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Americans like to pretend they’re rich when they’re not.

neogodless 4y ago
All of us, exactly. There is no reason to use nuance on the internet when talking about a large group of heterogeneous people. Did you know there's maybe 600 million people in North America and over 400 million in South America? Ah but you just meant all of those United States suckers?! 320 million. All of them "like to pretend they're rich when they're not." And everyone on Hacker News uses broad sweeping statements to refer to a fractional subdivision of a much larger group.
- linuxftw 4y ago
  Everyone knows "Americans" refers exclusively to the people in the USA. True, two continents also happened to have the name "America" in them, but their relation doesn't matter. As you can see here [1], America is the short form of USA. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(disambiguation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(disambiguation)
  - neogodless 4y ago
    Right, I inferred they meant "Americans" (from the United States), which I included in my comment. 320 million (which I included in my comment.) Are you refuting my sarcastic rebuttal? Is the original comment accurate, that all citizens of United States share that same behavior?
    - linuxftw 4y ago
      How much of a population has to meet a criteria for a generalization to become acceptable? I would say 2/3 is a nice measure. For sure, 2/3s of Americans live far beyond their means. I also think that the word "average" is implied when talking about large groups, by default. "The Average American lives beyond their means" to most people has the same meaning as "Americans live beyond their means."
      - neogodless 4y ago
        According to the LendingClub survey, 61% are living paycheck-to-paycheck, though that is not the same as "pretending to be rich when they are not" since many of them have much lower incomes than the $250k figure that the article focuses on. Where are you getting the figure that 2/3 of Americans pretend to be rich (when they are not)?
        linuxftw 4y ago
        I said living beyond their means, not necessarily pretending to be rich. They're just pretending not to be impoverished, because being impoverished is shameful in America.
        neogodless 4y ago
        OK, but that's different from the thread comment that started this. > Americans like to pretend they’re rich when they’re not. Arguably many on the lower end of the income scale aren't pretending not be impoverished. They are, they know it, and there's not much they can do about it. That's living paycheck-to-paycheck, not by choice, but by necessity. It's a very different animal to live beyond your means. It is pretending to have more income than you have, though whether it's for appearances or other misguided notions of what they "deserve" would require deeper insight into their internal motivations!

All of us, exactly. There is no reason to use nuance on the internet when talking about a large group of heterogeneous people. Did you know there's maybe 600 million people in North America and over 400 million in South America? Ah but you just meant all of those United States suckers?! 320 million. All of them "like to pretend they're rich when they're not." And everyone on Hacker News uses broad sweeping statements to refer to a fractional subdivision of a much larger group.

linuxftw 4y ago
Everyone knows "Americans" refers exclusively to the people in the USA. True, two continents also happened to have the name "America" in them, but their relation doesn't matter. As you can see here [1], America is the short form of USA. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(disambiguation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(disambiguation)
- neogodless 4y ago
  Right, I inferred they meant "Americans" (from the United States), which I included in my comment. 320 million (which I included in my comment.) Are you refuting my sarcastic rebuttal? Is the original comment accurate, that all citizens of United States share that same behavior?
  - linuxftw 4y ago
    How much of a population has to meet a criteria for a generalization to become acceptable? I would say 2/3 is a nice measure. For sure, 2/3s of Americans live far beyond their means. I also think that the word "average" is implied when talking about large groups, by default. "The Average American lives beyond their means" to most people has the same meaning as "Americans live beyond their means."
    - neogodless 4y ago
      According to the LendingClub survey, 61% are living paycheck-to-paycheck, though that is not the same as "pretending to be rich when they are not" since many of them have much lower incomes than the $250k figure that the article focuses on. Where are you getting the figure that 2/3 of Americans pretend to be rich (when they are not)?
      - linuxftw 4y ago
        I said living beyond their means, not necessarily pretending to be rich. They're just pretending not to be impoverished, because being impoverished is shameful in America.
        neogodless 4y ago
        OK, but that's different from the thread comment that started this. > Americans like to pretend they’re rich when they’re not. Arguably many on the lower end of the income scale aren't pretending not be impoverished. They are, they know it, and there's not much they can do about it. That's living paycheck-to-paycheck, not by choice, but by necessity. It's a very different animal to live beyond your means. It is pretending to have more income than you have, though whether it's for appearances or other misguided notions of what they "deserve" would require deeper insight into their internal motivations!