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Debt Slaves: 7 Out Of 10 Americans Believe That Debt "Is A Necessity In Their Lives"
Submitted by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,
Could you live without debt? Most Americans say that they cannot. According to a brand new Pew survey, approximately 7 out of every 10 Americans believe that “debt is a necessity in their lives”, and approximately 8 out of every 10 Americans actually have debt right now. Most of us like to think that “someday” we will get out of the hole and quit being debt slaves, but very few of us ever actually accomplish this. That is because the entire system is designed to trap us in debt before we even get out into the “real world” and keep us in debt until we die. Sadly, most Americans don’t even realize what is being done to them.
In America today, debt is considered to be just part of normal life. We go into debt to go to college, we go into debt to buy a vehicle, we go into debt to buy a home, and we are constantly using our credit cards to buy the things that we think we need.
As a result, this generation of Americans is absolutely swimming in debt. The following are some of the findings of the Pew survey that I mentioned above…
*”8 in 10 Americans have debt, with mortgages the most common liability.”
*”Although younger generations of Americans are the most likely to have debt (89 percent of Gen Xers and 86 percent of millennials do), older generations are increasingly carrying debt into retirement.”
*”7 in 10 Americans said debt is a necessity in their lives, even though they prefer not to have it.”
Most of us wish that we didn’t have any debt, but we have bought into the lie that it is a necessary part of life in America in the 21st century.
It has been estimated that 43 percent of all American households spend more money than they make each month, and U.S. households are more than 11 trillion dollars in debt at this point.
When it comes to government debt, that is easy for us to blame on someone else, but all of this household debt is undoubtedly something that we have done to ourselves.
It all starts at a very early age for most of us. When we are still in high school, we are endlessly told about how important a college education is. All of the authority figures in our lives insist that we should just try to get into the best school that we possibly can and to not even worry about how much it will cost.
So many of us go into staggering amounts of debt before we even get out into the working world. We had faith that the “good jobs” that were being promised to us would be there when we graduated.
Unfortunately, in this day and age those “good jobs” end up being a mirage more often than not.
But whether or not we can find a good job, we still have to pay off all that debt.
According to new data that was recently released, the total amount of student loan debt in the United States has risen to a grand total 1.2 trillion dollars. If you can believe it, that total has more than doubled over the past decade.
Right now, there are approximately 40 million Americans that are paying off student loan debt. For many of them, they will keep making payments on this debt until they are senior citizens.
Another way that they get you while you are still in school is with credit card debt.
I got my first credit card while I was in college, and nobody ever taught me about the potential dangers.
Today, the average U.S. household that has at least one credit card has approximately $15,950 in credit card debt.
So let’s say that you have that much credit card debt and you are paying an annual interest rate of 17 percent. If you only pay the minimum payment each month, it will take you 229 months to pay your credit card off, and during that time you will have paid $13,505.82 in interest charges.
In other words, you will almost have paid twice as much for everything that you originally bought with your credit card by the time it is all said and done.
This is why banks love to give you credit cards. If they can get back nearly twice as much money as they originally give you, they get rich and you get poor.
Most of us get loaded down with even more debt when we go to buy a vehicle. Instead of saving up and getting what we can afford, many of us end up getting the largest loans that we can qualify for.
In a previous article, I discussed the fact that the average auto loan at signing in America today is approximately $27,000. In order to get the monthly payments down to a level where we can afford them, many of these auto loans are now being stretched out for six or seven years. In fact, the number of auto loans that exceed 72 months has hit at an all-time high of 29.5 percent.
It is the same thing with home loans.
In the old days, it was extremely rare for a mortgage to be stretched over 30 years, but today that is pretty much the standard.
Sadly, most people don’t understand how much money this is costing them.
If you take out a $300,000 mortgage at 3.92 percent and stretch it over 30 years, you will end up paying back a grand total of $510,640.
In other words, you will pay for two houses by the time you are done.
Yes, we all need somewhere to live, and there are definitely negatives to renting as well. But it is very important that we all understand what is being done to us.
And I haven’t even discussed one of the most insidious forms of debt yet.
Have you noticed that most doctors and most hospitals will never tell you how much something is going to cost in advance?
They get us when we are at our most vulnerable. When there is something wrong with us physically, we are often desperate to get help. So we don’t ask too many questions and we just go along with whatever they say.
But then later we get the bill and we are often completely shocked by what they have charged us.
If you are completely unethical, it is a great business model. People that are extremely desperate and needy come to you and you don’t even have to tell them how much your services are going to cost. And then once they leave, you send them an absolutely outrageous bill for whatever you feel like charging.
