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Welcome To The Recovery: 40% of Americans Live Paycheck To Paycheck (Up From 30% In 2012)
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Nothing screams economic recovery like 2 out of every 5 Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Especially when that number has reportedly increased by 33% since 2012.
Perhaps someone should inform these destitute plebs that the stock market is up nearly 45% over the past two years, and after all, nothing says economic success like the 0.01% enriching themselves via fraud and financial engineering.
Here are two of the most sobering findings from the survery:
- 40 percent of the consumers we surveyed said they are coping with the challenge of living paycheck to paycheck, up from 31 percent in 2012.
- Today just 23 percent say they are optimistic about the economy, down from 27 percent at the beginning of the recession in 2009.
If that’s not enough for you, check out these additional excerpts from the summary:
The slow start to the holiday shopping season underlines the findings of McKinsey’s latest Consumer Sentiment Survey. Every six to twelve months since August 2008, we have asked a representative sample of at least 1,000 Americans about their views on the economy and their own financial future, and how these opinions are shaping their buying decisions. The result is a unique data set that tracks how attitudes and behaviors have changed over the past six years. In addition, we have completed nine surveys outside the U.S., giving our data a global perspective.
Here are the salient findings from this year’s survey:
Our report in September 2012 showed that things were looking up for most Americans. Many aspects of consumer sentiment indicated marked improvement. Yet from there, things have either plateaued or gotten worse. Consumers are still worried about losing their jobs (39 percent in 2014), and 40 percent of the consumers we surveyed said they are coping with the challenge of living paycheck to paycheck, up from 31 percent in 2012.
The significant economic pressure that families earning less than $75,000 a year feel has caused many of them to make spending adjustments in order to make ends meet. Roughly 40 percent of these households say they are making changes, including cutting back and delaying purchases, as compared to 22 percent of those in households earning at least $150,000 a year. Americans at all income levels have yet to return to their pre-recession positive feelings about the country’s economy. Today just 23 percent say they are optimistic about the economy, down from 27 percent at the beginning of the recession in 2009.
While the number of consumers cutting back on spending has stabilized, Americans are still pinching pennies. Decreasing purchases of high-end brands and doing more one-stop shopping to reduce the number of trips are just as popular as they were last year, with 40 percent of consumers saying they have cut their spending over the past 12 months. An even bigger proportion of Americans (55 percent) say they continue to look for ways to save money, including paying more attention to prices, using coupons more often, shopping around to get the best deals, and buying more items in bulk.
Multiple years of austerity have left consumers with altered views about spending. Almost 40 percent say they will probably never go back to their pre-recession approach to buying. Twenty-nine percent say they now have new attitudes and values about spending, a figure that’s up from 17 percent in 2010. Another 24 percent claim that their opposition to increased spending is due to a change in their economic situation.
With recoveries like these, who needs recessions.
For more recent articles documenting the so-called “recovery,” which in reality has been little more than theft by a handful of families and connected players, read:
Welcome to the Recovery Part 2 – Washington D.C.’s Homeless Population Expected to Rise 16% in 2014
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And another 59% live every other paycheck to every other paycheck. In America, everyone is one little accident away from being on the streets. That is likely true world over in this day and age.
This is obviously a good thing because it is a sign our system is operating close to maximum efficiency. If only we could get it down to living day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute.
Makes me think of an ant colony.
"Take This Job & Shove It"
~ Johnny Paycheck
I live paycheck to paycheck. I keep losing any extra money I have in unfortunate boating accidents.
I'm able to save about 10% of what I earn each year, mainly because I drive a 10 year old, long ago paid for truck(1 year left on the wife's). Although most of what I save doesn't show up in any kind of savings account.
I live paycheck to paycheck...bills are all paid, and I spend each paycheck buying anything that can't be printed.
Some examples of good places to spend money:
http://www.emedals.com/
http://www.coinace.com/
http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/
http://www.peterfiner.com/current-stock/
http://jamesdjulia.com/
http://www.amoskeagauction.com/index.html
Yeah, I know, stock-up on this, stock-up on that...the end is nigh. WTF is the point? Has anyone ever really considered 'what kind of world we'll be living in', if some of these doomers are right?
So, boys and girls, my advice:
Prep a little. Broaden your knowledge, and be aware of SHTF, but don't let it rule your life. Don't spend every waking minute of your time worrying about what the doomers say - truth is, most of them are wrong more often than they're right.
They only have to be right once.
