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.
A single income used to afford a house, and family, a car or two, vacations, and retirement savings.
Then we needed families to have two incomes to have that lifestyle.
Then we held on to that system, but had that lifestyle, WITHOUT the building up of any savings, and without the vacations.
Then we needed two incomes just to be able to LEASE that watered-down lifestyle.
And then we needed two incomes and good credit to juggle that watered-down lifestyle, and deferring debt to some point down the road when we assumed we'd be high-income earners.
Now we are in stunningly dangerous territory. We've largely given up any luxuries, and we struggle to find the CREDIT to LEASE basic essentials like housing, food and medicine. Often we fail to do so.
Inflation has hit us incredibly hard, but when student loan payments start up in mere weeks from now, it's going to be CRIPPLING, not just to those with debt, but EVERY business that needs those people to buy their goods and services.
We've been robbed of our future by corporate greed and the psychopathic cruelty of the boomer-run government.
... And just in the past 6 months we've seen the invention of the first artificial general intelligence. Even if it never got any better than it is today, it would still decimate the workforce. But it is getting better. At a staggering rate. We are headed for a jobs crisis the likes of which has never been seen in all of human history.
Add to that the rise of fascism in a global scale.
Add to that the hundreds of millions of anticipated climate change refugees, and potentially catastrophic failures of the ecosystems which sustain various crops.
Add to that that all of human experience and evolution has left us WILDLY unprepared to understand let alone solve problems of this pace and magnitude.
GPT4 absolutely is the foundational block of the first AGI.
I've been working with it exhaustively since it was released. I've built frameworks around it to give it a memory and other supplements. I have ZERO doubt that this is the first AGI, or at least it's the engine that powers real AGI.
Hard definition to fit because it all depends on what you define as 'general'. Its not great but tbh you can ask it a question about anything and it will give an answer, so I'd argue that's general enough
Not that I support everything about her, but Elizabeth Warren literally wrote the book on our 2 income problem.
Society tracks "family income" and for a gigantic portion of history that was one income, then in the 60s-70s women started entering the workforce in larger numbers (in the US, not sure about globally) and we see family income "rising" so we think "great, we're growing! We're doing well!" Except that it only grew because of an additional income.
Now we're at the point you've mentioned where that isn't even enough anymore especially when the vast majority of jobs seem to offer around 50-60k unless you're a specific professional/tech bro.
I'm a perpetually single blue collar schmuck, I've completely given up on the idea of homeownership, and am very very quickly realizing my retirement plan has to be a shotgun to the head.
What a wonderful future we have to look forward to.
And I'll just add this so no one has to later: GlObAlLy We'Re BeTtEr ThAn EvEr! Because you know, that totally helps...
Rome always falls in the end. The law of entropy is absolute. Like so many empires before us, the sociopathic greed/glut/power lust by the "winners" will be our end. Our height was WWII, I see no shame in that. We did a good thing after centuries of committing enslavement and genocide, then we declined into the sunset for the next empire to write about in its history books.
When the system has become this exploitative, some sharp short/medium term pain is better than limping along for another generation or two when we'll have to collapse or revolt and do the work of rebuilding we already need to do anyway.
Reminder: being comfortable passing the buck of consequences to future generations is why we're here.
Very well written and accurate.
I just want to add that the financial requirements to raise children have been out the window for some time as well. Not that they would want to exist in a world with climate change anyway.
That's the thing tho ... most humans won't survive this. The super rich are buying up remote properties/islands at an incredible rate and want Mars asap.
Most of the rest of us will die of starvation, fires, heat, dehydration/poisoned water or the massive storms.
If I've learned anything from Musk and Zuckerberg, it's that the super rich really aren't all that competent. They know how to operate within the system as it is and leverage their existing advantage. I'm pretty sceptical that they can actually save themselves either. They'll need other people to do that for them, but the problem they face is, why wouldn't those people just take charge themselves? Once the system they operate in is gone, what do the wealthy really have to offer? No actual skills for the most part. It's all socially fabricated smoke and mirrors.
Mars is a pipe dream. Unless Earth goes full Venus, it will be vastly better then Mars for at least the next thousand years. Terraforming Mars would be a centuries long endeavor, and terraforming Earth would be vastly easier.
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.
