Do you really have to work your ass off to be able to barely be able to live in the lower class?
How far from reality are the movies? How do people deal with health care and insurance?
In school, most of the time, I've been taught that America is just like that, unless you're famous and can somehow build a fortune. If people can't find work they are homeless and there is no help from the government.
Just do some research dude, nobody will answer here
Jonathan Campbell
I expected some basic answers here, nothing too specific. Whatever
John Ortiz
Everyone already knows everything about America.
Xavier Reed
The American Dream is alive and well, only now it's shifted to tech and science(chemical engineering pays very well and is a rather secure job) rather than the whole lawyer, doctor, and to a degree business (can still make it big as long as the company embraces technology rather than fight it. Honestly, nowadays this is a requirement for your business to be even mediocre.) We have the highest paying tech jobs in the world when you account for cost of living and taxes. Most tech professionals work 40 hour weeks and get a slew of benefits. If you're a doctor you'll likely be working 50-80 hour weeks, and if went to college to be a lawyer you're probably going to end up at McDonalds. Army is also an okay choice if you're up for it, at the very least you'll get your education and some money so you can have a good shot at making it big when you finish.
The biggest reason for people thinking the American dream is dead is because the barrier to entry is much higher than it was years ago. College is pretty much expected for any and all jobs (technical or a 4 year degree. technical you'll be making more money in the beginning and sooner than a 4 year degree, but room for growth is negligible and you'll likely work the same job 20 years before being considered for management.) The one exception to this rule is, you guessed it, tech, namely in the programming field as there just isn't enough people to meet demand and many excellent programmers don't have degrees. If the number of programmers in the future ever meets demand, you can expect a 4 year degree to become necessary.
Another major factor is that if you can't afford or just straight up don't go to college you will likely become a wage-slave, get lucky enough for welfare(good luck if you're a man), or just be flat out homeless. Muh sources: myself (programmer), uncle (pipefitter), father (business), sister (drugged out, no college, homeless), and a couple friends (McDonalds, Marines).
Brayden Hughes
disabled veteran, so. havent worked a day past my 24th birthday, decent healthcare, and my bills are paid living with my mother in the 'burbs
but getting blown fucking up for 14 months in iraq was no fun
>take the good with the bad, like anywhere else on earth?
Jeremiah Thompson
It's great
t. Leaf
Ian White
Incredibly average. Not too different from most of Europe that isn't Scandinavia.
James Davis
>Do you really have to work your ass off to be able to barely be able to live in the lower class? I work full time and have a one bedroom apartment and eat microwave burritos every day because it's all I can afford. College will put you in debt for the rest of your life, and then you have to buy car since we don't have public transportation outside of major cities. So there's more debt.
>How do people deal with health care and insurance? By going broke to pay for it.
>How is "the American dream"? No such thing unless you're born into wealth or become famous somehow.
Eli Williams
Veteran here too.
The military is one of the shittiest options available for someone. You get paid less than minimum wage to do the shittiest work imaginable under the shittiest people. I didn't know that when I joined, but immediately regretted my decision to join.
No matter what, your life is never so bad you need to join the US military. There's always other options.
John Carter
To describe it in the words of a rapper. "Mo money mo problems." It's something that holds true in America. You can live a very chill life if you're poor, and just working part time. However if you want much of anything, such as a house, a car, or to live with the modern eminities, you must work your ass off or get really lucky.
Father has been working his ass off all his life, and all he has to show for it are a house, a boat, and a good credit score.
Things are getting better, just very slowly.
Christopher Green
The american dream is to leave america
Charles Lewis
You then wake up when you realize that the whole world is shit.
That's how you become unspooked
Charles Diaz
If you are rich, there is no better place to live, hands down.
Also, many Americans think they are "delayed" millionaires.
Henry Peterson
cuck mentality. america is routinely ranked among the worst of developed nations if you're not upper class
Grayson Young
Nations and class are spooks, my property.
Ian Jones
>Cuck mentality No, it's understanding the human condition that we live in a world where we will suffer regardless of where we are born. >america is routinely ranked among the worst of developed nations No, it's depressingly average. Niggers like you can't appreciate what you have.
Henry Murphy
American dream is well, only here in America can people who grow up with nothing can become something.
T. whose family grew up dirt poor in a shut country but moved to the US and now some are millionaires or close.
>What is it like to live in the United States? It varies wildly by income and area. As a lower middle class person I eat, sleep, shit, go to uni, work, and shitpost on Sup Forums like everyone else. My job is shit but I that's why I'm in school. Despite what Sup Forums tells you I do not get shot on a regular basis.
