Welcome to US, land of the (few) rich
We have written about the rising inequalities in the American society. The rich are getting extremely rich, while the poor get poorer. 15% eat of foodstamps, 1% of population has 40% of assets etc. Inequalities such America is experiencing, will cause big problems for the US. We have seen what happens to polarized societies, with the latest being Spain. Below from WSJ;
Nearly half of Americans say that they definitely or probably couldn’t come up with $2,000 in 30 days, according to new research, raising concerns about the financial fragility of many households.
- In a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Annamaria Lusardi of the George Washington School of Business, Daniel J. Schneider of Princeton University and Peter Tufano of Harvard Business School used data from the 2009 TNS Global Economic Crisis survey to document widespread financial weakness in the U.S. and other countries.
The survey asked a simple question, “If you were to face a $2,000 unexpected expense in the next month, how would you get the funds you need?” In the U.S., 24.9% of respondents reported being certainly able, 25.1% probably able, 22.2% probably unable and 27.9% certainly unable. The $2,000 figure “reflects the order of magnitude of the cost of an unanticipated major car repair, a large copayment on a medical expense, legal expenses, or a home repair,” the authors write. On a more concrete basis, the authors cite $2,000 as the cost of an auto transmission replacement and research that reported low-income families claim to need about $1500 in savings for emergencies.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/05/23/nearly-half-of-americans-are-financially-fragile/