Americans Are Drowning In Credit Card Debt, And It's Not Because They're 'Irresponsible'

Amid soaring inequality and stagnant wages, consumers in the United States collectively accumulated a stunning $34.4 billion in credit card debt during the second quarter of 2016 alone, according to a new report from the personal finance website WalletHub.

This high number represents the greatest second-quarter accumulation since at least 1986, when such data was first recorded, and positions U.S. consumers to surpass “$1 trillion in outstanding balances for the first time by the end of 2016,” the report states.[...]

In a 2014 study, Demos senior policy analyst Amy Traub found that there is “little evidence that households with credit card debt are less responsible in their spending habits than households that do not have accumulated debt.”

“Instead, we see that, among similarly situated low- and middle-income households of working age, factors like education, value of assets to fall back on, insurance coverage and whether a household member has lost a job are among the foremost predictors of whether a household will accumulate credit card debt,” Traub continued, referencing data from a national survey of 1,997 households.[...]