[baggy_trough]

> Somewhere around 30-40% of Americans cannot afford an emergency $1000 expense.

This oft-reported statistic is wrong. It's based on a survey that simply concluded that they wouldn't necessarily pull that amount from savings to meet an emergency expense. That doesn't mean they can't afford it or don't have more savings than that.

[keeda]

This seems to be the report and the specific section of interest: https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/emergency-savings-r...

You're right that the question they used is a bit vague, but there is a ton of other data in there that points to affordability as the main cause e.g.

"Nearly a quarter of Americans have no emergency savings"

and:

"Sixty percent of Americans are uncomfortable with their level of emergency savings — 31 percent are very uncomfortable, and 29 percent are somewhat uncomfortable."

[seanmcdirmid]

It is the social sciences, they can find data for any viewpoint they want to push.

[mythrwy]

There are a lot of people right on the line though. May not be 40%, but it's a lot of people.