← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · heritagelost
Thread ID: 11759 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2004-01-06
2004-01-06 14:33 | User Profile
[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=509&e=3&u=/ap/debt_in_america[/url]
Consumer debt hit a record $1.98 trillion in October 2003, according to the most recent figures from the Federal Reserve (news - web sites). That debt ââ¬â which includes credit cards and car loans, but not mortgages ââ¬â translates to some $18,700 per U.S. household.
At the same time, the government says the nation's savings rate dropped to just 2 percent of after-tax income in the first half of the year. That means many people lack the means to deal with financial emergencies, much less their eventual retirement.
Experts worry about the impact not only on individual families but on society as a whole.
"The Depression generation is passing on, and we're losing their values," said Howard Dvorkin, president of the nonprofit Consolidated Credit Counseling Services in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "Now we've got an entire generation that doesn't know anything about thrift and careful spending. It's tearing the fabric that made this country great."
2004-01-06 17:04 | User Profile
We're losing Depression-generation "values"? That's not all bad to me.
They're the ones who voted in the 1965 immigration act, so a pox on their houses. These idiots put FDR and LBJ into such positions of power that we've never recovered socially.
Thanks, Depression-generation people for those socialistic values!
-Jay