I'm forwarding the article link to some friends. We're all trying to start lives on jobs that "pretend to pay" us (I got a $1 an hour raise today that might--*might*--keep me from going into debt).

A lot of us [Americans] aren't living it up. This goes for young ones as well as older ones (most of us don't have parents who can or will subsidize us to that extent). I live with my parents but I literally almost make enough to cover what I pay them for rent, my health insurance, car insurance (car was paid off in January, thank God), gas, and minor personal expenses (new scrubs for work, car maintenance, etc). I don't buy a lot of clothes (the secondhand stores here are almost as expensive as new, anyway) or books or DVD's or whatever, and I pay off my one credit card monthly (I mostly use it for said gasoline, anyway). I cannot afford a cell phone, cable TV, restaurant lunches, weekend trips, health club, etc., and when I do get a "treat" (usually music-related) I have to make sure the purchase isn't too close to the last $15 I spent on a CD or concert ticket. There is absolutely no way I could make it on my own.

I make well above minimum wage but I don't make a LIVING wage. I don't think it's greedy or materialistic of me to want to be able to support myself in return for an honest 40-a-week (or a little more; I don't mind some overtime). It would be even better if I actually liked the job instead of being treated like a child by my bosses and a moron and whipping-boy [girl] by our customers. I don't want a McMansion and a BMW, I just don't want to live with my parents until Hell freezes over.