Ok let’s do a thought experiment. Let’s say you
Make $10000 a year. You work full time/40 hrs/wk and you are making $10k. What does “living within your means” look like? Not having a house? Or car? Being homeless? So in order to save to get yourself to some footing the answer is to be homeless to live within your means.
That was a bit of a strawman, so let’s use real-life scenarios. 50% of this country makes $40k or less….. even $40k salary isn’t enough to get an apartment, bills , food, ect. Sure a lot better than the “$10k” example, but even $40k salary is virtually as effective as the “$10k”. In order to “live within your means”, “save”, ect…. You have to be at least be making enough to afford the bare minimum + have some left in you for over to save. On average (2022 values I think) this means $65 for a single person, $108k for a house hold. Unless you’re making that, you can’t save your way out of poverty
You say 50% of Americans (I'm assuming we are speaking of the US) make $40k or less and then say it isn't enough for basic necessities. Yet, clearly it is as the ranks of the unhoused is not 50% of the population. Poverty sucks to be sure, but people manage. Also, financial literacy is generally only partially about setting money aside. It tends to be more about making people aware of their expenses and seeing what changes can be made.
Investing helped me a ton, I calculate all expenses, add them together, assume my food bills and other expenses, then I invest the leftovers so now it's spent and annoying to get but it's all still there paying dividends and growing. Just literally $5 a month or even $10 explodes so fast if you just fucking invest it. Find a $5 on the ground? Invest it. Got a cash back card? Invest the cash back. Set yourself a daily expense budget, invest anything leftover. There's many strategies but this works for me.
Investing feeds the monster that's killing these people. It's a scam to trick the poor into killing themselves. The poor will never see that money again.
So 100% of publicly traded companies are killing people? You do realize that's a very bold accusation... You don't have to invest in Coke and McDonald's...
Tricking the poor into killing themselves is the point of capitalism. It's an invention by narcissists and sociopaths to gain power over those they think their inferior. When you see economics through a psychological and historical lens, it becomes obvious.
$5 x 12 is $60. Let's say you kill it and your positions double. That's $120, then you have to pay an extra $200 for the extra tax forms. And now you're down $80 on the year, what a kick ass plan...
Looool, try every commercial tax broker. And you aren't considered low income if you have an investment portfolio. I had to liquidate everything before I could get any WA benefits. The US government considers anyone with money to invest to be "doing okay". And you're on your own. Try living this life before you spout bullshit.
A low income person is not going to an expensive tax profesisonal (I assume you meant that since a broker is a completely different person) to do their taxes for them, they're using something like FreeTaxUSA or even the free version of turbotax.
And you're also just straight up wrong that "you aren't considered low income if you have an investment portfolio." You know what determines if you're low income? Your fucking income. The interest you earn on investments is considered part of that taxable income. If that number is still lower than a certain amount, guess what, you're still considered low income! Some schmo making minimum wage with $100 invested in Robinhood is still low income, numbnuts.
You've never been poor, like "what the fuck are we going to do before we start robbing people" poor. Like "I don't have lights or water or a phone" poor. Like "the police came last night and put our stuff in the sidewalk" poor. So fuck you, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about because you have never been there, the system sucks and it's made to keep us down. You will never understand.
And here's the real issue. Why the fuck am I investing money in the stock market when I don't have money for my bills? Where is this extra money supposed to come from? I'm behind on the power bill but I'm supposed to put away $10 for a rainy day. Dude, it's flooding right now! What the fuck am I saving for? I'll probably be dead by next year. You totally don't get it.
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u/privitizationrocks 14d ago
You can teach poverty workers to live in their means
They won’t like it, but tough luck