** job where you belong. - ScionAltera, on 05/05/2009, -0/+21"If you choose to live the high life and spend every cent you make, then it's your own damn fault when that comes back to bite you in the ass."
That's the thing that really gets to me about this article. They're not even living "the high life". They have four people living in a one bedroom apartment. Like you (puter), I make $60K/year. I rent a three story townhouse with well over twice the square feet of their place, and I don't even have any kids. I live an easy 10 minute drive from work in a good neighborhood with lots of restaurants and shops nearby... life is pretty great.
By making a couple relatively simple changes, these New Yorkers could maintain the same income and save a *lot* of money. They may not be able to live in Manhattan, but they'd be able to retire early, have more room as their kids grow up, send both kids to college, and not have to watch their pennies anymore. Is that apartment really worth it? - 2gig, on 05/05/2009, -8/+29My first apartment was $300 a month and I was earning $12,000. My mortgage is now closer to $2,000 (including property tax). I live in one of those cities that make the top list every year in expensive places to live - it's no mansion by any measure. Am I rich? not particularly, I can't afford to eat lunch out any more than I could when my rent was $300.
Those who bitch if I had $X amount I'd be fine don't exactly understand the world very well. - perfectsilence, on 05/05/2009, -0/+20there are homeless people looking at people making $40,000 a year and think, what the hell are you complaining about? how can you not get by with that kind of salary?
- shadus, on 05/05/2009, -2/+22No, actually I've never felt that way.
Figure it this way...
$10/hr, full time. 10x40x52 = $20,800
That is barely above the poverty line. Until you get up around $15/hr there is never any degree of comfort you're struggling pay check to pay check. - FredFredrickson, on 05/05/2009, -0/+20Good for you, and I don't mean that in a sarcastic way. There's no point in living beyond your means (or near it) just because you can. Being responsible with your money goes a long way, and the people in this article could learn something from that.
- Wreckage, on 05/05/2009, -10/+29Well most be get by on less than $400,000 every ten years.
- bobburn1, on 05/05/2009, -19/+38No, it's not cool to hate them because they succeeded. It's cool to hate them when they're too stupid to figure out how to live on $400,000 a year with a family of four. There's a lot of money to spend.
All they have to do is cutback on the vacations, the movies, the dining out, and perhaps by the 2nd-most-expensive item in the store, not the most (or if you want to go really cheap, buy the generic brands, they're just as good usually). That's what "normal" people do. - Ryan32, on 05/05/2009, -6/+25Overall the "Digg nation" is full of ***** idiots....
These people are highly educated, went through years of post-graduate education and EARN their pay. Not to mention the fact that they pay more in taxes in a single year than most diggers will in 10 years.
The hypocrisy here is hilarious. - canada42, on 05/05/2009, -0/+19Every person who is stuck with a ***** job is there because they didn't work hard. Its science.
- shark72, on 05/05/2009, -1/+20Did you read the article? Cutting back on the vacations, the movies, and the going out is EXACTLY what the family in the article is doing.
- covertbadger, on 05/05/2009, -2/+21@NathanielJ, shark72
Of course he didn't read the article, he was in too much of a rush to put the boot in than to actually behave rationally.
Seriously, the envy on digg these days is sickening. Anyone who has any money at all is regarded as evil and deserving of no sympathy, no matter who they are, how they got their money, or what problems they have. - unpluggedboy, on 05/05/2009, -5/+23Seriously, where in the article are they whining? Regardless of income, it's smart to save money. If people understood that, they wouldn't be in the mess right now to begin with.
I don't see why people complain their asses off when others succeed in the world through hard sweat and dedication. Why should the fruit of their labor be redirected to degenerates who don't even bother graduating from high school or major in something worthless (e.g. English, philosophy, IR, or equivalent), while others toil away for years in graduate school with student loans that take decades to whittle away.
There's a difference between living off a trust fund and actually earning those dollars. - mikeekimmike, on 05/05/2009, -2/+20Pretty sure no matter how rich you are, you can't go to preschool in a school "board"
- inactive, on 05/05/2009, -0/+17Dude, $400 000 insanely expensive? You can't be serious. I'm sure many people live and work in NYC and make a whole lot less. Just admit that these people have nothing to complain about. Talking about the rich hurting in the recession is ridiculous. Would it really be so bad to live like a normal American? What, would they have to do? Buy Papa John's pizza instead of NYC finest? Big deal, this is life, and life sucks. Get used to it.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 584 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is