The problem is that people are financially illiterate. They would choose lower payments every time, even if that meant paying a ton more in compounded interest. If you can be comfortable with a frugal lifestyle by foregoing your consumerist addictions, saving money is pretty easy. Remember that the stuff that we own ends up owning us.
Well there is a reason personal finances aren't taught in school because you make a profit off someone who pays little interest and other finance charges. Though recently i have it seen offered in some high schools. But all this "financial literacy" is just understanding completely pointles and trivial ways that people try to screw you out of money. Amortization schedules, finance fees, and the purposely fine print in ever contract terms of agreement. Though too little too late it is put more plainly.
You think way too much of our public education system to expect this to be 97% of peoples fault who have no savings and the other 3% who do have savings in our country doing the norm.
It comes down to basics. In an economic transaction thats sustainable you have one party who sells a good/service with added value to it for a profit more then their original cost. Like the plumber who uses his learned skills and parts to fix your plumbing. You dont have a sink that leaks. And the person who sold the plumber his copper pipes bought copper and pressed it into its form in a machine. the valet who parks your car, you get that luxurious experience. Etc etc
But when the transaction has a margin of profit and no added value it becomes unsustainable when the margin is too much for the market of people at the receiving end, or if these no value transaction are pervasive in the economy of a society. Thats why inflation exists, its not some natural force of physics like how people just accept gravity. Its not something that exists for no reason or has to exist, its a marker for these no value economic transactions which include various government and financial sector "services" from tax dollars, "borrowing" from the american peoples social security retirement, selling treasury bonds to another country so they can pay what they took from social security or pay the interest on old t bills.
speculating in the bannana industry so everyone the next month pays 1 cent more for them because a floor trader has the power over volume to manipulate.
When money makes money there is often no value added to an economic transaction and thats the entire banking industry. They never had the "wealth" they recently obtained and its a frightening percentage I cant remember but like 65% maybe.
People who work for a living/earn their money through their own sweat, skill, learned service are not the issue. And there will always be a % of the population that needs to be supported by others because of disability, age, etc. and of course there will always be a small percent that takes advantage and feigns illness, its not worth the cost of investigating often and the social service costs are nominal despite what people think.
Poor people and those on ssi actually pay a higher tax burden then the extremely wealthy because of favorable dividend rates, offshore banks, etc. its not just income tax, though people on ssi and below the poverty level have these taxes witheld despite the fact the minimum wage is below the poverty level for anyone with a dependent.
Rent/mortgages pay property taxes that support local schools and police force. State sales and luxury taxes support their mostly unnecessary services besides income tax. Each level of government has their own version of "treasury bonds", general obligation and project/capital investment bonds. The gen obligation has the ability to tax to pay the interest on their bonds inbelieve and they are received state and federal income tax free i believe. And there are enough documented cases of how these funds are taken for personal gain at every financial level. A contractor receiving an overmarket price for their service so the elected official receives a kickback (fixed or % of payment). No show jobs, jobs for friends and families, a job for someone to do their elected job so they basically have a no show job besides get elected again.
And not everyone is physically capable of this financial literacy of trivial/manufactured mathematics. I have a friend from grammar school with fragile X. He has worked full time since 14 and graduated high school. He is only capable of certain jobs like stocking a grocery shelf for minimum wage. Yet every week all these taxes are taken and social security retirement for the age of 70 which he is unlikely to meet because of cardiac congenital malformations. He lives paycheck to paycheck in the rentd room of a crappy house with no car ever and is 29. It is mathematically impossible for him to save and meet his basic living needs.
So hes the ******* for not saving? Guy thats worked almost everday of his life for 15 years without the help of anyone. including the people who bitch about welfare in their tax gripe which could be eliminated and not change a whole percentage point of our tax burden. Those people who some have savings are financially illiterate despite their earned interest on savings because they dont know where half their paycheck goes each week and during each economic transaction of everyday in true subsidized lifestyles.
Its just statistics that some people will be *******s though and take advantage of the weaker party in an economic transaction to the point of jeopardizing their ability to provide basic needs. When we live in a society rather than hermits, it benefits society for protecting these people and preventing mistreatment by others.
We are individuals but unless u are on a desert island and interact with no one or family you are part of a society if only financially or geographically. And its a global society now which is beneficial and likely unavoidable/irreversible. America the country of immigrants has shown that progress comes from the ideas and mixing of cultures. The world being smaller because of the internet and technology is just another version.
We are societal by our nature and have been throughout evolution to homo sapiens. We would not exist if other members of a group of hunter/gathers just stole berries or dead wooly mammoths from each other in order to survive. Sure it happened, but if people only stole dead wooly mammoths then no one would eat because u still need the person who tracked, hunted, and killed it before you can steal it. Anthropology shows societal groups supporting each other as individuals which progressed them as a whole. Worrying or focusing on the small % of people who need support and who misuse u basic living support as cause for breakiing off from society or fragmenting/excluding is not beneficial to any individual nor practical.
$900 a month to one person is not the issue. Epidemiologically a certain % will need support for congential or acquired disabilities. Without the BS on the large scale its not a noticeable difference in the wealth of others.
And if for personal reasons because you think they deserve their misfortune or focus on the small % who misuse that all these people should be malnourished, homeless and exposed to elements, not receive treatment to prevent further disabling conditions then thats your own personal issue. Maybe theyll be an efficent way to screen people for lack of sympathy and the 1 cent of every 100 you earn you can go have fun with.
Its your own defense mechanism and resolution of the internal conflict that awful things happen to people to no fault of their own. "poor people are that way because they are lazy or want to" "all addicts can quit anytime they want, they lack normal willpower or integrity"
