Family Debt - Statistics
- Dec 1, 2005 - comment
Seventeen percent of Americans are in the hole, deep in debt with little hope of climbing out. Twenty percent describe their financial position as precarious. Forty percent take on debt but claim to always pay up on time, and 23 percent boast that they are debt free. Collectively, we owe more than $1.266 trillion in non-mortgage debt—roughly $5,000 for every American.
Why did you fall into debt? More [than] half of those in debt—52 percent—blame their predicament on poor money management. The rest say a ‘life event’ such as divorce or medical problems propelled them into the red.”
Bethany and Scott Palmer, Cents & Sensibility: How Couples Can Agree About Money (Colorado Springs: Life Journey, 2005), 35.
Already, roughly 1.6 million American households seek bankruptcy protection each year. Why? Because the typical U.S. household has 13 cards—including debit, retail and credit cards. For those carrying a balance, the average credit card debt outstanding is roughly $13,000, and the average annual interest rate being paid on that debt is nearly 15 percent. Obviously, those with ‘bad’ or ‘sub-prime’ credit pay much more—more like 20 percent to 25 percent.
“With $13,000 in debt, if you’re making minimum payment on your cards, and paying 15 percent interest, it would take you more than 25 years to become debt free. And that’s assuming you never charge another dime!”
Lynnette Khalfani, Zero Debt: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Freedom (South Orange, NJ: Advantage World Press, 2004), 19-20.
“The United States is the most consumer-oriented society in the world. People work longer hours than in any other industrialized country. Savings rates are lower. Consumer credit has exploded, and roughly a million and a half households declare bankruptcy every year. There are more than 46,000 shopping centers in the country, a nearly two-thirds increase since 1986. Despite fewer people per household, the size of houses continues to expand rapidly, with new construction featuring walk-in closets and three- and four-car garages to store record quantities of stuff. According to my estimates, the average adult acquires forty-eight new pieces of apparel a year. (She has also been discarding clothes at record rates, in comparison to historical precedents.) Americans own more television sets than inhabitants of any other country—nearly one set per person. Observers blame TV for plummeting levels of civic engagement, the dearth of community, and the decline of everyday socializing. Heavy viewing has also resulted in historically unprecedented exposure to commercials. And ads have proliferated far beyond the television screen to virtually every social institution and type of public space, from museums and zoos, to college campuses and elementary school classrooms, restaurant bathrooms and menus, at the airport, even in the sky.”
Juliet B. Schor, Born To Buy (New York: Scribner, 2004), 9.