>How is "the American dream"? It's a lie unless you are incredibly lucky. There are legitimate ways to climb the ladder and achieve the American dream rather than relying on luck but it does require you to be a good deal more resourceful than the average American. It's not as easy as it used to be in the old days and these days even a college degree, in a good field (STEM), is not enough to get there. Most people will never achieve the American dream . >Do you really have to work your ass off to be able to barely be able to live in the lower class? That or sell drugs. Guess which one is more lucrative.
>How far from reality are the movies? The movies nail the stereotypes and miss everything else as usual.
>How do people deal with health care and insurance? Can't speak for others, I have insurance through my parents and if I get this new job with the power company I'll hopefully have my own through my employer.
>In school, most of the time, I've been taught that America is just like that, unless you're famous and can somehow build a fortune. If people can't find work they are homeless and there is no help from the government. America is built by a lot of middle class people who aren't rich. You can make a decent living here but don't expect your voice to carry any weight as far as politics is concerned. Larger special interest groups can always buy you out and as a consumer you will always be the most exploited class. There is government assistance for both unemployed, employed (special cases), and retired people. The state programs will vary wildly between red and blue states and then of course there is federal aid.
Julian Ortiz
France, Italy, Israel and Korea aren't developed?
Carter Ross
are you stupid?
Tyler Collins
Are you? Do you think the countries I listed are Africa tier or something?
Caleb Taylor
>Do you really have to work your ass off to be able to barely be able to live in the lower class? If you're working a minimum wage job, yes. People always talk about "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps", but if you're working 40+ hours a week just to survive, your options are fairly limited. >How far from reality are the movies? What messages are the movies sending you? >How do people deal with healthcare and insurance? Many employers provide their workers with health insurance, and many don't. If you don't get insurance through your job and can't afford it on your own, what you do is avoid medical help unless your life is seriously in danger. Then you go to the hospital, take on an enormous amount of debt, and drive up everyone else's insurance premiums when you can't pay the hospital. The government gives out welfare/food stamps/whatever, but it's a shit way to live. Despite what people say about "welfare queens", most people will only live that way because they either have no choice or are fucked in the head.
Levi Campbell
Also, since I am a new American citizen, I will ell you how I live here.
>Do you work your ass off? No, I live free with my brother and his family, and I get monthly allowance.
>How far from reality are the movies? What kind?
>Its hard to live life poor in US? No, you can get welfare, SNAP, Medicaid, and other shit.
I know my brother gets Medicare from his employer,but he pays for my healthcare. If it weren't for my brothers, or cousins, I'd be homeless, kek.
Thomas Williams
It's like waking up, looking out your window seeing this and appreciating the whole freedom thing.
And then working your two part time $9/hr jobs to get by with moderate comforts and necessities.
None of the major cities really live up to the stereotypes portrayed in media, and all that seemingly empty space between the pockets of civilization is an entirely different world in itself.
Thomas Butler
If I one day win a greencard and travel to Merica what should I be prepared for the most? I've heard that americans aren't very fond of immigrants,or is it just a rumor?
>If people can't find work they are homeless and there is no help from the government.
There's lots of welfare, you just make more money being homeless because people still give out charity as if there weren't welfare.
Ian Walker
We love immigrants, legal ones though. Not illegal ones like in Europe, every time a person from a different country comes to my school or neighborhood, everyone asks so many questions, like, "omg, what did you do for fun?" And other shit. You won't experience racism in America, as long as you arent a drug addict or criminal, you'll be received warmly almost everywhere you go.
Oliver Rivera
America is nicer to immigrants than any other country. Even the idiot leftist ones that give immigrants free houses and teach them to rape indigenous women.
We're against the policy of mass immigration but not the immigrants themselves.
Michael Diaz
Some Americans, of every race, happen to be racist. Only a tiny minority of them are brazen enough to be public about it, due to PC culture.
Most everyone is pretty chill though, people will greet and strike up brief conversations with a random passerby on the street.
Hard to say what to prepare for, America varies depending on geographic location pretty greatly.
Blake Hughes
I live the dream. No debt. I own a car. Rent is only 350 dollars a month. Make 13.25 per hour. 40 hours a week. No dependents. Shitpost everyday. 9.5/10 life in my opinion.
James Mitchell
what's your health insurance like?
Eli King
it feels canadian
Jose Roberts
Tried not to be racist Had 5 bikes in the past 13 years all stolen by blacks.
fun fact: most blacks don't know what yield means.
