Quote:
Originally posted by cthulu23
[B]Nope you said
which was in response to my assertion that Americans are accruing unhealthy amounts of debt. I only brought up the increasing bankruptcy rate after you posted this because it seemed to run counter to your statement.
Stats on "wealth" growth are a little more difficult to find than stats on income. Here are a few:
These are from 1998, the most recent year of wealth statistics that I could find. You were right in your assertions that wealth has grown for a significant portion of the population, but the losses for the bottom 40% are dramatic.
This does sound reasonable, but I never said bankruptcies were going to shake our economy. See above. Anyway, our credit market has been driven by the lowest interest rates in recent memory. it cannot last forever.
To try to steer this debate back to a more polite footing, aren't you concerned with the record levels of consumer debt? I've heard voices from across the political/economic spectrum decry it.
This article from thestreet.com seems to predict that this mountain of debt will begin to bite back soon. Are they and other conventional economic voices nothing but Chicken Littles?
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I stand by my statements about bankruptcies. Nowhere did I ever say that bankruptcies were not rising and the fact that they are doesn't impact my analysis as it was already accounted for.
Your web searched article fails to account for the substantial growth in the stock and housing markets over the last 5+ years. And, to put the percentages in context, changes in small numbers often result in large percentages. In this case, that 76% drop amounts to a dollar figure drop of ~$800. Far less impressive of a number than that 76% implies. Responding to every article that, on the surface, appears to rebut my arguments is exactly what I was trying to avoid. We could go on like this for a long, long time and we will get nowhere. You're convinced of your stance and I doubt anything I say will change your mind.
As far as consumer debt, I am absolutely concerned with it. Just as I am concerned with interest rates, inflation, productivity, the stock market, home prices, another terrorist attack on US soil, and countless other factors which interact in both simple and complex ways to form current (and future) economic conditions.
Is it the single biggest concern in the economy right now? Nope.