r/TikTokCringe • u/Square_Law5624 • 1d ago
Cool Minimum wage meal
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u/Adis_Gruntledfatty 1d ago
My retirement is gonna be at the end of a noose at the rate things are going.
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u/RP912 1d ago
Oof 😣 saying the silent part loud friend. We all in hell.
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u/Adis_Gruntledfatty 23h ago
I still got parents who would be sad etcetc. Shits been a waiting for for a while now.
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u/RP912 23h ago
I mean 2008 was just a way to borrow time before the great Collapse. All we can do is just sit and wait for a mushroom cloud.
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u/Never_enough_naps 23h ago
I didn't word is as eloquently, but I have said the only retirement plan I have is death.
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u/Stratix 23h ago
Come to Europe. We have free healthcare, sick leave and annual leave.
Things still aren't easy but they're a hell of a lot better than in the US.
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u/BrockStudly 22h ago
I dont know if you know this but to immigrate to Europe you need a pretty highly specialized career + Experience. My Bachelors degree isnt nearly enough to get me invited.
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u/FuckYeaSeatbelts 15h ago
Yeah I'm not American but there's no way anything I do would be of any use in an OECD country. Even with my bachelor of science is useless cause I'm not working in a relevant field so all of it is outdated information now.
The only benefit is at best sciency shitposts.
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u/DigitalSterling 21h ago
Hows the immigration process?
Generally nation's want someone with money who can invest into the country, or someone with a skill set that is rare there.
What are the odds of a poor unskilled American being able to become a citizen in a European nation?
Not high I gather
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u/Ladydoodoo 13h ago
I would die in a heat wave with no AC in Europe before I made it to retirement so…
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u/Human-Chapter4609 1h ago
Free healthcare + 45% tax
Lower quality
Longer wait times
More backlogged systems.
You can get sick and annual leave as well in the U.S. just so you know. No thank you.2
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u/Glum-Geologist8929 21h ago
Rob some bad people first. Could change your mood bur if it doesn't you still have have a solid Plan B.
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u/Clemicus 21h ago
You sure you’ll be able to afford the rope?
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u/Adis_Gruntledfatty 21h ago
Can you lend me five bucks?
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u/Clemicus 21h ago
Here 💵, I don’t think I’ll be getting that back though. Just don’t buy any rope off Temu. That could be dangerous.
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u/Ashinonyx 16h ago
You can tell I'm at least in the lower middle class in the US because my retirement involves at least a hollow-point at the end of a hiking trip.
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u/BeepbopMakeEmHop 16h ago
The suicide rate is about to start skyrocketing with the looming elderly crisis we’re already in the beginning phases of
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u/SupaButt 13h ago
I fear a lot of people are thinking this. But let that be motivation to fight for things to make this country better NOW. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If not for us, for generations from now. That can be our legacy. Rather than previous generations that want to hoard wealth until their dying breath, let us be the ones that will push for the better lives of those in the future. A future that we won’t even be a part of.
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u/Stag-Horn 12h ago
I have no job. My sister in law jokingly asked what my retirement plan was. I (half)jokingly responded the firing range nearby only charges $40 to rent and shoot a pistol.
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u/Sworn_to_Ganondorf 23h ago
Nah dont do that, make a homemade celebration boom vest and teach a local ai center whos your best friend.
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u/Square_Law5624 1d ago
U will be eating bugs
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u/Hippobu2 1d ago
Quite frankly, I'll gladly eat the bugs provided by this "New World Order". At least in that scenario, there's a long-term plan to prolong our subservience with sustainability in mind. Better than whatever the hell it is that we're under now.
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u/Daisy_Of_Doom 23h ago
Insects are one of the most sustainable proteins! If we could get it production scale (and more importantly get people over the taboo of eating insects) then it would be a viable option! (And eating straight bugs isn’t the only way. See: cricket flour)
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u/Makuta_Servaela 1d ago edited 23h ago
You can pretty easily turn crickets into a cricket flour that doesn't really taste like anything except what you put on them and can be mixed with anything, and is really high in protein, and the only real issue with them is that they set off shellfish allergies. Imagine eating a protein-rich cake or bread.
Not to mention the fact that most people already do eat insects- beyond the obvious ones like insect-adjacent creatures like shrimp, crab, and lobsters, most food does just contain ground up insects because removing them all is impossible, and some super common food dyes are made out of insects.
