The latest tweets from @CNBCTV18Live. The latest tweets from @cnbcfastmoney. Feb 18, 2021 Twitter is committing to having at least a quarter of its executives be underrepresented minorities and women by 2025. Approximately 13% of Twitter's current leadership employees are Black, Latinx.
Nothing gets people riled up like a peek into other people's budgets.
On Friday, much of Twitter went into an uproar when CNBC shared a mind-boggling pie chart that laid out a monthly budget for a 25-year-old who happens to make $100,000 a year and is 'excellent with money.'
The latest tweets from @JimCRAMER. Get Twitter Inc (TWTR:NYSE) real-time stock quotes, news, price and financial information from CNBC.
The budget breakdown of a 25-year-old who makes $100,000 a year and is excellent with money. via @CNBCMakeIthttps://t.co/GLRCp1rfeypic.twitter.com/FuxRVrYXoH
— CNBC (@CNBC) December 21, 2018
The outrage was instant, with many wondering what 25-year-old makes that much money and how does he or she pay such cheap rent and internet and have the money for $615 a month in donations?
It makes for funny tweets, sure, but the problem is that, in this case, CNBC was talking about one very specific 25-year-old: A Boston-based entrepreneur named Trevor Klee, and those are his real expenses, according to the corresponding story.
SEE ALSO: Someone at Hasbro apparently thought Monopoly for Millennials was a great idea
Klee's salary is so high because he's gone into business for himself, doing tutoring and consulting, and he works long hours. The cheap rent and internet are thanks to Klee living with four roommates. While the grocery expenses seem a bit high — more than the average two-person household in the United States — it's also not too outlandish for a major U.S. city.
But these are all specific to Klee. And good for him! That's pretty darn impressive for a 25-year-old and it's a reflection of his personal success. But it's hardly typical for others his age, and CNBC got tripped up by suggesting Klee's circumstances are obtainable for other 25-year-olds and by presenting the breakdown in their tweet as if it was a more general budget not one belonging to just one specific person.
It's easy to take this kind of tweet as delicious outrage bait and, well, lots of people did. I did. And so did many, many others who probably didn't read the story associated with it.
$40 for a cell phone?!?!?! @ATT is charging me $190 a month so like, WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? $825 for rent? HA. HA. HA. COME ON.
— Akilah Hughes (@AkilahObviously) December 21, 2018
Cnbc Twitter Melvin
this has to be a prank like these are randomly generated numbers right https://t.co/vyP5nw8VuN
— Walter Hickey (@WaltHickey) December 21, 2018
who did you make this for? 3 people?
— Rogue WH Snr Advisor (@RogueSNRadvisor) December 21, 2018
In order to satisfy the Twitter gods, each day a media company must offer a sacrificial tweet that is ceremonially torn apart by Americans. Today's rage offering is courtesy of CNBC. https://t.co/bbuNsWQYel
— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) December 21, 2018
$20 for Internet
$30 for house cleaning
$615 for donations
CNBC: pic.twitter.com/Yk9urbhDxk
— LJ Cholmondeley-Featherstonehaugh (@splendourella) December 21, 2018
The average 25-year-old makes just under $30k a year, fyi. If you're 25 and you make 100k a year, you're in the 95th percentile. https://t.co/Oeov6Mz0oI
Cnbc Squawk Box Twitter
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) December 21, 2018
It's true few 25-year-olds (or workers of any age, really) could afford to set aside $615 per month for donations, totaling nearly $7,500 a year. But, again, it comes down to this being one specific person whose circumstances (high salary, no student loan debt thanks to likely support from family) don't match that of a large amount of his peers.
So, in the end, we've only spun ourselves into another cycle of Twitter outrage that escalates until no one can hear anything for all the shouting in the echo chamber. Happy holidays.