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A good economy does not change a person's behavior patterns, just like a bad economy does not change a person's behavior patterns.
People who spend recklessly and do stupid things financially do those things regardless of how good or bad the economy is.
Giving irresponsible people more money does not make them responsible. It just makes them that much more irresponsible.
Those people who don't have $400 for an emergency will never have $400 for an emergency and they never had $400 for an emergency in their entire lives and never will, because they are irresponsible and their priorities in life are totally whacked.
I had it ... I had 20 grand one time and 10 grand another time and I probably will never see that money again ... but okay with your analysis from what ever place it comes from ...
I am not going to bother posting the sources again, but there are numerous valid sources showing that the PERCENTAGE of people with savings has increased significantly over the past few years.
Born in 1948 I am a boomer and something I don't understand is how the millennial group, and those that identify with them, hold to the belief we had it so easy.
I got drafted into the army shortly after high school in 1968 which ended with me spending a year in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969.
Made the mistake of attempting college, San Jose State, immediately out of the army and it didn't work out for me. I hated it.
Worked in a print shop for one year after the army at near minimum wage. I remember having trouble coming up with my $105 rent for my Mountain View studio apartment. It was tough.
Spent a year traveling and I do remember more than once I was homeless living out of my Volkswagen Beetle with all my worldly goods. Worst time was when I was trapped in downtown Sacramento without gasoline and not a single penny to my name. Not one penny but I didn't beg. Was in that state for nearly a week, I didn't eat at all, before a bay area friend came and rescued me. I stayed at his place for a month getting a job as a bartender and finding a roommate in a fleabag invested dump. It was horrible.
For two years I was broke seldom having $10 to my name.
I came down with a case of viral pneumonia and it caused me to break the law.... I felt so sick and bad I checked into a motel for two nights and skipped out without paying the bill. I was really sick ended up in an emergency room and never paid that bill either. I know, in the early 1970's they did not require credit cards and this hotel was in Santa Clara.
Nearly 50 years, statute of limitations has passed, but if I could remember the name of the hotel I would pay my bill.... it is the only time in my adult life I ever stole anything and it haunts me.
The very idea of moving back home never occurred to me.
Worked for nearly a year at a factory grinding the insides of toilets. Yes, for nearly a year I spend my time with my head in a toilet. Toilets were aluminum and manufactured for prisons and jails. The were cast and my job was to grind down the aluminum burrs.... talk a bout a job that sucked.
It wasn't great money but it was enough to live on but it was still the bay area. Hayward matter of fact.
Went through flight school earning my flight instructors certificate and when I got my first flying job I didn't have any money and nowhere to live. The airport manager took pity on me allowing me to sleep in the boiler room and I ain't kidding. Pipes, the boiler and valves... that was my bedroom but at least it was warm. I did that for two months.... had to leave at 6:00 am, go to the YMCA to take a shower returning to the airport at 7:30 as if I was coming from home. People knew I was there which was fine as long as I kept a very low key about it.
The time of my life between 18 and 25 was not a bed of roses but you learn from it. I learned to never, ever be poor again and I have always had cash available. Cash is king.
It's not the economy, stupid. It's the stupid consumers who consider their plastic (or Apple or Samsung-pay) part of their available spending resources, not just a medium of exchange. Pure stupidity.
A good economy does not change a person's behavior patterns, just like a bad economy does not change a person's behavior patterns.
People who spend recklessly and do stupid things financially do those things regardless of how good or bad the economy is.
Giving irresponsible people more money does not make them responsible. It just makes them that much more irresponsible.
Those people who don't have $400 for an emergency will never have $400 for an emergency and they never had $400 for an emergency in their entire lives and never will, because they are irresponsible and their priorities in life are totally whacked.
There are a lot of people who think that poor people don't have agency in their lives and that they aren't able to make choices for themselves.
While some people just lack the brains to plan ahead, there are a large number of people who just refuse to plan ahead. They know that they should but they just won't for whatever reason. Then those same people will turn around and blame someone else for what they inflicted on themselves.
There are a lot of people who think that poor people don't have agency in their lives and that they aren't able to make choices for themselves.
While some people just lack the brains to plan ahead, there are a large number of people who just refuse to plan ahead. They know that they should but they just won't for whatever reason. Then those same people will turn around and blame someone else for what they inflicted on themselves.
That would be the (u.s. government) American people, because they can't see what is ahead, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, but that's okay, the poor people and the immigrant will both still be around to be used as the scapegoat for what ails the people who have been displaced by technology.
"The result of all this is societal transformation at a global scale. By affecting the incentives, rules, and norms of economic life, it transforms how we communicate, learn, entertain ourselves, and relate to one another and how we understand ourselves as human beings."
I don't hold out too much hope that there will be any positive transformation going on ... just ssdd, rinse and repeat. One-day may be, people just might grow up. It could happen.
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One-day may be, people just might grow up. It could happen.