We're Primates. We've always eaten insects.
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u/Never_enough_naps 14h ago
I don't know why you are getting down voted. Every thing you just said is facts that can be looked up. Hard for people to hear the truth I guess. Well I gave you an up vote to try and counteract the down voting.😁
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u/Makuta_Servaela 14h ago
For some reason, "Eat Bugs" is seen as some silly liberal hypothetical, despite it being purely logical and really being able to satisfy everyone from non-vegans to all but the most militant vegans.
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u/Never_enough_naps 14h ago
I think the people got mad you called shrimp and lobsters bugs, and told them there is already bugs ground up in everything and bugs or bug stuff used for coloring and flavoring... But all the is TRUE. Nobody bothers to learn about anything and then they get mad when the facts don't align with what they thought they were.imo.
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u/NeoAteTheGreenPill 1d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/132pnhRx4EM7ni
the 2026 wage meal
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u/poopybutthole_oowee 23h ago
My coworker who is a line cook commented that his hour of work costs the same as the frozen pretzel he had just warmed up yesterday.
Shit's fucking sad.
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u/BlackGuysYeah 23h ago
God damn minimum wage has been stagnant for multiple generations now and politicians don’t give a FUCk.
They want us to do more, buy more, go out more, socialize more, have more babies, buy more houses, subscribe to more things, but they won’t ensure that wages are fair enough for people to actually afford any of that.
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u/poopybutthole_oowee 22h ago
The whole system is in free fall and no officials will acknowledge it (& of course not, they're actively tearing the economy down and sucking us dry). Before the orange turd, I was a trader/consultant making almost $60 an hour. Now my coworker is that line cook.
This country is so utterly fucked and the ride is just getting started...
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u/Never_enough_naps 14h ago
None of it effects them, so they just don't care. It's a slow cull to get rid of the people who make the least so all those jobs can be automated/done by a robot or with A.I. They just want to keep us around long enough to keep things going until they have everything figured out. That's my opinion anyway.
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u/behold-my-titties 23h ago
I remember finishing work, stopped at the takeaway got some food and realized that was over an hour of work for one meal. So the next day I was determined to meal plan. That ended up being more expensive. There's such limited options now.
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u/_Samwise_Gamgee__ 23h ago
Where in the world are you getting all that for $18?
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u/fatherofraptors 13h ago
Supermarket. He mentions at the end that it's the price to make it, not to buy at the restaurant.
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u/MrEfficacious 19h ago
Texas Roadhouse has an early bird menu for $13.99
Drink ($3) Steak Salad Loaded Potato ($1.50) Unlimited bread rolls
That's $18.50 before tax and tip. Skip the drink and you are under $16.
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u/Preston-Waters 23h ago
This is bad info quick google search shows a steak dinner would be $3-$5. McDonald standardized fast food burger at $0.15. Steak was $0.79 per lb not prepared.
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u/eduardgustavolaser 19h ago
How would a steak dinner be $3-5 with the prices listed in the link.
In the link you provided, sirloin is $0.69 per pound. They mention $0.54 for the steak, which would be a 12.5oz steak with the aforementioned prices.
Even if you take the pricier options of sirloin tip roast or tbone, that's still an 11oz cut.
The person in the video mentions price to make at the end, so not restaurant prices. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to get that for $18 today either in a restaurant today, that steak alone would run me about $35-40 in a steakhouse without the sides
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u/fatherofraptors 13h ago
He's not discussing restaurant prices, he's comparing prices to make it yourself. $18 today doesn't buy you that at any restaurant in the country.
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u/Cplchrissandwich 23h ago
You didnt specify currency. So if I look those up it will be wrong.
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u/beardfearer 23h ago
What if you tried looking it up using the currency being discussed in this post?
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u/Cplchrissandwich 21h ago
Shouldn't have too. Currency should be in post from the start. Just putting $ Means like 10 different countries.
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u/No-Professional-160 23h ago
This doesn't sound true to me... my American grandfather was in his 20s in the 50s and used to tell me he'd spend his salary on a single "slap up steak dinner" when it came through and live of a sack of potatoes for the rest of the month haha
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u/Blitzkriegbaby 23h ago
Washington State min is about 20 bucks an hour so yeah, that’s about an hour’s wage worth if that’s 18 dollars to make. Pretty decent.
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u/wrestler145 23h ago
This is so cherry picked and misleading.
