Average consumer now carries $6,329 in credit card debt. 'People are stretched,' expert says

[iluvatar5150]

A large component of the inflation that we are seeing is a result of the government spending more than it collects in revenue.

No, it isn’t. It’s mostly aftershocks of the pandemic reopening- and we’re doing better than most other countries.

Therefore they print more money to cover expenses. This devalues the dollar; so it takes more dollars to buy the same product.

Imposing tariffs serves to offset those expenses.

…buy charging more money to consumers. It’s essentially a sales tax, which will hit the poor the hardest.

It also serves to promote competition here at home. Industrial jobs provide good income for blue collar workers.

How long will it take to get those jobs back here?

It brings wealth to families that can help to better pay for the government. When the US has more product to sell overseas, that serves to offset the trade imbalance, which brings taxable overseas money into our economy.

What makes you think our products will be competitive? Without American demand, international prices for those foreign goods will be even lower.

 

[HARK!]

Yes, cost. Tariffs are, essentially, a tax on the consumer. Why are you guys so gungho on raising costs to consumers?

You missed the point. When low Americans have high paying factory jobs, that actually produce something; they can aspire to greater job opportunities that stocking shelves at Walmart. Labor is a commodity just like any other. It is subject to the laws of supply and demand. As shelf stockers are pulled away to the factories; the remaining shelf stockers won't be so easily replaced; so there is more incentive to pay them more; when there isn't a long line of unemployed of wannabe shelf stockers waiting outside of Walmart's doors.

 

[HARK!]

No, it isn’t.

Nonsense. If you don't grasp even the basics of how our government and monetary system work; and you just want to argue basic facts; then there is no point in attempting to educate you.

 

[iluvatar5150]

You missed the point. When low Americans have high paying factory jobs, that actually produce something; they can aspire to greater job opportunities that stocking shelves at Walmart. Labor is a commodity just like any other. It is subject to the laws of supply and demand. As shelf stockers are pulled away to the factories; the remaining shelf stockers won't be so easily replaced; so there is more incentive to pay them more; when there isn't a long line of unemployed of wannabe shelf stockers waiting outside of Walmart's doors.

I didn’t miss the point at all. You keep dodging the fact that the mechanism for all of this is simply making things more expensive as well as the likelihood that it will take decades to shift a lot of low end manufacturing back to the US.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Nonsense. If you don't grasp even the basics of how our government and monetary system work; and you just want to argue basic facts; then there is no point in attempting to educate you.

I understand it perfectly fine; your claiming something as true doesn’t make it so.

But even if you were right, this tariff proposal will increase prices significantly more. It’s just a tax.

 

[HARK!]

…buy charging more money to consumers. It’s essentially a sales tax, which will hit the poor the hardest.

Tax and tariff are two different words for a reason. If we don't understand the definitions of the words; then effective communication becomes futile.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Tax and tariff are two different words for a reason. If we don't understand the definitions of the words; then effective communication becomes futile.

Feel free to articulate that difference and why it matters.

 

[HARK!]

I didn’t miss the point at all. You keep dodging the fact that the mechanism for all of this is simply making things more expensive as well as the likelihood that it will take decades to shift a lot of low end manufacturing back to the US.

Price is relative. Quality of life can better be determined by the cost of living index. When you are being paid well for a job to create a quality product; the quality product might cost more than the inferior; but that cost is offset by the higher wage that you were paid to create the product. As more people are paid higher wages, the competition will become greater to buy the same product. This will drive up the price of that product. This will promote competitors to make even better products at lower prices, which will create more high paying jobs.

I have faith that Americans will succeed at ramping up production when they are competing on a level play field. The Chinese have intentionally devalued their currency to promote countries like the US to buy from them. Back in the '70's an American was making about 15 times what an Chinese worker was being paid. When our jobs were being shipped overseas "pundits" would say that Americans don't work hard enough. There is no way that an American can outwork 15 hard workers. The US is China's biggest customer.

The time is now, to rebuild our industry. We are teetering on economic collapse; and once we are reduced to a third world nation; we won't be in such a great position to build our industry.

 

[HARK!]

Feel free to articulate that difference and why it matters.

Go look up the words in a dictionary; and then maybe we can have a rational discussion.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Go look up the words in a dictionary; and then maybe we can have a rational discussion.

I didn’t think you could. Thank you for confirming my suspicion.

 

[HARK!]

What makes you think our products will be competitive? Without American demand, international prices for those foreign goods will be even lower.

