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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  2957 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Everyone in America is More Broke Than You Think - What About You, Hubski?

LOL this is tax data. This is the part where you hide as much income as you can and play up every possible expense you've ever made. Here's what they say:

    If you make more than $30,000, you earn more than 53.2% of Americans.

Here's what they mean:

If your reported earnings after taxes, deferments and deductions are more than 30,000, then your reported earnings after taxes, deferments and deductions are more than 53.2% of Americans that even filed taxes.

Also keep in mind: if you have a trust of any kind (college account, savings bonds, etc) you have to file taxes. I knew a half-dozen kids who had to file their taxes from the age of like 7 onward because they had rich grandparents. By these measurements, they probably earned less than $10,000. They also lived in 4000 sqft houses because their parents made phat stax.

It's Huffington Post, doing what HuffPo do.





rinx  ·  2957 days ago  ·  link  ·  

My buddy is ready to retire. When she does, even though her net worth is over a million, her income for the year will be under 10k. She'll still be "working" because she's going to write, but yeah. Income is a poor quantifier of wealth.

oyster  ·  2957 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's also important to note that just because somebody earns less that does not mean they cannot afford more. I imagine location plays a role and a lot of the people who are making less might be getting on just fine in life.

user-inactivated  ·  2957 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    LOL this is tax data. This is the part where you hide as much income as you can and play up every possible expense you've ever made. Here's what they say:

Bingo. The real number to look at is net savings. If you make 100K a year and only have 500 bucks in the bank you are one big hit away from serious trouble. There was an article on savings a while ago here on Hubski. Found a crap link here 1/3 of Americans have less than 1000 in savings, and that is the scary number.

kleinbl00  ·  2957 days ago  ·  link  ·  

And the problem is masked by the fact that 72% of Americans have credit cards. So - rather than socking it away for a rainy day, we know that we can just borrow it and pay the interest.

Who says we need credit reform?