Amoeba,
Just save 15% ez game is beyond tone-deaf.
Practically speaking, I would wager a guess the national savings rate has never been 15%.
As a thought experiment, where do you expect people to conjour this 15% from?
Housing costs, as a percent of income, have never been higher;
Healthcare costs, do I really need to say anything here;
If you're lucky enough to have graduated college, congrats, you have more debt than any graduating generation before you;
Car ownership is defacto mandatory basically everywhere in the US; in the rare instance you live somewhere where you can forgo a car you more than make up for the expense in higher rents.
And so on and so forth.
I don't even have the energy to cite all these things.
You sound like my cousin who is the child of a surgeon, had his education completely paid for, and is the beneficiary of the Orthodontic cartel and said verbatim at Thanksgiving; 'if you live in America and aren't rich, it's your own fault'.
Half of all Muricans rent exceeds 30 percent of their income; 25% their rent exceeds HALF OF THEIR INCOME.
Joint Center for Housing Studies Harvard.
Wake up man! The banks (interest) and owners of capital(land/apartments) are taking all of the productivity gainz!
Last edited by thenewsavman; 03-03-2017 at 03:51 AM.