I see this being stated all the time on antiwork/leftist subs. People smarter in economics than me: Is there any truth in this statement?

29 comments

  1. Most posters on the anti work sub are either teenagers or bots. No, there’s zero truth to it.

  3. Living paycheck to paycheck I would buy. Homelessness, not a chance. You can tell this is true because the average job lasts around 4 years. If everybody was one paycheck away from homelessness, we would see way more people homeless.

    Most people have enough of a social safety net where they could borrow money or sleep on somebody’s couch long before they would go homeless.

  4. Seems high. It wouldn’t surprise me if 50 percent of Americans are 1 paycheck away from not being able to make a rent or mortgage payment. But there are lots of ways that situation can resolve without homelessness. They get behind and struggle for a bit, maybe drive for Uber until they catch up. They sell one of their cars and family transport becomes a hassle but doable. They move in with relatives or friends. The usual stuff.

  7. 1 paycheck is an exaggeration but push it up to 2 or 3 and it’s pretty accurate. We have a rising homelessness crisis in this country caused by runaway housing prices and it’s unlikely to get better anytime soon. Within 30 years we’ll probably end up like Switzerland where you need to be extremely wealthy or use a multi-generational mortgage to even hope to own a home.

  8. Living paycheck to paycheck is not the same as having no money

    These polls are almost always carefully crafted to distort the financial picture of most Americans.

    The reality is the answer is closer to 50% of Americans are overleveraged and living a lifestyle that is not sustainable should the household lose their primary income source.

    If the primary income is lost, they can always short sell the house (if they have one), raid the 401k (if they have one), and readjust their lifestyle to match whatever job they can get on short notice. And most people, have friends and family that can put them up for a while if things get really bad.

    Google tells me that 40% of Americans have been fired at some point and around 0.2% of the US is homeless. Those numbers simply don’t line up with 50% of the population being one paycheck away from homelessness.

  9. The antiwork subreddit is not at all smart with economics.

    The thing about that 50% statistic is that it includes everyone living paycheck to paycheck. Even that dude with the corvette and $500,000 house who spends it all.

  10. Delusional. It assumes that literally everyone who self-describes themselves as “living paycheck to paycheck”(which, even if it sounds pretty black and white, can mean different things to different people) would be evicted from wherever they live after a single month of possibly not being able to make rent. The amount of logical leaps here would’ve made it clear this came from antiwork even if you hadn’t said it.

  11. More like being behind on rent. A less than expected amount on a paycheck for my parents meant having two payments the next month.

  12. Let me put it to you this way, I had a kid recently, and because I had been at my job for only 3 months, I had no Paid Time Off.

    So when my son was born early and we had to stay at the hospital because he was jaundiced, I missed 6 days of work

    It took me 2 months of working to get caught up.

  13. when I had Covid I nearly went homeless. it’s no joke to live paycheck to paycheck and not have any savings. I’d say most of my peers (i’m in my mid 20s) would be screwed if we had 2-3 missed paychecks.

  14. I’m…two, maybe three missed paychecks away from homelessness, yeah. I have a degree in engineering, but nobody’s hiring, so I have to rideshare to pay the bills.

  15. It would take a few missed mortgage payments before anyone does anything to me nevertheless gets me out of the house. They’ll definitely repo some shit

  17. [So the number is 59%,](https://invisiblepeople.tv/59-of-americans-are-just-one-paycheck-away-from-homelessness/) not 50%.

    **HOWEVER**:

    1. The source of the statistic comes from this 2019 research paper, but the 59% was not “1 paycheck away from homelessness” but [“59% Live paycheck to paycheck.”](https://content.schwab.com/web/retail/public/about-schwab/Charles-Schwab-2019-Modern-Wealth-Survey-findings-0519-9JBP.pdf)

    The advocates translate this into “more than half of all Americans are one paycheck away from being out on the streets”–and I’m sorry but this is not at all how any of this works. (If you fall behind on your mortgage or rent, the process for taking your home or kicking you out of your apartment is a multi-month process that, depending on the state, favors the home owner or renter. So it’s not like “gosh, I didn’t get a paycheck last Friday; I’m on the streets by Monday starving to death”: that just doesn’t happen.)

