How the American Male Spends Money | Hacker News Reader

How the American Male Spends Money

theatlantic.com

15 pointsrobg10 comments

Golf, soda, cigarettes, newspapers, and beer. Seriously? I've never felt so disconnected from the typical "American Male", nor have I ever been so proud to feel that disconnected.

Maybe if "soda", "cigarettes", "beer", and "bars" were a bit farther down the list, "gyms" wouldn't need to be so high?

(Who still reads newspapers?)

You're not alone. I spend exactly zero on all of those as well. Opiates of the modern American man?

For Golf there's large costs involved to get going and then continue, hence not that many people could be playing it, but still it has a high cost. Off the top of my head the costs would be something like: course/club membership fees, round fees, golf equipment (clubs, bag, clothes). So you can easily end up spending $1000's per year on the activity.

It's interesting that we spend almost as much on sleep aids as we do on energy drinks. I wonder what the distribution is by age.

I can't understand why so many people prefer chemical-laced energy drinks to natural coffee. They're more expensive on average, too.

Is it useful to speak of a person without bracketing the age? I feel pretty safe in saying that the spending of a 20-something is different from a 30-something is different from a 40-something, etc.

Disheartening that books are nowhere on that list. I hope The Atlantic does a similar article for women, would make an interesting comparison.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/a-day-in...

They do: …and stay tuned for our forthcoming article on the typical American woman.

ever go to a "book club" meeting - mostly women, rarely a guy to be seen.

My bet is the newspaper is mainly for the sports section.

Side note: One of my coworkers had no money for food, but he still had money for his cigs and soda. At first I wanted to give him food, then I thought he needs to figure this out himself. He made more than me. And I saw buying the stuff every day.

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