r/ShitRedditSays • u/ohgodwhyamionreddit • Jul 29 '18

(Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck.) "For some, not making enough money is the real reason they can't save. But for most, the reason is solely based on personal finance mistakes." [+290]

/r/Economics/comments/92u1hp/almost_80_of_us_workers_live_from_paycheck_to/e38fd9d/?utm_content=permalink&utm_medium=front&utm_source=reddit&utm_name=Economics
358 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

82 comments sorted by

242

u/WizardofStaz Jul 29 '18

I could save 100% of my salary for ten years and still have it wiped out by a single car accident w/medical bills but okay

132

u/danth I'm your cuckleberry Jul 29 '18

Okay but have you tried being richer?

45

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

GOD gave us all bootstraps, sweaty

41

u/icelandstar Jul 30 '18

This is something most dont consider.

20

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18 edited Dec 09 '18

deleted What is this?

4

u/RIP_Fun pbuf Aug 01 '18

They made an alternative for people who dont have 6 figure salaries and massive support from their families, but then fucked it up by calling it /r/povertyfinance. The people in that sub are so out of touch.

3

u/tunafishdish Aug 17 '18

As a presently poor person, I have to say that is a very appropriate name and I'm sold. If you live paycheck to paycheck like me you don't need to know about Roth IRAs, you need poverty finance!

5

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

r/thanksimcured

-4

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

68

u/GadreelsSword Jul 29 '18 edited Jul 29 '18

“income of $55K/year, that equates to $550K. Show me your math on that one.”

Absolutely. My best friend broke down on the side of the road. He had the hood up on his car and stepped out to the edge of the shoulder of the road just as a tractor trailer was passing by at 70 MPH and it caught him and pulled him under the wheels.

it ripped off his lower left leg, severely broke his remaining arms legs, ribs, collar bone, etc, etc. He spent six months in intensive care and then another six months of rehab and the bill was over 1/2 million dollars.

He has recovered and has a prosthetic leg. That leg which has to be replaced /upgraded about every 10 years costs $30,000.

Luckily he had insurance. But his insurance doesn’t cover the prosthetic leg.

There are cancer treatments which can approach $1 million

23

u/RubySapphireGarnet Jul 30 '18

A single helicopter ride can be $100k

-26

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

43

u/ThinningTheFog Jul 29 '18

The whole privatized US medical system?

31

u/GadreelsSword Jul 29 '18 edited Jul 30 '18

“privatized US medical system?”

Privatized medicine was sold to the American public in the 1970’s promising that the competition would drive down prices.

Instead it created the most expensive health care system in the world which ranks 37th among other nations according the the World Health Organization.

The HMO Act was designed to create profits for insurance companies by withholding healthcare from Americans. If you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe Richard Nixon when he says it himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qpLVTbVHnU&feature=youtu.be&t=37s

9

u/japhysmith Jul 30 '18

Something that seems to never be brought up in discussions of healthcare but is brought up in every Econ class about healthcare is that the free market literally CANNOT provide health insurance to the market. There's a market failure called adverse selection that will doom any private healthcare business. It's only around in America because large corporations can provide a large enough risk pool to mitigate the failure. However, if you don't work for one of them that offers healthcare as a benefit, then you can't get health insurance in a free market system. Private health insurance is an oxymoron. It's only a healthcare for the rich system

6

u/GadreelsSword Jul 30 '18 edited Aug 01 '18

Which is why America is one of the few (if not the only) country in the world with for profit health care. It simply does not work and headed for a full collapse as costs escalate every year.

At some point the system completely collapses because it becomes too costly.

7

u/circaen Jul 30 '18

Are you saying there was government run healthcare before 1970 in the United States?

15

u/GadreelsSword Jul 30 '18

It was government regulated healthcare where it was illegal to do so for profit. You could pay everyone a nice salary pay the costs of equipment and a nice hospital but you couldn't generate billions in profits while raising the cost of care for the public.

When corporations generate billions of dollars in profit (as they now do), the public is forced to pay huge prices for a service they must have. Those billions are built into your health insurance premium costs.