Why the hell should anyone make extra money? That's why we have welfare, soc security and all the rest.
This survey needs to be merged with NSA data and shared with employers. If you are NOT living paycheck to paycheck, your employer needs to cut your wages and/or hire an illegal to replace you. Stop being a damn leech and support the 1% getting richer. /s
Yes friends we've truly reached the golden age. That paycheck we need to live on till the next? It's buying power drops every month too thanks to inflation in necessities for living, doing business and home ownership, with deflation in wages, net worth, employment/ advancement opportunities, and benefits from any form of savings.
It makes more sense for many Americans to go full Feudal: work as a servant in exchange for room, board, uniforms and safety. Then you're sheltered from eroding buying power since you don't need to buy necessities anymore. And who knows? After a few years of loyal service you may get a little extra for supporting those in power
Where do I sign up?
New Feudal Employment Agency listings:
-Emir of Qatar looking for new eunuchs to guard harem
-Chinese billionaire needs stable boy to show off to other Chinese billionaires
-Russian oligarch needs gardener for gourmet mini veggies
-Many postings for job as chauffeur, body guard, valet, personal secretary and really personal secretary
Id like the Harem Guard job please, the American Court system has proven to me that nuts, especially white ones are overrated.
Sign up?
HOW ABOUT, MAN UP!
No richie rich is ever going to give back anything. History proves we must take it by force.
Gee, that explains the miltary/police state they keep building. All to keep as many of us as poor and afraid as possible.
Poor and afraid... FUCK that. Man up. Talk is cheap.
I say hit the streets. It is the only thing that works.
You're already signed up. Congrats...
Yes Caviar,
' the (bear) necessities of life Won't come to you. '
NOT YOU
"Reggie, we're almost at Full Soviet!"
Wonderful, Munchkins, I'm so happy it does not apply to us!"
Exactly! The whole point of this exercise is to eliminate savings, keep as close to 100% of cash in circulation. No savings means you are 100% dependent on the status quo, and the state is your only backstop. Don't rock the boat or you could be on your ass. Building the perfect dependency trap.
Is about cash flow. Desperately trying to keep velocity up. And failing every step of the way. We are caught between the absurd and abuse.
Middle class is being wiped out. Got a house: pay up. Got a car: pay up. Etc. Dont like it - how 'bout the "pay up" gets into your sales taxes, fees, permits, etc.? Taken out of your paycheck? Put into your mandatory insurances (or penalties)? Hmmm....
Don't sweat though. Is all about "balance." Push here. Pull there. Like a Jenga puzzle, except that the feedback is a little better - room for correction (damage control). Just relax. It will happen over time. Comfortably numb. Right?
What to do once you realise this? I'm a young man, I need to know!
The main problem for youth, is that experience is truely the best teacher.
That's only because they don't have a bank account. Everything ok here, its a reporting artefact.
"our system" and "efficiency" is an oxymoron.
Paycheck? So, Americans are living large… Most of the world doesn’t get a pay check.
Because they are free living off their free markets.
Just-in-time income.
They live paycheck to paycheck? At least they HAVE a job! I'd LOVE the chance to just 'live paycheck to paycheck!'
-Americanus Uneployedous.
Its like learning to swim. You know the water is cold and deep and you could drown, but once you're in and keeping head above water the fear subsides a bit, especially when looking around and seeing all your friends and neighbors. This is what we see with falling back on government dependency. We are fearful but once in, you adapt and it becomes the new normal. Of course there is the chance that as the waters become more crowded and others are clamoring over your shoulders to get a bit more air, you may find your head pushed under water. Once they have enough of us in the pool is when things will get ugly.
Dont worry, .gov is here to help!
RafterManFMJ
So, don't worry; that makes you experienced, because you are one step ahead of us, soon in joining you.
Paycheck to paycheck
is the same as:
Goverment check to Government check
and is the same as
Prison.
+1 SK. We are all set up. Just one good fucking away from busted.
Paycheck? Never heard of it
It's something they give members of the Public Service. It's kind of like an EBT card, except you have to pretend to work for it.
I've pointed out to my kids that having some assets empowers them.
My son recently bailed from his job due to 'bossus arseholis'
He worked hard and saved enough to be OK for 6 months.
Paycheque to paycheque is a leash around your neck.
Yes well - that´s socialism for you. I have given you the clue many times by now that I grew up in a socialist country and what I now recognize in the U.S. is that you are repeating the socialist experiment full throttle.Obamacare and all. But it seems totally impossible for you to comprehend that this is what socialism looks like.In real life. Those that defend this can call themselves liberals all they want - but this is socialism.
