This is pre-emptive, but someone may have already responded to the "can't afford to live" part. I wanted to examine those numbers.

I know "when I got my first job I made XXX" but let's look at the simple numbers.

$42k. Take off a quarter for taxes, insurance, and TRS. That leaves about 31.5k. Round up to 32. Divide 32 by 12 and that's about 2660 a month. Take-home pay.

Say someone got out of school with minimal student loans - say $10k a year for their four years. And before you say "that's ridiculously expensive" and "they should have worked through school" that *is* the "worked through school" number. A fifteen-hour credit load at (randomly chosen) Sam Houston State is $5517 per semester, before you include lab fees, textbooks, and housing. So, this $10k/year assumes they make up the rest of their housing, tuition, books, and living expenses through grants, scholarship, and savings.

Using the Student Loan Repayment Calculator here to repay $40k, you're paying $418 a month.

If someone has a car that's paid off, they're lucky - so let's assume said fictional person is fortunate, but pays their own insurance. Low-ball that to $100 a month for comp/collsision and uninsured motorist. (Remember, they're under 25, so their rates are higher than yours!)

Cell phone bill - $70. Have to have a phone in this day and age. And with a data plan, this is about what that costs.

The average monthly electric bill in Texas is about $120 a month. Let's say they're significantly under that at $90 due to having a great, energy efficient living situation and not using much power.

Gas, water, trash, etc all will depend upon their housing. So let's look at housing. An average monthly rent in west Texas is about $1000 for a one bedroom apartment. "Get a roommate!" They don't KNOW anyone out there yet. This is someone right out of college. Would you prefer that someone move in with a total stranger in a brand new town? "Buy a house!" They have zero savings for a down payment, and very little credit history. There are no houses available for this person.

Assuming an apartment, water is usually paid, as is wastewater and trash, but gas is up to the resident. Maybe $25 a month for all that if they aren't lucky.

So.

$1000 Rent
$418 Student Loans
$100 Car Insurance
$70 Cell Phone
$90 Electricity
$25 Misc Bills

Notice that this is NO cable TV, NO in-home internet, NO car payment. This person's paying $1703 a month just on subsistence bills out of their $2660 a month, leaving them $957 a month to pay for gas to get to work, car repairs, food, clothing, medical expenses, and everything else. And somewhere in there, they're supposed to start contributing to a separate retirement account too.

And notice that at EVERY opportunity, I took the chance to low-ball the actual cost. I don't know many people who graduate with only $40k in debt these days. I don't know many people whose cars are paid off right out of college unless said car is a beater that's requiring hundreds of dollars annually in maintenance.

See why people complain about salaries being too low? And you can "I made it work" all you want - the world is MUCH different today than it was five years ago, ten years ago, or twenty years ago. This fictional person ALSO has no social life, never leaves their house, doesn't tithe to a church, and exists solely to work. See why no one wants to work in this situation yet?