Americans whose financial literacy went out the window during the COVID-19 pandemic are finally starting to understand why greed is bad for their bank accounts, according to a report published Tuesday.
It turns out that Americans can’t afford things they can’t afford, at least that’s according to a report published by USA Today, which focused on individuals who spent far more than they had during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the stimulus checks. The outlet described the case of one woman who decided to go back to school in her 50s, amassing $100,000 in student loan debt that is now forcing her to choose between paying her bills or going out to restaurants and movie theaters.
Apparently this woman could afford to do whatever she wanted during the pandemic because she was getting regular checks from the government (ie: your money, Mr. Taxpayer). Now that the stimulus checks have stopped, her reckless spending is catching up with her, just like it is with countless other Americans.
It’s almost like giving people free money made them do really stupid things. And now they’re complaining about their own financial illiteracy.
Don’t Believe The Hype, We’re Still Headed For A Recession — And Investors Are Anxious AF | @DailyCaller https://t.co/4XJhaEMlft
— KAY SMYTHE (@KaySmythe) September 6, 2023
Well, things are going to get a lot worse. And pretty soon, I think. Consumer spending makes up roughly 70 percent of the U.S. economic activity. So as more people spend recklessly and get themselves into revolting amounts of debt for things they don’t need, our entire economy will start to fall apart.
“We are always unwilling to bet against the U.S. consumer, but we’re struggling here to see a plausible path to avoid a meaningful slowdown in their spending,” Pantheon Macroeconomics chief economist Ian Shepherdson wrote in a note to clients. Most of the savings made during the pandemic have already gone out the window, so as this terrible financial system circles the drain, what are you doing to protect your assets? (RELATED: NYT Idiots Ignore Dire Financial Warnings For 2023 From Leading Experts)
Are you going to stop buying crap you don’t need? Will you stop going out to dinner more than once a week because you can’t be bothered to cook? Will you downsize because the house you bought with a stupidly high mortgage rate was actually extremely overvalued coming out of the pandemic? If the answers to these questions are “no,” then you may starve to death before the decade is up.