From India here, lending money to friends in times of urgency is quite common and is not considered as a taboo. In fact, some of my friends jumped to help me in need. Also I feel it considerably strengthens the friendship.
I know my friends and I (in the US) all have buffers of at minimum a few months of expenses. I guess it's not inconceivable that someone might have an emergency that requires more, but that would end up being a rather substantial of money. In my friend circle, I've never heard of someone borrowing money.
Key Quote: "47 percent of respondents said that either they would cover the expense by borrowing or selling something, or they would not be able to come up with the $400 at all."
On the other hand in India it would be very obvious to borrow money considering around 80% of population live on couple of dollars a day.
1. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secr...
It is a smart thing to try and have though.
[1] https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-average-annual-salary-in-I...
Whether someone saves money prior to an emergency and then spends their savings, or they borrow for the emergency and slowly pay it back over time, the person still earns and spends identical amounts of money. The difference is the ordering of events. No matter how poor the person, if he or she is capable of repaying loans after the fact, then he or she is capable of saving money before the fact.
I've of course read the statistics that 30-50% of Americans couldn't handle an unexpected expense of some moderate magnitude, but I admit I don't really understand the psychology behind it. You're going to get to spend all the money you earn in your life either way. Why not time it to maximize happiness and/or reduce stress?
Some other commenters have correctly guessed that my income is higher than the median and for some reason think that this is a reason why I can't or shouldn't have an opinion on the matter. But this wasn't always the case. All through my twenties I was poor, but even still I always strived to have 6 months of expenses in a savings account. The only times I didn't have 6 months of expenses in cash were the times I had emergencies or a couple times I bought a cheap used car with cash.
(edited typo)
Or maybe you live a very frugal life, kudos to you, not everybody can do it (I'm myself in the frugal camp, but I don't think it's for everybody out there).
It's this one.