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Nearly Half Of America Lives Paycheck-To-Paycheck
While stocks are still near record highs and the inventory-stuffed picture of economic growth for the US ticks up to its fastest pace in 2 years, Time reports that a study (below) by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) shows nearly half of Americans are living in a state of “persistent economic insecurity,” that makes it "difficult to look beyond immediate needs and plan for a more secure future." In other words, too many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck... but their findings get worse.
As Time notes,
The CFED calls these folks “liquid asset poor,” and its report finds that 44% of Americans are living with less than $5,887 in savings for a family of four.
The plight of these folks is compounded by the fact that the recession ravaged many Americans’ credit scores to the point that now 56% percent of us have subprime credit.
That means that if emergencies arise, many Americans are forced to resort to high-interest debt from credit cards or payday loans.
And this financial insecurity isn’t just affected the lower classes. According to the CFED, one-quarter of middle-class households also fall into the category of “liquid asset poor.”
Geographically, most of the economically insecure are clustered in the South and West, with Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Nevada, and Arkansas being the states with the highest percentage of financially insecure.
Full study below:
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FSA... FSA...FSA I couldn't be any happier!
At the grocery store today and noticed price increases again this week. 30 cents here, 50 cents there again. Less discretionary money going forward.
It's a joke the government only reports less than 3% inflation.
with things like food and natural gas for heating, they love to talk about weather and 'shocks' and supply/demand idiosyncrasies of commodities to blame on risin prices, but conveniently forget that those things are paid for with FRNs whose supply has grown exponentially.
And don't forget the new trick: Same package, less product, no price change.
Sneaky fuckers.
Reality though hard to grasp I'm sure for many is that America ain't as competitive as it used to be, by a long ways. The actual value of work gets exposed when there is a real market, and that is what has happened as foreigners under cut wages, which is a sound market phenomenon. Rather than lead the way as Americans once did with their industriousness and innovation, now all that wealth in different ways has been spent, and then some obviously re: the debt and unfunded liab. that dwarfs the debt, and America is more and more just a place where the parasitic class siphons wealth away through the usurious financial system as Americans now use fiat and force to try to get wealth instead of free trade and merit.
It would be totally different had we sound money and no income tax, as even though competition would still emerge, prices would go down and purchasing power strengthens, and Americans would still be competitive.
Getting .025% on my "savings" and paying 400% more for food and fuel does not really make any of us want to get out of bed and grab the bull by the horns and compete with anyone. Let alone the fact they've been fucking the working man now for well over 40 years in wages. Fuck these uber rich C level stock salesmen.
Try no debt and crash the real estate prices. And if your competition survives on a bowl of rice and a bed on the factory floor, how will you compete with that?
Never mind, once the price of oil gets high enough it will again become cheaper to make stuff at home.
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This right here is proof why current and previous economic policies are/have been flawed (at least since Coolidge). But more like since 1913 with the creation of an income tax and the Fed. Through this time the Fed has made everyone (but very rich) poorer; whether through inflation and/or rate manipulation. It was not that long ago that most families only needed one person working, but today that is much more difficult.
I'm currently working on paying down debt and eliminating unnecessary expenses so I have money to save in business and personal. It certainly is harder
Healthcare is not getting any better either...on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart...watch Nancy Pelosi throw Katheleen Sebelius under the bus...
Obamacare "it's not my responsibility ask Sebelius over at HHS, we just work and pass laws here"..
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/nancy-pelosi-on-obamacare-and-web...
It is going to be great for healthcare providers in general for a while, but we will be joining you in hell eventually. We will just be late to the party.
Yup "Healthcare Industry", another bubble yet to pop thanks to:
1) $30 Billion allocated for the HITECH act
2) ACA - $?Trillions?
3) ACA website $1 Billion
4) on and on and on.
Big FUCKING BUBBLE!
This will decimate tech field as well when it goes so a nice "double whammy".
A new investment vehicle is looking for investors in the new "MyG," as in "My Guillotine," program.
This is how it works: You invest your time and money, or even go in on a group project, in building a guillotine. You then hunt down pols, crats and bankster, current or past, and feed them to the guillotine. It's as simple as that.
Now the return comes in the form of much lower taxes, no inflation and the return of productive capital to these shores. The productive capacity and spirit of the American people will be restored and enable you and yours to provide once again for yourselves. You will find that your wealth and happiness will be restored.
And, if you act now, you will receive a bonus of not having people snooping and creating dossiers on you, elimination of possible drone attack, end to sexual violations at the airport and the local gun and badge thugs can no longer beat, torture and kill you and yours with impunity.
Act now, and you'll get the restoration of the Constitution free.
Lets not forget a healthy return for the organs from the black market.
While a testicle will normally run around 30k on the black market, I'm not sure any of our congressmen or senators have much weight or value in that department.
France, 1789:
Callous check. They took the burrocrats out of their offices and looked at their hands. If there were no callouses, it was obvious these guys were not working. If they were not working, we do not need them, so off with their heads.
Some of these posts are sad and unfortunate. But, the worst is yet to come when robotics enters the work force.
Well, when 61 million folks will not be able to work to earn a paycheck, who is there left to buy your product?
A heartless CEO completely automates his factory and lays off almost all of his workers over the objections of his employees.