Luke Campbell
...
Caleb Sanchez
it's not that hard to work and live in America. Taxes can be a dick and so can the IRS. Main thing you have to watch out for if you're a worker is the democrats because they believe if you're a minority you can do nothing and get given stuff
Ian Ross
I don't know anybody that non-ironically believes in the "american dream".
Mason Moore
It's really easy to fuck yourself over and essentially damn yourself to poverty and cuckoldry if you don't make the right decisions early on/aren't born in a shitty inner city place. Other than that it's okay and has a lot of pretty places.
My biggest gripe with murrica is that a car is literally mandatory to go anywhere. Unless you live somewhere like Jew York or another big city with a lot of transportation you're literally fucked if you don't have a car.
Americans hating immigrants is a dumb meme your politicians have tried to push really. A huge chunk of the population are immigrants after all, from Germans to Irish and Vietcong etc. We only hate immigrants who come over illegally because they often bring about unsavory elements and provide cheap unregulated labor that destroy some lower class jobs for actual citizens (Constructions is totally fucked now for example. It used to be a decent entry level job, but now unless you're brown and willing to work for a handful of pesos a day you're fucked).
If anything the ideal situation would be to stop illegal immigrants, but then expand our work visa system to allow more foreign workers. That way they won't have to bribe the cartels or get kidnapped, tortured, raped, and then enslaved by the cartels as they cross over the border/mexico.
Yeah, crossing the border here for illegal immigrants is much much worse than for the Rapefuges of Yurop. The worst they have to worry about is maybe drowning or getting STDs after raping too many women on their way to Germany.
James Bennett
What branch?
I honestly considered it would be better than being a minimum wage slave with no end in sight.
Parker Roberts
This guy pretty much said it all. The American Dream is alive and well, people just don't realize that you actually have to work for it
Elijah Phillips
Did you even look at that graph?
Aaron Russell
It's fucking GLORIOUS.
Hudson Kelly
>American dream is well, only here in America can people who grow up with nothing can become something.
If you're stupid or lazy, you can eke out a living from welfare handouts and shitty jobs. It's not as generous as the northern European welfare states but no one is starving here.
If you're smart and hard working, the dream is alive. The richest man in my town is a Vietnamese guy who came here after the war with nothing but the clothes on his back. He now owns office buildings, restaurants, a bank, airplanes, race horses, luxury cars, and more. How did he do it? He washed dishes in a restaurant, then became a cook, then bought a "roach coach" (mobile food-vending van), then a restaurant, and so on and so on. Worked 16 hours a day and never went into debt. Drove old cars for 300,000 miles. His kids went to community college and our state university, not shitty private colleges that cost $60,000 a year.
Work hard, obey the law, don't borrow money, save some of your income every month, and soon you'll be rich too.
John Carter
disabled vet guy here again
i was an infantryman, so, it was REALLY shitty camping or fucking off in the barracks stateside then driving around aimlessly 99% of the time in iraq or getting blown the fuck up
over all i would say not as bad as this poster's tone, BUT, i agree with his sentiment that yeah it's _almost_ never worth it. whenever anyone asks me i tell them to not fucking do it, or do the reserves. (try it before you buy it)
> my cousin is an 11B in the guard, and he's getting out
i also steer people towards the USCG because its a /less/ abnormal lifestyle and i guess they make "actual contributions" to society?
"your life is never so bad you need to enlist" i disagree there, because in my case ... it was basically petit criminality or the military, so, i chose well and lucked out, sort of, and landed on my feet, sort of -- eh, i guess, yeah, generally, this guy is probably right because chances are good you won't wind up killing ISIS so it'll be a massive waste of time and you won't get any job skills
Nicholas Ross
The thing that bothers me about america is the lack of free colleage.That means if you are born in a poor family you are pretty much screwed.The chances of aquiring a higher education is next to none.Even in latin america if you study hard you can escape crushing poverty since the colleages are free.
An example:
>father and aunt born in poor uruguayan family >they moved to brazil at a young age >they both were able to go to colleage >my father graduated in law and my aunt in chemistry >aunt married american guy and moved to the usa >revalidated her diploma there and started working >father stayed in Brazil and started working as a lawyer >aunt works her ass of and can barely pay cousin colleage >I went to free colleage and my father was able to save money&buy a house >aunts family is in debt and strugling because of absurd expensive colleages fees >family in brazil is comfy and was able to become uper middle class
End result: brazilian family escaped poverty and became quite wealthy because of free colleage.American family got screwed up by beyond reach higher education
