It's OVER: American's Cant Afford To Live Anymore

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]tonight and I'm here at the grocery store. I come to get some stuff.

[00:00:03]America's not going to be able to survive like this. How are we going to survive? I got stuff to make burger and fries. Okay, I got enough meat to make eight hamburgers, a pack of hamburger buns, a ding of charcoal, a bag of potatoes, and grease. Take a wild guess.

[00:00:22]$50 damn dollar.

[00:00:25]$50 to make homemade hamburgers and French fries. There's no there's no way we're surviving.

[00:00:34]I make good money and this is not sustainable. I can't spend $50 and I didn't even get nothing. Like where this right here was on sale for $3.99. So the charcoal was only $3.99.

[00:00:50]The rest of the food, hamburger, meat, buns, potatoes, and grease.

[00:00:57]$45.

[00:01:00]We are so screwed.

[00:01:02]>> So, did anybody ever once think like, if the gas keeps going up the way it is, how the [ __ ] are we going to make it to work? And then the [ __ ] bosses still have the audacity to ask if you're still [ __ ] coming in to work. Don't even offer you no gas money. Don't even give you no gas card. Don't give you [ __ ] I don't really think I understand. Like a lot of businesses and companies are going to lose so many [ __ ] employees because they can't afford to pay for [ __ ] gas to get the [ __ ] work.

[00:01:25]Mind you, 80% of people drive at least 20 to 30 minutes to [ __ ] work there and [ __ ] back. So just like really think about that [ __ ] Like the gas is going up higher and higher every [ __ ] day. We really living in a big recession. Real [ __ ] The wildest part about watching this isn't the raw frustration in their voices. It's that almost everyone watching this is just nodding their head in agreement. You have one guy showing you that a basic bare minimum meal of homemade burgers and fries costs $50.

[00:01:55]50 bucks for ground beef and potatoes.

[00:01:58]And then the next guy is talking about working 70 hours a week, 15 hours a day, and he can barely afford the gas to get to the job that is actively draining his life away. Think about the psychological toll of that. We aren't talking about people wanting luxury cars or designer clothes. We're talking about everyday regular people who can't afford to eat and drive to work at the same time. And the generational contrast he made is what really hurts. A generation ago, a forklift driver or a guy with one standard job could buy 50 acres of land, support a stay-at-home spouse, raise multiple kids, and take vacations.

[00:02:33]Today, if you are single and have no kids, working yourself into the ground, you are still just one bad week away from financial ruin. The baseline cost of existing is a joke and we are being forced to choose between being deeply unhappy at work or completely broke.

[00:02:50]Let's watch the rest. This economy is absolutely [ __ ] jacked up, bro. I work I'm working like 70 hours a week, working 15 hours a day, [ __ ] And I can barely afford to [ __ ] eat.

[00:03:02]Barely afford anything. Barely afford to put gas in my beat up ass [ __ ] car.

[00:03:05]It's like [ __ ] 20 years old.

[00:03:09]Meanwhile, I'm thinking back, man. It's like, man, I remember my dad, he worked a [ __ ] forklift job. Okay, that's not even a a trade. He's a forklift driver.

[00:03:18]And he had a stay-at-home wife, three kids, three vehicles, a camper, went on multiple vacations a year. Okay. We had always had food in the house. We never went hungry. I don't ever remember struggling that much. Like maybe here and there to be like, "Hey, turn the lights off. We're going to try to save electricity." That's it. That's [ __ ] it.

[00:03:38]And then here I am sitting here just straight up just struggling with got I got got to work 15 hours a day otherwise you know I can't pay my [ __ ] bills. I am single. I don't have kids. I don't have a wife. None of that [ __ ] That that's that that that boat has sailed for me. That boat has sailed for me.

[00:03:56]And the way it is right now, there's no way I could afford that. Ain't no way. I know some people are doing it right now, but they are [ __ ] pinching it. They are pinching it. And um I don't know, man. And I and don't even get me started on my grandparents. Don't even [ __ ] get me started. He had one job, gravy job, and he had a stay at home wife, two kids, like 50 [ __ ] acres of land. You know what I'm saying? 50 acres of land, tractors, fourwheers, all kinds of stuff. Cool. Lawn equipment and [ __ ] We're cooked. We are so [ __ ] cooked.

[00:04:29]You know what I realized after going through absolute hell last year with everything that was happening with my with my old car with my license being suspended multiple times for just the most stupidest stuff and multiple tickets having to pay fees and tickets and reinstatement fees and going just just hell. One of the things that I realized is that after when I actually looked at the things that they were charging me for and the things that were on my list of fees and [ __ ] that needed to be paid, the government, they don't need the money. They don't they don't need the money. They need you to need the money. They need me to need the money. They need us to need them to need the money. Like I was watching the age disclosure series that's kind of been going on with by casting over Brown.

