Profile picture
Bloomberg Opinion
@bopinion
, 9 tweets, 5 min read Read on Twitter
“40% of Americans can’t cover a $400 emergency expense.”

Is this shocking statistic really true? bloom.bg/2Im9sdc
It’s a stat that has been rolled out a lot by many in the last year including:

📣 Kamala Harris
📣 Elizabeth Warren
📣 Bernie Sanders
📣 News organizations bloom.bg/2Im9sdc
If it really were the case, daily life would be affected in obvious ways:

🚗 You’d frequently have a coworker out of the office who can’t afford to buy a new tire
🔧 Almost half of Americans wouldn’t be able to afford to fix their dishwashers bloom.bg/2Im9sdc
The claim is based on an inaccurate reading of one survey question: In 2018, a Fed report found that 61% of adults would cover a $400 unexpected expense using cash.

But that doesn’t mean that 39% of people wouldn’t be able to pay at all bloom.bg/2Im9sdc
The Fed report makes clear that the remaining 4 in 10 adults would have more difficulty, but could make it work by:

💳 Carrying a credit card balance
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Borrowing from friends and family bloom.bg/2Im9sdc
Some may also choose to borrow even if they had $400 available in the bank.

A number of people with healthy finances carry some credit-card debt while also holding cash bloom.bg/2Im9sdc
The survey throws up some other findings which are inconsistent with the misinterpretation:

📃 85% would still be able to pay bills after the $400 expense
📃 Only 14% say that it would affect being able to pay bills bloom.bg/2Im9sdc
That doesn't mean there isn't a problem:

💸 12% of Americans would be unable to pay the $400 emergency expense by any means
💸 17% can't pay all their bills in full bloom.bg/2Im9sdc
By making the problem seem so widespread, politicians and journalists are making it harder to identify how to help people who really are suffering financial hardship bloom.bg/2Im9sdc
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Bloomberg Opinion
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @bopinion see all

Profile picture
Bloomberg Opinion
@bopinion
Last year, American women gave birth to the fewest number of children since 1986.

That amounts to a fertility rate of 1.7 children per woman -- well below the rate of 2.1 necessary to maintain a stable population. bloom.bg/2HE1ZWA
A decline in fertility poses a long-term problem for the U.S. 📉👶🏽

More and more aging citizens will be dependent upon Social Security and government healthcare. A shrinking number of workers will have to fund both. bloom.bg/2HE1ZWA
Fertility declines in the U.S. are hardly unique:

🍼 Japan: 1.4
🍼 Singapore: 1.2
🍼 South Korea: 0.95

For three decades, Asia's most successful economies have experimented to reverse far more serious rates bloom.bg/2HE1ZWA
Read 8 tweets
Profile picture
Bloomberg Opinion
@bopinion
When companies ditched pensions for 401(k) plans, they put the burden of saving for retirement on their employees.

Now workers are facing poverty. But employers can do something about it, if they choose. It costs just $2.64 an hour... bloom.bg/2UtQFFF
Baby boomers are leaving the workforce in big numbers, and retirement security in America is extremely shaky.

An alarming 29% of households aged 55 and older have no retirement savings and no pension bloom.bg/2UpDKEK
By 2030, more than 21 million retirees will have to rely on Social Security, which amounts to roughly $17,500/year.

💰 That's barely above the federal poverty level of $12,490 bloom.bg/2UpDKEK
Read 7 tweets
Profile picture
Bloomberg Opinion
@bopinion
In recent decades, humanity has experienced a dramatic drop in extreme poverty:

🌍 2000: 1.4 billion people at or below the poverty line
📉 2019: 600 million

The drop is mainly due to growth in China and India. Nigeria has failed to share in the success bloom.bg/2KpzYH5
A decade ago, Nigeria had far fewer people in extreme poverty than either China or India; today, it has more than both combined: 90 million bloom.bg/2KpzYH5
🇳🇬 Nigeria’s young and fast-growing population is projected by the United Nations to double in size by 2050.

The proportion of Nigerians living in extreme poverty is on course to remain extraordinarily high for the foreseeable future bloom.bg/2KpzYH5
Read 8 tweets

Related threads

Profile picture
Bansi Sharma
@bansisharma
Kamala Harris: "Almost half of Americans are $400 unexpected expense away from COMPLETE upheaval."

Kamala's Presidential Pitch: Make me president and I will give half of Americans $400 each.

