How are Americans maintaining their standard of living even though wages are lagging inflation during this Administration?
Simple….piling on debt. Lending Tree reports nearly 30% of Americans in the country’s 100 largest cities are behind in their debt payments. (https://www.lendingtree.com/debt-consolidation/debt-payments-study/)
27% were more than 90 days behind in their payments and 26% had debt already referred to collection agencies.
“More than a third of millennials (36.7%), ages 27 to 42, and Gen Zers (36.2%), ages 18 to 26, had at least one delinquent account last year. Millennials were found to have the highest default rates on credit card accounts (19.6%), auto payments (7.8%), personal loans (8.3%) and other debts (27.9%).” (https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/nearly-30-americans-behind-debt-payments-largest-metros-study)
How can the federal government help address this?
1) Fiscal Discipline: The federal government needs to prioritize between its wants and needs. This will return more money to the private sector.
2) Don’t Pick Winners and Losers: The federal government has a poor track record of subsidizing certain industries (think of all the money wasted with Solyndra). How fair is it that the president decides whose student loans should be forgiven?
3) Balance the Budget: We don’t need another Commission to study how to do it….we need principled leaders who are willing to make the tough decisions.
4) Restore Normalcy and Stop the Chaos: The federal government seems to jerk from issue to issue without any planning or foresight. Elect normal people (non-career politicians) to Congress to restore some sanity.
