The hypothesis going into this is Americans carry more personal debt than anywhere in the world, maybe in the entire galaxy. Americans are also highly-committed to using instruments other than physical cash for dealing with money. The thinking was perhaps distancing themselves from the actual money meant Americans have less respect for its value and therefore more debt.
That thinking is now (sob) shot all to hell.
- OECD: Household debt
The graphic charts household debt around the world and that's as good a measure of personal debt as any since we really don't want to segregate owners from renters.
The graphic reveals the household debt level in America is not at all extreme relative to the rest of the world. Even Greece is not much different and their economy is extremely stressed. The level of household debt is somewhat lower in America but not by all that much.
While I'm not personally familiar with financial transactions in Germany, I know in Greece cash counts but only secondarily in terms of the obvious that it's good to have a lot of it. Throwing notes for twenty or fifty euros is bad form and somewhat ostentatious whereas having the correct change or near it for something is appreciated.
Americans hardly ever use cash and, even if you're poor, most of your dealings will be with a debit card even though there is not much in the bank. There are lower rungs of financial hell in America but it's not my purpose to review that circumstance in this context.
The difference in debt level between America and Greece is negligible so my hypothesis is not only refuted, it's stomped into little tiny bits on the ground.
However, I do see unusual here. Clicking the image may enlarge the lettering sufficiently to read the country names or you may wish to click the link above to discover multiple of the countries on the right which show extreme household debt loads are Scandinavian.
Ed: Right! Those soul-sucking, bank-collapsing Socialists are the root of the ...
Hold on before you explode in paroxysms of capitalist delight since Australia is in that set as well and I'm not aware of it being a hotbed of socialist fervor. They have nationalized medicine but all of them have that in common and America is the only country which does not.
It gets better, however, my economically-cosseted capitalist colleagues. Please do review the left side of the chart and you will see multiple eastern European countries, all of which lived for generations under full-out Communism. If any have a cultural acceptance of expecting something for nothing then surely it would be they yet they carry the lowest household debt levels in the world.
The chart got curioser and curioser as I looked it but one thing I know definitely from it: my original hypothesis is shot all to hell.
That thinking is now (sob) shot all to hell.
- OECD: Household debt
The graphic charts household debt around the world and that's as good a measure of personal debt as any since we really don't want to segregate owners from renters.
The graphic reveals the household debt level in America is not at all extreme relative to the rest of the world. Even Greece is not much different and their economy is extremely stressed. The level of household debt is somewhat lower in America but not by all that much.
While I'm not personally familiar with financial transactions in Germany, I know in Greece cash counts but only secondarily in terms of the obvious that it's good to have a lot of it. Throwing notes for twenty or fifty euros is bad form and somewhat ostentatious whereas having the correct change or near it for something is appreciated.
Americans hardly ever use cash and, even if you're poor, most of your dealings will be with a debit card even though there is not much in the bank. There are lower rungs of financial hell in America but it's not my purpose to review that circumstance in this context.
The difference in debt level between America and Greece is negligible so my hypothesis is not only refuted, it's stomped into little tiny bits on the ground.
However, I do see unusual here. Clicking the image may enlarge the lettering sufficiently to read the country names or you may wish to click the link above to discover multiple of the countries on the right which show extreme household debt loads are Scandinavian.
Ed: Right! Those soul-sucking, bank-collapsing Socialists are the root of the ...
Hold on before you explode in paroxysms of capitalist delight since Australia is in that set as well and I'm not aware of it being a hotbed of socialist fervor. They have nationalized medicine but all of them have that in common and America is the only country which does not.
It gets better, however, my economically-cosseted capitalist colleagues. Please do review the left side of the chart and you will see multiple eastern European countries, all of which lived for generations under full-out Communism. If any have a cultural acceptance of expecting something for nothing then surely it would be they yet they carry the lowest household debt levels in the world.
The chart got curioser and curioser as I looked it but one thing I know definitely from it: my original hypothesis is shot all to hell.
7 comments:
Sure looks like the countries carrying the largest debt load correspond to countries that have the largest government supplied services.
Perhaps but I look at the other end and see countries which had all those supplied services and now presumably do not. Logically it seems they would be most likely to dash out to run up big debt to have that stuff again but that doesn't seem to be what happened.
The Scandinavian countries are most notoriously socialist but that roster of countries on the right isn't limited to them so I see your point but I'm not convinced that's the explanation or at least not all of it.
They still have those services and the population has less descretionary money to spend as the tax rates are so high.
May not be the only reason.
But I am a firm believer that I can take care of myself far better than any government could ever dream of. But I dont believe in carrying debt. It is hard to get ahead if you are paying 20 or 30% to banks to borrow money to pay for items you dont have to have you just want.
As for the Eastern bloc having low debt.It seems that it is more that the economic infrastructure to allow the capitalistic money lending has only been in place since Gorbachev economic plans failed and the USSR dissolved.
They just havent had enough time to get th h at far in debt yet
Yevette was just offered a card and it opened for thirty percent. She had not requested it or maybe she had to send for it. Insane. At one time they called it usury.
I think you're stretching in the second part where they didn't have enough time yet. I don't think there's a whole lot of science to be gleaned from it except maybe the part I thought I would see but didn't. It probably won't confirm much except, yep, that's where they carry the most debt. It's too skimpy for a why, I believe.
Usury is the check cashing companies allowing 500+%
But the politicians sold out everyone with the Fair Credit Act I believe that offered protection to Credit Card companies in bankruptcies and un capped loan interest rates
And you can be assured Hillary wont try and fix it as long as the banks pay Bill Inc
It really surprises me when Congress does anything for consumers. I couldn't feel more disconnected from that on a desert island.
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