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When you know someone who is $400 away from absolute ruin, it's reasonable to ask them whether this is due to personal failings or external forces. When 40% of
by michaelchisari 7y ago
When you know someone who is $400 away from absolute ruin, it's reasonable to ask them whether this is due to personal failings or external forces.
When 40% of your population is dealing with it, you have an economic problem that needs to be addressed on a policy level.
- war1025 7y ago40% of the population isn't $400 from ruin. They just can't easily absorb unexpected expenses. Given the frequency of unexpected expenses, the majority of the population obviously figures out how to get by. If 40% of the population was that close to "absulute ruin" there would be rioting in the streets.
- Kye 7y agoThey mostly do it with emergency funds from friends and family who are not necessarily any better off, selling things off, and putting off essential maintenance. Sometimes they can get by this way for a long time, but it's not sustainable.
- michaelchisari 7y agoOr if all else fails, putting it on a high interest credit card.
- badpun 7y agoWhy? This was always the case in world's history, and we survived. If it was possible to address it with policy at a relatively low cost, then I'd be up for it, but something tells me that there is no policy that can make 100% (or even 90%) of people make rational life choices. Which means that the only option left is cleaning the messes caused by irrationality, and that's very expensive.