Americans are in a great deal of debt, of which, as reported by bankrate.com, “the average American debt among consumers at $92,727.” That debt consists of credit card debt, auto loan debt, mortgage debt, home equity loan debt, student loan debt, and personal loan debt, of which it must be stated that those that think that they own a given car, or a home, or things of that sort, don’t truly own such, until that debt is paid off in full. Additionally, it should be noted that consumers are not required by any sort of governmental or societal fiat to actually get into debt, in the first place, but often have a strong tendency to do so, because they have needs to fulfill, and typically lack the ready capital to pay for that which they so desire and want.
Additionally, it doesn’t help matters at all that the United States government, apparently has no interest in getting its own house in order, of which, the current national debt of this nation, is nearly $29 trillion, and of which, if the United States was to be forthright and honest, this amount of money so owed, will never be paid off in full, and will instead at some point, be subject to default, and then the resetting of its currency. In short, whether it be consumers or whether it be the national government, the total amount of debt so being carried, by both, is truly a house of cards.
One might have a tendency to think, based upon all of this debt, that in the natural order of things, debt is part and parcel of what modern societies are constructed of. Perhaps this is true, to a certain extent, but in reality, the consumer debt as well as the national debt, is more of a reflection of people and this nation’s governance, living beyond its means. In other words, people and governments want what they want right now, and because their credit is considered to be good enough to borrow, they do just that; but with personal incomes having become flat or even declining in comparison to the real inflation rate -- along with wages often being insecure and almost never guaranteed, and in conjunction with consumers reaching for more of what they cannot currently afford, debt continues to increase relentlessly by the day.
This sort of debt game can only continue as long as those so loaning the money, believe that their expectation that they will receive their money back with interest, appears to be sound. Additionally, a significant part of this indebtedness has a lot to do with the fact that the superrich have such a high percentage of the nation’s wealth, and therefore the amount of wealth left to the balance of the people, is not enough to sustain for them a reasonable lifestyle. After all, anyone that doesn’t truly make enough money to afford the things that they need in order to have a toehold upon the American dream, are basically forced to borrow what they so need, and then hope that their situation will improve in the future in order to pay that loan back with interest. The problem is, when things don’t improve, that debt continues to increase, until there comes that time when it can no longer be sustained, and then it all falls apart, suddenly.