Percentage of Population in Debt

[boedicca]

Hm, if there's only discount on debt for houses, I still don't understand how exactly public debt could translate into personal debt. Is there any way to pinpoint where exactly this transference happens, through what mechanism?

Or, are personal and public debt not causally related and do they merely share a common cause, such as the prevailing attitude of people in general?

Here's how: public debt is seviced by the taxpayer. The more public debt, the bigger the burden on the private sector to pay more and more taxes.

There is also the aspect of public debt sucking the air out of the credit markets, crowding out the private sector. This is what is happening at the Federal level today. The Fed has loaned money at virutally 0% interest to the MegaBanks. They in turn are buying up Treasuries (to fund the Federal Government) and earning close to 4%. What a con game.

 

[slackjawed]

I don't have any debt nor have I had any since 92 when my wife and I paid off the mortgage early. About 1/3 of all housing in the US is owned free and clear if I remember correctly. Obviously all of that housing involves living below one's means. Likewise living without credit cards is also possible. A lot of that has to do with connections with financial services. My degree is in finance and mom was a bank at age 21 or 22 with dad being the house flipper. Leverage casualties seen up close and personal tends to make you skittish about borrowing money.

I too, paid off all my personal debt. I also sold all the real property I owned, except for an "unsalable" chunk of desert I bought more or less for a joke. I bought a motor home. My wife and I live in it full time. We both work part-time. We get paid in cash.
I guide hunts during season, as well as work at a forest service concession in the summer. We get a free place to park the motor home all summer as part of our pay. We both work as bartenders at a friends restaurant/bar when they need help.
Yes we pay our taxes. This year I paid with a USPS money order.
We are not rich, but we are not poor either.
We get our medical needs taken care of for cash in Mexico.
We are much happier being out of the "rat-race".
We do not have or use credit cards, and we don't use banks either.
We don't keep everything in cash. I have money tied up in horses and other tangible assets. Turning horses or guns or gold into cash is pretty easy.
If I need to use a credit card, say to buy something on the internet, I just go get a green dot card, or something like it.
Debt sucks, paying cash is the way to go.
Cash is king in my world!

 

[Oneiromancer]

How does sucking the air out of credit markets crowd the private market?

As for taxes: how can debt be made by taxing income? It seems to me that it can at most delay their payment, but isn't monetizing debt a way of getting around increasing taxes (since taxes aren't popular, and monetizing debt is more discreet)? If debt was not monetized and taxes were made higher instead, would debts be higher than if debt was monetized? My question is, does debt monetization directly create personal debt (except indirectly by increasing public debt), and if so, how?

Thank you for your time and help so far.

 

[KissMy]

100% of the US popu. lation is in debt. We all owe a share of the 12~ trillion national debt.

Only if your savings is in US dollars which is a debt backed currency. you owe no debts if you own physical gold.

 

[Meathead]

100% of the US population is in debt. We all owe a share of the 12~ trillion national debt.

Where can I pay my share of the debt? Is there any account I can wire the amount on? NO? Ough, then this isn't real debt, is it?

No, of course not. Future generations will pay, not you. Better not to have any kids.

 

[editec]

For any honest patriots still too ignorant to understand how income and wealth inequity is going to kill this democratic republic, here's some economic milestones we're passing on the road to government by CORPORATE FASCISM.

March 30, 2011

A study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute has found that the wealth destruction caused by the Great Recession has led to nearly 25 percent of American households now with a net worth equal to or less than zero.

One in Four Households Have No Net Worth | Economy In Crisis

on April 15th, 2011

#11 U.S. home values have fallen an astounding 6.3 trillion dollars since the peak of the real estate market in 2005.
#12 Back in 2005 at the peak of the housing bubble, the median property tax on a home in the United States was $1614. Today, even though home values have sunk like a rock, that figure has risen to $1917.
#13 According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, at least 8 million Americans are at least one month behind on their mortgage payments at this point.
#14 31 percent of the homeowners that responded to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey indicated that they are “underwater” on their mortgages.
#15 Two years ago, the average U.S. homeowner that was being foreclosed upon had not made a mortgage payment in 11 months. Today, the average U.S. homeowner that is being foreclosed upon has not made a mortgage payment in 17 months.
#16 The number of homes that were actually repossessed reached the 1 million mark for the first time ever during 2010.
#17 According to a recent census report, 13% of all the homes in the United States are sitting empty.

22 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.
#23 Total U.S. credit card debt is more than 8 times larger than it was just 30 years ago.
#24 Americans now owe more than $904 billion on student loans, which is a new all-time record high.
#25 Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income. In China, average household debt is only 17% of average household income.
#26 A staggering 25 percent of all American adults now have a credit score below 599.
#27 1.5 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2010. That represented the fourth yearly increase in bankruptcy filings in a row.

32 According to the Federal Reserve, between 2007 and 2009 median household net worth in the United States fell by 23 percent.

