American's living Paycheck to Paycheck

[Smitty-48]

I don't see any threat of King Dollah being overthrown in an ideological revolution on behalf of the lolbergs and leftards, the masses are not down for that, I could certainly see King Dollah kicking out some more treasury fueled gravy, that could be arranged, if you could just agree on the number, but using the filthy beggars as a rubric to overthrow the Empire of Liberty? Whatever, good luck with that, calling your bluff, make your move already if you're so confident the people are with you, but I don't think they actually are, neither the left nor the right.

Hence, you are reduced to complaining for the sake of complaining in a mutual self pity society to nowhere, whereas me? Arctic char fillet, 50% off, like half a char for $10, can't beat that, could afford to eat like a king, even if you were poor, no starving masses in this empire there be, just lay off that junk food, which is actually rather expensive if you do the math.

[DBTrek]

"Living paycheck to paycheck is the worst. What we need here is some good ol' fashioned Stalinism"

All the iPhone strapping hipsters are down with liquidating the kulaks for the good of the workers . . . until they realize that their iPhone makes them a kulak.

[Speaker to Animals]

Let's just flip the board so everything will become like a party again.

[DBTrek]

Let's just flip the board so everything will become like a party again.

Alright comrade, grab your side . . . on 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

[C-Mag]

Wake me when we get to collectivization and famine.

[Smitty-48]

Wake me when we get to collectivization and famine.

No famine at this juncture, thats fo sho, they fold the fish over to fit it in the package, when I got it home and opened it, it was arctic charzilla, so big I couldn't even finish it, had to feed the rest to my dogs.

[Okeefenokee]

There are several factors why Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and it has to do with two main things.

1) Wage stagnation

2) Fees and credit debt.

Idiocy.

1. Learn to count.

2. Count nickels and dimes.

3. No more living paycheck to paycheck.

[Okeefenokee]

Hmmm, conspicuously quiet, eh wot?

You'd think that with all the angst about it, you'd have that number right on the tip of your tongue by now, because you're not whining, no, you have an ask to make of the empire, indeed

Let's just pretend for a moment that I am the Princeps et Imperator, here's your big chance, you stand before me on the Palatine Hill in all my splendor, ear bent towards you in anticipation of the ask; which will placate you.

So, what's your number, Pleb? Spit it out.

There is no number.

I ask that you stop subsidizing defunct businesses, stop propping up monopolies, and ban the sycophants from your palace. Take your coin from those that have it, not squeezed from the blood of the peasants.

Stop subsidizing defunct businesses, except for alternative energies.

Stop propping up monopolies, except for socialized healthcare.

Ban the sycophants, except for the ones promising me more gibs.

Fucking loons. No one's squeezing the blood of peasants. You fucking retards just can't stop buying scratch off tickets. How many rags to riches posters on this board will it take before you realize you just fucking suck at this?

There's Hash, Apeman, Smitty, and myself, on record being born without the proverbial silver spoon, but somehow doing quite nice, nonetheless.

I tell you hwat, none of this, "life ain't fair. gimme gibs." horseshit ever paid me a nickel. Getting up early and showing up slack ass welfare queens like you, on the other hand, has paid dividends.

[Smitty-48]

The issue, as with most issues American, is simply cultural, Americans don't save because they don't have a culture of delayed gratification, they want what they want when they want it, and they will even pay high interest to have it now rather than later

You can look at another OECD country, like Slovenia for example, with half the per capita income of Americans, twice the unemployment rate, with the same poverty rate as the USA, and yet they have more than twice the savings rate of disposable income as Americans do.

Even between countries which are extremely similar, like Canada and Australia for example, Canada and Australia have nearly identical economies, and yet the Australians have twice the savings rate as Canadians do. Why? Because Canadians have embraced the American culture of want what I want when I want it, simple as that.

I mean, here in Canada we have all the things which these American liberals claim will solve the problem, we have the high taxation, the nanny state regulation, the universal public healthcare, the subsidized education, on and on and on, and yet we don't save anymore money than Americans do.

It's not about how rich you are, yes, Kuwait and Qatar have very high savings rates, but so does Vietnam and Botswana. The Chinese, mostly impoverished peasants, have 1/5th the per capita income of Americans, and yet they have ten times the savings rate.

If Americans are want to live frugally and within their means, they are of course at liberty to do so, but the idea that somehow the American state could, or in fact should, intervene to effect Americans to save more money, is simply a fool's errand, the more money you give to Americans, the more they will spend, multimillionares in America spend themselves broke all the time.

There was an economic boom in the 90's, the American GDP growth doubled, the unemployment was cut in half, the government was running a surplus, the stock market went through the roof, and yet the savings rate was higher in the recession following the 2008 market crash than it was in the Dot.Com boom.

If the American economy was growing at 10% and there was full employment, Americans would still be living paycheck to paycheck, because they would just run out and spend the money as soon as they got it in their hot little hands, who knew?

Did my American grandparents in the 1950s save more money than Americans do now? Yes, they did, but you know why? They grew up in the Great Depression. Boomers, Xers, Millenials, not so much. Culture is destiny.

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

I don't know about all that.

As a constitutionally risk-averse, big-time saver, it annoys me that my money starts depreciating the second it hits my pocket.

Americans are encouraged, at every level, to take on debt and consume. Chalking it up to lack of self control is too simplistic.