How America Got So Good At Buying Sh*t | How Money Works

Oct 2, 2025

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How America Got So Good At Buying Sh*t

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Americans are the best consumers on the planet and it’s really not even close.
The runner up is China, and they spend less than a THIRD of what we do in any given year, even though they have almost five times as many people.
It might not always feel like it, but by global standards we are incredibly rich, we LOVE buying shit, and we aren’t afraid of going into debt to keep doing it.
More of our economy depends on the consumption of goods and services than basically any other major country around the world… but this has to have a limit right?
As a direct result of our insatiable desire to consume, our household savings rates are now the lowest they have ever been, and high risk, high interest consumer lending has surpassed a trillion dollars.
That doesn’t include things like car loans, home loans, student loans, medical loans or informal lending like buy now pay later, which are also approaching all time highs…
So what is going to happen to the best consumers on the planet, if they can’t afford to consume any more? And more importantly… could we solve all of our problems by just… buying less junk

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