patrick.net

freespeechforever says

57% of Americans (179 million) LITERALLY do not have $500 saved in order to cover an unexpected expense 180 MILLION LITERALLY DON'T HAVE $500 IN CASH SAVINGS

So why then is everyone buying houses? You'd think the market would collapse by now.

Why do they need savings when they have credit cards.

Dan8267 says

So why then is everyone buying houses? You'd think the market would collapse by now.

Not everyone, the other half is buying.

After closing."I bought a house."
Buying,to me,is a deceptive word.
The reality:
"I'm buying a house soon as the loan is approved."
"It will only be 15,20,30 years to finish buying a house,if i can make the payments".
"I don't know the total interest on the loan."
"I own this house." With the exception of the lenders lien recorded at the courthouse.

Delusion is not the best economic model.

I'm more surprised at how many filthy rich people there are in this country than I am at how many don't have $500 in their emergency fund.

And at least adjust your post to cover adults

57% at 179M means you're counting infants, toddlers, kids, etc.

330M people in USA
23% are under 18

234M people in USA are adults

If you read the headline again, it doesn't look to me like its just adults?

It's all Obama's fault!!!

Neverending hysterics make for good political theatre and not much else.

That can't be real. People buy expensive things left and right.

Uneducated people who never took a statistics class don't realize that a sample size as small as 1,200 people can predict results within 2 to 3% margin of error for groups as large as 140 million+.

MEGA (Make Education Great Again), Trump base that got swindled and will be ass-raped before all is said and done.

We'll need organ donors and live targets.

Bellingham Bill says

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_and_Poverty

The ideas are brilliant, but Henry George's archaic and florid language make the book itself hard to read.

Someone needs to update it for modern readers.

The 1003 sample size is enough for competent statistician to make prediction for many hundreds of millions, as OP stated.

Well-run presidential polls, way more often correct than not, having margins of errors of less than 3%, can be modeled off of sample pools as small as 1200 people, by the most respected polling firms.

Again: Anyone who had a college-level statistics course realized this; this who did not probably can't comprehend how scientific sampling works.

What I'd love to know is now many Americans have more than $5,000 in actual cash available in the event of an emergency. I'd BET that it's less than 20%.

Americans are conditioned to take on debt, regardless of their income level.

"What's my monthly payment?"

"His can we charge this?"

"Let's take out an equity loan, 2nd, 3rd mortgage on the house."

DEBT SERFDOM 4 LIFE, FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE.

“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.”

― Voltaire

Leverage is a much bigger issue than savings. They should poll to see how much someone would have left if they had to pay all outstanding debts today. Guessing that 57% would look like a fairy tale if they did that though.

"They should poll to see how much someone would have left if they had to pay all outstanding debts today. Guessing that 57% would look like a fairy tale if they did that though."

Not if they accounted for fair market value of the underlying assets.

That 57% have the important things, though, the latest iphones for each family member and cable.

Neil Gabler wrote a book about the subject. A writer, he and his wife chose to live in the Hamptons--despite the fact that writing is not the most remunerative of careers and the Hamptons one of the most expensive places to live--the 47% is now the 57% and it's now $500 instead of the $400 example he uses:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secret-shame/476415/

If I cared for every person who did not have $500 I would be a very miserable dude.
I therefore don't give a damn.

So what do we do? Give them $500 every day?
If they commit crimes let them go to prison

Ha ha ha
Been there done that, made no difference

joeyjojojunior says

Not if they accounted for fair market value of the underlying assets.

I'm guessing that's an assumption that housing will bail people out of their debt tidal waves? If so, I'm sure you accounted for housing cost after they sell to stay ahead, or do they just go camping at that point?

NuttBoxer says

I'm guessing that's an assumption that housing will bail people out of their debt tidal waves? If so, I'm sure you accounted for housing cost after they sell to stay ahead, or do they just go camping at that point?

No, it's a reminder that while someone may have a debt of $300K, they also own an asset worth $350K so looking only at the debt is highly misleading.