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- cross-posted to:
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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.
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.
People are definitely being reckless AND things are being crazy expensive nowadays.
What qualifies as reckless though? I mean, I needed to use my CC for a German vacation. I don’t have $3k idly sitting around.
Seeing the world and going on vacation is a necessity, otherwise what’s the purpose of life?
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 wonder how many people got duped into hearing the recent “consumer spending up, unemployment low!” news and just started spending more because things are good again. Probably a big chunk.
Consumer spending is up. Unemployment is low. Wages are up. Inflation is down.
That said, no one should choose to spend based on that. People should choose to spend based on their own personal financial security.
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.
Things are only crazy expensive because wages and salaries don’t follow along.
I agree