The cost of hand-to-mouth living

[TalkingDog]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/f5763610-b2bb-11e2-8540-00144feabdc0.html

“We see a pronounced difference between how people are shopping today and before the recession,” the executive explained. “Consumers are living pay check by pay check, and they tend to spend accordingly. Then you have 50 million people on food stamps and that has cycles too. So for our business it has become critical to understand the cycle – when pay [and benefit] checks are arriving.”

Sadly, it does not yet seem possible for outsiders (or journalists) to crunch the numbers across the entire economy. Large companies are very secretive about their big-data projects (this particular company, which produces many of America’s best-loved snacks, would not let me reveal its name). And though economists monitor macro trends in retail spending, they have not traditionally analysed micro spending swings.

Nevertheless, this story is not unique. Executives at Walmart, for example, have recently noted the rising impact of the “pay check cycle”; Kroger, another retailer, notes that the proportion of customers using food stamps has doubled, creating additional swings. And as these anecdotal tales mount up, they are interesting for at least two reasons. First, and most obviously, they should remind us of the silent, dark underbelly of economic pain that is stalking America’s current “recovery”. Most notably, it seems that the financial fragility of the poorer section of US society has risen sharply in recent years, as unemployment remains high and real incomes and household wealth fall. (A revealing survey published last week, for example, suggested that the wealth of Hispanic and black families declined by 44 per cent and 31 per cent respectively between 2007 and 2010.)

[gopiscrap]

1. THe poor always get fucked

because they can't buy their way to the type of laws they want!

[mysuzuki2]

2. Being poor is expensive.

[mbperrin]

3. I've noticed that cycle in our town for the last decade.

We're supposedly in a "boom", but what I see is great business in restaurants and stores on the 1st-3rd, and 15-17th, paydays. Then I see many many garage sales on the week between - the 10th and 20th, and what people sell are things like headboards, their dryer, not the washer, the dishwasher, electronics, things not absolutely needed.

Big lines at Redbox and all the video rental stores are out of business. Only two movie theaters left. 85% of the kids in the high school where I teach qualify for free or reduced lunches.

Young women with two or three small children walking carrying their bags from the Dollar Store, no car of their own, and very limited bus service here. For shopping, it goes to the mall, but these folks are not going to the mall.

Yes, when you're poor, everything takes longer, costs more, and is not as good as you wanted it to be.