So, Most Americans do have $1,000 for an emergency!

[BTDretire]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/01/14/its-simply-not-true-that-most-americans-dont-have-1000-in-emergency-savings/#52fb06cd9019

The a couple of lines I got the kick out of,
"And if we're honest about it credit and savings are economically the same thing. They're both ways of gaining access to emergency funding."
  "That most Americans don't have $500 or so of "savings" as conventionally defined simply doesn't matter. Because nearly all Americans have access to $500 of credit and thus are able to consume in such emergencies. And, as ever in the study of things economic, it is consumption which is the important point of it all.

I think the author stretching the facts.

Yes, I understand he's writing about economics, but using credit this way doesn't help anyone
in their personal finances.

[Laura33]

ITA.  IIRC, the point of the original articles was that a lot of people didn't have cash to cover a fairly basic emergency, which would then force them to rely on expensive credit if an emergency happened, thus putting them even further behind the eight-ball.

This article would appear to confirm rather than rebut that point.

[Indexer]

Yes, most Americans don't have $1000 in savings but they do have $1000 worth of credit available.

Now, following this line of thought... if the average American doesn't have $1000 in savings that means they don't have any surplus each month. They are spending their entire income. Now they have an emergency, put that on the credit card, and then what? If they don't have any surplus then how will they pay off the credit card.

Which brings us to... https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/average-credit-card-debt.php

Average household credit card debt= $9600.

[Roland of Gilead]

It is kind of like saying most Americans have access to payday loans so they are *ok*.


Lol  /cry

[undercover]

The article makes the presumption that the average consumer will adjust their consumption for the following month based on the use of credit to cover the emergency. There's so many things wrong with that statement that it's not even worth unpacking.