Frankly, I don’t know how a lot of people working in the medical field live with themselves. In their extreme greed, they are ruining the lives of millions of ordinary American families.
One very disturbing study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either currently have medical bill problems or are paying off medical debt. And collection agencies seek to collect unpaid medical bills from about 30 million of us each and every year.
Most of us will spend our entire lives paying off debt.
That is why we are called debt slaves – our hard work makes others extremely wealthy.
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If you don't work for your money the only way to get it is to steal it. Ask a Banker or a realtor, or a car salesman.
And don’t take responsibility for a woman (marriage). The rule is, “Don’t buy anything that eats.”
If it fly's, floats or fucks its cheaper to rent by the hour.
Buy a motor home and you won't need to buy house or car.
the 20% with no debt seems high unless half of those just got out of bankruptcy court. most people, even those in good financial shape, carry some debt.
some debt s good as long as you pay it off in time. You need it for a good credit rating.
So you can go into debt? Something doesn't sound right about that. I went debt free for years with a low credit rating. Didn't matter, wasn't borrowing money.
Best thing ever happened to me back when I live in the USA was to get a bad credit rating. It motivated me to find overseas job TAX FREE and got out of debt QUICK and never been in debt again. and that means paying house in CASH and also CAR.
If you are a US citizen overseas, you are still suppose to pay taxes, unless you are killing for the military.
Wrong. I renounced so off the hook
However the IRS code says you can make up to 90k TAX FREE if you work overseas. Did it for years.
Thats a FACT and you can look it up if you want.
If you get overseas job and stay out of country 330 consecutives days you don't pay taxes on first 90k.
You are then considered ''bona fide overseas resident'' as per the IRS.
The people they chase are the people making over 100 k a year ,
+50 for renouncing. These days it costs $2350 (and rising) to do that. Soon they will have to put up a fence with guard towers to keep the Muricans in.
Cost me 450 dollars , I got in under the wire before they raised it.
Who the hell junked renouncing citizenship for $450? Probably one of those If you don't like Murica then leave morons. They say it often then get butt hurt when someone actually does it.
Good credit rating for what? More debt? Hahhaaaha
Believing you need good credit is how they snare you for life.
Yeah this guy acts like he is totally against mortgages, but you can rent and spend as much as a mortgage payment and build 0 equity. I guess he works for blackrock.
So how much cash did you pay for your house? Or maybe your one of those still living at home with Mom and Dad.
I paid 200k Cash earned in Libya for 2 years work . TAX FREE
Why make life hard on yourself. Two maxims that have worked for me are: be debt-free and acquire skills that are in demand. Sure, they require work but the benefits are magnitudes greater than the efforts needed to achieve them....
+1000 thumbs up exactly what I did. with a caveat. The job I did was replaced with computer. Now all cockpits are 2 man not 3 man.
Luckily retired 10 years ago at age 60.
"they require work", boom , show stopper for most of the sheeple. Doesn't fit the instant gratification formula.
At 42 I don't owe a dime in the world to anyone, I couldnt tell you what my credit rating is as it has no relevance to my life. I was able to live quite easily without debt through most of my life. Now the tough part is trying live without MONEY. Thats my next hurtle and I'm alot further along than most people....thats TRUE freedom. If people realized that, we'd have a bloodless revolution and a whole new world.
Don't forget, when you take out a 30 yr mortgage, the Jew bankers take the interest on the front end with principal being paid on the back end. Nice scam.
Don't forget it was JEWS that started the FED a 100 years ago and slickly did it the day before Xmas so the Goyim wouldn't catch on.
True, but don’t forget old white guys colluded with them.
Yes probably because they wanted to live a little longer.
Hey, Das Rayciss. Oh and don't forget, the "money" transfered to the seller gets created out of thin air.
We live just fine without debt. Life is good.
I am a surprised by the “debt is for idiots” comments. Debt, responsibly taken on, and in reasonable proportion to your other resources is a very powerful tool. I like living in a house that I “own”. Yeah, yeah… it can be seized by the state… blah, blah, blah. They haven’t, and if it comes to that you wont be safe in your rental property, or tents, or motor homes either. I like driving a reliable car. I like plumbing, electricity, an occasional movie, the trappings of civilization. I also have guns, food, and water that I hope I never need.
Debt is for idiots.
"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender." - Proverbs 22:7
Enjoy your hamster wheel, poster child of Stockholm Syndrome.
Bible quotes and insults. You are too stupid to argue with.