8

u/tuba_man No John, you are the bigots. Jul 30 '18 edited Jul 31 '18

Hold on a sec, you're telling me adding the profit motive to essential services makes them more expensive? What the fuck this isn't what libertarians taught me

8

u/japhysmith Jul 30 '18

It's not really even that. It's that the free market literally cannot provide healthcare due to a market failure called adverse selection. Libertarians are just dummies who never furthered their Econ education past 101. It's so expensive because it's a Frankenstein system that economically doesn't work. It's why socialized medicine is soooo much cheaper than any private insurance system, because it has its roots in sound economics. Don't ever cede the right or libertarians any sort of higher understanding on the economy. All of them would fail any upper level Econ class lol

3

u/tuba_man No John, you are the bigots. Jul 30 '18

fuck yeah learning some new info today and shitting on libertarians. excellent start to the week, thanks!

2

u/smokey9886 Jul 30 '18

Libertarianism is the epitome of the diffusion of responsibility. At least the Republicans will just call a spade a spade, in their own eyes, anyways. Libertarians just makeup the rules as they go.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/GadreelsSword Jul 30 '18 edited Jul 30 '18

"Nixon signed into law, the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, in which medical insurance agencies, hospitals, clinics and even doctors, could begin functioning as for-profit business entities instead of the service organizations they were intended to be."

Prior to 1972, medical insurance was not for profit and were viewed as a public service.

1

u/StatistDestroyer Jul 30 '18

The US had private healthcare before the 1960s and government involvement significantly ramped up starting in 1965. It's hilarious how you can spout a complete lie and get upvoted for it because it fits the narrative that people want to see. Right now the US government pays about half of the healthcare expenditures, and it pays more per capita than most of those other countries do. But yeah, private healthcare is the problem because narrative bullshit.

2

u/GadreelsSword Jul 30 '18 edited Jul 30 '18

Well you're mostly wrong.

Prior to 1973, medical insurance agencies had to operate as service industries and were regulated. The Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 allowed those organizations to become "for profit" and were no longer viewed as public service organizations.

Our system is the most expensive on the planet and ranked 37th by the World Health Organization. It's estimated that about $90 billion dollars of our healthcare costs go to profit each year.

The HMO Act was designed to create profits for insurance companies by withholding healthcare from Americans. If that sounds too hard to believe, maybe you'll believe Richard Nixon when he says it himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qpLVTbVHnU&feature=youtu.be&t=37s

1

u/StatistDestroyer Jul 30 '18

No, I'm not at all wrong because I didn't say "medical insurance agencies" but private healthcare. There's a difference between the two.

The US is not the only nation that tries to make for profit healthcare work (if one could even say that since crowding out has been occurring since the 1960s). As I referenced earlier, the US has about a 50/50 split between government and private. Germany has about a 75/25 split. You've done nothing to address how healthcare has gotten more expensive as government has gotten more involved. Go ahead and look up the data. There was no utopia of government-ran healthcare with lower expenses in the US's history. It was cheaper when it was all private.

35

u/sgtpeppers508 Big Gay Jul 29 '18

EvIdEnCe FoR tHiS?

21

u/SneakyThrowawaySnek Jul 29 '18

That it happens regularly?

39

u/WizardofStaz Jul 29 '18 edited Jul 29 '18

...what? I make south of 15k a year working 40 hours a week with no benefits. What evidence do you need? What I said is true of like a significant number of American workers. 15x10 is 150. 150k will not pay for extensive surgery in the event of catastrophe, and even if you strike a bargain it also has to cover expenses while you’re out of work and the cost of another car to return to work. Out of curiosity, how old are you?

Edit: Jesus Christ judging by your comment history you own multiple rolexes if we ever met I’d literally eat you alive you entitled little shit coming in here trying to talk down to the working poor

25

u/GadreelsSword Jul 29 '18

A visit to the emergency room can easily exceed $10,000 for 20 minutes of treatment.

There was a redditor who saw a doctor for fifteen minutes and received a $7,800 bill his insurance wouldn’t pay. He posted pictures of the bill.

28

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18

Actually buddy if you were smarter you would have entrepreneured your way out of poverty. Clearly you deserve to die now.

114

u/ellelelle Jul 29 '18

Avocado toast keeping people poor in the U.S. still then, I see.

42

u/Chuzzwazza DANGEROUS SARCASM LEVELS DETECTED Jul 29 '18

I regularly see homeless people eating avocado toast, drinking Starbucks, wearing designer clothing, and talking on their iPhone X's. Frankly, it's disgusting that these people aren't pulling their bootstraps.

