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I'm not sure whether you are arguing in good faith or not, so I'd say just bypass all the 'survival' stuff you are stuck on and essentially replace it with 'mid

I'm not sure whether you are arguing in good faith or not, so I'd say just bypass all the 'survival' stuff you are stuck on and essentially replace it with 'middle class'. Now you may also be pedantic and say that middle-class is supposed to be the middle, so 50% is about right. But what you can't argue with is that nearly half of Americans simply cannot build any wealth or get out of any debt and likely can't meet the basic standards of education/transportation/food/housing that we used to assume was the birthright of any American (1). And that this is much higher than it used to be, and it is getting worse. And that literally most of the basic working class of the US - nurses aides, childcare workers, etc are often literally one missed paycheck away from the street. 1) May not apply depending on skin color

maxlybbert 7y ago
“Almost half of US families can’t afford basics like rent or food” is simply false. “Almost half of US families are middle class or below” isn’t a crisis, and implies that more than half of US families are upper class. “Almost half of US families have little to no disposable income” may be accurate and a serious problem, but doesn’t get enough clicks. This reminds me of the charity that published a press release saying the Great Barrier Reef had died, only to have scientists dispute the press release and call it unhelpful.
LUmBULtERA 7y ago
>nearly half of Americans simply cannot build any wealth or get out of any debt and likely can't meet the basic standards of education/transportation/food/housing that we used to assume was the birthright of any American If one takes the median household income in the United States $75,938[0] in 2017, you're asserting that it is literally impossible ("simply cannot") to design a budget to build wealth, get out of debt, and those other items you mention? Some families are certainly in a dire circumstance, but I disagree that the median family can't build wealth and meet those other items if they budget responsibly. [0] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEFAINUSA646N https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEFAINUSA646N
Brendinooo 7y ago
I don't think you can just swap out the word "survival" with "middle class". Survival is a really powerful word, "the state or fact of continuing to live or exist, typically in spite of an accident, ordeal, or difficult circumstances." So the claim is that you need $85k in King County in order to continue to live. This isn't pedantry. If people are scraping by in that area with less family income, then this metric is flawed and either the numbers should be revised or it should be renamed.

maxlybbert 7y ago

“Almost half of US families can’t afford basics like rent or food” is simply false. “Almost half of US families are middle class or below” isn’t a crisis, and implies that more than half of US families are upper class. “Almost half of US families have little to no disposable income” may be accurate and a serious problem, but doesn’t get enough clicks. This reminds me of the charity that published a press release saying the Great Barrier Reef had died, only to have scientists dispute the press release and call it unhelpful.

LUmBULtERA 7y ago

>nearly half of Americans simply cannot build any wealth or get out of any debt and likely can't meet the basic standards of education/transportation/food/housing that we used to assume was the birthright of any American If one takes the median household income in the United States $75,938[0] in 2017, you're asserting that it is literally impossible ("simply cannot") to design a budget to build wealth, get out of debt, and those other items you mention? Some families are certainly in a dire circumstance, but I disagree that the median family can't build wealth and meet those other items if they budget responsibly. [0] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEFAINUSA646N https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEFAINUSA646N

Brendinooo 7y ago

I don't think you can just swap out the word "survival" with "middle class". Survival is a really powerful word, "the state or fact of continuing to live or exist, typically in spite of an accident, ordeal, or difficult circumstances." So the claim is that you need $85k in King County in order to continue to live. This isn't pedantry. If people are scraping by in that area with less family income, then this metric is flawed and either the numbers should be revised or it should be renamed.