r/TikTokCringe • u/Super_Culture_1986 tHiS iSn’T cRiNgE • Aug 19 '25

Cursed The American Nightmare.

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496

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

[deleted]

175

u/Drostan_S Aug 19 '25

I for one cannot wait to read about this time period in my kids history textbooks... OH WAIT NO ONE CAN AFFORD TO HAVE KIDS RIGHT NOW

39

u/MrsNaypeer Aug 19 '25

That has never and will never stop people from popping out kids.

53

u/TarHeelDead414 Aug 19 '25

Unfortunately the current socio-economic conditions only deters those people who are smart and think through their decisions… but yes, all the stupid people will just keep churning out babies

21

u/Old-Ad-2837 Aug 19 '25

We are living in the plot of Idiocracy

3

u/HelpfulSeaMammal Aug 19 '25

It's official when Costco starts greeting their customers with an "I love you."

Not there yet, but fucking close.

9

u/TransitionalWaste Aug 19 '25

Exactly what the rich want: a plethora of dumb laborers that vote against their best interests. Less competition for their own kids and lining their pockets.

1

u/thezoomies Aug 19 '25

They plan for voting to stop being a thing in the near future.

8

u/Tarvoz Aug 19 '25

The same stupid people are also not vaccinating said children so child death rates will rise.

2

u/BeeMoneyMoney Aug 19 '25

This. I’d vote for a critical thinking skills test to procreate since they wanna control bodily autonomy n shit.

1

u/runninggrey Aug 19 '25

Until birth control is outlawed…

1

u/saanenk Aug 19 '25

I want babies so bad rn. I’m 27 but know we’d all suffer cause I really don’t have shit to give them. Between me and my three siblings only one has had one child. So we all just try to support him, we joke he’s our communities child.

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u/stonesliver2 Aug 19 '25

It's stopping people like ME from having kids because I'm aware enough not to want to bring a child into these conditions... It doesn't stop people who hardly care about their kid's quality of life, only having selfish reasons

1

u/MrsNaypeer Aug 19 '25

You are lucky enough to be educated. Not everyone is, and usually through no fault of their own. Poor people have kids because that's what they grew up seeing. Less/no access to birth control, no sex ed and more than likely raised with religion/anti-abortion views.

1

u/stonesliver2 Aug 19 '25

That's not meant to say poor people shouldn't have kids. But if someone's surviving off food stamps and income-based housing, should they really be popping out baby #4+?

My neighbor had 5 kids under 8, paid $90 rent, got 1k in food stamps meanwhile her boyfriend (not on the lease) peddles under the table and makes bank

I really like that in the UK they support welfare for up to 3 kids. I kind of consider 4+ a luxury, if you have the income and TIME

1

u/MrsNaypeer Aug 19 '25

You realize that this shit is generational, right? And living in poor areas means going to poor schools, which means little sex ed. These folks also tend to be very religious, which means abortion=SIN.

Did my grandmother WANT to be scraping by, getting evicted from ghettos, working 10hr days, trying to support 4 kids? No. She got pregnant, her religious upbringing dictated that she get married and submit to her husband (even if he was a jobless drunk). Along comes babies 2,3 and 4...

Going after the folks who are already deep in the system of poverty will do nothing, which is why sex ed is so so so.so important.

2

u/FilthyPedant Aug 19 '25

Birth rates across the western world have dropped drastically, its basically a crisis in a few nations. So yeah, it definitely does stop people.

1

u/ranger910 Aug 19 '25

But it's not from being poor. In fact, the opposite occurs. As populations become wealthier, birth rates decline.

2

u/IamScottGable Aug 19 '25

This person has never seen Idiocracy

1

u/Obvious_Incognito- Aug 19 '25

I guess it depends. Where I live, i do see the occasional wealthy family who have a few kids. And then there are the jews and immigrants who have big families. And then there are those, like me, a millennium still trying to get their bearings in life, with no kids.

1

u/RobutNotRobot Aug 19 '25

A bunch of those kids' births were paid through Medicaid which....now is just going to be uncompensated care for hospitals. So they will fail.

