Low-income families spend 40% of their money on luxuries

marketwatch.com

8 pointsmudil6 comments

Odd definition of luxury goods, which makes me wary of the division of necessity vs luxury:

The Deutsche Bank Research report defined luxuries as “goods or services consumed in greater proportions as a person’s income increases” and necessities as those goods or services that make up a smaller proportion of spending as a person’s income increases.

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".

so the article basically restated the definition of luxury. The rich spend more than the poor on luxury items.

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?

if your life sucks anyway why would you care.

Luxuries include: car, insurance, childcare, telephone, internet, and household supplies. We're not talking about caviar and Coach bags here.

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