US credit card debt is up 16% in the past year. ~ Americans do not pay their debts but go deeper into bondage.

submitted by In-the-clouds from (nerdwallet.com)

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[–]Musky 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

There's a whole movement now dedicated to maxing out credit cards, defaulting, and settling the debt for .40 on the dollar.

It actually makes sense if you don't need a credit score, everything you buy can be 60% off.

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

We need food and clothing.... and if we have that we should be content. Going into debt is like being a slave to the banks.

[–]Bitch-Im-a-cow 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Excellent point

Traditionally 2/3rds of the US economy has been supported by purchases, though with stagnant wages and other problems facing Americans, they need to reconsider their spending habits. Corporate greed has led to this. Late stage capitalism kills itself.

[–]Jiminy 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (11 children)

It's a lack of understanding math and lack of impulse control. If you understand compounding interest you'd know how it's such a bad deal using credit cards. You could wait to buy things until you have money. But people believe in yolo, you only live once. People then get mad at Jewish bankers when they realize how much they owe. When it's their own fault.

[–]PsychoTranyRedditMod 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

Do you blame the victim for their stupidity, or the predatory lenders taking advantage of them?

[–]Jiminy 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

The victim for their stupidity. We all get a chance to learn math. The banks are up front and honest about credit card debt accruing interest. It's complicated but not that hard. Not doing so means you're willingly a slave, in other words not a slave.

[–]PsychoTranyRedditMod 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

Why not both? Then again, I'm glad I a credit card for free, since I pay it off every month. The cost difference is insane. I'm up over 100k in the last year simply by having the money safely invested. I couldn't imagine that turning into a 20k defecit by using a credit card wrong. Where do these retards get the money for $50k cars and stuff?

[–]Jiminy 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

You're doing alright. You just had to be smart about things. I can see why we should outlaw usury. I took out loans to buy properties, I understood the cost and decided for myself it was worth it.

[–]PsychoTranyRedditMod 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

That can be unavoidable, and property value is likely to increase faster than the interest you owe. If I sold my first home now, Not only would have I lived for free all these years, but I would be thousands of dollars ahead.

It's a weird system. I earn more through investments now than I do my salary. (Take averages and figure conservatively 7-8%/year)

[–]Jiminy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

It's definitely weird. But it's pretty open and the info is there for people to see if a risk is worth it. College loans are another one. If someone takes out a $50k loan so they can get a job paying $100k, that's worth it. But anyone should be able to tell certain diplomas for majors are worthless. Anyone could google average salaries before picking a major or deciding to go to college or not.

[–]PsychoTranyRedditMod 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Too bad college education is such a racket. One thing that would make this country better is handling the price gouging in our educational system.

[–]Jiminy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I'm a bit older, I went to college but for me it was a lot cheaper and I didn't need loans. Still I was risking wasting my time and time is money. Even if it's free you don't want to spend four years of your prime just wasting time. But it was worth my time and I did learn a lot and more importantly made some good friends and connections. I even joined a fraternity which is like a secret society. And had to pay them dues. Really nothing worthwhile comes free. It either takes time or money or both. Now things are much more expensive. But still I don't think it would be as expensive if there wasn't so much demand.

[–]canuck3157 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Nowadays, time is MORE IMPORTANT than money. Because of the big governments and big banks being utterly reckless and unethical with their greed, infinitely generating interests in and inflation in a recursive cycle: the Feds lending money to, big corporate banks, who in turn lend it back to the Feds. Much of those money is spent in murdering dissidents and bombing civilians in wars of enemy countries, or in drugs incapacitating people.

Also in my opinion, both college and universities are basically worthless these days, as they cannot guarantee you any stable jobs, and you can learn a lot more useful stuff on your own online anyways. Eg. many of the math and statistics courses taught in Com Sci programs have absolutely no use in any modern day jobs, except maybe PHD academic research, but you will need connections to get in there anyways.

[–]canuck3157 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Victims (e.g. regular people borrowing money from banks) should not be blamed 100% of the time.

Predatory lenders could be blamed too, especially if they use deceptive practices, such as without being upfront about all the fees, tricking clients into "gotcha" contracts with many hidden fees and fine prints that takes way too long to read, or if they suddenly change policy and charge more fees without properly informing their clients, or even locking their accounts continuously and never letting the clients take out their money (eg. infinite-auto-renewal GICs with no choice to withdrawal + heavy fines if they try to withdraw). Then the client has the right to sue the predatory lenders in court, especially if the deal was done in bad faith.

[–]iamonlyoneman 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If you don't pay

then you aren't in bondage