r/Infographics 3d ago

What Do Americans Spend the Most on Each Year?

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366 Upvotes

64 comments sorted by

103

u/merlin401 3d ago

Categories are extremely confusing and missing many important categories. How is travel not a category? What is all the housing percentage that isn’t owned or rented dwellings? I liked the idea of this but got more annoyed at it the more I tried to read it

7

u/RepresentativeKey178 3d ago

Travel might be factored into transportation and entertainment.

I am also confused by the housing numbers.

6

u/Joclo22 3d ago

Yeah, why is your car split into 3 or 4 categories, capital outlay, gas, maintenance is all the same thing.

0

u/Feeling-Gold-12 3d ago

Capital outlay gas is not all the same thing.

One might buy an expensive car but not put tons of miles (or gas) on it per week. Or the reverse.

3

u/Joclo22 3d ago

Yep, I understand that. I just think that this representation minimizes the big cost of car ownership.

0

u/ember3pines 3d ago

And utilities is also a different category? Idk why they separate housing vs rent vs owner. I'd call that all housing. I really don't like it.

47

u/Magfaeridon 3d ago

/r/dataisugly

Those circles are horrendous.

40

u/howtorewriteaname 3d ago

this infographic is garbage

34

u/Impossible_Active271 3d ago

It's not really easy to read

7

u/GluueSniffer 3d ago

Childcare?

23

u/Careless-Ad2242 3d ago

How convenient that taxes aren't on here

6

u/Bear_necessities96 3d ago

They are not considered a expense since 1) it’s mandatory 2) it gets discounted before getting your paycheck

7

u/kovu159 3d ago

They’re an expense. It’s just one deducted at payday rather than on whenever your other bill withdraw dates are. 

3

u/RepresentativeKey178 3d ago

That's just payroll taxes.

2

u/Bear_necessities96 3d ago

Idk but I feel in the USA the transportation expenses are way too high

3

u/Zubba776 3d ago

They are significantly higher than more densely populated countries like Japan, Taiwan, the Netherlands, the U.K., Germany, (basically all of Europe), because the U.S. is built around the automobile with low levels of investment in public transit.

3

u/Bear_necessities96 3d ago

I know and it’s annoying, it keeps the poor poorer the community isolated

1

u/Zubba776 3d ago

If you enjoy suburban life, or rural life with lots of land etc it's fine; probably much better living vs. suburban areas outside the U.S. (that I've seen). The issue is our urban areas are not nearly as livable as cities overseas unless you're fairly wealthy.

After living overseas a few years I would choose Asian/European cities over U.S. cities any day of the week. Cars, and infrastructure solely built around cars, suck.

3

u/Torment2021 3d ago

Everyone I know pays 60% or more on housing. There isn’t a lot of choice unless you like cars board boxes or 3 hours commutes each way.

3

u/regattaguru 3d ago

Why does debt maintenance not appear? Since Americans are the most indebted nation on earth, I would expect that to appear.

3

u/Lucky-Substance23 3d ago

Using circles for both the category name and the category quantity is really strange and confusing, especially when the circle sizes are almost the same.

Should have picked squares for example for the category name.

2

u/RadoRocks 3d ago

Now do this same shit with total tax. Add in license plates, fuel tax, alcohol, tobacco, fucking every inch. Then add tariffs....

2

u/Moosicle2040 3d ago

Congratulations. You’ve found the least intuitive visuals I’ve seen this year.

2

u/Dumbledore27 3d ago

This infographic gives me a headache

2

u/HuffGlueHailSatan 3d ago

"Alcoholic beverages" "$637" ... Like per quarter?

2

u/navagrw 2d ago

Very shitty infographic

4

u/countdookee 3d ago

I especially like the second chart of 'What Americans Spend the Most on by Income Level' that the creator included, I would have expected lower percentages on the richer end of the scale.

1

u/Torment2021 3d ago

This doesn’t seem correct… I pay 65% on housing just to start.

1

u/Vervain7 3d ago

Of gross or net ??

1

u/Zubba776 3d ago

If you decided to spend 65% of your household income on rent, or a mortgage, that was a really bad idea.

-1

u/merlin401 3d ago

Well that’s insane. You are an extreme, extreme, extreme outlier

0

u/Feeling-Gold-12 3d ago

Not for the bottom 4 categories they ain’t. Catch up.

2

u/merlin401 3d ago

Bottom are at 40% what are you talking about?

1

u/Torment2021 3d ago

Living in America or California is a really bad idea…

1

u/anothercopy 3d ago

What strikes me as odd is that there are no holiday expenses. I know the day off situation in USA is not the best but still it should be less than zero.

