You might have a hard time living in say California on that wage but in parts of rural Europe you could get by comfortably. You definitely could in Michigan.
Seen in that light, $35,000 isn't much.
For the major US pro sports, some or all of their draft is from colleges in order to encourage post-secondary education and leave players with more options after their career. I'm not sure how many pro cyclists do college, but I knew some folks when I went to college who were fairly high amateur and I believe looking to go pro.
Plus federal income, FICA, state income, sales taxes, and Michigan’s famously high car insurance prices? Add on saving for retirement / emergency healthcare expenses.
Doesn’t leave much for a comfortable day to day life, especially if you have or intend to support a family.
Private Insurance is there to prevent you from losing your home or racking up a massive debt, not pay for every single medical expense.
The point is $35k per year gives you no breathing room, and certainly doesn’t quality as comfortable. Even for single young people in great health, they can’t build any wealth and they will lose whatever they do get due to various health/auto/etc issues that come up.
A significant minority of the insured (and close to a majority, in the Bay Area) have HMOs, which are mostly no-deductible.
If they're 22 and married with two kids with their partner not working yes it would be tough. However the average income in Detroit is less than $30,000.
I do think income inequality is a problem, however.
Most of the world has been occupied or has had wars fought on its territory in the past 150 years. Most of the world lives in a country that has a neighboring country of similar heft, and usually much bigger, that interferes with local politics much more than the US has ever had foreign intervention. Most of the world lives in a country which isn't basically an entire continent's worth of resources. Most of the world doesn't live in a country where per capita incomes are among the top 10% in the world and the middle + upper classes are 200+ million strong.
I lived in Africa a couple years as well, and Americans have such a distorted sense of what poverty is. Travel to other places and gain some perspective.
They better do. Professional cycling is a dangerous sport. This year, stage 1 saw a crash of 30-ish riders that broke a rider’s kneecap (he finished the stage, but didn’t start for stage 2), the thigh bone of another (happened so close to the finish line that he would be allowed to start stage 2, but he didn’t), broke a few ribs of and gave a pulmonary contusion to a third rider (he is still in the race, and hopes to contribute to his team’s success in the later stages), gave a fourth one an elbow injury (he hit a spectator taking a photograph. He tried staying in the race for about a week, but eventually retired)
There also already were a few broken collarbones in week 1. Add in a zillion abrasions.