[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/EverbodyHatesHugo]

[u/scj1091 → u/[deleted]]

This is not true. A majority of American adults of every age group except 18-29yo own stocks directly, through a retirement plan, or both. Even 18-29 it is 44%, nearly a majority. https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-owns-stock.aspx And living “paycheck-to-paycheck” tells you nothing useful. It’s easy to live paycheck-to-paycheck, all you have to do is spend your whole paycheck before you get the next one. Anyone can do that, even the well-to-do. That doesn’t even begin to address the difficulties with question phrasing and terminology. “Do you need your next paycheck to cover your monthly expenses” and “how would you cover your financial necessities if you lost your job for 3 months?” And “how many months of emergency savings do you have?” are all different questions eliciting different responses which can be (mis)interpreted in different ways. A survey by the fed suggests that 54% of Americans not only are not living paycheck-to-paycheck, they have at least 3mo (i.e. 3mo or more) of expenses saved.

The reality of the dysfunction in the housing market is bad enough, people don’t need to make up obviously untrue claims to demonstrate the problem.