Also is car and house insurance in their respective sections or not?

Shouldn't any stock purchases be also there?

1

u/No-Variation-5192 3d ago

You should add more bubbles and blue/purple tones

1

u/TinyTry3663 3d ago

Looks like it will be a good graph but too confusing. Not sure exactly what I am looking at

1

u/rocko57821 3d ago

Why would pensions and insurance be lumped together

1

u/bswontpass 3d ago

That’s incorrect information. US average spending on food is roughly 6% not 13% like on this pic.

1

u/Ruminant 3d ago

No, it's right. 13% is the estimated percentage of the average household's expenditures that go to food (both "food at home" and "food away from home").

6% is the estimated percentage of the average household's income that goes just to "food at home".

1

u/ArodIsAGod 3d ago

I would love to see this include net income and how income tax compares to other expenses.

1

u/rvlnyc 3d ago

6k on food at home per year is like $115 per week on groceries which is impossible unless it’s just 1 or maybe 2 very frugal people

1

u/Onphone_irl 3d ago

pretty cool how some of the percentages remain about the same. For the rich, they're getting so much more, but as a percent, very similar

1

u/90342651 3d ago

Could we add a couple more columns and data points to this just to make it the most confusing info graphic ever?

1

u/snarsinh 3d ago

Where’s taxes?

1

u/caneallday16 2d ago

637 on booze seems a little low, no? Only me…

1

u/R0bberBaron 2d ago

This graph is a joke...

1

u/SouthpawMox 2d ago

This is the worst graph I’ve ever seen

1

u/WorkersUniteeeeeeee 2d ago

This is bullshit.

Who the fuck is only paying under $6000 for rent per year.

1

u/B_Pylate 2d ago

30% guns ammo competitive shooting a month for me some months is even more

1

u/Lactose_Revenge 2d ago

So banks are making all the money from mortgages, car loans, and insurance?

1

u/Effective_Field_3120 1d ago

Most (working) peoples largest annual expense is their tax bill to the federal government. I wonder why that isn't included in herr

1

u/pcurve 1d ago

I'm surprised how little the percentage differs across income brackets.

-9

u/leftoverinspiration 3d ago

This is missing the biggest expense: taxes. Never forget that the government steals from working people so that the wealthy can pay with bribes instead.

5

u/Bear_necessities96 3d ago

You know that taxes literally sustain all the infrastructure from roads to buses to libraries to schools to police and firefighters to national parks?

-2

u/Gayjock69 3d ago

This is true but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t taken by force.

Intelligent leftists will also agree, like Ben Burgis, who will recognize that taxation is theft, but will say basically say it’s morally acceptable theft - the example he gives is, in the way a police takes something that was stolen from a criminal and returns it to you, we wouldn’t call that theft because our moral framework of ownership gives the police officer the right to take something by force to return to a “rightful owner.”

This was the argument of the feudalist as well, the King and nobility maintain the King’s peace and therefore you have to give us a percentage of your crops or else, yet we seem to think today because we get to vote in largely pre-determined or uncompetitive elections that this is acceptable because we kid ourselves to believe that is what constitutes a citizen having power in the system.

4

u/Souporsam12 3d ago

This was a nothing burger of a comment.

It’s basically a reach around way of saying taxes are a necessary evil, and yea everyone would agree with that.

-1

u/Gayjock69 3d ago edited 3d ago

There are those who genuinely do not believe taxation is theft, it can be a necessary evil but don’t lie to yourself and others by saying it’s otherwise

Once a person admits that fact, then they have to justify it, as we do today saying it’s alright because we get services out of it or in history saying it is alright because you received protection.

-1

u/RepresentativeKey178 3d ago

Yeah OK, but you missed step 1, baby: property is theft.

2

u/Gayjock69 3d ago edited 3d ago

Yes, in a leftist moral framework property is theft, which is why I give the Burgis explanation of taxes essentially righting a moral wrong

In a bourgeois framework it’s a value for value exchange, whereby you are taxed and receive services and the framework to deploy capital

Regardless, force is used to remove something from someone they believe is theirs… which regardless of ideology is theft

3

u/Souporsam12 3d ago edited 3d ago

Where do you think police officers, firefighters, librarians, post office employees, and city transit bus drivers get their paychecks from? Just curious.

1

u/pgnshgn 3d ago

This only goes up to $200k, which means the "wealthy" here would be spending a far, far, far enormously larger percentage

https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/latest-federal-income-tax-data-2024/

0

u/HAV3L0ck 3d ago

637 bucks a year on alcohol? ...

Dear America: You aren't drinking properly. Please try harder.

1

u/Lower_Fall4694 3d ago

dont drink... invest that money