Lazy Americans conflate anecdotes with reality. Make sure to hit the tropes though. The poor person with a Starbucks cup. The 'leased BMW bros are financial idiots'. The iPhone you have no idea where the person got (my son get's them as a christmas gift from his auntie). The cable bill (who under 50 has cable TV? What year is this post from?).

At best old boy discovered that human beings make inconsistent financial decisions when under stress because someone once held a latte cup, and thinks therefor people aren't struggling financially.

This is way too low effort/uninformative/nothing said to be the top comment. But it paints the correct narrative so those who don't want to see what's actually happening in this country probably love it.

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beezle 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

I hope you realize that the people that are feeling "stressed" are not just the ones making minimum wage but also those making considerably more yet, somehow not managing to make ends meet.

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0cf8612b2e1e 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

No you see, the poors are bad people and deserve to be poor.

OP identified say $2000 in annual luxuries. If they lived a completely ascetic lifestyle free of wants, that would put them 0.4% closer to buying that $500k house on their $40k annual salary.

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beezle 4 days ago | parent [-]

Even if it is just 2K (I think closer to 3), that is 5% of their $40K that could go towards food, healthcare and rent (or mortgage).

	▲	0cf8612b2e1e 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		So implicit in this is that the poor should have no luxuries at all. Water + a crust of bread. When not working for their betters, can sit in the darkness inside their hovels so as to not be seen. The median USA income is $40k. Most (not all) people are fully capable of living within their means. They can balance housing+food+medical and even some non essential luxuries. However, they have little slack. A shock to the system (loss of job, car failure, medical problem, or 20% increase in consumer goods within a few months) can force them to make tough choices. Which is where we are now. Basics have gone up, so whatever slack that might have existed has been cut short and people are stressed about how to adapt. “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery”
	▲	_DeadFred_ 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I hope people advocating this realize that the lower 50% of Americans are waking up to the fact that their quality of life based on America's PPP is actually the same as third world nations, and the upper levels still want them to 'cut back more'. How long do you think people will go for that?