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Marketing is much more than advertising, although advertising is the most visible component. Marketing is sort of like an iceberg, with most of it being below the surface, hidden from sight.
"Advertising is the monster's shadow."
The rest of your 101-level summary is fine, but the idea that marketing or any segment of the consumer goods industry has the consumer's interests is mind is somewhere between risible and, oh, I don't know, what would be the word for admiring anything that enriches the 0.1%? Marketing's sole focus for the last twenty years or more has been "How can we shake more valuta loose from this crowd of idiots?" Actual product need, value and worth are completely incidental to achieving that goal.
But keep it up with kindly ol' Don and Peggy really trying hard to serve your needs and improve your life, if you'd just listen to them.
The rest of your 101-level summary is fine but the idea that marketing or any segment of the consumer goods industry has the consumer's interests is mind is somewhere between risible and, oh, I don't know, what would be the word for admiring anything that enriches the 0.1%? Marketing's sole focus for the last twenty years or more has been "How can we shake more valuta loose from this crowd of idiots?" Actual product need, value and worth are completely incidental to achieving that goal.
It's so cute that you think that.
Yours is not an original thought, of course; I've heard random homeless guys arguing with themselves recite that screed while peeing on a car's tire parked outside the local Dollar Tree.
But that's not the question. Wouldn't you describe a family that can't withstand a few weeks of no income and ends up on public support and losing assets and credit standing as 'being on the edge'?
Or is the edge only when you fall off and die, no matter how ragged your clothes or empty your belly?
I have yet to meet someone who cannot withstand a couple of weeks.
So I am having a hard time understanding/processing all of the information we read out there relating to salaries, house prices, student loan debt, food costs, transportation, etc. Is almost everyone living on a financial edge? If you simply take the median household income of $61k, how are people paying for housing wherein the median price in the U.S. is around $300k? Hell, even if that median household income was $80k its still not enough!
After you had your mortgage, and some basic living expenses like food and gas for your car there is not much left over. How are you then paying student load debt, spending on other consumer products (e.g., consumer spending is at all-time highs), paying your car note (the car debt is at an all time high as well - over a trillion dollars), where the average car transaction sale is around $30k per KBB. Ohh and dont forget to save for retirement as well.
Curious to hear what other people think. I know the numbers above are not perfect, however, I would say they are accurate enough for this discussion.
No student loan debt
No car
Live in a studio in the Under $800 a month
So I am able to save money and also have 3 credit cards for other expenses like betting, dating, and traveling so that allows me to save money
So now that we've disagreed over terminology and interpretation for a couple of hundred posts, how about a reboot of the question?
So fine, you're living well and you're surrounded by 100 families who by all apparent evidence are "doing well" or even better than that.
Bam, one by one those families lose all income for three months. Maybe one is a job loss due to injury, the next is because the employer shut down, Bob over there had a crippling PTSD attack after 20 years... whatever. The financial fecal matter hits the economic rotary air-mover and they either lose all income for three months or get hit with some equivalent financial disaster.
Where do you think each of them is in 100 days? Expressed in rough percentages?
How many can basically say, "Wow, that was the craps. Let's not do that again." and maybe got takeout pizza a lot less for the duration?
How many barely made it by depleting savings and selling a few valuables (financial instruments, jewelry, maybe a car)?
How many hung on to the big stuff (house, car) but only with serious damage to their financial standing - cash, credit rating, etc.?
And how many lost big - long-term credit damage, cars repossessed, mortgage penalties or foreclosure, or worse?
I'd bet such a survey would be weighted towards the bottom - maybe 10, 25, 40 and 25 percent. And I'd say that's a lot of people who are 'apparently doing well' that are really 'living on the edge.'
Your turn. Remember the dusty old rule about "having three to six months income in savings"?
Those events are not what I think of as “the edge”, in the context of this thread. Financially devastating events happen. It’s an unfortunate part of life. It’s certainly not the average household that can gracefully recover from such an event - that’s why it’s called “ devastating “.
My brother is no millionaire, not even close. He was laid off from his job (construction project manager) and it was 8 months until he found another job that would not require him to move or work out of state. His wife has a very modest city pension ( a retired parking meter reader). They managed. He just bought a retirement home in the mountains and they will move there next year. He lives below his means. He is probably the most educated man I know yet he has no college degree. He’s smart.
He’s just one person of course, and I could give other similar examples, but while I agree there are certainly many people “ living on the edge” I guess I have a different perception of what that means.
I think we saw from the government shutdown what most people can tolerate. 1 month of missed paychecks was a problem but not unmanageable. Lower end workers like the TSA, groundskeeper, etc were hit harder. 2 months of missed paychecks had the middle class, higher end workers like air traffic controllers freaking out.
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