Business Report: Are you an ALICE?
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Here’s a pretty good definition of being reasonably well-off: not affluent, but able to get by.
You can afford housing, food, childcare, health care, a car, and a cellphone. Pretty basic, right? Well, 43% of American households can’t afford all that. There’s a new term for this. Such a person is an ALICE. It stands for “asset-limited, income-constrained, employed.” The key is “income-constrained.”
American income, in inflated-adjusted dollars, hasn’t risen in half a century.
There are two kinds of poverty: low income and low savings. Most Americans are poor both ways now. And not because they don’t work hard enough. They’re poor even if they do. And as we’ve repeatedly noted, in the long run, this threatens everyone, even the affluent.
And that’s Crisis at a Glance!
Copyright 2019 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
