1y ago

56% of Americans can't afford a $1,000 emergency expense: We are 'living in a paycheck-to-paycheck nation,' money expert says

www.cnbc.com

United States | News & Politics @lemmy.ml

☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆ @lemmy.ml

1y ago

56% of Americans can't afford a $1,000 emergency expense: We are 'living in a paycheck-to-paycheck nation,' money expert says

www.cnbc.com /2024/03/19/why-now-is-a-smart-time-to-build-emergency-savings.html

43 comments

Ok let's poll Lemmy. Upvote me if you can. Downvote me if you can't. I can so I'll keep my own upvote.
- Can’t see downvotes, assume everyone is okay. New article: 190% of people on Lemmy can afford a $1,000 emergency expense
  Edit: 190% was a typo, but leaving it in there
  
  Lemmy attracts wealthy intelligent people.
- Is the poll for americans only?
  
  I would assume since that is what the article is about. Idk
- Depends. I have enough in savings to cover the cost, sure, but there's only enough in savings because I've been transferring about 25% of my paycheck to savings for the past 2 years in order to afford a wedding/honeymoon. So I'd just be pushing myself into a larger credit debt after the bills come due for the wedding services.
  
  Wedding/honeymoon, what a fucking waste of money you've been suffering for the past two years to throw away all that hard-earned income on a one-week transitory moment 🤦‍♀️
Yea that's how the 1% wanted it to be, they got it.
- "We did it boys! Maximum efficiency! We extract literally every dollar possible from the peons! They have nothing left when we're done!"
Ah, I was wondering what dystopia felt like. Now I know I'm living in one
- You ain’t seen nothing yet
- We live in a cross-dystopia
this is an excellent time to introduce the idea that The Purpose Of A System Is What It Does. Not what it claims to do. Not what it tries but fails to do. What it does. You can be confident that every system is operating as-designed, doubly so when the "failures" of the system benefit the designers.
We live in a society where it's advisable for everyone to carry tampons, whether female or male, just in case of a gunshot wound ☹️
- A good 30% of us should be wearing ballistics vests outdoors with the current shooting rates
  
  Sadly I agree ☹️
  Still, I got the nuts to literally pull the barrel to my head and dare them to do it.
  They think twice when I do that, and I'm still here.
We’re fucked. But Lonnie can still buy a company and run it into the ground, so the system works!
What's so frustrating is watching people online ridicule the perception that we're not doing great collectively as a nation. If the bottom falls out and the 56% get wrecked financially the other 44% are going to feel it. And having anxiety about that is perfectly understandable.
- The other 43% will feel it, the 1% will profit enormously when they pick up their assets for pennies on the dollar
I wonder if said money expert had the balls to explain why nobody saves money in the US. He touched on it just a little. He mentioned we are implored to spend. Not implored. Incentivized.
Every time a politician gets on TV and says we have to "stimulate the economy", what he means is he has to incentivize you to blow your paycheck the minute you get it. This is done by increasing the rate at which your money loses purchasing power. Then, when it's time for reelection, he will inevitably mention the fact that Americans can't afford a $1000 emergency expense. Wages need to go up! It's not the wage rate that makes us poor. It's the debasement rate of the currency. The debasement rate is a mechanism of wealth redistribution. Wealth is transferred using the cantillion effect from the poor to the rich.
- Money printer goes brrr
Wait, don't worry! The economy is doing great. Whew. Disaster averted!
Trickle down economics to the rescue. Phew!
America didn't get rid of slavery, they changed it to wage-slavery.
Answers by survey... I'm not sure exactly how much I trust those results in either direction.

43 comments