How can this be the case? What decisions are being made that 14 / 15 people across tax brackets can’t save?
Antidotally - just look around, people wearing $300 foam shower sandals, new trucks towing dirt bikes/jet skis, dinking $6 coffees, and the talking on their iPhones etc. these are not people worried about saving
That's a picture which doesn't well represent the folks I've known, associated with and worked with.
Out in the public tho, I can see where spendy folks would be the ones that register in our awareness.
But in the US we are indoctrinated to believe that conspicuous consumption is the best thing we can do for our country. Saving hurts our economy and spending drives it forward. Every mainstream economist talks about savings rates like they are a bad thing.
The system has been engineered to simultaneously require people to save a majority of each paycheck in order to live well after they are no longer useful as laborers, but also we are constantly told to spend spend spend.
I say this just because I don't think that it is productive to place the blame on individuals within the system instead of the system itself. I think your analysis is correct though.
I have a $150 phone and it's constantly slowing me down and wasting my time. When I switch apps 4GB RAM + 3GB swap is not enough to keep the other apps open, so I lose what I was writing on Reddit if I quickly respond to a text message
It doesn't have a lot of extra features like a good touchscreen (have to frequently select the correct candidate word), good GPS, NFC, OLED screen (actually I don't miss this as much as I thought)
I will buy a more expensive phone next time, maybe a discounted previous flagship
As for usability, iPhones are too limited for my use. I use apps that need root and others are sideloaded. I typically load alternate firmware (Not the current one tho. That was a mistake, I think). Many $200 android device are fast and capable but zero iPhones are.
Do iPhones come with preloaded carrier crapware like Androids do? I hope not and for that I'd give iPhones a plug.
Jobs with degrees pay just a bit more than a family's responsible spending on expenses. We had news stories for ages about people in degree-req positions on food stamps/SNAP. The state resolved that by opting out of food assistance programs.
This isn't the correct grouping. It was that 1 in 15 were in one of the tax brackets, where savings was possible with disciplined spending.