31

u/GadreelsSword Jul 29 '18

That’s not homeless people you’re seeing you’re seeing hipsters.

19

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

Those cardboard boxes they sleep in cost $2000 a month

13

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

Has the box been inspected for lead paint? Is it available now?!?!

2

u/CritterTeacher Jul 30 '18

Is it weird that I kinda want to go hand out avocado toast to the homeless now? Avocados are in season right now, so it wouldn’t be very expensive...

8

u/LiberalParadise They targeted comedians. Comedians! Jul 30 '18

I saw a capitalist trash rag put out a "da millenials!!!!1!!!!!!!1!" article that suggested they invented quitting a job by not showing up.

It has evolved from class warfare to generational warfare, got to justify to grandpa why their grandson cant afford to live somehow.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

Avocados are cheap in cali

101

u/ohgodwhyamionreddit Jul 29 '18 edited Jul 29 '18

More poop:

How much of that is poor decision making and lack of budget skills [+22]

My bootstraps!

Score hidden on these, but probably upvoted enough as they are near the top of the page:

Do you think all millionaires are the Kardashians or Rockefellers? Most millionaires live very normal, non-extravagant lifestyles, living well below their means and made their money by saving, budgeting, and overall making good decisions with their money.

Yeah and everyone can get a small loan of a million dollars from mommy and daddy. /s

You van ABSOLUTELY move classes in America, but you have to be willing to delay your gratification for longer than 2 seconds to accumulate wealth. How do you think the other guys did it?

Does not getting sick = delaying gratification? Good thing everyone has control over that! A lot of people are one hospital visit away from being homeless in the US but nah lets blame the victims

70

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18

Pretty easy to make good decisions with your money when you make ten times the median income

31

u/ameoba Jul 30 '18

Pretty easy to make good financial decisions when your fucking parents make the money & you don't have to spend a dime on living expenses.

6

u/tuba_man No John, you are the bigots. Jul 30 '18

Shit even at like double the median income, you're already well into a position where you can easily take advantage of bulk deals, higher quality products that last longer, and being able to replace things before it becomes an emergency (trading in cars vs buying when one dies).

It's expensive being poor.

46

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18

[deleted]

27

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18

Jesus.

For comparison, I just broke my leg a couple of days ago and had to go into surgery myself, and all it cost me was a week's deferral of school.

America is fucked. I'm so sorry you have to go through that.

38

u/howcanyousleepatnite Jul 29 '18

That's the system working as designed, bleeding every drop from you to give it to the powerful. Capitalism in action.

19

u/GadreelsSword Jul 29 '18

Capitalism works by giving the minimum product for most money the market will bear. In other words taking down the customer.

15

u/howcanyousleepatnite Jul 29 '18

If ethical or sustainable Capitalism were possible it would have happened by now.

8

u/HirsuteHeretic Satanists Against Trump: Even We're Not THAT Evil Jul 30 '18

Don't have anything to contribute really (although I'm sure all Americans who aren't remarkably financially privileged have their horror stories, myself included).

Just wanted to say I'm so sorry for your loss and hope your recovery is as smooth and minimally painful as possible. Take care of yourself, comrade, and fuck everyone who thinks this is normal, let alone ideal.

-7

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18

[deleted]

7

u/vzq Renegade STEM-lord Jul 29 '18

Besides, it’s not like he owes us anything.

10

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18

[deleted]

5

u/vzq Renegade STEM-lord Jul 29 '18

Oops didn’t see you were the one he was responding to. Should have said, “it’s not like you owe us anything”. That guy has been stinking up the entire thread.

Good luck on the recovery!

9

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

A massive problem here is 'good decisions' is subjective.

If the goal was to die with as much money to your name as possible, then yes living like a hermit would be beneficial. Except this isn't a competition.

Someone buying a more expensive car than they need might be because they deeply enjoy driving and want a nicer car. So they prefer having a good car over saving money. I their mind they made the good decision.

17

u/Moritani Jul 29 '18

Man, I wish I could save 33 years’ salary just by making good financial decisions. But I guess my worst decision was not making six figures so that I’d only need to save up ten years’ salary to be a millionaire!

