56% of Americans can't afford a $1,000 emergency expense: We are 'living in a paycheck-to-paycheck nation,' money expert says
56% of Americans can't afford a $1,000 emergency expense: We are 'living in a paycheck-to-paycheck nation,' money expert says
The current economic environment is ideal for shopping around for high-yield savings products and building your emergency savings.
That's by design. It's the natural end result of trying to maximize exploitation.
Yay Capitalism!
"By design" and "natural end result" aren't the same thing, but it's a little from both columns anyways
Fair enough
Aka wage slavery.
If you can't afford to miss a paycheck, you can't afford to say no to your boss.
And if you can't afford to miss a paycheck, you don't have time to prep a resume, go out for interviews, or other activities that would allow you to find a new job.
How does this compare to typical? Haven't Americans generally had a significant portion of the population living paycheck to paycheck?
This number has been steadily increasing over time. It was 30% in the 90s, 40% in the 2000s. Then with the ‘08 recession and onslaught of shit since then, it spiked up into the 60s for a while around ‘21. I am surprised it’s back down into the 50s again, but maybe that speaks to just how little $1k can buy you after the exploitative price gouging of the past few years.
We’re fucked. But Lonnie can still buy a company and run it into the ground, so the system works!
Milk is over $6 USD a gallon here in Miami. Not your whole-foods-grass-fed-hormone-free-kind-cow milk, regular ass store brand we-dont-give-a-fuck-about-cows milk. >6 bucks.
I'm not fucking using printer ink for cereal ... WTF?
I pay $3.50 at Safeway in San Francisco. According to this https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/milk-prices-adjusted-for-inflation/ it's generally cheaper than it has been except for the last few years.
Yeah, it says in the article you venerate consumerism
With a percentage that high I can imagine there is a good chunk of people who don't really need to live pay to pay.
When I was young I spent every dollar on partying and no matter how much I made I found a way to spend it.
and when I finally decided to save I went all in on cutting expenses, the vast vast majority of people never interrogate their expenses.
the vast vast majority of people never interrogate their expenses.
Source: the Association for Rectally Sourced Estimates
While most people can cut out some expenses, they should not have to in order to be able to afford a decent lifestyle with productivity at the highest point in history.
I agree, but we live under the system that we live under.
Me and my friends are broke. We all live in similar places with similar rents, but the differences are that they make a moderate bit more than I do, and that I spend around $700/month on healthcare because fuck this system.
I'm very, very, very slowly saving money. They are all food insecure. One spends hundreds on amazon clothes every pay day, then can't afford groceries for at least a few days before their next check. Another only eats takeout for every meal, and inevitably runs out the day before they get paid. The last one spends it all going to the club once a week.
Otherwise our lifestyles are very similar, but each has convinced themselves their habit isn't very expensive and they wouldn't save much if they stopped, and yet they should have more money than me and just...don't.
You can take that opinion and put it right back in your ass. We're done blaming the employees for not getting paid enough to keep up with inflation their bosses created.
When were you in your 20s? Times change.