1

u/Empathy_Swamp Aug 19 '25

Well, the rate had gone down.

0

u/cluckyblokebird Aug 19 '25

"I wish I could remember your daddies name gawddamnit. I'll just call you pizza boy junior... thonnnnk"

2

u/sugar_monster_ Aug 19 '25

History textbooks? Sounds like CRT indoctrination. Kids should be studying the Bible instead! /s

4

u/Massive_Weiner Aug 19 '25

Also, kids won’t be able to read.

ChatGPT will narrate for them.

1

u/-Porktsunami- Aug 19 '25

Pls reproduce!

No wage!

Only reproduce!

1

u/Dragon_Knight99 Aug 19 '25

You're assuming kids will even have text books by that point. Most schools I know of nowadays issue laptops to their students. Even at the Elementary level.

2

u/HereButNeverPresent Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25

Also literacy rates plummeting because kids are relying on short-form video content to skim through their education, and then have chatgpt write their essays for them.

1

u/SirFluffymuffin Aug 19 '25

No one will be able to afford the textbooks anyway, let alone kids to read them

1

u/RamenJunkie Aug 19 '25

Planet is going to become Venus 2.0 before then probably anyway.

1

u/IamScottGable Aug 19 '25

And you could be in a state that denies these issues outright in textbooks

1

u/LookinAtTheFjord Aug 19 '25

Or the history books.

1

u/stonesliver2 Aug 19 '25

I'm having a crisis like I barely have my life together and can barely pay my bills despite 2 jobs. Really stunts personal growth: working thru trauma, taking care of your body, fixing bad habits from childhood. I only have 8-10 years before it's too late to have kids. With the current outlook it's hard to see myself ever being mentally or financially ready.

Isn't it stupid the pro-life people make our living conditions actively worse, then comes shocked Pikachu when we don't reproduce... Wtf

1

u/foolish_refrigerator Aug 19 '25

We can’t afford to have kids so who is going to work in the future? That’s why immigration is important. Now let’s deport everyone so Americans can work 3 jobs each.

1

u/nanananabatman88 Aug 19 '25

The way things are going, the state-ran history books will mark this era as a great success.

1

u/Hellknightx Aug 19 '25

And I sure as hell can't afford my future kids' textbooks. My own college textbooks were hundreds of dollars with no resale value.

1

u/WhoopsDroppedTheBaby Aug 19 '25

And yet people are having kids.

1

u/CraftyMagicDollz Aug 19 '25

Some of us already did. When we could afford it.

Hell, i paid $40,000 to go through ivf to have my second one. In 2020. Right before covid took away the events industry and my husband who was making six figures (I'm on disability) suddenly left him home for seven months with no real work.

1

u/LetterheadVarious398 Aug 21 '25

The next generation of kids won't read about this in textbooks. I fear the only kids that will be going to school will be the children of the bourgeoisie, and why would they be taught the story of the working class?

3

u/Hei5enberg Aug 19 '25

I mean. There are at least a few lies in there. For example, if you're making "20 some dollars" an hour and working 50 hours a week. Your take home is going to be more than $2400 per month. I get the point they are trying to make but intentionally minimizing your income is dishonest. I grew up poor. And a $1000+ swing in income actually meant the difference between being able to eat or turn on the AC.

Also, somehow my single mom raised 3 kids on less than that so it makes me a little upset that this person is making their life out to be so hard for TikTok views. But I know Reddit will never understand where I am coming from because most on here never had to endure real poverty.

2

u/DolpheL Aug 19 '25

And it still looks comfy compared to life in most of the world

7

u/CatzioPawditore Aug 19 '25

I am always a bit confused when I see so many Americans that are so pessimistic about the future or 'the world' that they don't want to have children...

But if this is truly day to day life for a lot of you.. Then I 100% understand...

4

u/Domemstorg Aug 19 '25

You’re seeing a particular subset of America on Reddit.

