Could you find $400 for an immediate emergency?
This is one of the kinds of questions American academics have been asking.
Turns out a staggering number of people couldn't.

Could you find $2000 dollars within 30 days?
Some 47% of respondents couldn't.

How many weeks could you get by if your income dried up?
About 3.

$130000 is stated to be the average income for a comfortable middle class life.
Median income is $50000.

(Figures quoted by PBS)

I watched Obama today on what they called one of his legacy appearances ie. talking up his legacy.
He had all the figures for how much better things are now as against when he came in - unemployment, foreclosures etc - and he was right. Coming off an awful base though.

Trouble is people don't feel better off. Most people feel they're just getting by, if that.

Hence the politics.

That's capitalism for you.

When are coming to OZ Marla ? I'll show you around. Karl Marx's family moved down here, did you know that ?

Our millennials don't generally carry cash, depending on credit cards for even the smallest purchases. The compulsion to spend is such a temptation to some they will never have any savings.
Our mentally disabled children are taught something called "life skills" in the schools they attend, a more involved version should be taught to the rest of them while in high school. One example would be that if you don't have the money to buy something, don't go in debt for it. Pay as you go unless it is a big ticket item like a house or car. Don't buy more house then you need and shop for financing, the same for cars.

Depending on location an annual income of $75,000 can give you a very comfortable middle class lifestyle. (unless you have crushing school debt)

Where I last worked the majority of employees were Union represented and they made the same base pay. Some lived like beggars and others lived like Kings. It was all about how they managed income!

Bias_2012 wrote on Jun 9^th, 2016 at 12:11am:

When are coming to OZ Marla?

Oh, quite possibly never. Although the lack of Texxun (and Californian) transplants does make going there all the more interesting.

An old farmer near me (who is a millionaire) still drives a 50 year old tractor and a 30 year old toyota.

He repeatedly says

"Its not what you earn that matters.
Its what you dont spend"

Good advice

Good advice on an individual basis scoot, but bad advice on a macro level.

Jobs and economic prosperity depend more than ever before on spend spend spend. If the sum of individual don't spend decisions ever approach the sum of spend spend spend decisions, cataclysm and holocaust will follow.

Quote:

$130000 is stated to be the average income for a comfortable middle class life.

;D