Americans are whining because they’ve allowed car companies to put out massive trucks that get… 6 kilometers per liter of petrol? And haven’t invested in public transit. And have been allowing for the construction of massive datacenters that, despite burning fossil fuels for most of their power, and also still drianing the power grids and making EV charging more expensive (not that any of these people have enough saved to buy an EV anyway). And the complainers are all a minority of “rural” voters who don’t live in cities, and can’t easily get to a grocery store, a pharmacy, or work without driving 30km there and 30km back. At least.
So yeah, when a daily commute is 10 liters, and most americans who have had a cold in the past 5 years are in medical debt now, going from 50€ per paycheck to 100€ per paycheck every 2 weeks on petrol spend is hefty, especially given how the US federal minimum wage is a little over 6€/hour, and that’s if the person still has a job at all, given the layoffs all over the place. Even if people are making 10€/hour on their commute job, gas price increases have just eatten an additional 5 hours of their labor every 2 weeks. If they go up any more, the Iran War’s ramifications will approach a 10% pay cut for the “average” American. (And this doean’t even account for the tax money being spent on the war, nor on whatever the outcome of the US debt exceeding its GDP will be, probably for the next generation).
Would those Americans have been better off buying fuel efficient cars, finding remote work to not have to drive so much, living closer to cities to benefit from public transit? Probably. But it’s a lot late to try to make those shifts for these people.
When american politics claims that no one has been listening to “middle America,” this is who they mean: the voters who are gullible enough to be oversold on “American Dream” and end up living paycheck to paycheck with no safety net.
The problem is that there is no helping them, so no one really tries. And the far right loves this, because it’s easy to give those people false hope, underdeliver, and then blame it on the left.
So alas, no, it isn’t any consolation that other countries are feeling this pain–that makes the situation feel more hopeless, rather than less.
Would those Americans have been better off buying fuel efficient cars, finding remote work to not have to drive so much, living closer to cities to benefit from public transit? Probably. But it’s a lot late to try to make those shifts for these people.
I drive a fuel efficient car, have tried living in the city (extremely nice but unfortunately more expensive not less) would kill for public transit. Instead I live an hour away and pay 60% income for rent and 35% for car, I don’t think I’m alone. One time I knew one neighbor, this is somewhat strange in America, if I want to go somewhere I either have to pay or maybe just walk around the same store I’ve done hundreds of times, I could go for a walk around a park but I would have to drive there, chances of getting harassed simply walking around are around 50% and that skyrockets to around 80% if you’re doing it anywhere you’re not “supposed to” like say your own neighborhood.
Americans are whining because they’ve allowed car companies to put out massive trucks that get… 6 kilometers per liter of petrol? And haven’t invested in public transit. And have been allowing for the construction of massive datacenters that, despite burning fossil fuels for most of their power, and also still drianing the power grids and making EV charging more expensive (not that any of these people have enough saved to buy an EV anyway). And the complainers are all a minority of “rural” voters who don’t live in cities, and can’t easily get to a grocery store, a pharmacy, or work without driving 30km there and 30km back. At least.
So yeah, when a daily commute is 10 liters, and most americans who have had a cold in the past 5 years are in medical debt now, going from 50€ per paycheck to 100€ per paycheck every 2 weeks on petrol spend is hefty, especially given how the US federal minimum wage is a little over 6€/hour, and that’s if the person still has a job at all, given the layoffs all over the place. Even if people are making 10€/hour on their commute job, gas price increases have just eatten an additional 5 hours of their labor every 2 weeks. If they go up any more, the Iran War’s ramifications will approach a 10% pay cut for the “average” American. (And this doean’t even account for the tax money being spent on the war, nor on whatever the outcome of the US debt exceeding its GDP will be, probably for the next generation).
Would those Americans have been better off buying fuel efficient cars, finding remote work to not have to drive so much, living closer to cities to benefit from public transit? Probably. But it’s a lot late to try to make those shifts for these people.
When american politics claims that no one has been listening to “middle America,” this is who they mean: the voters who are gullible enough to be oversold on “American Dream” and end up living paycheck to paycheck with no safety net.
The problem is that there is no helping them, so no one really tries. And the far right loves this, because it’s easy to give those people false hope, underdeliver, and then blame it on the left.
So alas, no, it isn’t any consolation that other countries are feeling this pain–that makes the situation feel more hopeless, rather than less.
I drive a fuel efficient car, have tried living in the city (extremely nice but unfortunately more expensive not less) would kill for public transit. Instead I live an hour away and pay 60% income for rent and 35% for car, I don’t think I’m alone. One time I knew one neighbor, this is somewhat strange in America, if I want to go somewhere I either have to pay or maybe just walk around the same store I’ve done hundreds of times, I could go for a walk around a park but I would have to drive there, chances of getting harassed simply walking around are around 50% and that skyrockets to around 80% if you’re doing it anywhere you’re not “supposed to” like say your own neighborhood.