I'm in a masters of accounting program now and my tax class covered retirement planning this week. The professor mentioned this article and the sharing of netflix passwords and 70% savings rate and people...laughed and called it extreme. People gasped at the absurdity $75/month grocery bill. Sounds about right to me! That was depressing for my classmates' futures. The entry-level jobs with this degree pay ~$50K so if you live on $30K as your pay increases, you'd be set. (Also I had a visceral reaction because I've never made more than $30K in my previous career and still have managed to save a significant portion of my income)
The other day I overheard someone discussing their salary job offer and that they were worried "it wouldn't be enough". WHAT?
One constant I've noticed is how people in a given group all view their spending and salaries as 'normal' regardless of where htey lie on the income and spending spectrums. My father, a physician, once had to restructure his private practice which required every physician to ~8% pay 'cut' (actually a multi-year deferment) to ensure the practice would remain solvent. Despite earning over $100k a half-dozen or so of the physicians told him such a reduction would force them into bankruptcy.
There's always another article coming out about how a family can't live a 'comfortable' lifestyle on $60k, 75k, even 90k/year. Well, how do similar families get by on half of that?
The most extreme that I've witnessed has been in the financial industry, where my college roommate and best-man wound up. I've been witness to one person buying a brand-new luxury SUV on a whim en route to a ski weekend, and then listened as he complained how his compensation barely afforded him the very nice 3 bedroom apartment in downtown SF that he shared with his wife. Then I sat silently as most in the group (all in the financial sector) joined the chorus. We were literally drinking $15 cocktails at the luxury hotel at the foot of a luxury ski resort where most of them were staying at $300/night and the subject was how financially hard their lives were.
Lack of perspective... I think it would be good for most Americans to see that most of the world can live happy lives on what we'd consider impovershed levels. IThat's not to say I'm advocating earning sub-$20k, just that one should feel blessed to be earning many times this amount.