US citizens are known for doing things to excess. Our cars, homes, bank accounts, and waistlines are bigger (on average) than those of people in other countries. Many people around the globe would give anything to be “poor” in the United States – the most poverty-stricken Americans are still better off than a significant portion of the world’s poor.
Because of the relative prosperity in America, it’s natural to assume that we would also carry the most debt. (And we do!) Surprisingly, though, our spending habits aren’t all that different from those of people in other countries. Debt is a rising problem in places like the UK, where citizens are quickly amassing more consumer debt than they can realistically repay. I’ve always assumed that Americans “win” the race to becoming broke, but as the infographic below shows, the UK won’t be behind for long.
Surprised at the state of UK consumer loans? View how quickly UK consumers accumulate debt with this live debt ticker.
This infographic is brought to you by QuickQuid
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About Andrea Whitmer
Coming from an immigrant background, I have first hand experience of what it is like to be poor in the US versus being poor in another country. It is infinitely better to be poor in the US. I wrote about my experiences about being poor in NYC versus China recently:
http://www.chubblywubbly.com/what-it-ws-like-to-b… http://www.chubblywubbly.com/what-it-was-like-to-…
Wow, that's a lot of debt. There are many countries that are, unfortunately, catching up to the US with the debt levels. It seems to be the norm now.
I think it would almost be ironic if the countries that were considered as developing, but now are being more developed (their middle class is increasing), end up having high debt levels just because they wanted to achieve that American dream (the car, the house, etc) It would almost be doing a 360, rather than a 180.