Americans' credit card debt hits a record $1 trillion | CNN Business
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Americans’ credit card debt levels have just notched a new, but undesirable, milestone: For the first time ever, they’ve surpassed $1 trillion, according to data released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Americans’ credit card debt levels have just notched a new, but undesirable, milestone: For the first time ever, they’ve surpassed $1 trillion, according to data released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

  • echo64@lemmy.world
    433·
    1 year ago

    it’s more a necessary of modern day life, with an economy designed around squeezing every penny out of people, there’s nothing left over for savings, there’s nothing left over for that weird sound your car started making, or even just a moment of happiness from a new TV purchase or a holiday or whatever.

    It’s really disingenuous to blame it on the personal responsibility aspect.

    • MTLion3@lemm.ee
      2·
      1 year ago

      That’s fair - I more mean as an establishment, but I guess I do have some victim bias in the back of my mind. I guess we’ve locked into a vicious cycle where it started back out where credit wasn’t bad, so creditors started charging more and the cycle continued until credit is almost necessary, but is a strangle because the snake wasn’t seen until it was already constricting us.

    • Very_Bad_Janet@kbin.social
      22·
      1 year ago

      I will blame the consumer culture of the US (and the banking industry and media that promotes it; I can’t speak to other countries). They have made always having a balance on one’s credit cards the norm. I’m teaching my kids that credit cards are short term loans with usurous interest rates, that you should never borrow more than you can pay back within the month, and that you should never carry a balance. I had to teach a friend in his 30s that you shouldn’t carry a balance - he thought he needed one in order to maintain or improve his credit score. I’m sure he didn’t make up that misinformation- someone in SM surely promoted that idea. ETA: Fixed a typo that changed the meaning of a sentence.

      • echo64@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        It’s not the consumers’ fault that between staggeringly high rent, staggeringly low wages, and massive inflation, there isn’t space to save for your car suddenly developing a fault.

        As I told the other person, blaming personal responsibility here is silly given the last decade.