Submitted 1 day ago by Innerworld@lemmy.world to economics@lemmy.world
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/lifetimecreditcarddebt-web.webp
The source for this is just intentionally misleading. This isn’t debt, it’s lifetime USAGE. If it’s being paid off monthly, like the image itself says then it’s no different than the typical net 30 businesses use to pay each other within 30 days.
The 1/3 of the population with a revolving balance are the problem since that is a debt they’re paying massive interest on. They don’t mention lifetime interest paid because that would not be such a massive number.
It would be interesting if America collectively stopped paying their CC bills though.
By state not really that useful. Much like US politics, it pretty much comes down to urban or rural? All states have a massive urban/rural earning divide that would probably show a more useful contrast; debt where income is lower has significantly higher impact.
Scirocco@lemmy.world 1 day ago
What is this saying?
That people have a total lifetine throughput of 300-500k?
What does that tell us?
I do virtually all of my spending on credit card, and pay the full balance every month. So… No shit, throughput is high. But revolving credit is zero, in my case. Other people will carry a balance, but so what?
A more useful metric might be average credit card debt balance, or average interest paid per month or per year.
Either this graphic is very atupid, or I am.
Enlighten me please.
tyler@programming.dev 1 day ago
OP is just advertising that website, they’ve posted numerous other “infographics” from the same site. This one makes no sense, and they posted the article to drive traffic to the site but the article answers nothing.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s not you. The metric makes no sense
tomatolung@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I think this graphics lacks context yes, but I don’t think it’s throughput. I think it’s average lifetime debt on credit cards. Although that doesn’t mean much either.
As you say what is this saying… And provide the why either. Cost of living, age group, why do people have more debt than other? Also what is the median period have credit card debt?
This is not a geographic map data point.