The American Dream? 2 Jobs = $10,080 /yr

My education: Bachelor of Science, Multidisciplinary Science. 3.7 cumulative G.P.A.

I've been looking for a "real" job for years now.

But as it is today, during the day I work at a healthcare clinic as a lab assistant doing blood and urine work. It pays $9.00 an hour. Evenings I work delivering pizza. I average about $10.00 an hour with tips. Total weekly hours are around 50.

I'll round both jobs to $10 an hour. This comes to $500 per week.

Now, about 22% is taken out in social security and income taxes. I'm at $390 per week now.

I had to borrow money to pay for school. It kept getting more expensive as I went on, and my income just wasn't enough to live on, much less pay for school on top of it. Even so, I had to take breaks from school for as much as a year at a time so that I could save up money to pay for another semester. A couple times I went into default (for not starting payback even though I hadn't finished my degree yet.) So the penalties and fees kept adding up, so now I have a studen loan payment of $730 per month. Divide by 4, that equals about $180 per week taken out.

So I'm at $210 per week as take-home income. This is $840 per month. Multiply by 12 to find yearly take home... and you get $10,080. This is what I live on.


I played the game the "right" way. I got into a good school. I worked through college. I had to borrow to make ends meet, but it was "ok" because with a scientific degree my income should be plenty to pay back loans. I work two jobs now... pay my taxes like I'm supposed to. Every couple weeks I go on an explosion of putting out new resumes and applications anywhere I can think of within driving distance of home. I haven't found anything that I could call a career yet...

No equity. A ten year old car. Some clothes. My computer. 60k in debt. That's what my life has come to and I'm seeing no way out.

And all I can say is that I'm "Living the American Dream."

With sarcasm.

What a shame.. I can only think this is the way certain very powerful people want it. Breaking news my friend.. The American Dream is dead (unless you grow pot in states that have dispensaries). I went to school for 5 years also... Work as a server till things turn around. I make over 15$ a hour take home most nights it is easier then delivering pizza and safer.

That's why they call it the American "Dream", because you have to be asleep to believe it.

I'm in a similar boat except no college degree. I was afraid to get into too much debt.

reply to post by 30_seconds



Welcome to the new normal. I used to make about 40k a year as a skilled tradesman, but with the flood of illegals and wallstreet,congress,banksters destroying the housing market I will be lucky to make 12k this year.

My advice is get out of the USA if you are still young and can make a go of it elsewhere. This country is only going to go further down.

I am getting too old to leave, but I tell the younger folks its time to start voting with your feet, since voting at the ballot box is a rigged game and does nothing.

I came to the same conclusion after finishing my bachelors degree. I actually make my money based on 2 associates degrees and 25 years related experience. Point being, bachelors degrees don't always pay off. Good luck on the search. You do realize that you may have to leave the country, right?

reply to post by sixneuproele


Nice quote! I love that line... Cause really, you do need to be asleep to believe it.

Just like Gerald Celente says, A degree in worthlessness.

The taxes gotta stop, about 25% of your money goes right to taxes youll probably never benefit from, it only further funds the undeclared/illegal wars, and to also take away our freedoms and rights... And you have no say in it

Wow, and I thought I was in over my head getting into a third of that debt while I earn an associates in web programming...not sure if I will pursue that bachelors. Good luck friend, you are not in this grind alone.

reply to post by 30_seconds


Kind of makes you think you should have taken the money you used for your education and started your own business. A college degree doesn't guarantee you a good paying job. When I graduated from college during the 80's recession, I was working a few dollars just above minimum wage just like you. During that time, I worked two jobs, did freelance work, went to a technical school to educate myself in CAD, and both my wife and I had to live with her parents until we could get on our feet. It took even more schooling to finally land a decent paying job at age 35! My daughter's in the same boat and she just graduated in December. Try making contacts where you work, and let everybody you meet know you're looking for work. Sometime word of mouth is the best way to help you find a good job. I always told my daughter, finding a job is one of the hardest things to do in life. You have to market yourself and sell yourself. Good Luck to you, and keep your head up! Job offers come in the most unlikely places!