We used to make the best products in the world; back when men were men; and women were women. Are you saying that those days are gone forever?

 

[HARK!]

How long will it take to get those jobs back here?

It will take forever unless we start.

 

[HARK!]

I didn’t think you could. Thank you for confirming my suspicion.

I can; but I didn't think that you would. Unfortunately it seems that I was correct once again.

Thanks for playing.

 

[Stephen3141]

Credit card debt is on the rise.

Americans now owe a record $1.14 trillion on their credit cards, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Tuesday.

View attachment 354330

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/08/credit-card-debt-and-delinquencies-are-on-the-rise-reports-finds.html

I have heard a report that defaults are skyrocketing too.

That's Bidenomics for you.

There is the trend that Americans have been carrying more debt, on credit cards.

Debt was going up, before the Pandemic.

But, there is also a trend among Trump supporters to EXPLAIN certain trends,
that are heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, to be the result of
political leadership.

During the Pandemic, no one had cash to spend, and so inflation was pretty flat.
Trump cannot take credit for this.

The Pandemic wreaked havoc on supploy lines, and this caused a large jump
in prices as America was coming out of the pandemic. Trump supporters
rarely acknowledge this.

Americans have been carrying a dangerous amount of debt on their credit cards,
for a long time. Pointing to statistics on how much debt many Americans carry,
does not begin to explain WHY they are carrying more debt.

 

[Vambram]

There is the trend that Americans have been carrying more debt, on credit cards.

Debt was going up, before the Pandemic.

But, there is also a trend among Trump supporters to EXPLAIN certain trends,
that are heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, to be the result of
political leadership.

During the Pandemic, no one had cash to spend, and so inflation was pretty flat.
Trump cannot take credit for this.

The Pandemic wreaked havoc on supploy lines, and this caused a large jump
in prices as America was coming out of the pandemic. Trump supporters
rarely acknowledge this.

Americans have been carrying a dangerous amount of debt on their credit cards,
for a long time. Pointing to statistics on how much debt many Americans carry,
does not begin to explain WHY they are carrying more debt.

Americans are carrying much more debt than we used to do so because Bidenomics inflation has caused inflation to rise faster than wages. During the last few years, real wages have decreased compared to inflation.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Americans are carrying much more debt than we used to do so because Bidenomics inflation has caused inflation to rise faster than wages. During the last few years, real wages have decreased compared to inflation.

Did you miss the posts describing how debt was climbing at a pretty good clip during the Trump administration?

Household Debt and Credit Report

Unique data and insight into the credit conditions and activity of U.S. households

www.newyorkfed.org

To the right of the graph are three images you can click on to highlight different breakdowns of the overall debt. The third one shows that delinquent credit card debt has only recently surpassed the peak of the Trump years.

 

[Vambram]

Did you miss the posts describing how debt was climbing at a pretty good clip during the Trump administration?

Household Debt and Credit Report

Unique data and insight into the credit conditions and activity of U.S. households

www.newyorkfed.org

To the right of the graph are three images you can click on to highlight different breakdowns of the overall debt. The third one shows that delinquent credit card debt has only recently surpassed the peak of the Trump years.

Still doesn't change the fact that personal debt is increasing to higher levels than previously under past administrations.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Still doesn't change the fact that personal debt is increasing to higher levels than previously under past administrations.

It's only the raw numbers that are increasing like that, which is going to happen if you have a growing population and a growing GDP. If you look at the percentages of loans that are delinquent, they're not steadily climbing. They all fluctuate. Look at this and explain to me how Biden was worse than Trump:

 

[Paulos23]

Americans are carrying much more debt than we used to do so because Bidenomics inflation has caused inflation to rise faster than wages. During the last few years, real wages have decreased compared to inflation.

Rising debt has always been a problem for a long time. It does not have to do with who the president is, but the neverending drumbeat of "spend, spend, spend" from the markets and the lack of wages keeping up with inflation.

It is a major bug in our economic system.

 

[Vambram]

It's only the raw numbers that are increasing like that, which is going to happen if you have a growing population and a growing GDP. If you look at the percentages of loans that are delinquent, they're not steadily climbing. They all fluctuate. Look at this and explain to me how Biden was worse than Trump:
View attachment 354678

According to your graph, I am seeing credit card debt, other debt, and auto loan debt at higher levels under Biden than it was under Trump. Student loan debt is way down because Biden defied the SCOTUS and had the federal government pay off a lot of that debt.