5 ms·

Not really. 2% on your gross is a lot and any standard commercial policy will cover cash on hand. 50% of the country is broke, 80% live pay check to pay check.

Not really. 2% on your gross is a lot and any standard commercial policy will cover cash on hand. 50% of the country is broke, 80% live pay check to pay check. Many working minimum wage, low income bracket do not have bank accounts. The idea that cash is ‘hard to operate’ is a stretch, we’ve been exchanging currency for as long as commerce existed. If you handle enough cash to need an armored truck, you are far above most businesses in processing. There are a few places in NYC that do not take cash, and they exist in their own micro economy revolving around serving lunch.

gruez 8y ago
>50% of the country is broke what is meant by this? is this the often cited "50% of Americans don't have any savings" number? in savings accounts only
- pixl97 8y ago
  >Some 50.8 million households or 43% of households can’t afford a basic monthly budget for housing, food, transportation, child care, health care and a monthly smartphone bill, according to an analysis of U.S. government data released this month by the United Way Alice Project, a nonprofit based in Cedar Knolls, N.J. that aims to highlight the number of people who live in poverty.
  - frockington 8y ago
    I'm going to assume they grossly overestimated when creating that number. Their aim is "to highlight the number of people who live in poverty". I think I am technically "poor" by a number of standards because I don't have any money in a savings account because I prefer higher yield investments.
    - sls 8y ago
      Methodology described here [1] if you want to go beyond assuming their result is essentially a lie. In the per-state data [2] you see results like 31-32% below ALICE in the Dakotas, but 47-49% in NY and California. If one wanted to present a partisan hit piece to encourage establishment liberal/"Great Society" safety net policies, this would appear to be the opposite of what you would want to produce. [1] https://www.unitedwayalice.org/methodology https://www.unitedwayalice.org/methodology [2] https://www.unitedwayalice.org/in-the-us https://www.unitedwayalice.org/in-the-us
  - bzbarsky 8y ago
    The big one there that jumps out at me is "child care", in terms of things that are somewhat discretionary (in the sense that stay-at-home parenting is a thing). And at $10-30k per year per child depending on where you are in the US, it's a pretty large-ticket item.
    - what-the-grump 8y ago
      Well let’s take me. Stay at home parenting... assumes I make enough money to cover her, the child, and her retirement, and medical. Which is 70-80k that she is providing right now. So We either take an 80k hit or 30k hit. It’s pretty simple these days. I’m pushing a household income of close to 200k and I haven’t been on vacation in 3 years. I could make a shitload sure, drop the wife, move into a studio and eat ramen.
      - bzbarsky 8y ago
        If there's even a single 70-80k income involved, then I expect that household is no longer in the "can’t afford a basic monthly budget for housing, food, transportation, child care, health care and a monthly smartphone bill" bucket, unless it's insisting on living in a specific location with very high housing costs. All I was saying above is that I am not surprised that a large fraction of households _are_ in that bucket as defined in the United Way report, because child care is expensive. And I expect the fraction of households in that bucket would likely be a lot smaller if "child care" were not being included in basic life necessities. I am not going to comment on your personal financial situation; you are obviously a better judge of that than I am! I certainly know people with 200k household incomes who also have significant fixed expenses (student loans, medical expenses, whatever) that lead to them not having as much disposable income as one might think. But that's not really related to the United Way study.
pard68 8y ago
Especially in the grocery business. Where I use to work our margin was 2%. Grocery stores are very tight.
- what-the-grump 8y ago
  I spoke to dell today. 2% margin is even worse on larger amounts. They will provide 3-6 month interest free loans just to keep me from swiping the AMEX. We are talking about 200k worth of hardware.

gruez 8y ago

>50% of the country is broke what is meant by this? is this the often cited "50% of Americans don't have any savings" number? in savings accounts only

pixl97 8y ago
>Some 50.8 million households or 43% of households can’t afford a basic monthly budget for housing, food, transportation, child care, health care and a monthly smartphone bill, according to an analysis of U.S. government data released this month by the United Way Alice Project, a nonprofit based in Cedar Knolls, N.J. that aims to highlight the number of people who live in poverty.
- frockington 8y ago
  I'm going to assume they grossly overestimated when creating that number. Their aim is "to highlight the number of people who live in poverty". I think I am technically "poor" by a number of standards because I don't have any money in a savings account because I prefer higher yield investments.
  - sls 8y ago
    Methodology described here [1] if you want to go beyond assuming their result is essentially a lie. In the per-state data [2] you see results like 31-32% below ALICE in the Dakotas, but 47-49% in NY and California. If one wanted to present a partisan hit piece to encourage establishment liberal/"Great Society" safety net policies, this would appear to be the opposite of what you would want to produce. [1] https://www.unitedwayalice.org/methodology https://www.unitedwayalice.org/methodology [2] https://www.unitedwayalice.org/in-the-us https://www.unitedwayalice.org/in-the-us
- bzbarsky 8y ago
  The big one there that jumps out at me is "child care", in terms of things that are somewhat discretionary (in the sense that stay-at-home parenting is a thing). And at $10-30k per year per child depending on where you are in the US, it's a pretty large-ticket item.
  - what-the-grump 8y ago
    Well let’s take me. Stay at home parenting... assumes I make enough money to cover her, the child, and her retirement, and medical. Which is 70-80k that she is providing right now. So We either take an 80k hit or 30k hit. It’s pretty simple these days. I’m pushing a household income of close to 200k and I haven’t been on vacation in 3 years. I could make a shitload sure, drop the wife, move into a studio and eat ramen.
    - bzbarsky 8y ago
      If there's even a single 70-80k income involved, then I expect that household is no longer in the "can’t afford a basic monthly budget for housing, food, transportation, child care, health care and a monthly smartphone bill" bucket, unless it's insisting on living in a specific location with very high housing costs. All I was saying above is that I am not surprised that a large fraction of households _are_ in that bucket as defined in the United Way report, because child care is expensive. And I expect the fraction of households in that bucket would likely be a lot smaller if "child care" were not being included in basic life necessities. I am not going to comment on your personal financial situation; you are obviously a better judge of that than I am! I certainly know people with 200k household incomes who also have significant fixed expenses (student loans, medical expenses, whatever) that lead to them not having as much disposable income as one might think. But that's not really related to the United Way study.

pard68 8y ago

Especially in the grocery business. Where I use to work our margin was 2%. Grocery stores are very tight.

what-the-grump 8y ago
I spoke to dell today. 2% margin is even worse on larger amounts. They will provide 3-6 month interest free loans just to keep me from swiping the AMEX. We are talking about 200k worth of hardware.