The TRUTH! 76% of Americans SAY THEY CAN'T PAY THEIR BILLS!

You know, it's one thing for me to come out here on YouTube and talk about different delinquencies and how we see the household debts continue to increase, both with credit card debt, mortgage debt, auto loan debt. Everything seems to just be piling up. But it's another thing to hear it directly from people. Because LendingTree, they just came out with a survey in September, and they asked over 2,000 Americans how they're doing financially, what's happening with their money, right? And 76% of them said that Bide inflation has made it more difficult than ever to pay their bills. Half of them said they have to pay certain bills late in the past 12 months. That includes essentials like utility bills, mortgage payments, and cable or internet bills, which also lines up with the delinquencies that we've been seeing. We've seen delinquencies steadily been rising on all forms of debt over the past year or two. And when people are asked why they're having such a hard time paying, they say, I didn't have enough money to pay the bill. It's that simple, guys. You have 40% of people, according to the US Census Bureau, also reporting that they are finding it somewhat or very difficult to pay their household expenses, including things like food, gas, rent, insurance, healthcare, and all the rest of it. Personal bankruptcy filings, they have jumped more than 15% this year over last year. And bankruptcies for small businesses have increased by more than 40% year over year, guys. But there are still people out there denying that this economy is not doing so great. So many people want to believe that it's still doing well, despite all of this information that we all have access to. This is all public info. People ask sometimes, where do I get my information from? I put all the links to my stories down in the description of my videos, guys. Anybody who wants to go check this out and read it for yourself, it's all there for your viewing pleasure. The only time I don't put something there is when somebody emails me a personal story, like something that happened to them, then clearly there's no source. In that case, that person is the source. But everything like this that I'm reading to you, these statistical data and facts, they're all always listed down there. You know, Americans are getting hit with a double whammy effect right now with this economy, which is part of the real problem. You know, people are facing an increased cost of living. At the same time, they're seeing a decrease in their purchasing power. The cost of living has literally gone up 40% to 70% for most people over the past four years, depending on your lifestyle and the things that you buy. And inflation has also eaten away anywhere between maybe 25% and 40% of your purchasing power over the same time frame. And so, how much of a raise do you have to get to keep up with this stuff, guys? You know, they like to lie about things and say, oh, the wage increases that people are seeing are outpacing inflation, because they just look at, you know, what was the year over year wage increase versus what does the official CPI report say? And it's like 1% higher, and that's supposed to mean that everybody is doing fine? No, it doesn't mean that, because most people would need to see well over 100% increase in their pay over the past four years to even be keeping up right now, because of how much inflation has removed purchasing power, as well as how much the cost of living has gone up for everybody. The Fed's Beige Book is saying the same thing. You know, nine out of the 12 districts that report to the Federal Reserve for the Beige Book report a slowing economy. You know, in the previous report, it was just five, guys, so it went from five to nine districts. Pretty soon, it's going to be all of them. A company called Real Clear Markets, they have an economic optimism index, and they say that the index has remained in negative territory for the last 38 consecutive months. And it just got worse again in September. And they say Americans are experiencing approximately 13% higher financial stress levels than usual, which sounds like kind of an understatement to me, given the whole situation. In their most recent report, they found out that 84% of Americans are worried about inflation continuing to eat away at their purchasing power of the paychecks. 80% are concerned about an economic slowdown in the next 12 months. So literally half of the people surveyed also say that they think the U.S. economy is already in a recession. I'm glad that so many of those people like that are paying attention and watching channels like mine to realize that, yeah, that is in fact the case. You have retail sales of new vehicles are essentially flat for the year, despite all the auto prices coming down, and repossessions of new cars due to loan defaults are up 23% year over year, guys. People are signing on the dotted line and they're not making payments. What does that remind you of? This is so like the last great financial crisis that we had in this country. That's exactly the type of behavior that people were exhibiting during that timeframe. All these stimulus programs that they've done to juice up the economy have