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The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans
The Atlantic Magazine
Nearly HALF of Americans would have trouble finding $400 to pay for an emergency. Im one of them.
Since 2013, the federal reserve board has conducted a survey to monitor the financial and economic status of American consumers. Most of the data in the latest survey, frankly, are less than earth-shattering: 49 percent of part-time workers would prefer to work more hours at their current wage; 29 percent of Americans expect to earn a higher income in the coming year; 43 percent of homeowners who have owned their home for at least a year believe its value has increased. But the answer to one question was astonishing. The Fed asked respondents how they would pay for a $400 emergency. The answer: 47 percent of respondents said that either they would cover the expense by borrowing or selling something, or they would not be able to come up with the $400 at all. Four hundred dollars! Who knew?
Well, I knew. I knew because I am in that 47 percent.
I know what it is like to have to juggle creditors to make it through a week. I know what it is like to have to swallow my pride and constantly dun people to pay me so that I can pay others. I know what it is like to have liens slapped on me and to have my bank account levied by creditors. I know what it is like to be down to my last $5literallywhile I wait for a paycheck to arrive, and I know what it is like to subsist for days on a diet of eggs. I know what it is like to dread going to the mailbox, because there will always be new bills to pay but seldom a check with which to pay them. I know what it is like to have to tell my daughter that I didnt know if I would be able to pay for her wedding; it all depended on whether something good happened. And I know what it is like to have to borrow money from my adult daughters because my wife and I ran out of heating oil.
You wouldnt know any of that to look at me. I like to think I appear reasonably prosperous. Nor would you know it to look at my résumé. I have had a passably good career as a writerfive books, hundreds of articles published, a number of awards and fellowships, and a small (very small) but respectable reputation. You wouldnt even know it to look at my tax return. I am nowhere near rich, but I have typically made a solid middle- or even, at times, upper-middle-class income, which is about all a writer can expect, even a writer who also teaches and lectures and writes television scripts, as I do. And you certainly wouldnt know it to talk to me, because the last thing I would ever dountil nowis admit to financial insecurity or, as I think of it, financial impotence, because it has many of the characteristics of sexual impotence, not least of which is the desperate need to mask it and pretend everything is going swimmingly. In truth, it may be more embarrassing than sexual impotence. You are more likely to hear from your buddy that he is on Viagra than that he has credit-card problems, says Brad Klontz, a financial psychologist who teaches at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and ministers to individuals with financial issues. Much more likely. America is a country, as Donald Trump has reminded us, of winners and losers, alphas and weaklings. To struggle financially is a source of shame, a daily humiliationeven a form of social suicide. Silence is the only protection.
cont'd
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secret-shame/476415/
Nearly HALF of Americans would have trouble finding $400 to pay for an emergency. Im one of them.
Since 2013, the federal reserve board has conducted a survey to monitor the financial and economic status of American consumers. Most of the data in the latest survey, frankly, are less than earth-shattering: 49 percent of part-time workers would prefer to work more hours at their current wage; 29 percent of Americans expect to earn a higher income in the coming year; 43 percent of homeowners who have owned their home for at least a year believe its value has increased. But the answer to one question was astonishing. The Fed asked respondents how they would pay for a $400 emergency. The answer: 47 percent of respondents said that either they would cover the expense by borrowing or selling something, or they would not be able to come up with the $400 at all. Four hundred dollars! Who knew?
Well, I knew. I knew because I am in that 47 percent.
I know what it is like to have to juggle creditors to make it through a week. I know what it is like to have to swallow my pride and constantly dun people to pay me so that I can pay others. I know what it is like to have liens slapped on me and to have my bank account levied by creditors. I know what it is like to be down to my last $5literallywhile I wait for a paycheck to arrive, and I know what it is like to subsist for days on a diet of eggs. I know what it is like to dread going to the mailbox, because there will always be new bills to pay but seldom a check with which to pay them. I know what it is like to have to tell my daughter that I didnt know if I would be able to pay for her wedding; it all depended on whether something good happened. And I know what it is like to have to borrow money from my adult daughters because my wife and I ran out of heating oil.
You wouldnt know any of that to look at me. I like to think I appear reasonably prosperous. Nor would you know it to look at my résumé. I have had a passably good career as a writerfive books, hundreds of articles published, a number of awards and fellowships, and a small (very small) but respectable reputation. You wouldnt even know it to look at my tax return. I am nowhere near rich, but I have typically made a solid middle- or even, at times, upper-middle-class income, which is about all a writer can expect, even a writer who also teaches and lectures and writes television scripts, as I do. And you certainly wouldnt know it to talk to me, because the last thing I would ever dountil nowis admit to financial insecurity or, as I think of it, financial impotence, because it has many of the characteristics of sexual impotence, not least of which is the desperate need to mask it and pretend everything is going swimmingly. In truth, it may be more embarrassing than sexual impotence. You are more likely to hear from your buddy that he is on Viagra than that he has credit-card problems, says Brad Klontz, a financial psychologist who teaches at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and ministers to individuals with financial issues. Much more likely. America is a country, as Donald Trump has reminded us, of winners and losers, alphas and weaklings. To struggle financially is a source of shame, a daily humiliationeven a form of social suicide. Silence is the only protection.
cont'd
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secret-shame/476415/
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The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans (Original Post)
Lodestar
Jun 2016
OP
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)1. It's important to live within one's means and set up a rainy day fund.
Lodestar
(2,388 posts)2. However, sometimes when it rains it pours...n/t
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)3. Most banal reply ever.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)4. Not if you've read practically any personal finance book on the market.
DJ13
(23,671 posts)5. You just need to sell a speech to Goldman Sachs for $275,000 & your problem is solved
Javaman
(62,500 posts)6. middle class of america only exists on paper...
reality dictates we are just a fancy version of poverty.