It is simple. People are greedy bastards and say “Why should I have to pay for all these idiots?!?! They can pay for their own damn healthcare.”
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Now that makes more sense. I do have a modest liquid stash in a safe somewhere, plus a few harder assets in case of apocalypse when cash is just so much toilet paper. And other than the mortgage, we have no debt, so we have time banked in case everything goes tits-up.
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shit dawg, i’ve been there. i’m probably going back there early next year. but i still got some fight in me, and i will stall, stall, stall. and the only way i can stall (and sleep at night) are because of assets i can move quickly.
marvin type=‘the paranoid android’ Life, don’t tell me about life
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Yeah, but you’re a dragon who identifies/is-identified-as a Blue Horse (baying at the moon?).
And I hope we help you feel accepted for that.
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Nevermind those of us who while have safety nets and not much else see the gains we make eroded when another bubble bursts in the US. Get your house in order;Take care of yourselves, you’ll be happier, we’ll be happier. Sincerely: Everybody else.
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Sometimes, living far below your means, is living in the streets… Some people barely have means. Some people can’t put away for a disaster because almost their entire paycheck goes to keep their heads above water.
Sure, it’s nice to be able to live below your means and sock money away (and people should do that if they can), but that’s not an option available to all people for any number of reasons. A social safety net allows people to plan ahead better.
Absolutely. It’s a capitalism problem.
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Awesome. Now tell me how to do that when just the basics of food bills, shoebox home… no extravigances. No fancy eight year old computer and just basic internet (no netflix, no hulu, no pandora, etc) and that’s basically eating everything.
How do you live below your expenses when the basics eat everything? I realize you mean well, and when you have a chance to make more than you are it’s good advice to not ‘upgrade’ everything. However just bleating ‘live below your means’ comes off as mildly insulting.’ This was likely not your intent so I don’t want you to feel too bad.
Just that’s something trotted out often, usually by boomers that grew up with walk into a place get a job that day and work there your whole life kind of stability.
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You’re not wrong. And it’s getting worse. I live in the UK, and it’s better than the US, clearly, because I can go see a doctor without having to rob a post office, but I’ve been in shop doorways begging here before in my life, and if I didn’t have, well, gardening skills, I couldn’t get by on my wage (which is fucking modal, not median. ‘Average Wages’ are a lie). I love my job, but I’ve got to hustle to get by, and I’ve seen the homeless population double at least in the last few years. Mainly really young people too, as they’ve been fucked over with housing benefit. I wouldn’t like to be eighteen right now, and I thought it was bad being eighteen under Maggie. That was a picnic compared to this shit.
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This article is absolutely spot on.
It’s something lots of people don’t like to think about, but the vast majority of us are all a very small number of "What if?"s away from having nothing. Some of us have more of them between ourselves and the streets than others, but unless you’re independently wealthy, a 1%er, then you’ve just got a longer list. Well paid job, savings, family to help you? All just another entry on the list, and people who have to rely on them know how precarious those lifelines are.
Of course, it’s unpleasant to think about your own position being precarious, so lots of people find ways to reassure themselves that people who have encountered their series of "what if"s are somehow to blame for that. Alternatively, they distract themselves by sniping at another part of the 99% who happen to have a “what if” that they don’t share.
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Dang. First of all, my branch needs to update the sign by the tellers’ windows. And second of all, I am reminded that by the time I do become a millionaire, it will not mean the same thing as it did to Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire.
“I own a mansion and a yacht”? No, I own a 1600-square-foot Craftsman, a couple Toyotas, and an inflatable dinghy. Well, not yet, but once I’m a millionaire, the world’ll be my oyster, right?
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This is misleading and dangerously so. You’ve missed the entire point if you make people thing when a disaster happens it means they’ve got one or two left before they need to worry. ONE disaster is enough to put most people on the streets. Things tend to escalate, domino, and you’re not safe no matter how secure you think you are. All your backup can fail if you get accused of something socially unacceptable. Your backup may not be backup like you think it is. Etc. Etc. This needs to be reworked as “We are all just a crisis away from the street”
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Some weeks are different than other weeks. Some weeks rent is due. Some weeks you can’t get to work because your car broke again…
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That was honestly quite timely. The engine (well, timing chain) blew up (which took out the engine).
Thankfully I do have my cheap, ugly, reliable truck. Shit seems to pour down sometimes, doesn’t it?
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It may not work, or not completely, but I do not know any better way.
It only works as long as your cash is still valid. In 1950s Poland did currency reform (In polish: Reforma walutowa w Polsce w 1950 roku – Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia) to take away money from private sector so called “speculants” and capitalists (Poland was communistic at that point). Denomination has been performed. Prices, pensions, and bank deposits have been exchanged in 100 old to 3 new zł ratio. The cash has been exchanged in 100 to 1 zł ratio - so these who kept cash, lost 2/3 of it. I am unable find the source but I remember from old documentaries that there has been also limit of cache you could exchange. At the same moment new law has been put into effect that forbade having gold, platinum and foreign currency (the last one has been penalized since 1948 actually). The old currency has been invalidated and entire operation has been prepared in secret and surprised people - this was intended to prevent people from finding ways to keep value of their cash savings.
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But they do that not realizing all those idiots just go to the ER for runny noses and fuck up the whole system, making it more inefficient and costly. Damn catch-22’s!
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That is brutal.
I am not going to go full hoarder, just… Keep yourself and your loved ones hedged against catastrophes.
Plus, dragons.
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So, how much? Like a few hundred? A thou?
Is that how much your loved ones are worth?
(We went to a free dinner where they tried to scare us into buying home fire protection stuff a few years back. It was scary and then funny.)
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I’d be slipping quietly towards the fire escape… Or the front door… Egads.
Oh and I don’t hoard cash. Everything I need is right outside. I saw three six point bucks yesterday, tons of squirrels and some raccoons. And I have a pile of firewood. I’m good.
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