The average American is over twenty thousand dollars in debt. As staggering a statistic as that is, the majority of Americans are living well beyond their means. I enjoyed this presentation very much as it dealt with some of the more psychological issues of debt like compulsive shopping and spending in general.
The majority of what we spend our money on is not necessary. In countries like Japan or China, where people tend to make less than they would here, they save over half of what they make. This is in addition to not using credit as credit cards never caught on in Japan. It is interesting to see the differences between cultures regarding the same issues. Here you are expected to have a credit card by the time you enter college in order to build what we are told is credit. The whole idea of credit in this country is ridiculous and creates unnecessary problems for our people. It is for this reason that there are so many bills in congress that deal with limiting the influence of credit companies and credit bureaus.
However, even if we were to remove credit people would still be in some form of debt. This relates back to the psychological aspects of money as we buy for emotional reasons. We enjoy buying new things as this can oftentimes be tied to our feeling of self-worth. To some of us, what we have makes us who we are and as a result they can never hold on their money for long. This can even be seen on campus with people that wear only designer clothing and live off of their credit cards. These people graduate thousands of dollars in debt and with a shoddy foothold on financial solvency. It is vital to make the distinction between what you own and who you are because the two will never be equal.
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