how are people paying?
An inquiry over at Ask Metafilter: “Where’s all the money coming from?” eas98 writes:
Ok, so it says that the typical person earns $14/hour, and the typical household earns less than $40k/year. Yet everywhere I look, I see displays of wealth. Expensive homes, cars, boats, TVs, activities, etc. So my question is: how are people paying for all of these expensive things?
I’d have to side with a few of the respondents who point out that selective observation is at play here. Many people aren’t accustomed to noticing poverty; its signs are less conspicuous than wealth’s. I notice both, with a foot in two different worlds. On one hand, I work part time in a very wealthy suburb of Portland full of hoity-toity spas, landscaped lawns and SUVs. On other hand, I talk regularly with my mom who every month is under budget living on SS Disability. I guess I’m somewhere in the middle. Jeremy and I together earn middle class income, but have very little debt. Most of our “extra” spending is on things like organic food/supplements and books.
Obviously, credit is also a large part of why some people seem to have so much. Anyway, fascinating thread.