Hi
@moorookamickTo a very large extent, reduced wages can be compensated by personal decisions on lifestyle, to still leave reasonable spending power, and in many instances improved health.
I don’t follow this slavishly myself, but I do move in this direction ...
- Do not buy excessive quantities of processed (corporatised) food
- Do not buy excessive amounts of pre-prepared (corporatised) food
- Do buy decent amounts of fruit, vegetable and staples like rice and pasta
- Do buy sensible amounts of cheaper proteins (eggs, dairy, red meats on special, chicken and seafood on special
- Do cook / prepare a high portion of home meals, with planned leftovers for subsequent meals
- Do not make meats the hero of most dishes, but rather the ingredient to bring vegetables to life (eg a savoury mince can contain 60% or more of vegetables and still be savoury mince for tacos, lasagna, cottage pie etc)
- Do not buy numerous daily cafe coffees
- Do not smoke
Followed rigorously a family could save $200-300 or more per week and an individual could save $100-150 or more per week.
The savings can be spent in other areas of the economy. There is a lot of now conditioned spending that in fact discretionary.
It was good enough as recently as 1-2 generations ago.
Just saying.
Dex