The Brain Center at Whipple's (15 May 1964)"The Twilight Zone" The Brain Center at Whipple's (original title)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734633/
The W.V. Whipple Manufacturing Co. introduces a new automated manufacturing machine that will eliminate 61,000 jobs and the company's president, Wallace V. Whipple, is quite proud of his achievement. Not everyone agrees with him, especially the loyal and longstanding employees who will be out of work. Foreman Vic Dickerson has plans for the machine - plans that land him in the hospital. When the machine is fully operational, it's Wallace. V. Whipple who learns just what it is he has created.
Intro:
There are many bromides applicable here - too much of a good thing, tiger by the tail, as you sow, shall ye reap. The point is that too often, man becomes clever instead of becoming wise, he becomes inventive but not thoughtful - and sometimes, as in the case of Mr. Whipple, he can create himself right out of existence. Tonight's tale of oddness and obsolescence from the Twilight Zone.
Enlighten me on why I got two down arrows on this one.
I get down arrows too. Cavemen are not in vogue.
Haha very sad! They were very resourceful folks back in the day!
Until interest rates push upwards, and a savings account earns more than 0.25% why would anyone save? It's logical to blow it all, unless your paycheck far exceeds living expenses.
So if this headline suggests Americans are stupid, it would be incorrect. If it's to suggest we're a paycheck away from bankruptcy then yeah duh.
My converted "savings" was lost in an unfortunate boating accident months ago.
I wish I could say the same
the0ther: Even with that shit as crappy as it is, I still save when I can. I have to. All the stuff that's worth buying costs more than a week's disposeable. Shame I never save enough before I have to spend again.
it is only rational to blow it all like theOther describes, if you expect someone else to feed/clothe/house/etc. you if you totally go bust. If you truly believe that you are on your own, then you will rightly feel that having even a small amount of savings (even if it is losing value over time), is infinitely better than having nothing. That is part of the reason that recent immigrants save like crazy; they are not used to the idea tht they won't starve if they lose all income. There is a lot of freedom and dignity in having even a small amount of savings, instead of none; it gives you options.
The other 49% lives in tent cities.
I watched the documentary.
And the other half does not have a paycheck.
I don't get a paycheck. I exist. Therefore I am.
America from '46-'70 (maybe even until the mid-90s or '00) was a time period that won't ever be relocated in human history again. We had no global competition until the 60s and half of the world was closed off until the early 90s. We also burned through all of the cheap oil and extracted all of the easily obtainable commodities. It was a time of no competition and bountiful supplies. There is no going back.
As for today, we are going broke because of trying to fund the voracious global war machine and the transfers payments to the elderly. Both arm the highest forms of economic folly for a society and investing our largest share of economic resources in the elderly is economic suicide. It is a democracy and set up with a voting system that heavily favors the elderly though to vote in dispropriate numbers way out of their demographic share of the overall population.
Combined that with a globally stressed environement that has seen energy extraction get more expensive on a per unit basis, no real uptick in global yields, and hundreds of millions of Asians and South Americans who now want to live on par and consume like their European and American counterparts and you have a recipe for disaster in the 21st century. It is hard not to be pessimistic.
Then again if you look back on human history you will realize just what violent unbelievable savages we are and how we actually have made considerable progress on managing to move away from the kind of killing and on the scale we did before. Also have to take some heart in the fact that seemingly at several points in the 20th century we stood poised to experience global thermonuclear war and only through the good intentions of at times of 1-2 individuals managed to avert it.
Take some solace in trying to find some happiness in the world, realizing that you have it pretty damn good by historical standards (even American ones), and that you don't have much time before you turn into a pile of dust since we live remarkably short lives compared to eons of history and even the most basic physical processes on Earth.
Over 60% of the USA public is dependent upon a monthly US Treasury deposit to live.
The USA is sustainable my ass.
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If not for FREE FIAT being pulled out of uncle-sams ass this fucking nation, would have collapsed back in 1970's.
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My guess is a hell of lot more than 1/2 live paycheck to paycheck, but then its always been this way.
Look at all those lovely red states. Alabama. Mississippi. Then look at Vermont and New Hampshire, Message, bitchez.
I can fix this, what we need is negative interest rates and a good shake up of immigration restrictions.
-ChairSatan Yellen
Of course.
The answer to high unemployment is clearly the allowance of higher immigration. That makes so much sense.
Are you with me on this one, ZH?!
MOAR immigration, right?!
If people saved the economy would collapse. The Fed would drive rates to -5% or more.
I have to say a lot of this is people not knowing how to manage their income. I am amazed at how many people I know who make good money but are deep in debt and live paycheck to paycheck. There are two big bills many people have now that we never used to have; Cellphone and cable tv. That's 300-$400 a month for a lot of people. Get rid of it or cut it back if you can't afford it. Also going out to lunch and dinner gets expensive quick. Look where every dime is going. Do a budget and live by it. Look at every expense and try to think of ways of reducing or eliminating it. Live simplier and more frugally and you will be surprised how little you can really live on. Teach your kids how to do the same.
Nearly half live paycheck-to paycheck: the other half LIVE OFF THEM by getting free stuff from the gov't dole (paid by working taxpayers) with SNAP, subsidized housing, unemployment, "disablity" pmts, etc. etc.
And 0bama and his crony capitalist friends want to add 11 to 20 MILLION illegals to the mix. HOW IN THE HELL DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?
cable absolutely needs to be cut by the vast majority. total money pit.
Why didn't the idiots put $10K into facebook like I did when it was $18? I'm planning on retiring this year and I'm only in my 30s.
Clearly, the American worker needs to work harder, think smarter, run faster...
Right?
Are you with me on this?! The answer to capitalism is MOAR capitalism, right ZH!?
LOL, you muppets will just never learn.