Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan started it all. (Chicago, Lincoln: school, college)

[NealIRC]

Originally Posted by 2nd trick op

just don't come to the conclusion that your beliefs justify imposing your values on somebody else.

Isn't that what Ayn Rand did?

[2nd trick op]

Originally Posted by NealIRC

I think you summarize as not everyone needs to be rich. Rich can live in rich neighborhoods, poor can live in poor neighborhoods.

Etc.

Like me, I don't spend much money. I live in an abandoned building for free. I work part-time, make only 11k/year, so I can't really afford an expensive studio. I sleep with a coat on in the winter. I shower at the park district facilities, etc.

I don't need to have my own luxurious house or yacht.

And I divide my time between a rented room in a small-but-interesting community in a small-but-growing metro, and a nearly-paid-for house in another, more rural area, most of which I rent out. I work part-time to keep things interesting, and at age 67, every day is still different.

Individual choices on both our parts; just don't come to the conclusion that your beliefs justify imposing your values on somebody else.

[NealIRC]

Since the '80s, the wealth of Chicagoans by race have divided even more.

There was an article last month that says the average Black/Hispanic family are in so poverty, if they had an emergency like sudden job loss or medical accident, they'd be broke within 3 months. And look at how many families live month-to-month.

Again, mostly thanks to Reagan and Greenspan, not Clinton.

[2nd trick op]

Originally Posted by NealIRC

Isn't that what Ayn Rand did?

You have got to be kidding! Rand was an anarcho-capitalist who simply believed in no interference with the economy in any form. Unfortunately, that process crates a large number of losers who then think that they have a right to the rewards of somebody else's labor.

Mass production has made the basics so cheap that it's fairly easy to live a simple existence, as I think we both understand. But the nature of human want is such that too many people expect too much, and go looking for somebody to blame .... as opposed to examining, intensifying, and re-directing their own efforts.

As Mr. Dylan put it fifty years ago, "Don't criticize what you can't understand."

[NealIRC]

Originally Posted by 2nd trick op

You have got to be kidding! Rand was an anarcho-capitalist who simply believed in no interference with the economy in any form. Unfortunately, that process crates a large number of losers who then think that they have a right to the rewards of somebody else's efforts.

Right, she was against welfare, social security, you name it. I believe, she was against all governments except for police and military.

Originally Posted by 2nd trick op

As Mr. Dylan put it fifty years ago, "Don't criticize what you can't understand."

Yep.

[NealIRC]

Unfortunate post - I'm hoping this thread doesn't get closed because it was derailed.

Note: I've seen threads about topic A and when someone posts B, mod will just delete post B. However, I've seen threads where if the entire thread talks about B, mod won't delete all B posts, mod will just close the thread, and question A never gets answered. Here's hoping it doesn't happen that way here.

[xsboost]

Originally Posted by NealIRC

Since the '80s, the wealth of Chicagoans by race have divided even more.

There was an article last month that says the average Black/Hispanic family are in so poverty, if they had an emergency like sudden job loss or medical accident, they'd be broke within 3 months. And look at how many families live month-to-month.

Again, mostly thanks to Reagan and Greenspan, not Clinton.

Proof?

[NealIRC]

Originally Posted by xsboost

Proof?

Most Americans don't have enough money to cover a $500 emergency - Chicago Tribune

Most Americans don't have enough money to cover a $500 emergency

Most Americans don't have the money to handle common emergencies like a car breakdown or a trip to the emergency room for a broken bone.

In a national survey by Bankrate.com, 63 percent of people said they don't have the savings to cover a $500 car repair or a $1,000 medical or dental bill. Only four in 10 Americans would be able to rely on savings to cover anything beyond their usual bills.

The findings mimic others and show that most Americans are financially vulnerable. Although consumer confidence numbers gathered each month by the Conference Board show Americans feeling good about jobs after recovering from the Great Recession, most still aren't stashing money away regularly.

A Federal Reserve study of the "well-being of U.S. households" in 2014 showed only about half of people saving regularly in a separate account like a savings account.

In December 2012, as the fear of recession was still fresh, the savings rate in the U.S. climbed to 11 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. But it fell to 4.6 percent in August and was at 5.5 percent in November. Prior to the 2008 recession and housing crash, Americans felt secure, and the savings rate dropped to just 1.5 percent when people were dipping into their home equity like a piggy bank — a practice that got many people into trouble when home values plunged.

A financial checklist for the start of the year
A financial checklist for the start of the year
Since the recession, people have been rebuilding their finances after millions lost homes and jobs and had credit cards and other borrowing shut off by banks. As the pressure has eased, they've become more likely to spend.

The Federal Reserve reported in 2014 that only 47 percent of U.S. households surveyed were saving for unexpected expenses. And if Americans were fortunate enough to end up with $1,000 in extra income, almost half would spend some of it. Only 17 percent said they'd save the entire amount, while 20 percent said they'd devote the entire amount to paying down debt.

Currently, the people most able to weather an emergency are those with incomes over $75,000 or a college education, according to the Bankrate.com survey. Yet, even with incomes over $75,000, 46 percent said they wouldn't have the money to pay a $500 car repair. About 52 percent of people with college degrees said they wouldn't have $500 for the car emergency or $1,000 for an emergency room visit.

Minimum wage and the elusive savings account
Minimum wage and the elusive savings account
The issues seem to be both financial and behavioral. The St. Louis Federal Reserve reported that the median income of the middle class was 16 percent lower in 2013 than in 1989. But studies have also shown that people who are able to save are not doing it. In a survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, most Americans said they could afford to save $20 a week, or $20 more a week, but they didn't think it would matter.

Research done by Annamaria Lusardi, a George Washington University economist, shows that only a third of Americans understand compounding. In other words, they don't know that if they borrow money and are charged interest, paying off their debts becomes difficult as interest builds up on old charges left hanging.

In a study just done with PriceWaterhouseCoopers of millennials, Lusardi found that 53 percent had carried over a balance on their credit cards without paying off charges fully. Nearly 30 percent were overdrawing on checking accounts.

If they had to come up with $2,000 within a month, only half thought they could do it. While many of the millennials surveyed were confronting financial challenges such as student loan debt, Lusardi found that only 24 percent demonstrated basic financial knowledge.

[NealIRC]

Whoops, wrong article, here it is, and as of last month, unlike the above, and talks about race:

Racial Wealth Gap – Chicago | IRP Poverty Dispatch

Chicago’s racial wealth gap far worse than U.S. average, report finds, By Gail MarksJarvis, January 31, 2017, Chicago Tribune: “About 65 percent of African-American, Latino and Asian households in Chicago have so little savings and other assets that a sudden job loss, medical emergency or other income disruption would throw them into poverty within three months, according to a report on wealth inequities in the city. The report by the Corporation for Enterprise Development identified the divide between the incomes of white households and minority households as wider in Chicago than the nation as a whole. And the national divide is large. Not only do Chicago’s white households on average far exceed African-Americans, Latinos and Asians in income, but there is a sharp difference in the city between the wealth held by whites and that held by minority communities…”

[xsboost]

Originally Posted by NealIRC

Whoops, wrong article, here it is, and as of last month, unlike the above, and talks about race:

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I was looking for proof this "racial wealth gap" was caused by Reagan/Greenspan.

I'm tired of people blaming others (white people getting the brunt of it) for all of their problems. This is coming from from someone whose family (non-white) immigrated to the US with literally nothing except the clothes on their backs.