While a surprising statistic, this number has actually improved in the last five years. "This is an improvement from half of adults in 2013 being ill-prepared for such an expense [$400]" - Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2017 [0]
This feels a bit like damning with faint praise; the most likely cause of an emergency debt is a trip to the hospital, and the average deductible of a US employee on private health insurance is $1500 (closer to $3000 for family coverage).
(We don't need to bother considering people who don't have jobs and thus don't have insurance; the failure mode for them, as before, is "resign yourself to lifelong financial ruin and dodging debt collectors".)
So the question then is: what percentage of households can cover a $1500 emergency bill, rather than a mere $400 bill? And, at the rate of growth since 2013, how many decades will it take for that number to creep up to 50% (and don't forget to adjust for inflation).
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/othe...