Not here to argue, just pointing out that you are wrong.
People get into debt based on their income stream, and never consider the possibility that the income stream goes "poof."
When that happens, you'll change your tune.
Yes, but what of the debt taken on your behalf, by the state.
You are liable for it.
How many hours have you been forced to work to service that debt?
That is a different discussion. The article is about personal debt and the comments are about how stupid it is to be indebted to anyone. I do not agree that the state should take on unlimited debt in my name.
Could you live without debt? Most Americans say that they cannot.
Most of Americans "should" say they "should not" live without debt. With no default records, we don't know if they "can" not. Is this propaganda from the "rental" providers?
Debt is an "in-progress promise to complete a trade". It is normal and smart to enter into such agreements. It is wrong to default on such agreements. Debt is ok. Default on trading promises is not.
And governments should not be allowed to go into debt because they never deliver ... they just roll their debts over, and that is default.
Is this brought to us by the Ellen Brown "Web of Debt" camp? An observation about her book: No mention of "default" in the table of contents or the index. So I bought this worthless book for the 2nd time (Kindle version) and searched for "default". It's mentioned many times, but defaults are never in the context of a time-series relating to simultaneous underlying in-process trading promises (i.e. debt) or to interest collections.
Ellen's thesis is this: since interest is paid on top of what is borrowed, there is no way for all the borrowers to pay back ... where's the interest part to come from? The simple answer Ellen: from defaults and those interest collections should exactly equal them for guaranteed zero inflation.
Note: I brought this discussion of default vs. interest collections to her attention directly in an email conversation. She responded but ignored the point. Though my points addressed every single mention of default in her book (which I now know having a digital version), it evidently didn't serve her underlying purpose ... which escapes me to this day.
You can make your car payments before you buy the car or after. Either way you'll still be making payments...
But we live in ZIRP-Land.
So, for a short term loan like an auto, you actually may pay less taking the loan if the rate is low enough. But the risk of a life circumstance change...
Homes are tough.
The issue is that the loan-buyers bid up prices such that an otherwise cash-buyer may not have enough cash.
I've never been without a mortgage. But it is my only debt...and has been since the 1990's.
Don't see that changing unless the mortgage is inflated away.
7 out of 10 are wrong. Those numbers are indications of the broadbased malaise in this country. People seem to refuse to do better for themselves. Debt is not doing better. It is doing worse.
Lookk at all recurring charges - particularly 'staying connected' costs. Internet, cable, (un)smartphone, and ask whether you really need them. Trim them back, way back, and use some of that money to buy goods that are actually made in this country.
I'm not normally a bible quoter BUT: "the borrower becomes the slave of the lender"
we paid off our 1st house in 2003. it's been so long since we've had any kind of debt it's werd to think there was a time we ever did...
Lloyd Blankfein, doing ''gawds work'' enslaving people.
Aw, nuts! Thought this was another MarK Dice polling of the S Cal dumbed-downed "Trendies".
So, in other words, 7 of ten are "Merikaan Mushrooms" CHOOSING to remain vegetating on the Bankster corp-owned "Lame Dream Tedia's" dung in the dark!
Using debt to buy assets which go up in value can be very advantageous. My only debt is a loan on a rental property and it'll be paid off before I retire. The renters make a payment and so do we plus it's a small portion of our assets. Debt to finance a MARKETABLE degree or trade is a good investment (versus 15th century Russian Lit). Using debt even in this way increases risk but that doesn't have to be a bad thing.
One thing I've noticed about housing. People rent what they need - they BUY with their dreams. People rent a 1,200 square foot house / condo - they then buy a 3,000 square foot house. Why?
Check out ''Tiny homes' on YouTube. Some very creative people there.
If we count obligations on the citizerny by the crimminal Federal Government, every American is in debt.
he maintains the typical deliberate ignorance towards the ways that any "promises to complete a trade" actually exist within the context where there could be ROBBERY instead,
Robbery has no more effect on the MOE than does negligent loss. If you promise to deliver MOE, it is your responsibility to protect your promse. The same would be true if you promised something that didn't involve the MOE.
However, the manager of the MOE does have a huge responsibility to prevent counterfeiting. To the extent he can't, he must make interest collections equal to that defect ... because a counterfeit is a default. It's just that simple.
Only debt I have is a medium sized mortgage, but luckily plenty of home equity to pad any future housing crashes. I abhor carrying revolving debt. Credit cards are a convenient tool for payment, but anybody who does not plan ahead to have the money to pay it off each month is just a total idiot.