#33 The Federal Reserve also says that median household debt in the United States has risen to $75,600.

source

 

[Meathead]

For any honest patriots still too ignorant to understand how income and wealth inequity is going to kill this democratic republic, here's some economic milestones we're passing on the road to government by CORPORATE FASCISM.

March 30, 2011

A study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute has found that the wealth destruction caused by the Great Recession has led to nearly 25 percent of American households now with a net worth equal to or less than zero.

One in Four Households Have No Net Worth | Economy In Crisis

on April 15th, 2011

#11 U.S. home values have fallen an astounding 6.3 trillion dollars since the peak of the real estate market in 2005.
#12 Back in 2005 at the peak of the housing bubble, the median property tax on a home in the United States was $1614. Today, even though home values have sunk like a rock, that figure has risen to $1917.
#13 According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, at least 8 million Americans are at least one month behind on their mortgage payments at this point.
#14 31 percent of the homeowners that responded to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey indicated that they are “underwater” on their mortgages.
#15 Two years ago, the average U.S. homeowner that was being foreclosed upon had not made a mortgage payment in 11 months. Today, the average U.S. homeowner that is being foreclosed upon has not made a mortgage payment in 17 months.
#16 The number of homes that were actually repossessed reached the 1 million mark for the first time ever during 2010.
#17 According to a recent census report, 13% of all the homes in the United States are sitting empty.

22 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.
#23 Total U.S. credit card debt is more than 8 times larger than it was just 30 years ago.
#24 Americans now owe more than $904 billion on student loans, which is a new all-time record high.
#25 Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income. In China, average household debt is only 17% of average household income.
#26 A staggering 25 percent of all American adults now have a credit score below 599.
#27 1.5 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2010. That represented the fourth yearly increase in bankruptcy filings in a row.

32 According to the Federal Reserve, between 2007 and 2009 median household net worth in the United States fell by 23 percent.

#33 The Federal Reserve also says that median household debt in the United States has risen to $75,600.

source

Weird. All these Obama supporters were telling us how wonderful the economy is becoming. Go figure?

 

[editec]

Weird. All these Obama supporters were telling us how wonderful the economy is becoming. Go figure?

I don't need to go figure, mate. I know

I've been posting for years about how stupid PARTISANS are.

The perversion of the American economic system isn't something that ONLY one party is responsible for, and it's been happening one stupid policy or trade agreement at a time for at least 40 years.

If you don't understand that, and you are seriously a patriot concerned with this nation and its people, start READING.

If your primary focus is to support some party?

Then you are beyond help.

 

[Meathead]

Weird. All these Obama supporters were telling us how wonderful the economy is becoming. Go figure?

I don't need to go figure, mate. I know

I've been posting for years about how stupid PARTISANS are.

The perversion of the American economic system isn't something that ONLY one party is responsible for, and it's been happening one stupid policy or trade agreement at a time for at least 40 years.

If you don't understand that, and you are seriously a patriot concerned with this nation and its people, start READING.

If your primary focus is to support some party?

Then you are beyond help.

Sorry mate, you're the one that makes stupid comments about the US economic system. You ignore that from Reagan till the end of the Bush II era, the US economy outpaced just about every other with the exception of some merging East Asian. Reagan set something in motion that no one wanted to change, even Bill Clinton, for almost four decades. The fact that we have had an economic downturn proves only that economics, like everything else tends to be cyclical.

The idea of throwing the baby our with the bathwater appeals only to a extremely doctrinaire segment of the political spectrum. It is the right, and indeed the duty, of those concerned with their own lives, the lives of their countrymen and of their progeny to oppose things like like cultural and economic revolution often championed by lunatic fringes. History is replete with the dismal failure of giving credence or power to such causes.

There is much you need to figure out.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

it's been happening one stupid policy or trade agreement at a time for at least 40 years.

if as a goof liberal you're opposed to free trade between individuals states or countries why be so afraid to tell us why???

Your fear must you something about the liberal IQ and character.

 

[FireFly]

USA population approx. 320 million

Total bail out in dollars 11 trillion, with 3 trillion in reserve Follow the money: Bailout tracker - CNNMoney.com


Real Stimulus would have been to give each household 1 million bucks. It would have fixed the housing crisis, bank crisis because people would have paid off their debt, and it would have created jobs.

That bailout made the Top 1% Wealthy as hell.

 

[Freemason9]

Capitalism requires infinite economic growth. We "lubricate" economic growth by expanding the money supply to keep up with the increasing value of goods and services produced in our economy.

QUESTION:
How does the U.S. increase its money supply? (Hint: It is NOT by printing money!)

 

[jillian]

But does the debt of the government doesn't translate into the debt of the individual? If so, that would mean the average person has a debt of 40.000 dollars.

What I really meant was, what percentage is individually in debt?

that's kind of a funny question because it doesn't only include consumer credit transactions. it includes home mortgages and car loans. it also includes debt for uninsured medical expenses.

my only debt is an auto lease.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

If your primary focus is to support some party?

OF course if there was something wrong with the Republican conservative libertarian ideology/party you would not be so afriad to say what it is. What does your fear tell you??