Americans and debt…
Lifted from comments Denis Drew points us to:
Americans are drowning in debt. Here’s where they have it the worst.
By Christopher Ingraham, December 8 at 1:58 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/08/americans-are-drowning-in-debt-heres-where-they-have-it-the-worst/?utm_term=.45e91dd1c24f
“Nationwide the data shows that 33 percent of Americans hold debt that is currently in collection. The median amount of debt in collections is $1,450.”
“At the county level, 68 percent of the residents of tiny Allendale County, S.C., (pop. 9,433) have debt currently in collections, the highest county rate in the nation. Cook County Minnesota can boast the nation’s lowest prevalence of past-due debt, at just 6 percent.”
“Urban’s numbers show that those sky-high health-care costs are saddling many Americans — nearly 20 percent of them — with debt they cannot pay.”
Interesting data but not surprising given the amount of current consumer debt.
See page 3 here for a nice chart giving current and historical data on household debt: https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/interactives/householdcredit/data/pdf/HHDC_2017Q3.pdf
The Total Household Debt and Credit Report for the 3rd quarter of 2017 was $12.955Trillion.
In the 3rd quarter of 2008 the total household debt was $12.675Trillion. And we all know what the economy was like at that time. I certainly remember Hank M Paulson’s request for a bazooka to bailout the banks.
But don’t we all know why there’s so much household debt? The party that represents the wealthy in this country, and half the US voters have always told everybody “its their [debtors] own fault”. Clearly they’re living beyond their means and the banks are happier than clams to collect all that exorbitant credit card interest and late fees. so why should it change?
I mean if all those debtors just stopped living beyond their means they’d have sell their house, stop spending on vacations, xmas, and new cars every 5 years, cut back on groceries, doctor visits, prescription drugs, etc. And then what?
More of those debtors would have to go on the dole and then the banks wouldn’t collect all that interest and capital owners would be even more cash rich. and then what would they do with it all but place more bets on even more riskier investments than they are already, .
Oh my, oh my what should the poor capital owner do?