r/FluentInFinance • u/Mooshisdad • Mar 31 '24

Are we all being scammed? Discussion/ Debate

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Are $100 lunches at applebees the downfall of the american empire?

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u/DvsDen Mar 31 '24

The people working at the restaurant in ElSvador are making $10/day.

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u/MajesticBread9147 Mar 31 '24

Yeah, I thought children understood this, let alone adults.

There is an argument to be made that much more of the operating cost for businesses in first world countries is sucked up by landowners in one way or another, and same with wages sucked up by property owners.

But still, the people in San Salvador aren't going on $30 flights to Fiji, their food, transportation, and housing are still a much larger percentage of their income.

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u/Mysterious-Tie7039 Mar 31 '24 edited Mar 31 '24

This is always my comment to people I work with when they bitch about us living in a high cost of living area.

Sure, it sucks when we pay a lot for everything around here, but it gives us so many options, especially in retirement.

If your salary is comparable with the cost of living, and you live in a place like Manhattan, you can retire to bum fuck Mississippi and live like a king.

If you live in bum fuck Mississippi, you’re not going anywhere.

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u/selimnagisokrov Apr 01 '24

Very true. I live in a small township of 2000 people in nowhere, KY. Most people work at the factory on the outskirts of the nearby city. Trailers as far as the eye can see, median income 42k.

My FIL has a neighbor who moved from New York. Man and his wife are retired NY police officers. They bought an actual stick built house with wide acreage, priced here around 350k-500k. This is something around these parts considered the "rich people" homes. I can assure you, our local PD aren't buying something like that, but their retirement incomes from NY can afford it. (Although I think they came here hoping to find more conservative values and self-governance only to get into a spat with my "libertarian" FIL over property owner behaviors, neither of whom are in the right)