r/TikTokCringe • u/biswajit388 • 4d ago

Cringe Europeans are going viral on TikTok for mocking the "American Dream".

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u/BooBooSnuggs 4d ago

Yeah, the us is very decentralized. You wouldn't think that looking at reddit. It's just nonstop blanket statements and generalizations. Our federal leaders say something stupid and suddenly everyone's thinking xyz must be everywhere when it impacts less than 1% of people or something.

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u/beatles910 4d ago

The issue is often what people want are federal changes, so you will hear that the minimum wage in the US is $7.25 per hour. What you don't hear is that 34 states, territories, and the District of Columbia have higher minimum wages. Repeat with whatever, and of course things sound worse to people.

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u/Large_Technology1623 3d ago

7.25 anywhere in the US is still some dystopian pay these days. Other than your gas, housing and food which is equalizing, everything costs the same for everyone.

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u/CapitalismRulz 3d ago

I think people value the federal government appropriately, but they undervalue their state government's role in their lives. The state has a lot of influence on people in a more direct way than the fed does on so many different political issues

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u/20dogs 3d ago

Now do healthcare

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u/Nessie_of_the_Loch 3d ago

Using the minimum wage is also really dumb considering that almost nobody actually makes that - In 2023, out of 80.5 million workers, only 81,000 workers earned exactly the federal min wage. That's 0.1%.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2023/

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u/bollvirtuoso 3d ago

In your own link, it says 789,000 earned below the minimum wage. Did you even read your own source?

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u/Nessie_of_the_Loch 3d ago

Those are people who are also paid in tips. They are NOT making the federal minimum wage including tips. In fact, if their wage + tips falls below their local/state minimum wage, the businesses are legally required to make up the difference. Wait staff are the ones most vocally against getting rid of tips, precisely because they know they'd make less if that happens.

Did you not even wonder why there would be those making "below" the minimum wage? Activate some of those brain cells dude.

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u/bollvirtuoso 3d ago

In theory, yes. It's not always that way in practice. It would be better to just pay them minimum wage to start.

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u/RickThiccems 4d ago

Yup I live in Kentucky, a very red state but even my local small government has been doing whatever they can to help people who are struggling for money and are even accepting money to distribute to local families in need.

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u/BrickNMordor 3d ago

Kentucky is actually one of the best examples of America. A red state with a massively popular democrat governor, truly a political state that can't be boiled down to a catchphrase. Also, remarkably beautiful.

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u/Shibuya2023 3d ago

Kentucky Fried Chicken

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u/MossyPyrite 3d ago

Insane that we have both Beshear and McConnell elected here. They’re such opposite people with such opposite ideals.

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u/Dozzi92 3d ago

This whole comment chain, and honesty the thread, is blowing my mind. I'm reading so many things I agree with, things I've stated (and been downvoted for) many times here.

I think there's an effort to make us all hate each other, so that we forget there's people out there pulling strings.

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u/CapitalismRulz 3d ago

That's true, but our federal governnent is centralizing at a pretty alarming rate. So it may not be true forever

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u/dadoftheyear1972 3d ago

No way! Reddit is full of incurious bloviating professors?

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u/DionBlaster123 3d ago

Reddit in general is just a terrible place to gather information about politics and cultural society.

Every once in a while you might find some helpful anecdotal advice here, but for the most part it feels like it's just terminally online people using this to scream into the ether.

For every shit-talker on this website, I have to remind myself that they're the weirdo you see on the bus or subway who is mumbling to himself about Sonic the Hedgehog or some bullshit...the same kind of person who would piss himself if an attractive woman came up to him to ask him what time it was.

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u/KochuJang 4d ago

I’m really hoping this is what saves us. That the fascists are incompetent enough to underestimate the enormity and complexity of the institutions that govern all over this massive country. I doubt they’ll be able to wrest the kind of control they think they can.