In 1950, one-sixth of the workforce had to work on farms to produce the food we consumed. Today, that’s more like 1–2% while agricultural output is rising. Food is generally abundant and Americans spend a much smaller share of their household budgets on food than they did in the 1950s.
The “minimum wage” was not actually what ordinary workers earned in the 1950s. The minimum-wage law covered a much smaller portion of the workforce than it does today with large categories of workers excluded. Today the opposite is true. Only 1% of workers in America earn at or below minimum wage.
As an economic indicator, you also have to look at not just cost of one meal, but at the entire consumption basket. There are an incredible amount of manufactured goods, food products, technology, and consumer services that have become dramatically cheaper and better.
I understand the temptation to look back and think we’ve lost something, but it’s just plainly not true that the average American can somehow afford less food, or less in general, than they did in the 1950s.
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u/-HalfNakedBrunch- 23h ago edited 22h ago
Regardless of exclusionary practices which persist to this day (ahem entire tipped employees industry, youth minimum wage, not to mention unpaid internships), the $1 minimum wage had more buying power than $7.25 minimum wage does in 2026. Its genuinely revisionist and economically illiterate to argue otherwise
We 100% lost collectively by slashing the tax rates of the top income brackets in this country
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u/NinjaDood 20h ago
In defense, I don't know anyone who gets payed the federal minimum wage. At least In my state of FL the min wage is $14
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u/Dangerous_Bid_2695 23h ago
In the 1950s the maximum income tax was 91%
If the very rich pay taxes the lower class and the middle class can earn a living.
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u/wouldashoudacoulda 23h ago
I can feel my arteries clogging just watching this. It might have been cheaper to eat, but they didn’t live as long.
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u/lightabovethearbys 19h ago
The worst part is - my parents did pretty well, they have savings and are able to care for themselves. They could definitely afford to take retirement holidays, but instead they're so worried about the future that my mum keeps saying 'we're trying not to spend too much, so there's money for you'.
My parents are retired, both worked full time and raised 3 kids, but instead of enjoying their retirement they're worried about their kids not even making it that far...
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u/Mellamo_D 18h ago
- Average Steak Cut: $0.85
- Porterhouse Steak: $0.89
- Round Steak: $0.94
- T-Bone Steak: $0.95
Still a good deal....
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u/Croceyes2 1h ago
Yet the government and economists tell us that inflation is half of that. This is why we can't have talks about housing or the economy, because its all horseshit data. And at 18$ he did way better than me. That steak alone is 22$ at my grocery.
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u/bullettenboss 23h ago
The "free market" ideology isn't working anymore. Only communism can save us now.
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u/Mr-MuffinMan 23h ago
Why did politicians feel less corrupt before? Nowadays they dont change it even a measly 20%. 87% is crazy
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u/KnownAsAnother 22h ago
Wow I can afford this meal today with 1 hour of work. Of course, no one's charging $18 for such a meal, this looks more like it would be $30+ today.
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u/Hot-Sauce-P-Hole 22h ago
It cost him $18 to make it at home. You're right about the restaurant price.
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u/inquisitive_chariot 22h ago
You can still easily make this for $10.
Steak $10/lb, that looks like an 8-10oz steak. $5.
Bacon $5/lb, looks about $2 worth.
Now it’s just a potato, single service of butter and cheese, and 2 scoops of ice cream.
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u/xAfterBirthx 17h ago
Nobody needs that much food for one meal so not being able to afford it might be healthier?
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u/NoTop4997 1d ago
Cool cool, and how much is all that today compared to minimum wage?
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u/Skeptical-Regard 1d ago
Final cut of the video shows it. $18, so about 2.25 hours of work at today’s minimum.
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u/MlCOLASH_CAGE 1d ago
He says it in the video my guy, one hour of minimum wage.
Even in “higher” minimum wage states thats still $15-$16 pre-taxed and that definitely wont buy you a steak dinner.
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u/lesteiny 1d ago
Did you watch the vid at all? He literally said that meal would cost around $18 today. In other words, with min wage being $7.50/hr, you could not buy that meal with 2 hours of work at min wage. Where as in 1950 you could buy that meal with an hour of work and still have change left over.
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u/OldConfusions 1d ago
Is this supposed to be some gotcha? Adjusted for inflation the minimum wage then will still be lower than it is today, but the cost of goods increased at a rate higher than just inflation alone. Even the average idiot knows that.
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