The U.S. consumer debt is around $14 trillion. 80% of Americans are in debt.
The student debt held by Americans is over $1.5 trillion amongst 44.2 million borrowers.
While I think college has become an overpriced scam, it can have utility in certain situations. That said, it's crazy to consider that consumer spending—which is pure consumption—is nearly 8x higher than higher education spending.
Finally, we have the government, which has been responsible for all this addiction to debt through its fiscally irresponsible monetary policies. Sitting at 26+ trillion dollars as of June 2020, Big Daddy government has paved the way for the rest of its citizens to follow in its brazenly irresponsible spending footsteps.
After all, monkey see, monkey do.
Worst of all, most Americans have little or no assets. It's not like this debt represents capital investments in real estate or businesses or anything of tangible value. Most of this debt is pure consumption and will never generate a return.
If you're going to rack up a credit card, at least use it to buy some gold and silver. At least you'll have SOMETHING when the dollar collapses.
Government isn't going to change until it is forced to change—until it collapses—which the way things are going, is the likely scenario.
People aren't going to change until they are forced to change, which the way things are going, is when a gallon of milk and a carton of eggs is $30+ and rising.
You, the individual, can change whenever you decide to change.
You can stop spending on things you don't need. You can downsize rather than upsize. You can start a side hustle to earn some extra income to use wisely. You can stop comparing yourself to others. You can stop buying designer crap that has the same utility as something a fraction of the price.
It's like waking up when you realize how much of American society is defined by excessive waste. You can then wake up and define your own values for life, and how to spend your money rather than defaulting to some corporate created ideal.
When you realize how little you need to be happy, you'll stop going into debt to maintain a lifestyle veneer.
Then you're free.