<p>“She used to earn $70,000 a year as an administrative assistant until her firm began to downsize and left Coyne among the growing number of Americans struggling to live on unemployment benefits, and eventually on minimal food aid.”</p>
<p>“Although on a modest annual salary of $34,000, Paoletti went shopping, dined out with friends, smoked cigarettes and traveled each year to visit friends around the country. That all changed after her severance package ran out.”</p>
<p>This one one of the stupidest articles I have ever read. How does somebody who made $70,000 not have money saved up?</p>
<p>Of course the person is broke and on food stamps when they were only making $34,000 a year smoking cigarettes, traveling around the country, etc.</p>
<p>^What qdogpa said. Americans had been at a negative savings rates for several years before the economic crisis hit. It’s come up a bit since then but barely. In other words, Americans (on average) have been spending more than they make. And they wonder why we can’t recover from this economic crisis?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it may get worse from here on out…we’re running out of ways to prop up the economy:</p>