[CutePuppy]

Are you sure it's under $4,000, not under $40,000? And that's counting all, including toddlers and teenagers who don't yet have accumulated the "consumer" debt themselves, but nonetheless likely have contributed to their parents doing it.

Numbers are all over on this, but I thought that total US "consumer" debt, including about $1T in total credit card debt but not including mortgages, was approximately $2.5T (according to www.creditcards.com) which on average would make it under $9K per person?

[JerseyHighlander]

http://www.smartmoney.com/mag/index.cfm?story=august2007-debt&afl=myyahoo

I found one section of the article particularly troubling ...
“According to the Federal Reserve, U.S. consumer debt has reached $2.43 trillion, or about $21,900 per household, a number that has nearly doubled over the past decade — and doesn’t include $10 trillion in mortgage debt. Looked at another way, consumer debt today equals 132% of the average household’s annual disposable income.”

I am under 30, grew up in a household where outside of using credit cards for big purchases for the added credit card consumer protection security, there was rarely any CC debt outside a short period of the Bush the elder mini-recession.

I have almost no debt now, I can’t comprehend the numbers being reported.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Are you sure it's under $4,000, not under $40,000?

You're right.

His claim is way off. According to the Fed, consumer debt is less than $2.6 trillion.

which on average would make it under $9K per person?

Exactly.