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Comment by ExpiredLink | Hacker News Reader

Get it now, pay later. What could be wrong?

Keep in mind that most personal bankruptcies are caused by medical bills. You can not exactly postpone critical operation until you save money. You can not work while you are sick a lot. And medical prices are non-transparent, patient have no idea which tests/interventions are needed and which are not, so it is hard to price shopping even if you have time for it.

If 35% percent of population do something, then it is better to look for structural reasons other then "population is stupid" simplification.

Why does there have to be a "structural reason" for it? Why must there be external blame assigned to something simply because it is commonplace in a population group? I'm curious what arbitrary line you've drawn that lets you delineate between "common-place in the population" vs "due to structural reasons"?

Note how I don't use the phrase "population is stupid", or that the reason is "stupidity". It could be a whole host/variety of reasons for people choosing to ignore possible life events. Everything from a misguided belief in a non-existent "safety-net", conscious decision to accept the risk, or plain not even remotely foreseeable life-altering event. Somehow, I doubt 35% falls under "unforeseeable".

Perhaps wages not keeping pace with inflation has had an effect?

Maybe more this than blame the victim.

Could also blame the paperwork and complications we like to create for ourselves so some middleman, middle-company, or politician get their piece.

That's one thing, but another is how people feel entitled to luxury products - entertainment, technology, cars, etcetera. Things like I /need/ a car, so I'll get a new one on a payment plan. Or I /need/ an iPhone because of Reasons, disregarding how it's a very expensive phone with a very expensive phone plan alongside it.

I guess you could call that some kind of inflation too, but it's pretty self-inflicted.

Since the largest single cause of US personal bankruptcies is for medical care, I'm not sure how you draw that conclusion.

You very rarely need an iphone.

With a car you have to take into account whether it can be assumed to improve your likely hood of getting a better job/getting any job/keeping your current job or otherwise make you money.

A cell phone may very well be necessary to get a job. It likely doesn't have to be an iphone, but it may be the cheapest option if you can get one subsidized, especially since it allows you not to have to pay too much money right now.

In general debt can be a very good thing iff you can reasonably expect to make more money than you did before.

There's still a certain amount of victim-blaming inherent in that point of view, when you consider the all-pervasive apparatus of psychological manipulation that has been brought to bear upon generations of consumers.

Obviously people are complicit in this.

You can live without a car if there is an acceptable public transport. That being said, car ownership among young Americans is going down. There have been some "OMG car is independence and growing up, they do not care about that" cries few months ago.

I guess it is blamed if you buy a car (luxury) and blamed if you do not buy a car (car being a symbol) case.

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