I wish people would stop linking Noah Smith substacks. He makes a strawman out of the LendingClub survey and then beats it with surveys that do not contradict t

I wish people would stop linking Noah Smith substacks. He makes a strawman out of the LendingClub survey and then beats it with surveys that do not contradict the original survey. In fact, a lot of his writings are strawman beatdowns. Living paycheck to paycheck has low bearing on savings. The LendingClub survey is self reported, and includes people whose finances fluctuate seasonally (they overall live paycheck to paycheck but wind up with random windfalls) and people who maintain a small pile of cash but are always counting on the next paycheck to avoid dipping into their savings. The report even mentions that a chunk of the paycheck to paycheck people are superprime credit consumers, but Noah refuses to stop and think about why that is the case. I personally know people who very well off who are riding the razor’s edge so to speak- they have huge savings but 100% of income does straight to bills.