You ' re welcome . <| sep |> Okay , let ' s start at $ 7 ph then . How much does it cost to live ? Per year that ' s a salary of $ 20 , 440 , given that you take no sick days or holidays . The average American spends about $ 100 on food a week . That ' s $ 5 , 200 already . Looking up rent , average American rent is about $ 900 for a 1 bedroom outside the city . That ' s $ 10 , 800 per year for the lowest available apartment . Add in utilities and internet and that ' s another $ 200 per month , adding all together to $ 13 , 200 . Local transport , costs about $ 4 per day , two tickets back and forth . However , most people use monthly passes so looking it ' s about $ 70 per month . That ' s $ 840 in transit to actually get to work and do your job . So adding all together , you ' re spending $ 19 , 240 each year out of your $ 20 , 440 , leaving you with a total of $ 1 , 200 per year in leisure money . That small amount of money is what your job earn you in enjoying life . Your games , your movies , your restaurant nights , etc . My own father lives lowermiddle class and he can spend that in little over a month . For $ 10 ph , the salary is $ 29 , 200 and leaves you with a reasonable $ 9 , 960 per year , but I ' m sure you can see that noone here is living like kings . And this is given the best possible scenario . The annual saleries were calculated with working 365 days a year . With weekends off , that totals to little more than $ 14 , 616 with $ 7 ph , $ 20 , 800 for 10 ph . If you want to argue semantics about slavery , go ahead . But don ' t sit and deny that people in the west have shit lives in comparison to CEOs that do fuck all but earn money from arbitrary property rights . And I ' m more than willing to discuss the ability to even pay for college if that ' s where you want to take the argument .