The Cost of Being American
What is the value of the American Dream? Making money consumes more than half of our waking adult days, so how are we spending this money? A recent article on Forbes.com (along with some other data) sheds some light…
| Expense | % of Income |
|---|---|
| Food | 11.2% |
| Housing | 28.6% |
| Clothes | 4.3% |
| Car | 13.5% |
| Health Care | 5.5% |
| Insurance | 10.1% |
| Entertainment | 7.1% |
So housing’s the big one, understandably. The necessities, shelter, food and clothing, come in at only 42%. Pretty swell considering most animals spend their whole lives just trying to get food.
On the other hand, it’s a little shocking that we spend more on cars than on food. Our food is impressively cheap, and we spend much less on food than most other societies of our caliber (ie, Europe, Japan, etc.). I also find it strange that we spend twice as much insuring ourselves as we do on actually fixing ourselves when we’re sick (health care). The saddest part, in my mind, is that entertainment is such a low number. Sure, you can have fun for free by walking through the park, but I’d think that enjoying our lives might be a bit larger priority.
If you crunch some numbers (apparently the average annual household income is $50,233), we’re spending just under $1200 / month on housing. Seems like a lot to me, considering I owned a 3-bedroom house with a yard in a small city’s suburbs for less than $700 / month and rented a 2-bedroom, two story townhouse in Pittsburgh’s most expensive neighborhood for $850 / month. Too many stainless steel dish washers and landscaped bird feeders, perhaps?
$565 / month on your car is an impressive amount to dedicate to something that didn’t even exist until the last 0.008% of the history of human civilization. That works out to over 6 weeks per year of work just to own a car. Pittsburghers who use public transportation in lieu of a personal vehicle only have to work less than a single week every year to pay for their transportation costs. In cities with better public transit systems (closer to $20 / month), residents can spend just over a day working for their transportation needs.
One day vs. six weeks to get you from a to .
Resources
| Expense | % of Income |
|---|---|
| Food | 11.2% |
| Housing | 28.6% |
| Clothes | 4.3% |
| Car | 13.5% |
| Health Care | 5.5% |
| Insurance | 10.1% |
| Entertainment | 7.1% |
So housing’s the big one, understandably. The necessities, shelter, food and clothing, come in at only 42%. Pretty swell considering most animals spend their whole lives just trying to get food.
On the other hand, it’s a little shocking that we spend more on cars than on food. Our food is impressively cheap, and we spend much less on food than most other societies of our caliber (ie, Europe, Japan, etc.). I also find it strange that we spend twice as much insuring ourselves as we do on actually fixing ourselves when we’re sick (health care). The saddest part, in my mind, is that entertainment is such a low number. Sure, you can have fun for free by walking through the park, but I’d think that enjoying our lives might be a bit larger priority.
If you crunch some numbers (apparently the average annual household income is $50,233), we’re spending just under $1200 / month on housing. Seems like a lot to me, considering I owned a 3-bedroom house with a yard in a small city’s suburbs for less than $700 / month and rented a 2-bedroom, two story townhouse in Pittsburgh’s most expensive neighborhood for $850 / month. Too many stainless steel dish washers and landscaped bird feeders, perhaps?
$565 / month on your car is an impressive amount to dedicate to something that didn’t even exist until the last 0.008% of the history of human civilization. That works out to 6.5 weeks per year of work just to own a car. Pittsburghers who use public transportation in lieu of a personal vehicle only have to work 4 days and 3 hours to pay for their transportation costs. In cities with better public transit systems (closer to $20 / month), residents can spend as little as one week working for their transportation needs.