Paywall removed: https://archive.is/Bpddu
Honestly what’s described in the article is mostly a US thing. Most other countries don’t have the mixture of propaganda/advertisement machine that is social media that pushes them to buy more useless stuff every day just to “drive consumer spending” and “stimulate the economy”. Also most other countries have a different relationship to debt. In the US, “debt” is just something you do. You eat, you shower, you go into debt. In (most) other countries, “debt” is a bad thing that you try to avoid at all costs. I can remember growing up with the attitude “whatever you do, don’t go into debt, or you’ll become a slave”.
This is not true. I remember traveling to Indonesia in 2013 and having a conversation with a local about how all of his neighbors were going into debt to buy luxurious vehicles they did not need. As soon as one of them bought one the rest of the neighborhood had to have one to compete. I found this completely fascinating and I’m sure the trend hasn’t changed. It’s probably grown. Consumerism is a global phenomenon.
Im okay now – but that could all change with a cancer diagnosis or car accident.
Most Americans are in debt and living paycheck to paycheck, it’s nothing new and won’t change until people stop voting against their own interests.
I carried my student loans for about a decade, and they were pretty small. I live in a civilized country, so any medical expenses were already covered by me and other taxpayers and not recouped hand-over-fist afterward by mercenaries.
Now I’m doing well, have savings, very small investments to supplement my union retirement if I make it that far, and we could afford the odd trip before CoViD. But we don’t live large, and my free-lance gig helps pay for some modest gear upgrades.
But this is 2025 so now we have our contingency route and nearly a go-bag just sitting there.
Now?
