this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2025
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No, the downvotes are for being tone-deaf and contributing nothing of value to the conversation. Lots of us here are perfectly able to save that much and more, but that doesn't change the fact that far too many cannot.
I'm a young man and I make about the average income in my country. I saved that much very easily in only 5 months. That's some value to the conversation, I'd say. Not to take away from the discussion of course, and I do apologize for being tone-deaf. I really just meant it as a throwaway comment, I don't know, didn't think much about it.
Their comment responds directly to the claim in the OP.
That you lack the reading comprehension to understand this is horrifying.
What percentage of the population of the US can save $5000?
56% of Americans have more than $5000 in savings excluding retirement funds such as 401k.
Well that's weird, because well over half of Americans have less than $5000 in their savings accounts.
Do they keep the rest in a mattress?
Bruh
1−(.54+.52+.42+.29)/4 = 56%
This assumes that there's the exact same number of people in each generation. There are not. If the above is what you did, then what you've calculated is the percentage of generations that have over 5k. Squid is talking about the percentage of people who have over 5k. Those are two different numbers.
Thanks for providing a source, but I'm very skeptical of anybody using averages to represent this rather than the median. If you put 99 destitute and homeless people in a room along with Elon Musk the average net worth in that room is over 4 billion dollars, which to put it mildly does not reflect the reality of most people in the room.
Doing this by savings brackets actually avoids this problem but I would agree in another scenario.
If we exclude the top two savings brackets we arrive at 46% of Americans having over $5,000 and under $250,000 in savings outside a 401k.
Im certain that is a higher percentage of Americans with $5,000 savings than in 1946!
It certainly is higher than in 1946, but not as high as it should be relative to income or purchasing power, which I think is why the meme is effective. Assuming somebody else in this thread was correct when thy said $5k in 1946 is equivalent to $80k today that's a sixteen-fold difference, but I'm extremely skeptical that the average American is able to save 16x what his great-grandfather did, whereas the price of everything (housing, food, whatever) has increased far more. It isn't a healthy position for a developed society to be in, especially one without public healthcare. If I were an American and had only $5k in the bank I'd be terrified.
Yes. Averages do paint different pictures than actual hard numbers. And yet the actual hard numbers show the reality of the situation, and that reality is that a lot less than 56% Americans have more than $5000 in savings because that has nothing to do with an average.
Breaking it down by generations still does not change the fact that a lot less than 56% of Americans have more than $5000 in their savings accounts. Maybe more of certain generations do, but that's not what you said.
Yet again, in hard numbers, measuring physical human beings, it's far less than 56%. I have no idea why you think averages are relevant.
It doesn't matter what is being averaged. When you are talking about what percentage of Americans have something, it's about hard numbers, not averages. Insulting me won't change that, but if you insist on continuing to do so, I'll just report you for violating the rules and move on.