Reply to Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown

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[quote=Anonymous]1.  Housing.  No salary on the GS scale goes very far in the DC area.  Tons of people are paying 50% or more of their aftertax take home each month on housing.  You cannot live in a studio/one-bedroom if you have kids.  This simply does not leave a lot left over for savings.  A lot of these people would have substantial savings if they were paid 50-100k more each year (salaries more in line with the private sector).
2.  A lot of your friends might be doing really well on retirement savings: maxing out 401k each year in addition to fers contributions.  But this type of retirement savings does not leave money leftover for an emergency fund.
3.  Daycare, college, significant medical expenses, unexpected home repairs, divorce - lots of stuff can readily drain an emergency fund.
4.  Inflation.  They got used to making x and spending y sustainably.  But federal salaries have not kept pace with inflation and someone who has not cut back substantially on items like travel and eating out (to cover increased grocery expenses etc.) is no longer going to be saving very much anymore.
5.  Not very many people have 3-6 months liquid.  Your friends might have relatively substantial non-liquid savings like stocks, home equity, etc. but be reluctant to tap into that for a shutdown that is expected to end eventually.[/quote]

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