Hey, it's the land of Hollywood. If anyone in the world is good in pretending, it's them.
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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I mean honestly some should not be. There is this guy that talks about california real estate on over ten million dollar properties were the person has problems with other debt to. I mean the down payment has to be a mill or more. If I had financial means like that I would be debt free.
There is deff high income people who suck at budgetting. But fast majority of pay to pay check crowd are objectively poor.
60% of americans live pay check to pay check. I would say like 10% of them people who can't manage money.
No part of my education included basic personal finances. My son is now in high school and also reports the same.
I don't know any regime funded school where that's the norm tbh why would regime educated you on how to fight the power structure?
Financial literacy is a family affair. I am assuming bulk are educating your son about it.
Im not sure that financial literacy can really be called fighting the power structure tbh. Like, sure, certain companies that make money off debt might make less off you, but for a person that isnt rich, the money saved is gonna end up spent on something else at some point, so every other company except the ones selling debt benefit from you not being in it. If anything, citizenry that are so broke that they cant buy things and struggle to survive are less able to contribute to a consumer economy and might require the government either spend more money on social services so that they can keep stable enough to work, or spend more money on policing to deal with the increase in crime that comes with desperation.
The power structure is the not the government... Government is the tool used by the power structure to impose its will on the working people.
The people who own the country want everyone dirty poor so they can easily exploit them. If the middle class has to pay for the food stamps and section 8, even better win win.
Look at the national debt. Where do you think that money went?
Unfortunately financial responsibility are not taught in school. Hell finance isn't even taught unless you're going to business school and that doesn't even necessarily cover skills like budgeting.
I owe nothing!
Who's pretending? Not here! We know we broke
Shame. Like several other cultures, Americans are very judgmental of poor people.
American hate of the poor is rooted in English roots where they have special disgust for them.
I mean, yeah, I have a mortgage that will outlive me, but I still have money coming in.
I believe it's partially because the national debt has always been high and keeps getting higher. It's been a little while since I checked or heard anything about it, but it got a lot of press time in the 2010's. I feel like that affected how americans view debt. I've also heard the financial advice espoused by banks "it's financially healthy to have some debt, it helps you build credit". Which is partially a crock of shit and regardless of the veracity of that statement, it mostly leads to people digging a hole they can't get out of.
MSMs propaganda, decades of it, so you wont realize that you are "actually poor" because of the top .05% owners. im simplifying, buts its through various mechanisms, like advertisements, news, politicians.
spendy culture in general is disconnected from reality
Kinda answered your own question there
Who said I pretend? I'm effectively broke, between side jobs anyways. But hey, at least I earned a little extra cash doing some bicycle maintenance and other random help for a neighbor today.
In a country where personal identity is 90% shaped by politics and consumerism makes seeming poor like herpes.
Normies just reacting to their environment
The thing about it... Anyone can pretend to be rich for a year or two but math will math eventually.
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/keep+up+appearances
Sometimes people attack weaknesses. This is a defense mechanism. Also it's better for mental health to focus on what you do have, rather than what you don't. That doesn't mean you're not trying to meet genuine needs. It just means learning what are genuine needs and addressing that, while also noting "I have food and shelter, that's a great thing!" Especially when so many don't.
Must keep up with the Jones.
Ok, not an exact answer, but... In 2008, John Oliver had a bit that I thought captured the US culture of consumerism. He basically said that many countries could invent or even build an inflatable BBQ - but only Americans would actually buy an inflatable BBQ. Anywho, spending money, independent of whether a person has it, seems to be a cultural phenomenon in the US.
Country Last Previous Unit Norway 210 206 % Luxembourg 187 182 % Netherlands 181 184 % Canada 171 173 % New Zealand 169 168 % Denmark 169 174 % Sweden 151 156 % Finland 108 112 % Cyprus 97.14 105 % Belgium 95.93 102 % France 95.35 102 % Euro Area 93.09 96.79 %
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/households-debt-to-income
Can't find US on there but I am know it ain't first.
Debt is the westoid material condition... The quality of life people enjoy requires it.
Yeah, I was wondering about the US too. Also, I was expecting to see debt:income more like 30%. Am I reading this list wrong?
It is measured to income here in %.
So I think it reads avg people carry for the year v income for that year.
It is a a very distorted metric tho... Like GDP just give you the measure of what the avg individual would contribute..
You would have to adjust for age etc to really understand what is going on. Also norway is rich it kinda reflects and rest of the well developed countries do too.
I hate that the concepts of broke and debt even exist. It's all made up.
Credit
Red herring arguement.
Once you hit the credit limit, you are done and now you 25% rate on the 20-50k you charged.
Classism.