Man, I knew that COVID-19 caused reductions in spending, but I hadn't realized that it had caused such a significant payoff of debt. Like, I could have believed it causing an increase rather than decrease in credit card debt.
I'm surprised by the increases before and after, though. You'd expect some increase over time just due to inflation and growth of the economy. And that chart isn't zero-valued.
Lets check how much is just inflation...
gets inflation calculator
Okay, so inflation is responsible for a 32% increase between 2013 and 2023.
There was a 49% increase in credit card debt over the same period.
So most of the increase in the chart is just inflation.
Population increased by 6.5%.
So that explains a 40% increase, together.
And there's a gradual increase in the size of the economy over time. I don't know how that'd best be measured in terms of what should translate into credit card debt.
But point is, while there's probably some increase there, it's not a huge one in real, per-capita terms, which is what you'd care about.
While a sanity check on the absolute value is good I would argue that the most impactful data presented here is the rate at which debt is growing.
Yes, debt was paid off during COVID but now that the free money has dried up people are racking up debt much quicker than before. So while the current value might be in line with previous trends the rate at which debt is accumulating is what is alarming.
It’s unlikely for that trend to slow or stop unless real wages increase, prices fall, or demand drops. We’re seeing some of that but apparently not enough.
Fuck both those countries, but you act like they are our ONLY allies. FFS if you want to make a point, make it and maybe don’t beat around the bush so much.
I think I’ve been pretty clear - American allies are not your allies, and by extension, American enemies are not your enemies. America has it’s own interests that don’t necessarily align with yours.
Republicans think it’s unamerican to protect federal lands. Business interests above everything. Unless the business is “woke,” of course. Then they are all in on shutting down businesses.
The credit card companies want you to be in debt. That’s thier entire business model. In fact, it hurts your credit if you never have any debt on your cards.
Other people’s dead kids. They never think it will happen to their kids because they’re kept safe by daddy’s hero fantasies or robotic devotion to statistics.
Of course, it does happen to their kids.
Occasionally it happens to their kids because they indiscriminately arm the far-right, who then get upset nobody will give them hand jobs, so decide to indiscriminately fire in to crowds of people.
But mostly it happens because their children kill themselves with daddy’s guns, that they were probably taught at an early age how to load and fire because that’s what “responsible gun owners” crow about doing.
No one has enough money to live anymore. This isn’t a problem of people being reckless, they’re using credit because there isn’t enough money coming in to pay for everything.
I’ve lived through enough financial crises that constantly hearing that (“Low unemployment! Go spend money! It’s fiiiiine, everything is GREAT!”) for the past year has made me a nervous wreck.
I would say depends on how often you are taking $3k for vacation and how long it takes to pay it back. If you are taking vacation more often than you can pay back, then that’s reckless.
I racked up $12k in credit card debt after college. It was the result of a low paying, dead end job (GameStop), wanting to be independent and live on my own, and no financial education beyond my parents telling the the very basics.
That all changed when I decided I didn’t want to live paycheck to paycheck the rest of my life. Got some licensing and a career type job, met my wife, and the rest is history.
I paid off my credit card debt within the first year at the job, we both paid off our student loan debt (totalling ~$90k within the first 5 years) and now the only debt we have is our mortgage which is fixed at 2.75%. We could pay it down rather aggressively if we wanted but at that rate we we’re simply maxing retirement accounts and putting the remainder into taxable investments instead.
Fuck credit card debt. I believe every high school in America should have a required financial literacy class. Not just balancing a checkbook, but how to build good credit, the dangera of credit card debt, predatory loans, the benefits of saving for retirement early, basic investment principals, and anything else that would make a young person financially literate early in life.
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