Curious about DU's economic strata

[Sympthsical]

Because there's a lot of dialogue about whether or not Americans are actually struggling. I'm curious to know what direction perspectives are angling from.

No numbers or anything like that. Just a sense of how people are generally doing. There are always polls about DU demographics, but I can't recall one about its economic composition.

157 votes, 2 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Pretty Comfortable - Bills paid, amenities afforded, vacations can be taken
	72 (46%)
	Stable - Bills paid with enough left over to not stress
	45 (29%)
	Anxious - Bills paid, but you're one life emergency away from losing it
	31 (20%)
	Struggling - Paycheck to paycheck. A flat tire can ruin a month.
	7 (4%)
	Threadbare - You sometimes decide between which bills to pay and rotate around to keep your head above water
	1 (1%)
	Poverty - You're making choices between shelter, utilities, and food much of the time.
	1 (1%)
	2 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[SunImp]

1. I wonder where the Duers who keep harping on about how good the economy is fits in here.

[maxsolomon]

36. "Harping"?

I guess a historically low unemployment rate isn't a measure you consider indicative of a good economy. What is? Is it egg prices?

About 2 years into the Trump administration, this economy won't look so bad.

[CrispyQ]

2. We we're planning a major upgrade inside our house, but we've put that off indefinitely.

I've waited a long time for this. It would have been a nice chunk of change for a local contractor, too.

[Lifeafter70]

28. We saved to do the same since son and gra sonmoved home

We will have to deal with one bathroom for now

[Innocent Smith]

3. I bounce between Comfortable and Stable...

...but my own financial mood bounces between Stable and Anxious.

[XanaDUer2]

4. There was one a couple of years ago

More like how financially off are you. Got a few millionnaires here

[Sympthsical]

6. Given age demographics

I've always imagined there are at least a few comfortable retired folks around.

But I didn't want to get too into the weeds with income levels, sources of income, etc. Just a general sense of how people are living.

[leftstreet]

5. This is a bad idea

No offense meant, but in capitalist cultures that rely on poverty-shaming to prevent uprisings of the peons....well, are members going to feel comfortable being honest?

[Sympthsical]

10. People have been honest about such things in the past

About their SS reliance or costs of medication or rents, etc. Posts of that nature are pretty common here.

I do hear you about poverty shaming. My purpose is the opposite. I've been trying to pipe up on behalf of struggling Americans under a deluge of sentiment that things aren't all that bad for people. I was just curious about where this sentiment is coming from, because it's so at odds with my own liberal orientation.

[leftstreet]

11. Maybe a poll asking how members perceive others are doing in US

[Mike 03]

22. I didn't think it was a good idea at first.

DU is just different. I don't think there would ever be shaming here.

My reason for thinking it wasn't a good idea is a reflection of my paranoia. I was imagining someone from the new administration jotting down who might be worth hitting with a lawsuit. Crazy nonsense I know.

[mvd]

7. Threadbare at best

Sometimes lack food money or fall behind on bills. If I wasn’t still in my house, poverty would be the likely answer.

[XanaDUer2]

8. If you and your mom cannot get affordable housing

What will you do?

[mvd]

12. Hard to say. But my mom has a good lawyer

that’s like a friend that would want to help, plus advice from social worker.

[XanaDUer2]

13. I'm saying this out of concern...

If you both are really just living on her Social Security, you have to think about how you'll survive should she, God forbid, pass. Are you still attempting your disability appeal?

[mvd]

16. I do think about it a lot

Applied for a couple things recently I hope I get. I thank you for asking.

[XanaDUer2]

17. Good luck

Nt

[GreenEyedLefty]

9. My adult life has run the strata

From poor to reasonably secure in the span of 30+ years. What I remember most about being poor is how expensive it was. For years we could never quite get ahead, there was always a calamity waiting around the corner. The mentality that grows up around that has never really left.

[Sympthsical]

14. Poverty is expensive

Both my partner and I grew up poor. Our parents both worked up into working poor and then the lower end of middle class. (Modest house in the suburbs, two cars, but both working and can't pay for children's school). So we both worked/borrowed our way through college, and now we're pretty comfortable middle class.

But poor sticks with you. We spend very little where possible. Still coupon clip every week. We rotate through streaming services instead of keeping them around. I'm still driving an older Corolla.

The one thing that we had to try to actively stop is buying cheap things because they were cheap. You know that famous example. Do you get $50 shoes that last a year or $100 shoes that last you three? I've gotten a lot better at that kind of mid- to long-term financial thinking. Because when you're poor, you're always thinking, "What can I get away with right now?"

And it's stupid. I got in a fight with myself over coffee last night. I had just bought coffee last week, so we have two cans at home. But there was a sale night for $4 off. So I spent five minutes in Costco in front of a pallet of Folgers having this massive debate of "Yes, I don't need it now, but it saves $8 long term." So dumb. Yes, I ultimately got the coffee on sale. And still feel weird about it, because my poverty brain thinks it just bought something it doesn't need.

