Both those variables (cost of living and income) are far from fixed. Cost of living can be reduced by removing unnecessary expenses or selecting cheaper options while income can be increased by working more or improving oneself.
But you need to want to have those savings. Most of the people I know living day to day spend beyond their means (like buying the BMW instead of the reliable Honda) or waste their time watching tv, drinking with friends or getting high.
There's a lot of traps when you're living pay check to pay check and suggesting people cut more ignores that there are solid floors on how cheaply you can live and minimum wage is below or just barely above that in a lot of places. Traps include not being able to buy bulk cheap items because they cost more than you can afford or not being able to buy longer lasting items because they cost more than you can save.
Consider just transportation for a minute. The options are fairly simple; walk, bike, public transit or a car. [0] The first two take a while and are very weather dependent so if you live in some parts of the country they're not really options year round and even where they are they take time out of other activities like childcare and cooking (and cooking is one place you can save money but doing so often takes time the one or two shitty low wage jobs don't give you). Public transit is a mess in the US outside of a few cities. For cars cheap means older and by extension more maintenance costs from regular break downs, buying a slightly better more reliable but more expensive car is difficult because you always need a car and the one you have keeps breaking down or other things you similarly had to buy a cheaper but less resilient version of keeps breaking.
[0] For where I live those would take 3.25 hrs, 50 minutes, ~1.5 hr, and 20 minutes respectively.
Of course there are 'floors' to prices. Of course there are regional differences in cost of living. Of course. Of course. But that's not the argument here. Are you really trying to argue that in America it is not possible to live below your means? Really? Really really?
I mean... There are billions of dollars in remittances being sent by immigrants (of all income levels) working legally and illegally back to their families in their home countries. How are immigrants able to save? And yes, it should be an obvious statement that people, even poor people, in poor countries, find ways to save as well.
> waste their time watching tv, drinking with friends or getting high.
How much time per week would you find acceptable to spend on these activities? I refuse to believe that number is "0 hours", that would be an inhuman (without an 'e') expectation.
Time to decompress is super important, and frankly, it is the very essence of living. It is not at all a waste of time - it's their time anyways, who are you to judge? To anyone reading this: The attitude displayed above is toxic and actively harmful. Please ignore what they've said; you can be successful AND drink with friends or get high, even a lot.
Balance is important, but you are not obliged to work on self-improvement at all times (or at ANY TIME - full stop). This insinuation smacks of victim blaming and a superiority complex. The concept that you're 'wasting time' by spending it enjoying yourself is absolutely absurd, insidious, offensive, and IMO just plain mean.
Nobody argued for zero fun-you-time in your life. Just watch the balance and keep your income higher than your expenses so you have some damn saving put aside just in case.
You're making a lot of assumptions in that statement and spinning a hypothetical story in your head that does not match reality.
There are ways to live below your means in America. You may need social assistance if you're in hard times (and that's OK, that's what it's there for), but there is. If you say otherwise, you're just making things up.
I said this in another post, but I can guarantee you that even in places like North Korea, people are squirreling away the little they have, just as my grandmother did. It's possible to save even under poverty and/or extreme situations. And America isn't North Korea.
I think many people with jobs let alone those on social assistance, are below the poverty line, because their incomes do not afford the basic essentials.
I’m in Canada, where I think the social safety net is slightly better than America, and I personally live this existence, it’s not a hypothetical for me that I spend over 50% of my income on a studio apartment.
If the cost of living is equal or greater than your income, saving is impossible.