BrooksBearLives said:
Bruce Leroy said:
BrooksBearLives said:
Bruce Leroy said:
BrooksBearLives said:
One hundred and forty million poor and low-income people in America are a $400 emergency away from not being able to pay their bills next month. That's 43.5% of the population in the world's richest nation.
43.5% of the country is a $400 medical bill away from being in some sort of default.
This isn't theoretical.
After 10 years of growth, this is where we are. And y'all are saying that's fine?
As always with you, you poorly site your source and "cherry pick" data or quotes to make a point.
I assume that your numbers are based on articles related to a dated version of a Federal Reserve Report on the Economic Well-Being of US Households.
Per the latest report from May 2019.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2018-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201905.pdf
"When asked about their finances, 75 percent of adults say they are either doing okay or living comfortably. This result in 2018 is similar to 2017 and is 12 percentage points higher than 2013. "
"Dealing with Unexpected Expenses
"While self-reported ability to handle unexpected expenses has improved substantially since the survey began in 2013, a sizeable share of adults nonetheless say that they would have some difficulty with a modest unexpected expense.
If faced with an unexpected expense of $400, 61 percent of adults say they would cover it with cash, savings, or a credit card paid off at the next statement a modest improvement from the prior year. Similar to the prior year, 27 percent would borrow or sell something to pay for the expense, and 12 percent would not be able to cover the expense at all. "
Also to note the statistics are based of a total of 11,440 completed responses.
Interesting that you don't consider it "theoretical" to apply a self-reported survey of 11,440+ to the entire US population to determine your estimate of the number of people in America that are close to default.
Lol, actually, it was a study from 2018. Glad to see things have improved MARGINALLY (from 43% -40%)
I think it's adorable that you think you know something about statistics. 11,000 responses is incredibly strong. Especially given the metrics and sampling data.
I get that you're just a dude who obviously doesn't work much in research (from your positions, that's clear) but this is solid data. Almost half the country couldn't handle a $400 expense without going into debt or defaulting. That's quite literally the point the OP was making. Some people are doing amazing in this economy.
Most of that benefit is going to a few.
I never professed to having any particular knowledge of statistics and find your deduction of my background interesting.
Because you omitted my point for context (as normal with you) my quote was" self-reported survey of 11,440+".
As I am limited in my knowledge are self reporting surveys incredibly stronger than exit polling data?
To illustrate your logic in this discussion.
"Glad to see things have improved MARGINALLY (from 43% -40%)."
"Most of that benefit is going to a few."
US Population x 3% = +9,600,000 situation has improved. (Compared to OP: The Real Economy isn't Booming)
A self-reported poll with that N is pretty great, from my understanding. You can have a non-self-reported poll of 1,000 and not be as accurate.
And it's weird that you missed the point. ALMOST HALF THE COUNTRY CAN'T AFFORD A $400 UNEXPECTED EXPENSE. 9 million more can in the last two years of a supposedly booming economy and historically low unemployment.
But almost HALF still can't. That's insanely wild. Can you really say this is the best economy ever when, even after 10 years of growth, half of the country could be forced into some sort of ruin by an expected car repair?
These kinds of numbers are really annoying.
You can't afford a $400 bill, but you and your spouse each have a $700 iPhone??
I have been in those situations before, and it isn't as dire as you make it out to be. Most people (sadly) do not save anything. Instead, they go into debt to get a more expensive car, house, phone, clothes, vacation.... etc
The vast majority of working Americans have over $1,000 worth of items which they can sell for that unexpected $400 bill. What they are saying is that there current burn rate doesn't allow for an extra $400 of expenses. If you look into their actual spending vs. income... there is more than enough there, but it would require some hard choices. You would have us all believe that almost half of the country is working, and they don't eat out, don't buy expensive clothes, don't have smart phones, don't buy expensive cars, don't go on any vacations, don't go to movies, don't buy ear buds, don't own jewelry, don't own electronics, don't own much of anything.... and after ALL of that thrifty living... they still have no savings and cannot afford an unexpected $400 bill??? That's total BS. If that were true, then Amazon and Best Buy would be bankrupt from a lack of customers. FYI, Best Buy reported better than expected sales increases last year and the year before that. They also reported a better Q1 than the Q1 the year before. The overall revenue for Q1 was up, even though the international revenue was lower... the stronger domestic sales more than made up the difference.
So people are flocking to Best Buy to buy crap that they don't need... but they can't afford a $400 bill.
In reality, people are responding to a question, and realizing that they are spending everything they have, rather than saving for a rainy day.