"If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program but in reality is a method to consolidate and control the wealth - then the seeming paradox of rich and superrich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all"
As Gary Allen noted.
So we have now arrived at a situation where we find the likes of Mike Bloomberg , George Soros and Warren Buffett being very supportive of current policies. And of the socialist-in-chief.
Isn´t it strange that a small group of people called John Birchers and percieved as kooks had the best understanding of what was going to happen? Wall St will not go away - it will just be a socialistic venture where Joe Schmoe wil not be able to afford to play.
If you like your destitution, well that's just too damn bad because we want it all.
Meanwhile, assholes like Jonathan Gruber reel in millions through their fraudulence.
Well today, Gruber got crucified in public by Mike Turner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwja8Ff6DDo
so what he still has the money - im sure you would be "crucified" for $10 million
Not only that, but Obamacare ain't goin' anywhere anytime soon. The public humiliations of frauds like Gruber are far, far too rare a pleasure given the abject lack of ability among the so-called elite. That's really the only reason I posted the link.
A good line of BS, OPM (Other People's Money) and influential connections do carry a lot of the dead-weight: I love watching these fuckers attempt to justify themselves, let alone their very existance.
He could give a shit. He has all the loot he scored off this fake-ass health care BS.
The dual passport holder needs to see only the inside of a prison cell for 20 years.
He and the rest of his Termite brothers are tearing this country apart.
i don't understand people who complain about dual passport holders.
it's dumb not to have 2+ passports.
if you only have 1, you are a slave of the country whose passport you have - look what happened to snowden when the ussa revoked his.
diversify your passports, more important than diversifying your portfolio.
@stacking: good point about having more than one passport, especially if you are a citizen of a state that does not serve in your interest.
But irrelevent.
His point is that many of us who do have a stake in this land, this country are getting ass-raped and subjected to all kinds of twisted buggery by shits who don't give fuck-all about our interests let alone the very well-being of ourselves and our loved-ones. I believe that he's refering to the dualies that act far worse than parasites and scavangers-- because for parasites and scavangers their habbits are those of need, rather than appitite.
These dualies are not respectful guests or travellers, but opportunistic scum who'd steal the pennies from a dead-mans eyes.
That said, this contry's become their Spring Break paradise, and if this were a scene from "Jaws" I'd be rooting for the shark.
That and he 'earned' about 50x what a median American earns in a lifetime of work for a few months of 'work'.
It pays to be a member of the right tribe.
Two down, three to go. Then our turn to the Dark Side will be complete.
Seriously, I'd hate to be in the middle class nowadays with a target on my back. Oh, wait....
Paycheck to paycheck? That ought to make the community organizer in chief angry...still far too much opulence out there!
Conspiracy Fact: UN reports confirm Israel aiding ‘rebels’, Al-Qaeda groups fighting in Syria
fuck you goddamned repetitive retard
go ream your arse and beat your head against the wall...
repeatedly
USA. USA USA
Boo SA. Boo SA Boo SA
USA. USA USA Boo SA. Boo SA Boo SA
You can say that again.
You can say that again.
Say what?
Say what?
Let me mention the quality of the electorate again.
The quality of the electorate again.
there is ALWAYS a bullmarket somewhere.....
let me think....
corruption & oligarchs
i guess, since there is no university degree in such.... i guess i just ought to go into politics....
oh wait.... pHD in EKONOMICS.... !
time to dust-off the books
Ima get me one a them pee atch dees I keep hearin about. Then I kin be ekonmist too!
ZWO protocol #16
Keep the masses in poverty and perpetual labor
You nailed it. Many pulling the strings know that people who are constantly focusing on making ends meet have little energy to put towards getting ahead. It's a day-to-day cycle of striving to stay afloat. People are too exhausted at the end of the day to care much about the "bigger picture".
maybe they should follow CNBC's advise and "BUY THE DIPS!"
death to the MoneyChangers.
endgame will be baskets full of heads .
Looks like 40% of Americans should be donning their "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts.
99% are having their life-blood sucked out of them.
Time for some wooden stakes.
That 1 trillion dollar bill on hold must be the unlocking stage to release higher EBT card advancements, and a Presidential vacation with all the porch monkey children on a taxpaxer dime.
This story is a lie. CNBC says everything is great.
Yeah, so does the Bloomberg media brand. Why is everyone here on ZH so gloomy? Look at that stawk market!
