Friday, Jun 27, 2008
Yay - something we actually excel at ... debt
Telegraph: British household debt is highest in history
British households are now more indebted than those of any other major country in recorded history, it has emerged. Families in the UK now owe a record 173pc of their incomes in debts, official figures have shown. The ratio of debt to income is higher than any other country in the Group of Seven leading industrialised economies, and is sharply higher than the 129pc of incomes it was five years ago.
Posted by uncle chris @ 09:45 PM (476 views) Add Comment
6 Comments
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1. Sold My Soul To The Never Never Never said...
Somebody must have our debt then since we don't have any. This is what I was always saying to the OH - "it's all very well being able to pay the interest - but how on earth do you ever get round to eating into the debt (especially mortgage debt) when it's grown threefold in less than 10 years?".
2. Jmac said...
this is why we are in deep deep trouble
3. Wren said...
Quite appropriately, considering that in the West debt-based money (capitalism) really took off first in England.
On the back of the technology-based industrial revolution, of course.
But let us forget the innovators, the engineers, the scientists, and the then-to-be-made more efficient working folk.
Praise debt. Praise the banksters.
4. last_days_of_disco said...
Is this annual or monthly income. Its no clear to me. Are we talking 40000 or 4000 pounds of debt per household here excluding mortgages. 40k seems excesive to me, so I imagine its monthly. It would really help if they said annual or monthly.
5. uncle tom said...
LDoD,
What figures are you looking at?
Average unsecured debt per household is roughly £8k, but the average figures are very misleading, as they don't reflect the very uneven distribution. The distinction between secured and unsecured debt is also less relevant than it used to be.
Overall average debt per household is about £55k, but around a third of households, and roughly half the population, have no interest bearing debt at all.
Among those that do have debt, there are many who have only the remnants of a mortgage taken out many years ago, or a bit of finance on a car - relatively small sums.
It's the excessive debt of a large minority that's the real problem, and the culture of dependency on ever increasing debt that many have embraced.
The most feckless 10% have a problem that is now going critical...
6. Amazondean said...
To the last comment. "It's the excessive debt of a large minority that's the real problem". What are you talking about large minority. It sounds like you could be a politician.
I believe it's the majority of very naive young people who are the majority in debt and now they are going to pay a very big price for thier stupidity