I just saw a facebook "friend" post a go-fund me for a house down payment. This is a friend who is 40 and works at a fast-food restaurant for minimum wage, yet insists on eating out for every single meal. He checks in at restaurants multiple times a day, and also makes posts about how life is so expensive and how he can't manage to save anything. Now he posted a link to his go-fund me, saying that he and his wife have been married for 5 years and they are still renting a house, so it is time to buy one. I don't know what is worse - the fact that he doesn't see the disconnect between why they are broke, or that he thinks the go fund me is appropriate, or that he thinks the $3000 goal he set is enough for a down payment.
Hope this doesn't sound judgmental, but how did he get to be 40 and working at a fast food restaurant? I'm just curious. What happened? There's nothing wrong with it, but fast food jobs don't pay much and most of those jobs are going to be automated soon, so it would be pointless to do this long term. And perhaps he's trying to do something else, but I think most fast food work is better for high school and college students. Just my opinion. A waiter job at a decent restaurant where one could earn tips would even be better than fast food.
This is incredibly common in semi-rural midwest areas. In the area I grew up in, 5 small towns all attended the same school district (k-12 in 1 building) and out of a graduating class of almost 100 there were less than 10 of us who went to college. All of us who went to college moved out of the area and have careers, but the rest stayed in the area and work minimum wage jobs at fast food restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, etc. You have to drive at least an hour to get a "decent" restaurant fancier than Bob Evans, so even being a waiter/waitress doesn't make you much. The high wage earners work at the factories, making $13-$18 per hour or work in construction during the summer. In the past 10 years since we graduated a few of the others have gone to trade school to do things like HVAC but not many. A few are lucky and will inherit the farm land that they currently work on, but for the vast majority their lives consist of working low-wage jobs, making babies, subsisting on Mt. Dew and Cigarettes (and increasingly opioids), getting drunk every weekend, and looking down on those of us who made something of ourselves. It's frustrating that there is such a disconnect - they don't understand how their behaviors are causing them to stay in the place they are in. They think you only make it in life if you are "lucky" and therefore changing their behaviors won't make their lives better, because it is already obvious they aren't the lucky ones. So they end up being almost 40, or almost 60, working at a fast food restaurant without even $100 saved up in the bank.
-Ok, I'm stepping down from my soapbox now.
