DROWNING...IN A SEA OF DEBT
The average amount owed on “upside down” auto loans, in which the balance is more than the car is worth, hit a record high of $6,458 in the third quarter, according to Edmunds, a site that helps consumers research and buy cars. That’s compared to $5,808 for the same period last year. “Consumers owing a grand or two more than their cars are worth isn’t the end of the world, ...
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s: Morning Brew
but seeing such a notable share of individuals affected at the $10,000 or even $15,000 level is nothing short of alarming,” Edmunds Head of Insights Jessica Caldwell said. If borrowers don’t pay off their car before trading it in, the negative equity is applied to the new car loan.—HVL
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@Madken65
Ooof. Ouch. 😟
The auto industry has succeeded in convincing Americans that their entire identity is tied up in their car. It's not good for people's financial well-being, or for a lot of other things, for that matter.
@janallmac @Madken65 Everything is debt, and so expensive.
I don't like debt, and it alarms me that we carry some but there seems little I can do.
I've never owned a new car, and don't intend to, but what gets me is that the economy is a fiction commonly agreed upon. Especially now that we are in the era of fiat currency.
Gold is just a shiny rock, sure it's rare here, but there are asteroids of the stuff.
It's the psychology of scarcity made manifest and it chains us.
In Robert Heinlein's book Job a comedy of Justice hell is described at the end as an alright place, but everyone is in a lot of debt.
*looks around...* Huh...
@NiveusLepus @Madken65
Yes, the economy does seem all very imaginary and capricious sometimes. And marketers, I tell you. They are evil geniuses sometimes. Like, why do we need a $50,000 car? 🤔 Do we really? I want something that will increase in value that I can give to my children.
I don't know, man, it's very messed up.
And people can't even do math 75% the time, and the other 50% can. 😁
@janallmac @Madken65 I am 115% confident that you speak true and I'm awful at math, personally.
My kind is only good at multiplying :P
@NiveusLepus @Madken65
Same, on both counts! 🤪 But I've worked to learn, and I'm better now. Sigh. What a mess it all is.
@janallmac @Madken65
Now this is not an eat the rich post, or a utopian communism post or whatever..
It just seems to me that if we are the creators of this fiction, we could control it, but controlling it to much shatters the illusion and everything breaks down.
I don't have an answer, but it seems like countries have figured this out. The US National debt is absolutely terrifyingly big huge massive, and everyone is going blithely along because they're all in debt too.