No, 60% of Americans aren't "living paycheck to paycheck". \ stacker news ~econ

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Key takeaways:

Don't fall for 5 popular myths about economics
No, 60% of Americans are not "living paycheck to paycheck". It's a bad metric because it includes people who waste all their money on consumerism and people who save/invest all their income
No, this doesn't mean there are no people who suffer. It means it's a bad metric

328 sats \ 5 replies \ @SimpleStacker 2 Dec

Yeah, it's a big myth. Another big myth is that most Americans can't come up with $400 cash in an emergency. That myth came from a survey where people were asked "how would you finance a $400 emergency" and most people said "credit card".

Well, I'd put it on the credit card too, but I'd just pay off the credit card every month.

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan 2 Dec

That's just prudent behavior in a fiat system...don't keep cash, and carry expenses on credit card

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @028559d218 3 Dec

I'd have to put it on a credit card too I guess because I don't have 400$ cash

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 3 Dec

Do you have $400 in a checking account? usually when people say cash they also mean money in checking and savings accounts.

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @028559d218 3 Dec

Nope not usually. I can pay about 400k Sats though? I guess I just have to wait until most businesses accept them

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @SpaceHodler 3 Dec

I'd be angry if I did. I make it a point to never have more than £100 of that toxic fiat caca beyond what I need to pay my bills.

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @south_korea_ln 2 Dec

So here is a list of five other common myths that I hear a lot of people repeat:

“Exercise doesn’t make you lose weight”

“Pay and productivity have diverged”

“America’s education system is lagging the rest of the world”

“Japan doesn’t allow immigration”

“America spends more on defense than the next ten countries combined”

I'm curious now about the other five myths he lists. But not enough to sign up to be able to read them though...

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @tomlaies OP 3 Dec

Good one.

42 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 2 Dec

The claim that “60% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck” comes from a survey by the fintech company LendingClub. The company refuses to release its survey methodology, but we can get a general idea from its website, which says: “For those Americans, [living paycheck to paycheck] means that they need their next paycheck to cover their monthly financial outflows.” So what LendingClub is probably claiming is that around 60% of Americans don’t have enough cash in their bank accounts to live off of for one month.

But LendingClub’s survey is probably just flat-out wrong about this. The Federal Reserve does a very careful annual survey called the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, or SHED.1 This survey asks whether people have a “rainy-day fund” sufficient to cover at least three months of expenses. And it pretty consistently finds that over half of Americans do have such a fund. This is from the Fed’s 2024

Why wouldn’t LendingClub make the finding about 60% of the people living paycheck-to-paycheck? That is their business: lending to cash strapped people at probably predatory interest rates. When the Federal Reserve, whom I am not totally trusting for data, gives out with a completely different picture, one has to wonder which is putting out the BS. In this case asking, “Cui bono?” Is a really good way to sort the crap.

11 sats \ 1 reply \ @tomlaies OP 2 Dec

It's a business with heavy incentives to publish bad data that helps their business instead of the traditional credit card/loan/mortgage landscape. Which is true, the credit cards, loans, mortgages fiat landscape fucking sucks. But their incentives are aligned with creating bad data.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 2 Dec

Yes, that is the exact reason for all the sh*tty data and erroneous assumptions and crappy policies flying around in society. I can understand that incentives have been misaligned for an awful long time because of THEM and the other banksters.

20 sats \ 9 replies \ @Satosora 2 Dec

Im sure people have credit cards to make it by. But you have to realize, americans dont really save money well. They didnt learn these values in their education, unless it was done at home.

21 sats \ 8 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 2 Dec

Credit cards are the same as the government borrowing money to pay the current bills, in other words, the budget deficit. The only difference is the credit company is the Federal Reserve, who prints money out of thin air, along with its minions the banks and banksters. Sooner or later it all has to be paid back, unless there is a default (bankruptcy) by the consumer or state.

20 sats \ 7 replies \ @Satosora 2 Dec

Can the US default?

44 sats \ 6 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 2 Dec

Yes, indeed it can. It has defaulted at least thrice before, 1871, 1933 and 1972 or 3 by Nixon. The state may have defaulted around 1812, which may have been a major cause of that invasion. Thanks to the Russians, we were able to do something about the British, then.

30 sats \ 1 reply \ @Satosora 2 Dec

I see. It hasnt happen in my lifetime, yet.

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 2 Dec

No, you don’t see. It is happening before your very eyes, right now!! You have to wake up to the fact that FRN fiat is going to zero. That is a default.

21 sats \ 3 replies \ @cryotosensei 2 Dec

What happened to the debt after the default?

24 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 2 Dec

The debt goes to zero and the collateral gets scooped up by the creditors.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei 3 Dec

Thanks for the education

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 3 Dec

You’re welcome.

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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan 2 Dec

Nice takedown

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 2 Dec

Depends on how you look at it I suppose. I would guess that at least 60% are in debt. Doesn't that mean they have less than zero dollars? I don't think most people pay off their cards every month. That seems like a problem.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @LowK3y19 2 Dec

My parents can’t save a dollar to save their lives