News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Low-income families spend 40% of their money on luxuries. Parent comment

Re:Low-income families spend 40% of their money on luxuries by madcaptenor on Thursday June 29, 2017 @04:42PM (#14666704)
This is a technical definition in terms of "elasticity of demand": see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_elasticity_of_demand . Unfortunately it doesn't agree with what normal people hear when they hear the word "luxury".
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Low-income families spend 40% of their money on luxuries by sharemywin on Thursday June 29, 2017 @05:03PM (#14666856)
so the article basically restated the definition of luxury. The rich spend more than the poor on luxury items.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Low-income families spend 40% of their money on luxuries by cbanek on Friday June 30, 2017 @06:44AM (#14669765)
Well the interesting part is the ratios they give, not the definition of luxury.

It also assumes people are rational consumers, which obviously isn't true. Why would people go into (credit card) debt for something they don't need (luxury)?

Impulse control? Bad financial education? People declare bankruptcy anyway?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Low-income families spend 40% of their money on luxuries by sharemywin on Friday June 30, 2017 @09:58AM (#14670736)
if your life sucks anyway why would you care.
[ Parent | on HN ]