In other words, “let’s kill the Middle Class with rate hikes! That’ll do it! They are living off credit cards, what better way to throttle them!!”
The middle class has already been killed by inflation. Wages have been declining for 22 months straight. Credit card debt has exploded. The costs of food, fuel, rent, utilities, etc. are increasing. Inflation is the cruelest tax of all.
Oh...I know they are, but they’ve been doing that for a long time.
When the time came to tighten down, they didn’t.
When the time came to evaluate the their budgets, they didn’t.
When the time came to realize they were pushing their limits, they didn’t.
We have a whole generation or two, that really have never been called upon to struggle. We complain about today’s decadence of youth, well they’ve not paid for that privilege, now have they? We often say how spoiled this generation actually is and they do not even realize it.
The biggest difference between now and the 1970’s is back then the credit card was still a novelty thing. Reagan could do what they did because credit cards were not ubiquitous like they are today. The financial culture of the middle class was different and more solid, not built on debt.