I didn't make it past his first "fact" that most American's can't afford to scrape together $500.
His source is a Google search, that search's first result is a CBS article, that article's source is a Bankrate.com survey.
That survey[1] asked how someone would pay for an unexpected emergency, in which that % responded "from savings" The other options on the survey were "use a credit card", "borrow from friends/family" & "reduce spending". So this obviously doesn't mean they don't have the money, it simply shows how they would pay for it. As I would use a credit card to pay for an unexpected expense 100% of the time, but that doesn't mean I don't have the means to pay for the expense.
"Four in 10 adults, if faced with an unexpected
expense of $400, would either not be able to cover
it or would cover it by selling something or borrowing
money. This is an improvement from half
of adults in 2013 being ill-prepared for such an
expense."
If you don’t have savings, that is not a solution. I understand it was offered as a multiple choice option on the test, but if not feasible in the person’s actual life, it is not an option for them. And same thing with the credit card idea. Getting credit cards is impossible or already maxed out for most people living in poverty, which is the grounds for the predatory pay day loan industry.
if you didn't make it past (ie didn't read further), then you are missing some salient points. If you unexpectedly end up unemployed for more than a few months, you will find that your options for scraping together $500 will get tighter and tighter as your credit cards max out, and you have no additional income to tap.
His source is a Google search, that search's first result is a CBS article, that article's source is a Bankrate.com survey.
That survey[1] asked how someone would pay for an unexpected emergency, in which that % responded "from savings" The other options on the survey were "use a credit card", "borrow from friends/family" & "reduce spending". So this obviously doesn't mean they don't have the money, it simply shows how they would pay for it. As I would use a credit card to pay for an unexpected expense 100% of the time, but that doesn't mean I don't have the means to pay for the expense.
[1]https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/survey-how-american...