America is the world's biggest economy, so then it isn't a surprise, that no country in the world expends more money in aggregate on personal consumption, of which this includes things such as food, clothing, housing, energy, healthcare and schooling. What perhaps does represent a surprise is that the percentage of personal consumption expended at 70% in America is significantly higher than as reported by the-american-interest.com of which British personal consumption is at 65%, Germany is at 55%, and Japan rests at 52%. This difference in the percentage rate of personal consumption clearly indicates that America is an outlier.
The basic narrative when it comes to personal consumption is that the higher the consumption, the wealthier that people must be from having spent that money, but that isn't necessarily the case. Actually, the goods that are purchased by consumers must first be produced by businesses, so that, it can be successfully argued that the higher amount of spending made by consumers for goods is actually the transfer of the people's money in aggregate to the producers and distributors of those goods itself.
So that countries with a higher personal consumption rate percentage, does not signify how much money that the average citizen actually has in savings or wealth, but it is actually a reflection of how much money is being extracted from those consumers in order for them to maintain the living standards that they so desire. Further to the point, in countries in which monetary credit is relatively easy to secure, than personal consumption percentages will have a tendency to rise, because consumers will often borrow funds today in order to have goods that they desire today, thereby putting off the paying of such bills, until tomorrow.
This means that the real wealth of a nation, is poorly reflected by how much money is being spent on personal consumption, instead it is much more meaningful to know how much money is being spent on business investment so as to increase productivity and to provide more product for the buck while also creating necessary innovation in order to stay ahead of the curve, because when products get better, or last longer, or do more things, than the dollars being spent for such goods, go further than they did before. So that, higher personal expenditures can also be a reflection that the innovations of the goods being purchased or utilized, have fallen short of efficiencies, signifying that more income from consumers is being spent just to keep their collective heads above water.
This means that when healthcare costs go up, or when school tuition and its associated costs continue to rise, or basically when spending money in which the consumer purchases more product than they actually really need or that it is worth, than personal consumption will as a matter of fact, rise, but the collective wealth of those individuals will drop.
While it is true that personal consumption is a reflection of having money or the access to money, the more that one spends does not truly indicate though that one's wealth has increased, for rather it typically reflects the necessity of personal consumption just to maintain one's status or place in society, so that the richest people spend the smallest percentage of their value on personal consumption, and put aside the balance of their money in savings or investment, whereas the poorest and struggling middle class spend as much as they take in, which signifies that America's higher personal consumption percentage vis-a-vis other countries, is based actually on the fact that many Americans have no savings at all, and therefore spend everything that they have in order to survive.