The American Dream was never about getting a job and working for the man, it was about being the man! The Pilgrims did not sail on the Mayflower across the Atlantic Ocean because they heard that there were some really good jobs over there in the New World. The expansion Westward was not made by a bunch of people looking for really good jobs.

If one has no greater ambition than to find a job and work for someone else, this is fine, but it is foolish to believe that the path to wealth and prosperity can be found through employment.

Further, most states tend to statutorily define "employee" which only exacerbates the problem of being an employee. Technically speaking every person should have the right to contract as they see fit without any undue government interference. The reality is that in today's so called "free market" - which has all the characteristics of a closed system - if one chooses to be an employee, most employers will coerce prospective employees into filling out government contracts such as a Form W-4 which is also known as an Employee Withholding Authorization Certificate. Now think about that! A withholding authorization certificate. However, employers will coerce an employee by insisting that they must fill out such a certificate by law. How is it an "authorization certificate" if people are being coerced into signing this authorization?

The blame lies squarely with the job seekers who willingly acquiesce to this nonsense. When I was growing up my parents always stressed that asking other people how much they make, or what their tax liability was, was a breach of etiquette. It was just bad manners. Today, newspapers and broadcast media regularly make it their business to report peoples earnings as if it is a matter of public record, and apparently very few people take issue with this bad form.

Try this, the next time an employer demands you fill out an "Employee Withholding Authorization Certificate" agree to do so on the condition that the employer will show you their tax returns for the past five years. See how far that gets you. Apparently, it is still none of your business how much your employer pays in taxes, but it is not only their "business" how much you pay in taxes, your employer insists on being "authorized" to act as a fiat tax collector on your behalf, in fact, withholding your so called "tax liability" before you get paid a single dime.

This is the American Dream? Well brother, if that is the American Dream, then somebody please pinch me and wake me up from this nightmare.

DON'T LEAVE YOUR COUNTRY! I call this my country because I have pride in it, not what the government is doing to its own people but what it still stands for in the minds and hearts of most Patriotic Americans.

SOL you're right that the ballot box is not working and we're being subject to more and more rhetoric from the government and treated more and more like serfs. This is not the time to turn tail and run but it is the time to try and institute change that the government can believe in. The country is changing now for the worse because most American's are uneducated about politics and kept with a veil over their head so they don't see the atrocities going on in D.C. and around the country. If you want to make a change you need to get out there and open a business or put the truth in people's faces to the point that they don't have a choice but to realize how epically they are being screwed in the backside. It's not their fault so you can't blame them but if you open their eyes and they still turn cheek then it's ok to blame. If enough people take notice of what's really going on those that have bastardized our system will know that they better shape up or ship out.

This is MY COUNTRY and I'll be damned if I turn tail and run like a coward. I will fight tooth and nail to keep this country in the ideals that it once had. Even if I have to run the damn thing myself or die trying.

Originally posted by HellstormRising


This is MY COUNTRY and I'll be damned if I turn tail and run like a coward. I will fight tooth and nail to keep this country in the ideals that it once had. Even if I have to run the damn thing myself or die trying.

But isnt that how we got over here in the first place? So our ancestors were cowards for not 'sticking" it out and having pride in their former countries?

As far as im concerned it takes extreme bravery to pick up and leave everything you know, and go over the horizon to find something better. That was the spirit this nation was founded under, and unfortunately now a few centuries later we find ourselves in the very intolerable situation that brought us here in the first place.

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


Great post!
I wish I could star it 100 times!

reply to post by 30_seconds

The middle class no longer exists in this country, now we have the filthy rich and the rest of us live paycheck to paycheck. This situation got worse in 2009 with the forecast of financial doom, company's stopped hiring and ran lean resulting in record profits and cash reserves. Everyone was afraid of losing their job and as company's cut costs they demanded more from their people, so we gave it. Now with ridiculous rumors of government shutdowns and rising debt they are are using this crowbar to break the unions once and for all.
Years ago my salary was enough to provide for my family and my wife was a stay at home mom when the kids were little. Today we both work full time and are one major car problem or health issue away from disaster. I half jokingly told my wife yesterday that I needed a part time job to pay for the gas to get to my full time job.
America- Embrace the horror.

reply to post by 30_seconds



its the same in the u.k., after compulsory bills and taxes your lucky to have anything left. people work to not survive these days, they work to keep the debt down as much as possible to keep the repo man away, unless your lucky enough to actually be paid a decent wage. i was lucky i was able to get out of debt, but even though i am out of debt it's still a case of more than half of the income goes out on bills you cannot avoid, and whats left is barely enough to get by on.

the sad part about it all though is there are lots of people who are worse of.

