Irate employee proclaims ‘American dream is dead’ while he makes 3 times the minimum wage and still ‘cannot afford to live’
A frustrated worker claims the “American dream is dead” as he struggles to make ends meet while he works multiple jobs and earns three times the minimum wage.
Nic Sumners shared his aggravation on TikTok last month for how he was living and called out everyone who thought his way of life was normal.
“Can someone explain to me in crayon-eating terms, why I make over three times the federal minimum wage and I cannot afford to live?” Summers said in the video posted on April 2.
“And I do not want to hear the ‘pull yourself up from your bootstraps, work 90 hours a week.’ That’s not the goal guys, that’s not, that should not be our standard.”
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, or roughly $15,080 a year, if someone were to work 40 hours a week.
Sumners’, who didn’t specify where he works in the video, indicated he makes around $22 per hour or $45,760 a year.
The average national salary in 2024 is $59,428 a year with the average hourly rate being $28.34, according to Forbes.
The TikTokker went on to criticize both the Republican and Democratic parties for their role in creating the current system where he is suffering.
“I am so f–king tired of people being complacent with this uni party, both of them f–king us over,” Sumners said
“When my parents were my age, they both made less than half of what I make and they live alone,” Sumners claimed in the video seen over 11.1 million times. “I cannot afford to live anywhere alone.”
“A one-bedroom apartment $1,800, a two-bedroom apartment $2,200. Who the f–k can afford that. It is embarrassing to come out and say that it is a struggle to survive right now, but I know so many people are struggling. “
“And do not get me started on what my grandparents were doing, they (had a) $3,000 house.”
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the US is $1,515 a month, a .6% increase from last year, an April report from Apartments.com showed.
“Yes I understand inflation and all of the bulls–t that they have been pulling with the Fed,” Sumners says. “Why are we allowing it?”
Sumners then called out the federal government’s routine policies of sending money over to countries in war including Ukraine and Israel while American citizens “struggle.”
“I clock out of my shift, I am tired, I have to go home and check the news, “Another $60 billion to a country nobody can point out on a map.
Last month, President Biden signed a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan bill passed by Congress after weeks of negotiation.
The bipartisan bill passed in both chambers, but not before GOP objections to the $60.8 billion in Ukraine and some Democratic objections to the $17 billion for Israel.
Sumners questioned what the country has come to and whether if people have lost what they should be actually doing.
“What are we doing? Where has the plot gone? We have lost it folks,” he added. “The American dream is dead, it is over. Gone and forgotten.”
The American dream was found to cost a whopping $3,455,305, according to study conducted by Investopedia found.
The average American — across all education levels — only rakes in roughly $2.3 million, the 2023 research found.