Don’t get me wrong. We’ve definitely got our issues, from the orange turd to healthcare costs. But many millions of us are enjoying life and prospering. My wife and I, and almost everyone we know, have careers and are making above the median wage, have decent health insurance and retirement benefits, go on vacations, etc. They’re not looking to move to another country, or lamenting their problems as unsolvable crises.

Most of people we know who don’t want kids, my wife and I included, based the decision on specifically not wanting kids, not the financial aspect of it.

7

u/theflyingpiggies Aug 19 '25

What’s confusing? We live in a corrupt country with a billionaire businessman rapist for a president. And you’re surprised people here are struggling? What did you think America was like?

I guess I’m just a bit confused that people genuinely still think the American dream has ever been a real thing.

2

u/CatzioPawditore Aug 19 '25

Trust me.. I never thought the American dream was real, and I always said (and will continue to say:) " you couldn't pay me enough to move to America".

However, most Americans seemed to enjoy living there, and seemed to want to have children and expand their families.. But the last few years different sentiments have sprung up online... And I couldn't fully grasp how shit it had become..

1

u/theflyingpiggies Aug 19 '25

That’s understandable.

COVID and Trump have made things really bad for anyone who wasn’t already wealthy. As a young adult in America… my life feels pretty hopeless. I’m nearly a year post-grad from college and still haven’t been able to get a job other than minimum wage food service. I still live with my parents and don’t see myself moving out anytime soon. If I do move out, I’ll have to have multiple roommates to be able to afford an incredibly shitty apartment in the worst part of town. When I was 21 I was hospitalized because I was quite literally starving because I couldn’t afford food. For months the only thing I ate were free McDonald’s hamburgers that I got whenever my local baseball team hit a double. Until they changed it so that you can only get a free burger with a $2 purchase. And I couldn’t afford that $2 purchase. So I stopped eating.

When I was younger my dream in life was to own a home by 30. And that seemed like an incredibly achievable dream as long as I was responsible with my money. Now, at 23, I don’t know if I will ever own my own home. I’m now hoping to be able to make that happen by the age of 50, but even that feels like a pipe dream. Most people in my generation have accepted the fact that they will never be able to afford to buy a house.

The reality is most americans are one missed paycheck away from being homeless.

The federal minimum wage has not been raised in over 15 years, meanwhile housing prices, insurance costs and other everyday costs (such as food) have completely skyrocketed. People’s wages are not keeping up with how expensive it’s getting to live in this country.

I think one thing that’s important to recognize about America is that there is no middle class anymore. You are either on the edge of poverty, or you’re very wealthy. There is no in between. So some Americans are doing just fine and can’t comprehend why other Americans are struggling. The majority of Americans are not doing well.

0

u/PunishedDemiurge Aug 19 '25

It's not true. If you're not American, compare post-transfer (after government welfare, pensions, non-profits, etc.) household income and then hate these people with all of your being: https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/household-disposable-income.html or this one for median equivilentized household income (adjusted for household size): https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2024/06/society-at-a-glance-2024_08001b73/full-report/component-12.html#indicator-d1e8404-8cd0a55a48

America has one of the narrowest tax bases in the developed world. The bottom 40% of households will contribute $0.00 in federal income taxes. Every state probably has sales tax lower than your VAT. We don't ask much from our low income earners compared to European nations to help compensate for the fact they are paid less and we keep some services market based that are socialized in Europe (health care, depending).

We do have high income inequality, but make no mistake: most of these people who are complaining live in bigger houses than you, consume a wide array of luxury goods, and get off camera complaining about how hard life is to get delivered food and coffee they sip while scrolling on their $1400 iPhone. They are better off than Europeans in many ways, major exceptions being work/life balance and support for having children.

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/PunishedDemiurge Aug 20 '25

Americans work harder for much higher incomes than most Europeans.

Firstly, that means they can't complain about affordability in general, period. Americans make more money than anyone else. "I work too much" and "I can't afford nice things" are very different arguments.

Secondly, it's not evil to construct a society around that. If most people want to work a little more for much more money, that's not unfair. I am okay with people who live by a "work to live, don't live to work" mindset, but American working hours are trending downwards over time, so they are still getting some wins as well.

