I would take that stat with a huge grain of salt. According to the original source[1], of the 40% of people who couldn't easily pay the expense, 43% say they would put the expense on a credit card and pay the credit card over time. So the reality is that most people already have a balance on their card, and would put any surprise expenses on their card and continue to make the payments which they can afford. Less than %2 of all credit cards are delinquent, so it seems most people are affording their monthly payments just fine.
Also, in the article you linked, they mention that the same stat for households making $100k+ a year is 17%. 17% of people making 6 figures don't have $400 saved??? If people are unable to save 0.4% of their income, no amount of economic growth will help them.
This is a combination of the uselessness of self reported statistics, poor budgeting skills, and ambiguous questions.
Honestly the point was to demonstrate the declining standard of living of Americans. I could have also brought up the stat that the majority of bankruptcies in the US are medical related.
> Honestly the point was to demonstrate the declining standard of living of Americans.
That's a bad way to prove your point, because the 40% in your stat is _down_ from 50% a few years prior. The number of bankruptcies has also been steadily falling since 2010.
My point is that things are better than you think, and generally improving.
Do you seriously believe that people having to put $400 on their credit card isn't a sign of increasing poverty? You are that daft?
From your original source:
>Among those with a credit card, about half always or almost always paid their bill in full each month, while 2 in 10 did so some of the time and slightly over one-fourth carried a balance most of the time(figure 18). Twenty-eight percent of those with a credit card paid only the minimum on their bill at least some of the time. The frequency of regular borrowing with credit cards during 2017 is similar to 2016.
It is absurd to look at these stats and think that everything is fine. These are worrying numbers. This shows that there is a certain % of the population living paycheck to paycheck and honestly for people looking this was obvious in 2019. The outcome of this situation now coming to fruition where people don't want to work below a certain wage level and so many jobs go unfilled.
Furthermore the sign of bankruptcies declining does not disprove the claim that the majority of bankruptcies are medical related.
> Do you seriously believe that people having to put $400 on their credit card isn't a sign of increasing poverty? You are that daft?
Less people would rely on a credit card for $400 today than 10 years ago. That's a sign of decreasing poverty.
I'm not arguing that everything is perfectly fine. There are people struggling. But the trend is undeniably positive. People are better off today than 10 years ago, and the same was true 10 years ago as well.
> Furthermore the sign of bankruptcies declining does not disprove the claim that the majority of bankruptcies are medical related.
This was your claim:
> Honestly the point was to demonstrate the declining standard of living of Americans.
Yes, most bankruptcies are medical related. But bankruptcy rates are down, so your point that this indicates declining standard of living is nonsense.
Also, in the article you linked, they mention that the same stat for households making $100k+ a year is 17%. 17% of people making 6 figures don't have $400 saved??? If people are unable to save 0.4% of their income, no amount of economic growth will help them.
This is a combination of the uselessness of self reported statistics, poor budgeting skills, and ambiguous questions.
[1] https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2017-repor...
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