Average American savings

[backandbeyond]

Thankfully mattresses have given way to fireproof safes lol.

 

[Danil54grl]

Venezuela’s govt is a shit storm, I’ll give you that. But a major reason they are so bad right now is the US has destroyed their economy and made it illegal for anyone to do business with them. I don’t like or agree with their dictatorship but I also don’t think we have the right to destroy nations because we don’t like their government. The problem is we don’t hurt the government but just starve the common people. This idea hasn’t won anything in Cuba for over 50 years now

Really? You think that the US destroyed their economy and it is wasn't their corrupt government who has been money hungry? I have first hand knowledge that tells me otherwise.

 

[Brent S]

Really? You think that the US destroyed their economy and it is wasn't their corrupt government who has been money hungry? I have first hand knowledge that tells me otherwise.

I don’t think the US is wholly to blame, but yes, we enacted a ban for anyone to trade with them and it was a part of the collapse. Their own government is terrible and I’m not defending them here. I just don’t think the US needs to weaponize economic trade to try and force other countries to do what we want. It has been a failed policy in Cuba for over 60 years now.
I can only imagine how bad it is for the average people there now, especially since they were so well off before.

 

[Amish Heart]

Well off under Castro?
Ha Ha Ha Ha

 

[Brent S]

Well off under Castro?
Ha Ha Ha Ha

Not at all. But you missed my point completely. It was that even with starving the average people for over sixty years by our sanctions and we still didn’t get them out of power. The old saying about if you keep doing the same thing over and over why would you expect to get a different result comes to mind. I’d say it is time to try new ways to get the desired results.

 

[MOS0231]

I truly don’t worship money like most people in the world seem to do. I do really like the sense of security I have from knowing I can handle life’s emergencies though. Like needing a new roof, transmission, or job loss, etc. By the way, these things aren’t emergencies, they are called expected maintenance and should be planned for. If your not saving some of your income, even if it’s only a little, your setting yourself up for failure.

The majority, but not all, of Americans put themselves into those positions.
Not many are actually educated in finance. They impulse buy what they see, they want it and want it now.
Be one thing if that were just small things. But they apply that to things like the 2,400sqft home for a family of three. Then fill it with a new shiny things, a smart TV in everyroom to include the bathroom.
They dine out 3-4 times a week, and then order in the other times or nuke a boxed dinner. That all stainless steel stove rarely see use.
Back during one of the government shut downs, it was amazing to see how many people could not afford to go without two paychecks.
These were not your Wall-Mart employee. These were government employees, whom I worked with in IT. They were seemingly middle-class, until the paychecks stopped.

 

[backandbeyond]

Really? You think that the US destroyed their economy and it is wasn't their corrupt government who has been money hungry?

Every Empire ends this way. Every Empire. The usual trigger is military overstretch, a well documented subject. tinyurl.com/pycuzyc7

The US spends more than the next 10 Countries Combined... The United States was the biggest driver of this growth, with its $732 billion in 2019, accounting for a full 38% of global military spending.

Add to this the vast social security net and you have the standard recipe for bankruptcy. Rome's fall is well documented and linked to these two. Can you believe that when Julius Caesar enter Rome as it's new dictator there were nearly half a million on welfare, bread and circuses. They all lost their jobs to the import of slaves and no doubt outsourcing of materials and foods from other lands.

An interesting side to this military spending is that the preeminent empire usually wastes money on the technology of previous wars. The British did it with their huge fleet of battle ships and when WWII broke out they were broke and had no aircraft carriers and not enough destroyers to protect against the new fleets of U-boats. Why they didn't learn from the Spanish mistake of running fleets of huge sailing ships is the mystery. The English pioneered the smaller swifter fighting ships that defeated them centuries earlier.

 

[backandbeyond]

The majority, but not all, of Americans put themselves into those positions.
Not many are actually educated in finance. They impulse buy what they see, they want it and want it now.

It's madness isn't it! People willingly making themselves slaves just for a few baubles.

 

[Amish Heart]

I mentioned Castro because it was his communist/socialist policies that hurt the cuban people. Just like Venezuela. Just like so many countries that practice socialism and then communism.
We may spend alot on our military, but our current govt is printing money backed on nothing to support social programs and citizen freebies, and they have no business doing that. We are heading towards an economic collapse because of this.

 

[Jayson]

Well off under Castro?
Ha Ha Ha Ha

The only Cubans who were well off under Fidel were the ones who got off the island.

 

[Dracos]

Prove me wrong. That is a frequently heard argument made by non thinkers. Go back to logic 101. One thing you should have learned is that it is impossible to prove that something didn't happen.

 

[Helen Back]

 

[Brent S]

It's madness isn't it! People willingly making themselves slaves just for a few baubles.

Debt is very much like slavery.

 

[Brent S]

I don’t think the US is wholly to blame, but yes, we enacted a ban for anyone to trade with them and it was a part of the collapse. Their own government is terrible and I’m not defending them here. I just don’t think the US needs to weaponize economic trade to try and force other countries to do what we want. It has been a failed policy in Cuba for over 60 years now.
I can only imagine how bad it is for the average people there now, especially since they were so well off before.

The well off before was sarcasm as they went from poor to dirt poor. (For those that didn’t get it)

 

[MOS0231]

It's madness isn't it! People willingly making themselves slaves just for a few baubles.

I could not agree more.

 

[spazatak]

You have to live within your means.

 

[bigpaul]

most people dont know what that means.

 

[MOS0231]

most people dont know what that means.

And when you try to point that out, boy do they get pissed.

 

[bigpaul]

And when you try to point that out, boy do they get pissed.

most people these days are incapable of sticking to a budget, it all goes on the credit card and they are neck high in debt, and neither do they seem to care.
when I was growing up there were no such things as credit cards you HAD to live within your income.

 

[Amish Heart]

Some people consider the limit on their credit card is part of their means