patrick.net

$5T in 2003 is about $9T now according to https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ . So, yeah, there's more mortgage debt. That said, during times of very low interest rates (negative real interest rates, actually), why shouldn't people load up on as much debt as possible?

More concerning in that chart is the student debt. That's debt that takes 20 or 25 years to default on, depending on which program you take advantage of. And, more than in the past, I think what is learned by many in higher eduction isn't useful for getting a decent job.

SunnyvaleCA says

More concerning in that chart is the student debt. That's debt that takes 20 or 25 years to default on, depending on which program you take advantage of. And, more than in the past, I think what is learned by many in higher eduction isn't useful for getting a decent job

Yep, and for those who had the debt prior to Covid, they could have refinanced it at about 1%. Now the rate is about 6.39%. So yeah, basically for the average student graduating with $30k debt, the cost of college has gone up about 60% (not including regular price increases) if they take the full 20 years to repay it. I doubt that wages for college graduates have gone up, so sure we're looking at another impact on today's youth where they should expect a permanent decrease in their standard of living.

Eventually, they will see how much the deck is stacked against them and Vote overwhelmingly Socialist.