I can't watch CNBC anymore, just can't.
"nothing says economic success like the 0.01% enriching themselves via fraud and financial engineering."
But, but, you make it sound so...well...so...wrong.?
What happend to the green shoots from 2009?
That was mold.
not to be confused with lichen
which is a symbiosis
of mold and fungus
Is there a term for symbiosis between criminal bankers and criminal politicians?
Why yes... yes there is:
Tyranny
Thank you - saved me from brain strain.
I'd likely have got there eventually, just couldn't come up with it at the time
"This is clearly a sign of economic optimism, as consumers are so certain they will get that next paycheck that they blow the one the just got asap!"
- Govt Economist -
I think the fundamental change is near complete and lil Barry is the dictator with no clothes. Sad he hates the military because he would look soooo perfect in a uniform sporting a cigar. El Presidente Choom
Give the guy a break! He still has a couple of more years, and you can bet he wouldn't hesitate to wear it if he knew he could murder anyone who laughed. The image would be priceless however, reminding me of Michael Dukakis's little helmeted head poking out of the tank turret.
The image that comes to my mind is a little closer to Willie Horton.
Where Obama has failed the most: as a model for wannabe yuppies. That was his role. He was supposed to make a new generation of Merikans want to buy more SUVs and McMansions, curved screen TVs and 3D goggles, more fancy suits and dresses and teenie fashions for the girls even if you don't have daughters.
It was supposed to be a golden age! Why was the promised future taken away?
His agenda was the same as most others holding power...to make people want what they can't have and be willing to destroy to get it. He can't do it by his self.
ouch
the truth hurts..
Obama couldnt mintain his vacation lifestyle on hs own salary. Wokie doent have a currnt liscense to practice law and neither oes Dear Leader.
If dang near half the people are living paycheck to paycheck and apparently paying it out as soon as they get it, that means that the Velocity of Money can't be much faster as it changes hands, as soon as people get it. Instead we see the velocity of money chart on the FRED site dropping like a stone since 07. This anomaly could only be explained by the money being hoovered up from the economy and has being gathered up and sitting in the bigger and bigger piles somewhere.
The money is gone and the people lost. The people with it are laughing nervously for fear that they could end up in the same place as everyone else with a worthless pile of nothing and the remaining 60 percent looking over their sholder at the edge.
Yep this will end well..
But, but, but... the Dems told me that Barry's stimulus saved us from the worst recession since the Great Depression and the economy under the almighty Obama has recovered and unemplyment is only 5.8% and *insert the usual Dem talking points here to continue*...
Don't believe your lying eyes just listen to what we say. The kool-aid doesn't taste funny and the water in the pot isn't warming up.
I am thinking 40% is the "official" number and that the real number is 60%.
at least. My wif's sister lives in in northern Va. Her hubby makes over $120,000 and she is a teacher. With three kids, two in college, they live paycheck to paycheck.
All I can say is thank Gog for those Obamacare subsidies.
which reduce the amount of federal income tax you pay which increases the deficit which devalues the currency rapidly toward $0.00.
.
As long as Obomber has millions to spend on golf trips there will be no hope or change
i have friends that if you doubled their pay overnight they would still live paycheck to paycheck because no matter how much they get they spend it all. i am surrounded by retards.
yeppers.
I see people with good salaries workking paycheck to paycheck because they want to live beyond their means. Emulate what they see on media.
Pretending to be what they aren't.
All you richie rich 100k+ per year-ers... living in white-topias earning bangin salaries. I look up to you guys. I remember being where you are, at least vaguely.
LOL
Now I'm like the kid in the 6th Sense movie: I see poor people. Because I am one of them.
Evidently the well off in this country just can't see them. They're everywhere you don't want to be.
<<--- hears Deliverance style banjo music playing down in the holler.
I have a coworker who was complaining about the cost of new cars, and how she lives paycheck to paycheck and things are tough blah blah blah. Of course, she HAD to have the Acura instead of the Honda...
We must be neighbors.
Are we talking about the 1% or the 1/100th of 1%? Why do we keep changing the math?
RE:Perhaps someone should inform these destitute plebs that the stock market is up nearly 45% over the past two years, and after all, nothing says economic success like the 0.01% enriching themselves via fraud and financial engineering.
It doesn't really matter. The smaller the fraction, the more proportional benefit of the financial engineering.
"If you want to keep living paycheck to paycheck, you can keep living paycheck to pay check."