America has never had a larger population. More people, more credit cards, more credit card debt. Seeing a per capita breakdown, or defaults per 1000 people might be better indicator of economic turmoil.
and there are people like me who buy everything with a credit card but pay off the entire balance each month
even though I technically have a credit card balance it gets reset every month and I never pay interest or late fees so the numbers don't tell the whole story
but I'm sure there are an alarmingly large number of people who actually are buried in debt, especially with rent and other costs rising so it won't be pretty when things reach a tipping point (probably already have...)
Seriously. I get free first class international tickets and a few hotel room nights paid every year with points and miles I get from credit cards, every year. And I use my credit cards for business expenses and get even more as a result.
Why would I ever use a debit card? I like full reclining on the flight back from Europe.
I would like to see some more meaningful metrics than offered in this headline.
Or maybe interest paid. I sometimes have a higher balance for the month, but I always pay it off entirely. Nonetheless, my credit score fluctuates based on the balance at the time of reporting.
I've noticed that too. It should not count as a balance if you pay in full every month. I assume this is counted towards this trillion dollar amount too which it should not.
Funny how the "You took a loan, pay it back" idiots never seem to care about dischargeable credit card and business debt.
I guess that kind of debt needs a safety net since they might have some of that kind, while new adults who committed the crime trying to better themselves, that pursue integral vocations that society desperately needs but don't pay well, like teaching and counseling, should just fry like piggies while their fellow Americans laugh at them out of sweet, sweet schadenfreude.
Man, you’d think after the Great Depression and the recession of the last naughties we’d have figured out that credit is a disease and we should stop participating in it so often.
I admittedly haven’t looked at the article, but they are likely measuring based of a fixed snapshot in time, which tells you zero about the actual debt.
Example: at any given point in the month I have 5 figures of CC debt, but I always pay every card in full each month (I never carry a balance) and have enough money to zero everything out if something happens. Because of this it looks like I have high debt load when I really don’t. I do this because it simplifies payments, allows me to collect rewards, keeps my bank account/debit card out of mainstream use (which helps prevent my account info from getting stolen/misused) and allows cash to stay in my accounts just a bit longer earning that sweet 5% interest.
That being said, not everyone does that and many folks are likely in over their head.
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.
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.
Waiting for them to universally forgive missile loans. Man why would you spend so much money on missiles, of course you can't pay that back, even if it makes you a higher earner in the future
I have never had a credit card. I have no plans to get one. I have no idea what my credit rating is either. And until I have to know, I don't care. I am not in any debt though.
I was like you and got screwed by it. That's the unfortunate part of the system for us. Credit rating isn't rating of trustworthiness, it's a rating of likely-to-take-debt/trustworthiness. Never having credit is often "worse" than bad credit. If you ever do try and take out a loan for a car or a house, you will have fewer and more expensive borrowing options.
The play for people like us is to open exactly 2 sources of credit, use one as autopay for static bills, and automatically pay it every month. Use the other for dynamic expenses, but monitor and pay it off in full whenever it reaches 30% utilization, or 25 days, whichever comes sooner.
One can get the benefits of credit without actually accruing debt. The way you use your cash/debit, you already don't spend money you don't have. Just continue to not spend money you don't have, but get the benefits of the system. Be a "deadbeat" as they call us. Us deadbeats actively cost the system money by never carrying balances that accrue interest.
I use my credit card for every purchase I make and get 1.5% cash back. I pay off my balance every month in full to avoid any interest. That 1.5% can add up pretty quickly and it’s basically free money.
If you treat them like a debit card, there aren't any of these issues. I have a credit card that I use for all everyday expenses. Every month it's paid off so it never acrues interest. My credit score is great and the card offers some other benefits too.
If I lose my job the risk I have would only ever amount to one month of spending, which is easily covered by my emergency fund.
I recently stopped paying my credit cards and negotiated with the credit card companies to settle each one. Went from owing $25,000 and some change to just a little over half. Sure, my credit took a huge hit and it took MONTHS of back and forth with both companies but I paid them both off in lump sums and now I’m credit card debt free. I’m not advising others do this because I don’t know your situation. Luckily I already own a home and a car so I don’t need my credit pulled for anything anytime soon. Divorce completely fucked up my finances(she incurred a lot of debt on a card that was in my name and used it for massive purchases and left me holding the bag). Some of the debt was mine, but the lion’s share had to do with her purchases or me using the credit lines to pay her so I could keep the house. Ugh. Fuck credit cards. I’ll never have one again. Absolute fucking nightmare.