Hacker News Reader

I don't see how "I would have to accrue unexpected and emergency debt to manage this expense" is any different from "I can't afford this expense"

"Afford" is a four-letter word. You can break it into:

1) I have the cash ready to spend right now or in liquid assets.

2) I can get the cash, but from an account/asset I'd rather not withdraw from (IRA, jewelry).

3) I can go into debt to pay it, and it wouldn't make a big difference over the next year.

4) I can go into debt to pay it, but my financial situation would be close to bankruptcy over the next year.

5) I can't access that kind of money by any means.

A good survey should iron out this spectrum of "affording" the expense to make the result robust and easy to interpret.

the difference is that the former requires credit. Some people are so poor they don't even have that.

I'd say that both count as "struggle", though