Posted on 05/21/2024 1:44:36 PM PDT by Heartlander
Years after the fact, the mainstream media is discovering that Gen Z is doomed. As CNN puts it, Gen Z is “earning less, has more debt, and higher delinquency rates than Millennials did at their age.”
In short, the pandemic did a number on Gen Z, followed by a wallop from Bidenflation, lagging wages, and now a looming recession.
How are they surviving? Debt.
A new study from Transunion finds that, since 2013, average debt balances for those aged 22 to 24 has risen by 40%, including a 14% rise in auto loans and a 26% rise in credit card debt.
For those with a mortgage — which is a vanishingly low percent of Gen Z — the average mortgage debt is up by nearly half to $215,000 — quite a bit of debt at 24.
That, of course, is thanks to the Fed’s money printing that drives house prices to an arm plus a leg.
This debt has mirrored the savings rate, which plunged during Covid from an already abysmal 6% pre-pandemic to just 3.2%. So Americans are saving 3.2 cents on the dollar earned. For perspective, in the early 90’s it was three times that.
The pandemic apparently accelerated debt, and most dramatically among the young; Gen Z opened new credit cards at a faster rate than even Millennials during the pandemic — during 2020, there were multiple months when almost 6% of Gen Z’ers had opened at least one new credit card in the previous month.
Note Gen Z has the lowest income — therefore the lowest debt capacity — of any generation. Yet here they are sporting multiple cards and giving them a good workout.
All this debt, of course, is now driving delinquincy rates, with auto loan delinquencies rising by half, and credit card delinquencies doubling since 2022 to over 6% of credit cards in delinquency — not just carrying balances, but in actual delinquency.
Keep in mind that this is all just the debt we can see — buy-now-pay-later has edged out avocado toast for Gen Z’s favorite daytime activity, totaling an estimated $700 billion in shadow debt.
In a recent Harris Poll, one out of three respondents said they’ve spent more than $1,000 on buy-now-pay-later, and 54% of users admitted spending more than they can afford.
One in four reported that buy-now-pay-later is making them fall behind on other lines of credit — note a credit card charges 24% interest per year, which is slightly lower than the mafia.
In a recent video, I mentioned the real-world fallout from all this debt, with declining sales for low-end staples from McDonald’s to Coke to Kraft Mac-n-Cheese — a Gen Z standby. Now Walmart is rolling out a private label brand of items under $5 to clothe our next generation in all the finery their debt will allow.
Gen Z is a financial train wreck — keep in mind this is the next generation of Americans.
They’re facing soaring prices and plunging wages, even as their formative experience of stimulus checks and student loan bailouts has taught them that maybe if they crash hard enough, Mom and Dad — er, the federal government — will bail them out.
We’re raising a generation of wards of the state, sustained not by productive work but by debt and handouts.
Given that government spending is unsustainable at 7% of GDP, they’ll eventually hit reality.
And they’ll be completely unprepared for it.
Hadn’t heard that about Walmart. To compete with Temu?
Just wait until Gen Z figures out they have to pay all the bills the boomers are running up right now...in addition to their own bills...
trump is our do-over
Gen Z is doomed because the older generations kept voting in garbage litigation expanding the debt and kicking the can down to their children and grandchildren.
The elites who sponsor garbage litigation can well afford to provide for their own progeny. The foolish middle class listens to the elite propaganda and votes away their own children’s heritage.
Watch the birth rate fall even further.
Gen Z was born from 1997 to 2012. If they are distributed equally, nearly 60% of them are under 21. The oldest are 27.
I know I did not have a mortgage at 27. I had barely just gotten married.
ALL of these articles about Gen Z this or Gen Z that make definitive statements about the generation are just ridiculous. Half the generational cohort cannot even sign a contract yet. 12% of them can rent a car on vacation.
In short they are kids. Like, middle school and high school kids.
Ahhhh ... more generational stereotyping and hate-mongering.
To quote “the Emperor”: “ Yeeesssssss ... let the hate flow through you!”
This is the generation that has grown up in Obama’s “fundamentally transformed” America. The American Dream is no longer attainable by average people. For the most part, they are screwed, and I think they realize that it was the Old Folks who did it to them.
Unfortunately, they may still believe that Communism will solve their problems.
I know. Let’s import millions of illiterate poor turd worlders, give them unlimited welfare, homes, medical care, and education. That will certainly help.
No problem, they will look up the answer on their iFag phones.
They are the tick tock generation.
That alone explains much.
Joe said they are just buying luxury items instead of saving for school.
You mean the boomers who worked, saved, and achieved the kind of success these pierced and inked whiners will never have?
How many of these crybabies have had their student loans forgiven???
Have bought 3 properties in 39 years.
Paid the mortgages.
Bought Current property FOR CASH
Paid car loans
Paid all student costs-—NO LOANS
NEVER earned more than $20 an hour in 67 years.
They all have top shelf tastes & demands & beer pocketbooks.
not the “pandemic” at all. de-education is purely the reason.
Communism solves every one’s problems tomorrow. Look at Cuba. Just one more year of the glorious revolution.
I don’t think even the mighty Trump can fix this mess. He can make a dent for four years is all. That’s if TPTB allow it.
Fantastic idea!
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