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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


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2017 May 14, 5:19pm   7,685 views  26 comments

by freespeechforever   ➕follow (2)   💰tip   ignore  

57% of Americans (179 million) do not have $500 saved in order to cover an unexpected expense, such as medical bill, car repair bill, etc.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/most-americans-cant-afford-a-500-emergency-expense/

By AIMEE PICCHI MONEYWATCH January 12, 2017, 11:39 AM
A $500 surprise expense would put most Americans into debt
Most Americans nevertheless remain one misstep away from a financial crisis. 

Fifty-seven percent of Americans don’t have enough cash to cover a $500 unexpected expense...

The NEXT FINANCIAL DOWNTURN (it's already begun - you can see it slowing SUV, pickup, auto sales, retail and restaurants slowing way down, and housing starting to decline in most areas) is going to hurt very much.

#HereComesThePainTrain

Comments 1 - 26 of 26        Search these comments

1   Ceffer   2017 May 14, 6:17pm  

Another good reason to abolish the Thirteenth Amendment and make these consuming vassals productive again.

2   Bellingham Bill   2017 May 14, 6:23pm  

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

The Remedy is an 1879 book by the social theorist and economist Henry George, a treatise on the questions of why poverty accompanies economic and technological progress and why economies exhibit a tendency toward cyclical boom and bust. George uses history and deductive logic to argue for a radical solution focusing on the capture of economic rent from natural resource and land titles.Progress and Poverty is Henry George's first book, which sold several million copies, exceeding all other books except the Bible during the 1890s. It helped spark the Progressive Era and a

3   Dan8267   2017 May 14, 6:30pm  

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.

4   missing   2017 May 14, 6:35pm  

Why do they need savings when they have credit cards.

5   missing   2017 May 14, 6:36pm  

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.

6   HEY YOU   2017 May 14, 7:46pm  

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.

7   BayArea   2017 May 14, 7:50pm  

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.

8   BayArea   2017 May 15, 5:52am  

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?

9   zzyzzx   2017 May 15, 7:53am  

It's all Obama's fault!!!

10   FuckTheMainstreamMedia   2017 May 15, 8:22am  

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

11   FortWayne   2017 May 15, 8:28am  

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

12   freespeechforever   2017 May 15, 8:33am  

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.

13   Blurtman   2017 May 15, 9:04am  

We'll need organ donors and live targets.

14   Patrick   2017 May 15, 9:14am  

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.

15   AllTruth   2017 May 15, 10:12am  

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.

16   Patrick   2017 May 15, 10:18am  

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

― Voltaire

17   NuttBoxer   2017 May 15, 11:09am  

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.

18   joeyjojojunior   2017 May 15, 11:19am  

"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.

19   NDrLoR   2017 May 15, 11:27am  

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

20   NDrLoR   2017 May 15, 11:33am  

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/

21   Strategist   2017 May 15, 1:01pm  

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.

22   Strategist   2017 May 15, 1:18pm  

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

23   Strategist   2017 May 15, 1:23pm  

Ha ha ha
Been there done that, made no difference

24   NuttBoxer   2017 May 17, 5:16pm  

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?

25   joeyjojojunior   2017 May 17, 5:28pm  

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.

26   anonymous   2017 Oct 30, 9:34pm  

What a total shitshow the US has become.

Sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh.

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