A Harrowing Number

This is last year's number as 2007 isn't over yet. The best guesstimate on how much Americans charged last year was quoted in Collections & Credit Risk magazine. They said Americans were on track to charge $1.7 TRILLION. And people wonder why we have so many problems associated with debt.

I question the relevance of these stats sometimes.  The number sounds real bad, but does it really mean that there's 1.7 trillion in new debt, or simply that the card companies processed 1.7 trillion in transactions for the year.  I use my debit and occassionally credit card instead of paying cash for the convinience factor sometimes, it doesn't mean I'm accumulating new debt.

Last I heard there was something like 250 million Americans, I'm just going to guess 170 mil of which are adults to have a nice round number.  That's an average of $1,000,000 per person which just doesn't seem accurate if we're truely talking about new debt.

Sorry, my math was off.  Make that $10,000 per person.  I guess that would put it in the realm of possibility.

When I initially read the figure that debt was well into the trillion dollar range my jaw dropped. I was shocked that so many people could be so fiscally irresponsible!

I don't know if that statistic accurately correlates to fiscal responsibility.  Many Americans use credit cards both frequently and responsibly.  Also, does that number include transactions on bank/check/debit cards?  Being directly and immediately attached to one's bank account, they lend themselves to a different type of spending.

I am not suggesting that there is not a serious problem with debt in the U.S.  Clearly, it's epidemic.  I just think that number, while spectacular, may be a bit misleading.