Dying in debt
Most Americans don't know how to handle debt.
Proof of this can be found here.
Roughly 18 percent of people who buy bitcoin use a credit card to do so, according to a new survey by loan marketplace LendEDU. Of those, 20 percent have not paid off their balance. The phrase "buy bitcoin with credit" has been trending on Google for weeks.
This lack of respect for debt has extreme consequences.
One consequence is an entire lifetime haunted by creditors.
The Federal Reserve reported earlier this week that Americans' outstanding credit card debt hit a new record in November as revolving credit, which is mostly credit card debt, jumped 13% to $1.02 trillion.The rise in credit use is evidence of a more confident U.S. consumer but it could also be an early warning sign of potential trouble on the horizon, analysts say.
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In a new survey conducted by YouGov for CreditCards.com, 35% of U.S. adults with credit card debt, or about 31 million, said they do not think they will ever get out of debt. Another 33% of Americans with credit card debt don’t know when they will be debt free.“With credit card debt currently at record levels, it’s frightening that so many Americans do not have a plan to get out of the red,” said CreditCards.com senior industry analyst Matt Schulz. “Simply put, there’s only so much credit card debt Americans can absorb without it causing real problems.”
As bad as this is, it's only credit card debt. It's much worse when you ask about all of the debt.
More than 68% of U.S. adults polled by CreditCards Opens a New Window. .com said they doubt they will be able to completely pay off their debts, which globally has ballooned to a record high of $233 trillion in the third quarter of 2017, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF).
Total household debt is over $13 Trillion.
“Essentially, our credit cards are our social safety net,” said Deborah Thorne, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Idaho.
Historically, debt is associated with slavery, not a social safety net.
Gen X, in particular, will never be able to retire because of the debt.
Nearly two-thirds of Gen Xers think they'll just "figure things out" when retirement rolls around.
As you could have guessed, Millennials are being crushed by student loans.
A new Brookings Institution report offers startling results that suggest "the looming student default crisis is worse than we thought."
The analysis “suggests that nearly 40% [of borrowers] may default on their student loans by 2023,” according to Judith Scott-Clayton, a non-resident senior fellow at Brookings and author of the report.
At nearly $1.4 trillion in loans outstanding, student debt is now the second-largest source of household debt, after housing, and is the only form of consumer debt that continued to grow in the wake of the Great Recession, the report says.
Comments
“With credit card debt
Is it just me or does he sound utterly tone-deaf and clueless?
"Do not have a plan to get out of the red."
There is no plan. I'm going to use arbitrary numbers for this:
Wages are at 3
All your expenses are at 5 - house, car, student debt, perhaps even medical debt.
Where does the extra 2 come from? Credit. But the thing is, there is no plan. Because unless you win the lottery or a movie moment where multi-millionaire dies and leaves you his inheritance you are screwed. Either that or somehow "jump up the ladder" and have your wages go from 3 to 6, to then tackle your expenses.
bing. exactly.
Ain't many of us had a real (inflation beating) raise in 20 years.
Meanwhile the rent has doubled, groceries have doubled... as they say, do the math. Two or three times last year I put a couple bags of groceries on a credit card. My first time ever of putting food on a card. Prolly do the same this year. Just hope the card goes thru.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Housing and Healthcare in the past 20 years
have gone thru the roof and continue to grow a annual double digit rates -- well at least Healthcare is growing at that rate. And these are two of everyone's major monthly expenses. Meanwhile wages are flat.
They measure the economy by the stawk market (aka the Wall Street Casinso). Yippie, I guess we are all rich now? And labor participation rate still is much lower than before the 2009 crash. If you stop counting people who have lost all hope, the employment rate looks great.
So Wink, I totally agree.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
"They" (M$M, oligarchy) use
the word economy to only describe Their economy. Not ours (the 99%).
"They" don't care about "our" economy, don't bother to give it a thought. None of their concern. Which, of course, makes talk about "The Economy" on MSLSD and other "news" channels moot. Meaningless. The "economy" They talk about is the economy of the 1% - the only economy that matters. To them. To the rest of us...
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
To put it in a bit of perspective
Wages then: 3
Expenses then: 2
Wages now: 4
Expenses now: 10
Because inflation. (Based on minimum wage.)
Get a college degree so you can get a good job, they said. Then they made college so expensive we had to take out tens of thousands in loans, got rid of all the good jobs and won't touch minimum wage with a ten-foot pole. And wonder why we have no plan to get out of debt? I don't know Barbara, we sure as hell didn't do this to ourselves. (No offense to anyone here named Barbara.)
This shit is bananas.
Ignore
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
My car is a
1998 Honda civic.
Prices of for basic living have far out-paced wage increases. Debt isn't simply a function of created desires.
dfarrah
i understand
Still debt is a solution in the same way heroin is
$15 an hour kills
a Lot of debt.
Just imagine a $3 /hr. raise (for a lot of people slaving for $12) x 30 hrs. = an extry $90 a week, $65 after taxes. Say they spend $40 a week on real food (rather than Ramen), and the other $25 on credit cards. That's an extry $100 /mo. going towards paying off credit cards. In a year you've knocked off two $400 credit limit cards. So, that's an extry $40 /mo. you're Not paying on the paid off cards + the $100 /mo. you've been paying = $140 /mo. - extry - going toward paying off cards. After 8 months you've bumped off a $1,000 credit limit card, and now have $180 /mo. going toward paying off cards. In 3-4 years you're credit card debt free.
Which is why we won't see $15 an hour.
"They" want us broke. Then dead.
But it ain't rocket science. More money in pocket = less debt.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Yes, after all,
the banks get to charge 15-18% interest.
dfarrah
Let's deal with this.
Senator Sanders
More
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
But
the companies that fight minimum wage to the death occasionally lose. When that happens they change course. They view your raise as "their money" and raise prices accordingly.
Heh! Debt jubilee 2027.
About that time climate change is going to go all medieval on a couple billion people. Meanwhile party on Garth!
Let's do jubilee sooner...
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
What is included in the 1.02 trillion?
I run substantial credit card debt, but I pay the balance every month so there is no interest charged.