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux



I DO have the ambition to do something on my own, but as the old saying goes "It takes money to make money."

I can't really "save" much when I make less than it takes to live, can I? How do I find the funds to start a business in this situation? I noticed (after some research) that you can't even open a Subway franchise unless your total assets are over $2 million. Why would subway care how much money you have as long as you have enough to open the store?

I wish I could have taken that 40k that I borrowed over those years and just used them to start something I was interested in and felt passionate about. But... the banks don't let you borrow very much when you're 18 years old, unless you do it to go to school.

Thinking about new lands, new continents, and new countries. I wish they still existed. The Europeans who traveled to North America had a place to go.

Where do we go from here?

Originally posted by 30_seconds.

Where do we go from here?

China, India and/or Brazil. Argentina is a self-sufficient nation, so that is a thought.

reply to post by 30_seconds


I hear ya. I went to Purdue, received a double B.A. in History and Political Science with hopes of working for my fantastic government, graduated with a 3.5 and............nada. Never did get into anything with the government not even filling out food stamp apps, nothing. I worked retail throughout college, I worked retail after college, then I opened my own business and my degree hangs on the wall collecting dust because I didn't need it for anything I've done and it wasn't for lack of trying. A few years ago I toyed with idea of going back to get a teaching certificate added onto my degree so I could teach high school, but that was going to quite expensive and didn't make sense compared to how much I would make as a teacher.

"Education" is nothing but fraud. Sadly a victim to the machine. I never went to any college and got a good job. But the job I had was a political hell and also full of frauds. So lose either way.

reply to post by 30_seconds

Where do we go from here?

Venture Capital Funding and Deals rise in 2010

Companies in the U.S. received $26.2 billion in 2,799 venture capital deals, an 11% increase in funds from the year before and a 6% increase in deals, a Dow Jones VentureSource report says.

Angel Investors:

An angel investor or angel (also known as a business angel or informal investor) is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital.

The obstacle is the path, my brother. If the rules are working against you, then change the rules! To hell with banks. Banking institutions are the system. The closed system parading as a "free market". All closed systems tend towards entropy. Rule breakers reverse entropy. Use your ambition, (energy) to propel yourself beyond the obstacles and do what it is you always wanted to do.

Is it easy? Hell no! That's the game, brother. Life ain't easy, but then again things that are easy aren't usually worth having. Do not despair, do not want, keep the faith...the faith in YOU, and do what is necessary to flourish and prosper. It seems to me you are discovering that working for other people is not that path. Change the system. Start your own business and if you are so inclined become an employer where people can flourish and prosper with you.

It is hard. I know. I am struggling now. I do, however, see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I know that the way out is the way through. You will figure it out, and when you do, U2U me, we will get together and have a beer and celebrate accomplishing our moral duty...to flourish and prosper.

I am right there with you. Used to make 50K + a year, (sales) then the crash.. a year and a half on Unemployment I was disgusted going to interview after interview against 400 others and them settling on lesser experience for lesser wages.
I COULD NOT sit at home anymore, Just couldn't, sooooooooooooo.....
Today, Mornings at Starbucks (9.00hr, a pound of coffee a week and benifits) and Property manager in the afternoon (12.00hr) (an 1100 sq ft townhouse, no writing a rent check every month) with almost all my belongings in storage.
So my day usually starts a 3am to the first by 4:30am, off.. run home change, Open rental office by 1pm and off at 6pm.
Yep, I'm living the life! I may not be able to vacation, but I do have a roof, car,(payment) and I wake thankfull every day that I have what I have, My Children, good friends, my health and always a smile for all that I meet!

Edit to add: I believe everything happens for a reason in life.
My son and I have decided to start a seedling business, I will specialize in heirloom veggies and other things that are not available in nurseries, that most people would need to start by seed and just don't want to and would rather by the actual plant. Wish us luck!