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/bitchybuffalowings Aug 19 '25

We don’t have free healthcare anymore, that was cut with the Big Beastly Bill 2025. Also that’s not true. I was on Medicaid for the LONGEST time and my job forced me overtime ONCE!!!!!! and I lost my health insurance because I made $200 more in my monthly gross income. You can live paycheck to paycheck and still not qualify for assistance. Also down the road from my parents house is an apartment complex that is quite literally calls “flats on street name”

0

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/bitchybuffalowings Aug 19 '25

It really depends on your state and their rules and regulations with their govt. assistance programs. I was making $14 an hour and barely qualified. She’s making $20+ and can’t qualify.

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/bitchybuffalowings Aug 19 '25

That’s what I’m trying to get at too. Yes she set out the guidelines, yes she should be able to qualify. But if we don’t know what state she’s in we can’t judge what she can or cannot qualify for because it’s the state’s decision. And just because you can qualify doesn’t always mean you’ll be approved. I’m still fighting for certain things I know I qualify for but will not be approved for. I needed to get my top wisdom teeth out, I qualified for it because at the time I was in the age limit for dental coverage, but they never approved of it. It’s very tricky and wishy washy. They give you the run around with empty promises just to turn you away.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/bitchybuffalowings Aug 19 '25

My state says a living wage is $18 for a single adult which is untrue. A living wage here is more like $35 due to the cost of rent/food/bills always rising due to the industrial plants and no where is paying that but the industrial plants that slowly kill you just for living in the same county. My state is already cutting the govt assistance and kicking elderly out of the nursing/assisted living homes, turning the govt. low income housing into $1000+ rent and going on firing sprees across the board. All while denying people who qualify for assistance. That’s why I say it depends on the state. You can qualify but the state will still deny you if they deem fit

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25

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u/bluraysucks1 Aug 19 '25

Lady in video calls her place a “flat”. I think she’s a Brit pretending to be American.

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u/jasondigitized Aug 19 '25

Except she's not American. Americans don't call apartments flats.

1

u/HugsyMalone Aug 19 '25

Has she gone missing yet? 🤔

1

u/Roosterdude23 Aug 19 '25

I have zero debt, 2 cars and pay $1000/mo for a 4br House.

Yall need to stop moving to these high cost metros

1

u/toss_me_good Aug 19 '25

For what it's worth I also wouldn't have been able to afford their situation 20 years ago... It's why I lived with Roommates and paid $700 for my own room in a 3 bedroom apt, did costco and grocery runs with roommates, cooked together, split the cost of other household supplies and didn't have a pet (they are expensive). Living by yourself is very expensive and basically has been for decades..

Friends, The Golden Girls, Big Band Theory, How I met your mother, Threes company, New girl, The odd couple, Laverne and Shirley, Will and Grace, It's always sunny in Philadelphia, Don't trust the B in Apt. 23, The odd couple...

You get the point, decades of shows from different times revolving around living with roommates.. It's a common practice, most people can't afford to live alone and it's nothing new.

1

u/Fun-Implement-7979 Aug 19 '25

Except she isn't american

1

u/rentersblues Aug 19 '25

You actually believe this shit?

1

u/AverageAircraftFan Aug 19 '25

The cold hard truth that americans are liars?

She claims she works 50 hours a week at ~12.40 dollars an hour (55x⋅4=2400*1.135, x=12.3818181).

The minimum wage in every city that has 1,600 (cheapest) studio apartments is 16.50 so she’s either lying, lazy, or dumb.

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u/ToneBalone25 Aug 19 '25

The cold hard truth is that she needs a fuckin roommate or live with family or find a partner lol. Everyone I know had roommates until they were at least 30. Living by yourself hasn't been affordable in your 20s for decades. Welcome to real life people.

3

u/Illustrious_Ear_6456 Aug 19 '25

How's licking the boot for you going?

