Has the American Dream fallen victim to the “Debt Trap?”
Dateline NBC and Special Correspondent Chris Hansen recently did a special investigation entitled “Debt Trap.” They gave the spotlight to several American families would had indeed fallen victim to the all too common pitfalls of consumer debt. For many, consumer debt has become a burden that can no longer be managed in an economy quickly spiraling downward. We at STARTOVERTODAY.COM wanted to take the opportunity to highlight a few of the key points covered in this Dateline Investigation, and shed some light on these important topics.
What happened to the American Dream? Well I would say that for many, the first step toward deciding what happened to it, is defining it. For that purpose, we will define the American Dream as being able to support yourself, and your family within your means. You know…the house with the white picket fence, your car, food for your family, all within the constraints of your working income. Sadly, over the past twenty years we have seen the economy rise…and fall, but more importantly to this discussion, we have seen people forced to turn to credit cards, and unsecured debt not to live the American dream, but merely sustain, while many of our parents and grandparents were able to live the American Dream with one working income. For a while, leveraging credit cards to live everyday life was not an unmanageable plan. Before the housing bubble burst, many American’s were able to leverage the rapidly growing amount of equity in their homes to stay afloat, utilizing the cash to pay off credit cards and other unsecured debts like medical bills, etc. Now with home values plummeting, and unemployment on the rise, American consumers don’t have anywhere to turn. American consumers are now carrying a staggering $2.5 Trillion Dollars in consumer debt. The question is…How do we recover?
Rebuilding the American dream is not something that is going to be easy, but something that is necessary to ensure not only our financial future, but the financial future of our children and grandchildren alike. We as American’s need to get back to basics, and off of the revolving cycle of credit, and subsequently debt. If you are interested in a free and confidential no obligation financial analysis from one of our trained financial strategists, please visit our website.
Overzealous Collection Activity: Another topic highlighted in this Dateline investigation, is the lengths that many collection agencies are going to in order to collect debt. We have discussed this topic in our blogs in the past, but this investigation exposed many of these truly illegal tactics. I have imbedded the video to give you an idea of what some collection agencies are doing, but more importantly, I have included links to a few great resources for consumers. The most important thing is to know your rights as a consumer!
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Tags: Collection Practices, credit advice, Credit Crisis, Debt, Economy