People are liquidating everything non-essential to cover basics. Credit cards get maxed for food then payments get missed. The resale market is flooded with boats, cars, and collectibles as families raise cash fast. This is the kind of pressure that builds into bigger problems when it spreads.
One irony of inflation is that it forces people to sell their non essential items, which drives down those prices. I randomly met a a classic car dealer this week who told me auction prices for hot rods are down almost 50%. When I look at Facebook marketplace, it’s now like the opposite of covid, a buyer’s market instead of a seller’s. I bought a tractor today for $2,500 that would have been double that in 2020. Motorcycles, boats, mowers, sports cars, anything people don’t need, they are putting up for sale.
Millions of Americans take on debt and drain savings to afford food…
Millions of Americans are borrowing money or draining their savings to buy groceries, highlighting the financial strain many households face as the cost of living rises, new research has found.
More than a quarter of working-age adults who relied on credit cards to buy groceries were either unable to pay their balance in full or missed their minimum payment, according to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. About one in 10 adults relied on so-called “buy now, pay later” loans to cover their groceries — of those, about a third missed a payment last year, the analysis found.
About 20% of working-age adults said they had tapped long-term savings that weren’t intended for everyday expenses, such as an emergency fund, at least once in the last 12 months to pay for groceries, the researchers said.
“Families still need to eat. They will still need to pay for their basic needs,” Kassandra Martinchek, a co-author of the study and public policy expert at the Urban Institute, told CBS News. “Now they have the additional burden of also needing to repay debt — it could constrain their ability to meet their basic needs in the future and get back on their financial feet.”