[00:05:18]He's expressing like how he's he's going through this um bank levy from the on IRS. You know how they're taking his his his freezing up his accounts and taking all his money. And the thing is they do that kind of stuff and they don't need the money. They don't need to levy your account. They don't need to freeze up you. They don't need to garnish your wages. They don't need anything. What they need is for you to be in fight orflight mode. They need you to be desperate. They need you to be a servant. They need you to be in constant panic in fight orflight mode so that you can go out here and work, work, work, work, work like a crazy person. Never have peace of mind. Never be able to really truly own who you are and own your own life. Because as long as you're in desperation mode, you're always going to be you're always going to be out here searching looking for something else to do. You're always going to be distracted. Cuz the thing is, money is actually not even real. It's just numbers on the screen. It's just pieces of paper that we give value to. We make we make the value. The value is us. The value is in our attention. The value is in our energy. We are the value. We are the money, not the numbers that are on the screen. Not the but see we're we're forced into this system from the time that we're born. it literally just indoctrinated to continue the same cycle and it's making everybody miserable and the pressure is getting more and more and more because they they're they do stuff like this on purpose where they put you in these positions where you're desperate, you need more money, you don't have enough, they jack up the prices on everything, they stagnate the wages, they put they do things like this on purpose to keep us stressed, depressed, and over and really just generally speaking just continuing to work as their slaves.

[00:07:10]>> This is genuinely the worst economy to hate your job in. Like every day I want to quit, but every day I'm reminded if I do quit, I won't even be able to afford milk. Like at this point, it feels safer to just stay unhappy than to be unemployed.

[00:07:26]We've never lived in times like this.

[00:07:27]>> One conspiracy I have that I would love for somebody to prove me wrong is that I really believe that going to the grocery store has become just as expensive as eating out every single night. Because that used to be the message. Oh, you got to save money. You got to go to the grocery store. Have you been to the grocery store? As soon as you walk in there, you've spent $87. There is no savings to be had. And I really feel like they've designed it this way.

[00:07:48]They've intentionally designed it so that there's no cheap option. And I know what you're thinking. Oh, that sounds conspiratorial, Mike. Well, who's they?

[00:07:54]Who's they? I don't know. Whatever faceless demons run this society, I have no clue who is they. But what I do know is that it's pretty much the same when you think about it. Yeah. If you can spend $40 in a night getting a meal for you and your whatever your family or your loved one, that's basically the same as going to the store, getting just the ingredients alone are going to be $40. And then all the groceries you're walking out of there, spending $100 for basically nothing versus just putting a little thing into your little thing and you order something. And I know what people are going to say, oh, you got to be disciplined. You got a meal plan.

[00:08:28]Yes, but at the same time, if you apply that same discipline to like finding discounts online on your little apps, it's you can find deals the same way that you can find deals in the grocery store. And then you factor in that if you go to the grocery store, you then also have to put in all the effort of actually making the food. And who the hell wants to do that? Probably a lot of people, but not me. I'd rather just pay a little person to just show up on their little bike and give me the food. And I know that this is probably what the tech oligarchs want, but what are you going to do? Can we have an honest conversation?

[00:08:59]What the hell is really going on right now? I am at a point in my life. What I'm 32 going on 33 this year. I'm at a point where I have my career. I'm making lifechanging money. Like if this was me back in 2018, my god. But anyway, that's not the point. I made great money, but it doesn't feel like it. And I'm so confused. Like, this economy is so trash. And I don't want to hear anybody talking about, "Oh, you're living above your means or you're not saving."

[00:09:36]Saving.

[00:09:38]Jesus Christ. Like, gas is almost $5 a gallon. Getting fruit at the grocery store is like $8. What did I see for $8 the other day? Was it grapes? It was something. And I was just like, I ain't never I just feel like y'all not mad enough.

[00:09:56]Like I feel like I am being ripped off.

[00:10:02]Like I'm unmarried. I don't have kids.

[00:10:06]So of course any there's no benefit to that. We don't get any tax breaks. We don't get we don't get nothing. America hates single people without kids. Let's just say that. But seriously, something has got to give. Like, I am so tired.

[00:10:24]I'm tired of this.

[00:10:27]How are y'all doing it? I feel like no matter how much money you make, we all just trying to survive right now.

[00:10:36]Yeah. Like, let's let that sink in for a second because right there is the absolute core of what we are all feeling. The last two speakers hit the nail right on the head. We are being trapped in a system that is intentionally designed to keep us in a constant state of survival mode, running on the financial hamster wheel until we burn out. When you have people making what used to be considered life-changing money, and they walk into a grocery store and feel like they're being robbed just trying to buy fruit, that isn't a personal budgeting failure. That is structural corporate greed. And I love how he called out the absolute scam of the grocery store right now. It used to be a badge of financial honor to say, "Oh, I don't eat out. I cook at home to save money." Now, you walk into a supermarket, grab three items, and you're out 87 bucks. They've systematically eliminated the cheap options. They jack up the prices. They stagnate the wages. And then out of touch billionaires have the audacity to look at us through a screen and say, "We just don't have enough discipline."

[00:11:36]Look, they want us stressed. They want us desperate. And they want us distracted. So, we keep blaming ourselves instead of looking at the people screwing us over so they can buy a small yacht to add to their big yacht.

[00:11:48]This is completely messed up. We don't have to sit here and take it.