    2. The specific question that leads to that finding is not given anywhere. However, I’ve seen prior questionnaires essentially ask the question “are you living paycheck to paycheck?” Or equivalently, “after each month, would you say that after you pay your bills you have nothing left over to save?”

    The problem with this question is that many Americans have 401K savings plans which are automatically deducted *before* we receive a paycheck. (That is, living paycheck to paycheck is less “OMG I’m about to starve to death!” and more a financial planning tool used by people who have their savings account “out of sight, out of mind” growing for their retirement.)

    And consider the source of the question: Charles Schwab.

    They’d really like you to open an investment account with them, and they’re here to politely remind you that most Americans are dumb fucks for not opening that account.

    But maybe you’re not.

    —-

    Advocacy is an interesting thing to me, because you can always find a statistic you can then mis-state in order to “prove” your point.

    And a lot of times, advocates are actually trying to sell you something. Or trying to convince you to act–and more often than not, act by voting for The Right People.™

    But it’s all a sham.

    Personally I prefer the statistics of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, where things are… well, far more complex than a single number of doom and gloom.

    But none of that plays well on Social Media.

  19. It’s true that most Americans live paycheck to paycheck and if you fall behind, it’s very hard to catch up. So while you may not lose your home right away, one paycheck away from spiraling out of control is very real.

  21. I would define “Paycheck to Paycheck” as someone who, if they miss a paycheck, suffers a hardship. And I know a lot of people like that. I actually do know a friend who makes 6 figures, who is eyeball deep in credit card debt,but the dude keeps spending.

  22. It’s fucking insane how many people in these comments don’t know what paycheck to paycheck means. Putting extra money into a savings/retirement account after bills does not mean paycheck to paycheck. It means literally waiting for your deposit to hit so you can buy something to eat. It means having to postpone paying a bill because the due date doesn’t land on a Friday. It’s pretty clearly explained. “I live paycheck to paycheck but if something happens I can just not pay into my investment or retirement and still wouldn’t have to dip into my savings” is absolutely fucking not paycheck to paycheck. Some of y’all are extremely privileged and either refuse to recognize it or refuse to believe other people aren’t.

  23. Yes. Most Americans in that boat have debt from buying a home or a car, or student loans. Even if they have none of those things, rent has increased significantly faster than the average take-home pay. It makes it impossible to save for a rainy day fund when you have nothing left after paying the required bills.

    They wouldn’t become homeless overnight, but it would create a doom-loop of being too far behind to catch up.

  24. Substitute one paycheck for one crisis and it might be more plausible.

  25. Probably some truth but there’s a lot of people making 100k that are also paycheck to paycheck because of lifestyle creep. Bought a car too expensive or had too many kids without budgeting. Things like that. Also perks like PTO and healthcare is company based so lots of mixed results especially with a huge population.

  26. That is entirely hyperbolic and ignorant.

    [65% of Americans own there own home.](https://www.simplyinsurance.com/how-many-homeowners-in-the-us/#:~:text=65.8%20percent%20of%20all%20Americans,that's%20about%20230%20Million%20Americans.).

    Even if we assume all of these people have a mortgage (they don’t), you won’t be foreclosed and evicted because you became one paycheck behind on your payments. Even if you were that late for several months in a row.

    Of those 35% of the rest of the population, only a small percentage live in any environment where they also would be evicted based on being one paycheck behind on rent. Even then, an eviction generally takes time, requires processing from a court usually, etc. There will be time and opportunity to resolve your back payment(s).

    It’s just dumb nonsense.

  27. Definitely not true. They’re probably trying to illustrate how many people live paycheck to paycheck but it’s certainly not the case that half the population would get evicted immediately if they miss their next payment. Landlords give some leeway and many of them are required to by law.

    It’s a hyperbolic and politicized statement.

  28. I recommend you not listen to anything anyone on the antiwork sub says, basically ever.

  29. It’s an exaggeration, but many (most?) people are living to the limits of their income. Even those with a pretty good income. As most people’s income goes up they just spend more on more expensive things. We certainly don’t save enough to prepare for hard times.

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like