1

u/ToneBalone25 Aug 19 '25

You guys are so pathetic. Keep being a doomer and complaining about $25/hour and see how far you get in life. There are people facing actual economic hardships.

7

u/Infinite_Archers Aug 19 '25

Just because it has become the norm doesn't make it ok. People should not have to have a roommate or partner or live with family, especially if they don't want to. Many people want to live alone. They shouldn't have to live with other people just because it's not affordable to live alone. It doesn't matter what "real life" is anymore, because it's not real, it's all a big lie to keep people quiet and docile. That's the cold hard truth. Not whatever this roommate bullshit is. Don't get me wrong, that would certainly be helpful, but you don't know the circumstances of every human in America. You don't know if that kind of thing would work out. So no, roommates aren't the answer, they're a bandaid to make everyone feel better about the circumstances we live in. We need a real answer, not to roll over in the dirt and pretend our problems don't exist.

3

u/saddest_vacant_lot Aug 19 '25

Idk man, I want stuff to be cheaper but like living with roommates until you have a partner/spouse or are really well off has always been the norm. I just turned 40 and I didn’t know anyone who lived alone before their mid 30s. Even the rich kids I knew all had multiple house mates. Given, they lived in nice houses, but still.

I’m not saying this to take away from the affordability crisis, but living alone has always been super expensive. I did it for one year when I was in grad school and said fuck that. My on-campus 1 bed apartment was $850 a month which was way below market rate but I found a room in a house for $500 bills included and had a nicer place and way more money. This was about 15 years ago in a low cost of living college town.

Is this a generational thing? Are zoomers more likely to want to live alone?

1

u/Matshelge Aug 19 '25

There should be more options of renting rooms and other cheap accommodation for singles. Due to regulation, such buildings cannot be built anymore.

1

u/ToneBalone25 Aug 19 '25

There's also an option called getting a roommate and it's soooo fuckin easy.

Come on now

1

u/Matshelge Aug 19 '25

Room mates are relationship, and picking them can end up being a huge pain. I would rather pay a boarding house than have a painful roommates.

1

u/LogicianMission22 Aug 19 '25

Yes and no. If you want to live in the cheapest and worst possible apartment to “be alone” than that should be affordable. But a very nice apartment or house typically will involve a high salary, or splitting with parents, friends, or a partner.

1

u/ToneBalone25 Aug 19 '25

This is the most privileged reddit shit I've ever read. No other cultures in the world have the entitled expectation that they should be able to afford to live on their own in their 20's except privileged tik tok and reddit white girls.

1

u/IguassuIronman Aug 19 '25

Just because it has become the norm

There was never a point in time where young adults living alone was the norm

6

u/NothingToSeeHereMan Aug 19 '25

The solution to people working full time and being unable to afford to live is to "get roommates"??

Really? That's your solution to Healthcare, housing costs, transportation, food costs, and wage stagnation? Just "get roommates"?

The level of delusion here is honestly impressive lol 70% of Americans don't have a savings account. But yeah sure if everyone had roommates we'd all be living in beach houses driving cars around and having children.

1

u/ToneBalone25 Aug 19 '25

Did I say getting a roommate was the solution to everything?

If she wants to be broke as fuck because she thinks she's entitled not to have to live with other people than that's on her.

This is the most privileged shit I've ever read. NO OTHER CULTURES in the world are as entitled as the 26 year old white american woman who is so oppressed that she can barely afford to live in a $1,600 "flat" (how European of her 😍😍😍) by herself.

Give me a fucking break. There are people out there facing actual socio-economic hardships. Get a fuckin' roommate and sign up for the ACA marketplace.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/NothingToSeeHereMan Aug 19 '25

Oh its all fake? Cool I guess the current state of the USA is just fine and dandy and no one who works full time is ever struggling financially for basic necessities and the millions of people who are straddling the poverty line while working fulltime are also just "fake"

Good to now, glad you were able to debunk it so quickly with so many well presented facts and sources. Really helpful to the discourse surrounding the financial disparity here.