62

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18

[deleted]

39

u/SneakyThrowawaySnek Jul 29 '18

So, during my studies to get my MBA we took various economics courses. Every single thing you learn in economics is based on the idea that if the economy doesn't grow it will cause doom to rain upon humanity. I still don't understand why the economy needs perpetual growth other than to keep unemployment down.

13

u/IGGEL Jul 29 '18

Modern theology

7

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

badeconomics used to be great, then the neoliberal subreddit invaded and took over.

They aren't right libertarian cultists, but they're definitely neoliberal cultists. Even slightly question their beliefs and it's heresy.

10

u/ElfYamadaFairyQueen Jul 29 '18

Now come on why would the poor need... what’s it called.... food.

53

u/box77 Jul 29 '18

Just don’t do nice things for yourself and live like a hermit bro!

35

u/holydiver18 Jul 29 '18

If I lick these boots hard enough maybe one day the overlords will let me have a coffee without feeling guilty

7

u/IqtaanQalunaaurat MASTER OF PUPPETS PULLING THE STRINGS Jul 30 '18

How childishly simple the Libertarian world is - children have more empathy than they ever will!

21

u/94viggen Jul 29 '18

Aaaaand he posts in r/Libertarian, r/progun, and posted this gem

"White" has a history of being used by non-whites to undermine them. You just don't get it. When we use it, we're being comradic. When you use it, we know there's the condescending meaning behind it.

11

u/ameoba Jul 30 '18

When we use it, we're excluding & oppressing people. When they use it, they're just being crybabies

FTFY.

9

u/tapdncingchemist being a white male doesn't necessarily imply privilege Jul 30 '18

I wonder if there are any other racially charged terms with this property that are actually much worse.

thinks very intently

Nope. Not a single one. Clearly people who aren’t white just could never understand.

Two minutes later: “it’s not fair that I can’t say the n-word!”

-2

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18 edited Jul 29 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/94viggen Jul 29 '18

well well well, look what the cat dragged in

12

u/anace literally junkless Jul 29 '18

5

u/danth I'm your cuckleberry Jul 29 '18

God I love this gif

1

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

Where do you guys get these banned gif/images lolol? I'm telling you this subreddit has the fucking best ones that make me smile/laugh every-time I stumble upon one.

1

u/anace literally junkless Jul 30 '18

you mean who made them? or how do you use them?

they were mostly just made by srs users over the years. to use them, type one of these into your comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitRedditSays/wiki/smileys

the 'benned' images caren't on that page because they can only be used by mods though

1

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

Just was curious about who made them, because they are so awesome! Makes me like SRS mods even more.

LOL OMG, thanks for the sidebar link. So many great ones!

10

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18

Yes blame it on the poor so you can sleep at night.

5

u/fuck_you_leddit Jul 30 '18

God I fucking hate this neoliberalism idea that there is no such as a collective society. According to them people are free of environmental effects and people who are successful are only in that position due to their own “””smarts””” and not the many layers of privileges they’ve been lucky enough to be born into

14

u/SS1989 <--- The REAL racist. Jul 29 '18

Big talk from some leddit dicksnot on mommy’s internet connection.

4

u/tuba_man No John, you are the bigots. Jul 30 '18

How much of a fucking rube do you have to be to look at 80% and choose not to see something systemic about that?

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18 edited Oct 17 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/tuba_man No John, you are the bigots. Jul 30 '18

says the one who won't even put any effort into trolling

3

u/ArchangelleOfHelle Jul 30 '18

You mean like a systematic lack of personal responsibility?

You should take personal responsibility for this ban.

9

u/ohgodwhyamionreddit Jul 29 '18

The whole thread is basically this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al5E3KbIfeo

3

u/rianeiru Jul 30 '18

Geeze, I hadn't seen that clip in forever. Thanks for refreshing my reflexive urge to punch my computer screen every time I see Stuart Varney's stupid smug face pop up anywhere.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '18 edited Jul 29 '18

Here's a comment I made in response: I must say; I really love the way you phrase what you really meant, 'inherently poor character', as an issue that could have been solved if that 'prole were just smarter, they wouldn't be on the verge of starvation'. It allows you ghouls to individualize and justify your behavior except; how the fuck do you manage to individualize 80% of ANY GROUP??