[Just_Vote_Dem]

25. I have "poverty brain" too, but a little different

Housing projects through my 20's-family had welfare, food stamps, you name it-even those big disgusting blocks of cheese LOL

They had a 2 for 1 sale of Half Decaf coffee at Publix recently, and even though I had plenty at home I bought the two-my mind said, "Yay, this is 7 bucks I'm saving in a month or 2 when I don't need to buy it!" LOL

[yardwork]

26. ...rotate through streaming services...

My wife does that. Thanks for this post. It helps me understand better.

[XanaDUer2]

15. My old cars always knew

If I had extra money

[Mike 03]

21. My Toyota RAV4 is almost 24 years old.

But it's only got 24,000 miles on it. I simply rarely have to drive, and when I do it's maybe two miles to the store or the veterinarian, or a mile to see my mother or my sister. Every few years I take it in to be serviced and they can't find anything to be done except battery and an occasional tire change--but I think that's about to change. I really need to take it in because it hasn't been serviced since before COVID.

My next car, if I need one, I want to be an EV or EV hybrid.

My sister also had a Toyota 4Runner that she drove from the mid 90s until a couple of years ago when she gave it to a friend's daughter.

[TheKentuckian]

18. I had grinded up to stable and now am back to paycheck to paycheck

maybe I can work back up but I don't see a clear path right now.

I was trying to get a couple hundred back into savings this month but my property manager held my check, it appeared to go through, a little bill came out, the check then showed returned so returned check and late fees took that little dream.

I need to get out of this cruddy apartment and get another bedroom so my daughter has a space but I can't seem to quite get there and now my credit is going back down as my usage rate goes up which caused a card to reduce my line which blew up my usage more though I was trying to get it back down again.

It feels like the poverty cycle is kicking in.

I can see homelessness again but this time I won't have the benefit of a car and likely would lose my job with no transportation or ability to work from home.

Maybe I can find a way to borrow from Peter to pay Paul before my credit crashes further to keep the game going.

I don't know but I'm stretched, bone tired, and feel it won't be long until I have to throw a hail mary and hope for the best.

[Prairie Gates]

19. A Post About DU

[W_HAMILTON]

20. "The solution to higher prices is higher prices."

If Americans were struggling as everyone claims, our inflation problem would have been nipped in the bud almost as soon as it began since people wouldn't be able to afford the higher prices and companies would therefore have no choice but to reduce prices or lose out on sales. Of course, everyone wants prices to go back to what they were pre-pandemic -- well, everyone other than the companies profiting off the increased prices -- and we all would prefer paying lower prices than higher prices, but yet we are still paying the higher prices because we are able to (thanks, Biden!), which is why the higher prices persisted.

PS - I don't think exit polls have been finalized just yet, but the lowest incomes -- and presumably those that would be struggling the most -- favored Biden/Democrats over Trump/Republicans.

[Scrivener7]

23. We're all about to get a lot poorer.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Pass

I'm suspicious of the motive.

[Abolishinist]

31. Do tell!

[Kilgore]

29. Reinvented myself 4 times

Each time my employer was bought out, went bankrupt, or downsized, I took the opportunity to get new skills while supporting myself and the family doing whatever I neded to do.

The last job was as a freelance industrial control specalist and it was the most lucrative and stable not having an employer to contend with and growing clients by reputation and word of mouth. Saved and invested along the way and now retired.

[Polybius]

30. Damn

A huge plurality have money. I'm jealous, any tips for a guy in his early 50's?

[dickthegrouch]

35. I've come back from the brink of bankruptcy twice

In fact I’d completely forgotten that I had a reasonable 401k plan I might have been able to draw from, but the 10% penalty would have given me pause if I’d remembered the savings.
That’s the real key: savings from as early as possible and a rigid decision not to dip in unless you absolutely have to. 10% of every $ received is the usual recommendation, I only got up to 8% as debts and car problems kept me stretching. But that iron commitment to not spending savings, saved me now as I’m in retirement.
Since you’re over 50, use the top-up provision for 401k contributions if you can.
I reduced all spending to the absolute minimum during my first long period of unemployment (2001-2003+) and made it through but it was touch and go at the end. I was 54 when I got the new job in my old field, by ignoring the advice of the job hunt advisor and listing my entire experience, not just 10 years. The job I landed was specifically looking for someone with well rounded and “extensive “ experience.
I’ve been lucky and I have survivor guilt over it.

To @Sympthsical I’m not selecting a category because user IDs can be seen easily for the all votes.

Sorry long post without much actual assistance. But it can be done.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

32. Most of the older members already know about me.

And ready I'm not sure how to answer, really. I got a roof for now, but don't know if whatever trump has planned will let me keep it.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

33. I'm stable right now, but I'm not sure how long I can be there.

I do have anxiety over what may happen. I live in Florida so a hurricane or tornados as a result of hurricanes is a big risk. Also, we’re a two-person household and I would not be ok if splitting up were to happen. My boyfriend owns the condo we are living in so I could easily become homeless.

[betsuni]

34. Americans not in the habit of saving money as some other countries are. Not so much about how much you make, it's

the habit of saving from an early age. Different cultures, for example paying in cash, thrift. Etc. But the big fashion the U.S. now is to blame the Democratic Party for not fixing everything in a few years. Knock yourselves out. Whatever.