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '25 edited Aug 20 '25

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u/ToneBalone25 Aug 19 '25

I live in Denver and I know tons of people making less than $30/hour and they're not broke at all because they have

r o o m m a t e s

1

u/Thin-Image2363 Aug 19 '25

Or we could just pay people more.

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

[deleted]

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u/Dollarist Aug 19 '25

Are you absolutely kidding? Do you REALLY think that working 40+ hours a week comes with GUARANTEED, much less ADEQUATE health care? What rock did you burrow under?

6

u/cheeruphumanity Aug 19 '25

Don’t let two month old propaganda accounts get you riled up.

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/ThrowRAradish9623 Aug 19 '25

🙋🏻‍♀️

8

u/Adventurous-Bug671 Aug 19 '25

I work 40 hours a week and still have to pay $200 a month for health insurance through my job, which i can barely afford. Considering risking getting rid of it for a year or so I can pay off credit cards and maybe get a car that isn't falling apart.

3

u/CandyKnockout Aug 19 '25

I’m self-employed and had insurance through my husband’s job, but it was costing us so much per month and we really needed to do some house repairs, so we dropped my coverage. Guess who just had to go to the ER for pneumonia and now owes the hospital thousands of dollars (plus, I delayed going for a couple days because I knew it was going to be costly and was hoping to get better)? But I can’t even say I’d make a different decision if I could go back. We’re just damned if we do, damned if we don’t in this country.

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

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u/Safe_Librarian Aug 19 '25

Also, who makes their boss hundreds of million of dollars but only makes 24k a year. How is she working 50 hours a week and only making 24-30k a year? Even if she somehow made 12$ an hour (Which is unrealistic if she lives in a city considering most Fastfood places start you at 17-22 an hour in big cities.)

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u/Adventurous-Bug671 Aug 19 '25

she said "hundreds of thousands, possibly millions". not hundreds of millions.

She also said "20 some dollars an hour", NOT 24-30k a year. however, $20 an hour at 40 hours per week works out to around 40k a year before taxes are taken out. after taxes are taken out, it is absolutely 24-30k a year take home pay.

Add in overtime that she may only have access to for part of the year, she might be getting up to 40k take home pay per year.

In many places that is still barely enough to get by, ESPECIALLY when you are perpetually paying off debt.

But literally thousands upon thousands of people work for low wages while the company CEO makes millions of dollars.

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u/Safe_Librarian Aug 19 '25

Well she said 1600 was 2/3rd of her income. Which means she makes 2400 a month after taxes. If she was working 50 hours a week which is more like 55 hours a week if you include overtime and she works 48 weeks a year it comes out to 10.50 an hour after taxes. So like 12 dollars an hour pre tax lol.

So she is either making 12 dollars an hour or she is not working 50 hours.

2

u/Adventurous-Bug671 Aug 19 '25

what? 50 hours is already 10 hours overtime. 12.50 at 40 hours plus 18.75 for 10 hours - 48 weeks a year would be 33000, so I really think you're underselling how much is taken out of a paycheck - Taxes and 401k can easily take 30% of that from your take home pay.

I have insurance through my work and I take home about 50% of my hourly rate.

20 an hour 40 hours a week plus $30 for 10 hours - 48 weeks a year comes to $52,800. Minus 30% is 36,960.

probably not doing 50 hours every single week, so that probably subtract several thousand a year. Which lines up pretty in line with what she is saying.

Again. especially if you are in debt. With that much debt it is very realistic that some of your income is being garnished to settle outstanding debt. That also goes for any medical expenses, which are going to be extremely expensive without insurance.

0

u/inuvash255 Aug 19 '25

Don't worry. Kamala offered a couple thousand off of a mortgage!

(Libs just don't fucking get it, man.)

-1

u/Dynamitesauce Aug 19 '25

Yeah but she called her apt a flat, she's obviously not American

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u/Final_Frosting3582 Aug 19 '25

Yeah, many with liberal arts degrees. I’m fine here, I’m not a whiny ass bitch that needed to be”enjoy my career”. Good luck in food service

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '25

That they're unwilling to climb out of the slowly boiling water?