The source in that article is a an analysis of Bank of America’s internal data. It is not “half of all Americans”, it is “half of Bank of America customers”. Which already qualifies the dataset as people who have a bank account (and at that, one as expensive and hostile to low-income customers as BoA)
If it were more than single digit millions, it would be “tens of millions”. And even once you get to “over a hundred million”, you’re still talking of less than a third of Americans.
“Millions and millions of Americans” is something that spin doctors say to make you think that it’s a majority of Americans. It’s very far from it. “Millions and millions of people” may even be less than a majority of Minnesotians
Edit to add: This federal reserve study showed that 6% of American adults are completely unbanked (as in, no bank accounts at all) and 16% are underbanked (having a checking or saving account, but no other banking products or use alternative products like payday advance or money orders).
Further in the study it shows over half of Americans have carried a balance on a credit card in the past 12 months.
Please be a more conscientious consumer of media.
The source in that article is a an analysis of Bank of America’s internal data. It is not “half of all Americans”, it is “half of Bank of America customers”. Which already qualifies the dataset as people who have a bank account (and at that, one as expensive and hostile to low-income customers as BoA)
If it were more than single digit millions, it would be “tens of millions”. And even once you get to “over a hundred million”, you’re still talking of less than a third of Americans.
“Millions and millions of Americans” is something that spin doctors say to make you think that it’s a majority of Americans. It’s very far from it. “Millions and millions of people” may even be less than a majority of Minnesotians
Edit to add: This federal reserve study showed that 6% of American adults are completely unbanked (as in, no bank accounts at all) and 16% are underbanked (having a checking or saving account, but no other banking products or use alternative products like payday advance or money orders).
Further in the study it shows over half of Americans have carried a balance on a credit card in the past 12 months.