I'm here to tell you that if people are content living paycheck to paycheck, or worse, on welfare or other govt. stipend, we, as a nation, are screwed, but, we, as individuals, share a duty to survive, prosper and exceed the demands of daily life, shake off the chains that bind us and lead by example to a better future, outside the realm of the status quo and ruling elite.
IOW: Buy gold and silver. Barter. Escape.
3/4ths of Americans with a job make less than $50k per year.
But they're evidently invisible to people who make enough to be comfortable, politicians, government workers, health care workers, higher ed workers and any other protected monopoly.
The rest of us have to compete.
When the end comes for the protected monopolies there's gonna be a lot of $100k+ ers wondering why their 'skillset' only pays $30k in the real world.
Welcome to the future, bitchez.
Who is John Galt.
It is much higher than 40%..Obama must have done this poll.
I thought 40% was the norm even way back...
Combine this and those with less than $1000 in savings and you got trouble...
On top of all of this, and pay attention here, Wall Street is trying to play on the budget deal to keep the government open and tag on a bill that would reverse Dodd Frank..Balls!!!
We can go right back on the hook to bail Wall Street out for derivatives now..
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/wall-street-seeks-to-tuck-dodd-fr...
Now read this from Bloomberg...he's back to his old self and sounds just like Bob Rubin and Larry Summers now...Dodd Frank rules are stupid he says.
http://nypost.com/2014/11/11/bloomberg-says-dodd-frank-regulations-are-s...
Keep this up and we won't have to worry about paycheck to paycheck as there won't be one.
This guy's a fool. The majority of Americans have ALWAYS lived paycheck to paycheck. That is why we need constant credit expansion and more and more debt just to stay even. It will never end. 'Austerity' equals total collapse; people start saving, it is all over. The masses have to be encouraged to spend and to live their lives blissfully in debt. It is the New Normal and it was the old Normal too. The bankers stay wealthy and the masses are happy with their I-Phones, HDTVs, SUVs, McMansions and debts. Everything they have, all their ‘possessions’ define them; makes them feel good about themselves. The ads agencies spend billions to convince the lemmings they deserve a new car and the payments are so “affordable”. It has to be this way...the slightest weakness and they have to expand debt creation. That is why they just lowered Fannie and Freddie loans to 3% down. They know it will all fall apart, but they are ready to go with more bank bailouts when needed. There is NO other way.. Loan forgiveness is ready to go too, when needed.
The alternative is riots in the streets, 50% unemployment, whole neighborhoods boarded up. DEBT is ALL we have folks and the Fed bankers will print trillions $ more to keep the party going and prevent the final collapse. Bears will feel more pain.
I'd like to point out that most people living paycheck to paycheck do so on purpose. Before you click the down arrow, hear me out. People have a tendency to raise their standard of living above their income level....no matter what the income level. Very few people practice living within or under their means.
I'd also like to point out that this country was built by people living paycheck to paycheck (or crop season to crop season) with ZERO financial safety net.
I feel for anyone going through hard times....I really do. I'm just sick of woe-is-me articles like this that really don't have a point, other than to teach people the woe-is-me attitude, which is one step away from calling for socialist policies.
with 40% living paycheck to paycheck, and 50% with no paycheck at all, things don't look too rosy now do they?
i actually could save but end up spending my spare change...
i mean the other day i ordered a kerosene lantern..
don't need it but wanted it because it was made in germany
i go out of my way to buy things not made in China....don't get me wrong
i luv china for its kung fu
but don't like their manufacturing sector...
November Unemployment Rates: 5.8% (U.3), 11.4% (U.6), 23.0% (ShadowStats). Job earnings quality has declined in new jobs formed and the big spenders in many places are seniors on Social Security and fixed income small pensions who just got enough of a SS COLA to buy an extra can of cat food. (No I WON"T share!) Still, seniors are among the few who save or prep.
The American and world economy is in uncharted water and weird crosscurrents are clouding our economic future. Last quarter America's GDP came in at a strong 3.5% but the fact that a 10% jump in federal spending, mostly on Pentagon hardware bolstered growth and was very much behind the numbers.
This "pre-election" spending was the biggest increase in federal spending since 2009 when the Obama administration put in place a huge economic stimulus package. Mix in an upbeat November number concerning job creation, falling oil prices and ever higher stock market prices and new record highs and many people have the impression we are on a roll. The article below delves into some of the many crosscurrents at work that could bring the economy to an abrupt halt.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/12/crosscurrents-cloud-future-economic.html