Article: The Secret Shame Of Middle Class Americans

[Penn42]

Stealing the title format from @swampwiz, thanks dudette/dude!

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secret-shame/476415/

For an article specifically talking about the poor savings habits of middle class Americans the author sure likes playing the victim.  While I agree with the author that it's ridiculous that wages have stagnated and money is flowing to the top, I also disagree that you can use that as an excuse for people who have the means to save in the first place and choose not to.  If you already have the means to save and choose not to, what's magically gonna change about that behavior if the means expands?   

Ultimately I think American's lack of a savings culture is a pretty complicated problem stemming from multiple causes.  Nonetheless the writing in this article just rubbed me the wrong way.

[MoStash]

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/antimustachian-wall-of-shame-and-comedy/the-secret-shame-of-middle-class-americans/

[Penn42]

NVM, then.  I even went over there and looked.  Shoulda done control-f I guess.

[Penn42]

Oh geez I'm all messed up.  Didn't even realize it was two years old.  Facebook has weird ways...

[MoStash]

It generated a lot of discussion, and very little pity for the author and his string of bad decisions.

[Kay-Ell]

I’m gland you posted it again. I wasn’t here 2 years ago.

The author pulls together a lot of good information in a well written manner. That said, I’m also annoyed by the victim complex he appears to be trying to instill in his readers. Several times he writes sentences about being responsible for his own bad choices and financial ignorance then follows with paragraph after paragraph about why those choices are really caused by unavoidable factors that he couldn’t have foreseen - quoting statistics about others bad choices and financial ignorance to back up the real point of his article:

The precarious financial position of having nothing in savings just happens to otherwise good people. That nobody has any control over their expenses and must rely on credit because of a broken economy with stagnant wages.

[EnjoyIt]

Wages are not necessarily stagnant.  Wages have gone up about 2%-5% over the last few years.  What has increased out of proportion is cost of healthcare making take home pay stagnant or even less over that same time period.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wage-growth

The problem isn't wages.  Its our healthcare system.

[swampwiz]

Stealing the title format from @swampwiz, thanks dudette/dude!

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secret-shame/476415/

For an article specifically talking about the poor savings habits of middle class Americans the author sure likes playing the victim.  While I agree with the author that it's ridiculous that wages have stagnated and money is flowing to the top, I also disagree that you can use that as an excuse for people who have the means to save in the first place and choose not to.  If you already have the means to save and choose not to, what's magically gonna change about that behavior if the means expands?   

Ultimately I think American's lack of a savings culture is a pretty complicated problem stemming from multiple causes.  Nonetheless the writing in this article just rubbed me the wrong way.

For the record, I'm a dude.  And yes, when I first read the title, I thought I had posted it, LOL.