Fact: 64% of American families own their own home.
A survey showed that almost half of Americans cannot pay for an emergency expense of $400 with ready cash, i.e. they might use a credit card to pay for such an expense. Kamala Harris has twisted that finding into "$400 unexpected expense away from COMPLETE upheaval."
And by the way, the same survey also showed that over one-fifth of Americans making more than $100,000 a year also do not have $400 in cash savings to cover an emergency. Do these people need @KamalaHarris to transfer $400 from others to them? Kamala Harris thinks so.
Read 3 tweets
Profile picture
Paul Millerd
@p_millerd
1/ There is a common line repeated in the media: "Fed survey shows 40 percent of adults still can’t cover a $400 emergency expense"

Inspired by @EconTalker to go deeper and question things I read, here is a perfect example of how people cherry pick data to fit their narrative.
2/ This is not actually what the report says but it makes for good clicks.
Washington Post: "The shocking number of Americans who can't cover a $400 expense"
The Atlantic: "Many Middle-Class Americans Are Living Paycheck to Paycheck"

and some more...
3/ Looking at the 2016 version of this (because the 2017 version detailed data is missing) it says: "Forty-four percent of adults say they either could not cover an emergency expense costing $400, or would cover it by selling something or borrowing money" federalreserve.gov/publications/2…
Read 12 tweets
Profile picture
Stu Cvrk
@STUinSD
Thread: Be of Good Cheer; the Counterattack is Here!

1. I spent a lot of email time over the past year trying to convince skeptical friends and colleagues that @POTUS is a man who seeks revenge when attacked, and that vengeance is coming.
2. I understood their impatience and skepticism that justice would ever be served to the legion of crooks we’ve come to know and despises, but building air-tight cases that will stand up in an (impartial) court of law and also the court of public opinion takes time.
3. We have learned much over the past months – far more than many of us ever dreamed or suspected – and none of which would have been made known had Shrillary succeeded in stealing her way to the Oval Office (like she stole the Democrat primary from Bernie; how ironic is that!).
Read 65 tweets
Profile picture
Chris #OpenSelection #GeneralStrike #JC4PM
@Socialist_Chris
THREAD

So I was going to wait with this one. But events are moving fast. The whole Brexit debacle aside, it is entirely possible a Tory leadership contest is on the way.

And you thought Gove was bad. I mean he is, he's pure evil. But still. Brace yourselves.
I was chatting with a few folks tonight about the possibility of Johnson vs Corbyn. My main concern was, and is, the "lesser Trump" narrative. Ken Clarke pretty much exemplifies it here. If Johnson does fight a GE, expect to see a lot of this.

telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/3…
Of course, this plays into Johnson's public perception - the bumbling buffoon. It is widely known that Johnson intentionally plays this up. So far, he's had success with it. But combined with the lesser Trump narrative, it could be extremely dangerous.
Read 63 tweets
Profile picture
Julie Laumann
@Otpor17
In 2012, Tim Cook announced Apple would make a Mac computer in the US.

But when Apple began making the $3000 computer in Texas, it struggled to find enough screws. By the time the computer was ready for mass production, Apple had ordered screws from China nyti.ms/2HBT2QK
Apple CEO Tim Cook: “The skill here is just incredible. In the US, you could have a meeting of tooling engineers and I’m not sure we could fill the room. In China, you could fill multiple football fields.” (h/t @scottlincicome)
"Caterpillar said costs tied to new US tariffs on foreign goods, including steel and aluminum, were just above $100 million over the 5 months of 2018 that they were in effect.

The company expects more than $200 million in tariff-related costs this year." wsj.com/articles/cater…
Read 140 tweets
Profile picture
Jay McKenzie
@JamesFourM
Mark Judge writes for Brent Bozell's "Christian" media empire, which is funded by Mercer money.

Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Ted Cruz's presidential campaign before Donald Trump's, was also funded Mercer money.

PLEASE. KEEP. DIGGING. HERE.
slate.com/news-and-polit…
Mark Judge's connection to Brent Bozell's @cnsnews seen in this thread:
@cnsnews Brent Bozell endorsed Ted Cruz for president in July 2015:
msnbc.com/msnbc/brent-bo…
Read 48 tweets

Trending hashtags

#EnoughIsEnough #Russia #ZanderGroup #AlfaBank #Mercer #Immigration #BlackMirror #ProtectAssange #ThePatriotTimes #LoveEU #paywall #TrumpTower #Marcos #Kogan #UnitedStates #SpectrumHealth #Wylie #Moldova #Republican #TRUMP2020 #SpecialOperationsCommand #DragonTeam #Spadi #Iranians #Brexodus
Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!