failed to make the impact that they've been trying to get, and it's just not working, guys. No matter how many loans they put on hold that don't go into foreclosure, no matter how many people they let buy now, pay later, no matter how many people don't see the full hammer of financial consequences come down on them, it's still not enough to stop the economy from slowing down. And I just wonder, what are things going to look like when all of this is over with? Once the election is over, nobody has the incentive to hold up all of these measures anymore to keep the housing market as subsidized as it is, and keep the insurance markets as subsidized as they are, and just keep all of this money pouring out when we don't have it. That motivation will be over because whoever gets elected won't have to worry about getting elected again. There's so many businesses that are laying people off right now. In fact, all these stories that I'm sharing with you guys today were all sent to me from you guys. So clearly, this is stuff that you want to hear about because these are all things being shared with me that seems like you want me to talk about. Fruit of the Loom. They just confirmed that they're going to be laying off a ton of people. They don't even say how many yet, but this is out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and this is what their excuse for all this is. They say, Fruit of the Loom operates in a highly competitive and quickly evolving marketplace. Because underwear has changed so much over the past hundred years, right? Based on our most recent review and restructuring of our business to match the demands of the market, we had the unfortunate need to reduce staffing levels across multiple locations globally, including our Bowling Green corporate headquarters. So pretty soon, the affected employees will receive outplacement and assistance and other benefits in line with the company's policies. Fruit of the Loom denied to tell us how many jobs they're actually cutting. So we just don't know. It is a foggy day today, as you guys can tell, and it kind of looks colder than it actually is. Although I have to admit, I am a little bit chilled. The wind up here in the top of the mountain is a little bit cooler than down at the bottom. Anyways, 7-Eleven, they're closing more than 400 of its convenience stores. This was just announced. This was also sent to me by Carol. They're going to be closing 400 underperforming locations in North America. So they have about 13,000 stores across Canada and the US. And their reasoning for closing these stores is they say that they are experiencing slowing sales, less foot traffic, and inflationary pressures. And check this out. This is something that you would never think people would give up, especially people who are addicted, right? They say cigarette purchases, which was once a key sales category for convenience stores, have fallen 26% since 2019. And it's not like people are switching to vaping or chewing gum or tobacco or anything like that because it also says, you know, the sales have failed to shift to other nicotine products and they don't make up the difference. I mean, what do you guys notice is the common theme with so many retailers right now, even big successful ones like 7-Eleven and Walmart and Target. These guys are closing down stores, you know, and they're closing stores very strategically in areas that are underperforming. And those areas where they're closing these stores are likely spots where the economy is actually feeling the most pain, like the things we're talking about here on the channel. Sure, if they're opening a new 7-Eleven in your area, then you're probably living in an area that's doing pretty good right now if they think it's good to open a store while they're simultaneously closing a store somewhere else. And this is why so many people like to disagree about the state of the economy because there really is not one consensus, guys. It's just like the housing market. You can live in an area right now, like Florida, for example, where the inventory is exploding and prices are starting to come down pretty substantially. Or you can live in the Northeast in areas where prices are still up 7 or 10 percent year over year, depending on the neighborhood, and feel like, you know, what is this person talking about? You know, I'm seeing nothing but prices going up. But I like to talk about this on the channel so people can, you know, wake up and realize that just because things are going okay where you live doesn't mean that it's like that everywhere. In Illinois, where I'm originally from, you have a bunch of job cuts that were also recently announced there as well. You had the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Chicago. They just laid off 200 people. You have DHL Supply Chain. They just laid off over 100 people. Genuine Parts Company in Rockford, Illinois, they just laid off 69 people. It's all for the same reasons. Business is slowing down and they're closing down locations. Another thing that was just brought to my attention is Boeing. They just fired 17,000 people, guys. You know, this is a big problem because Boeing was already having issues with their quality control. You know, we saw the door fly off the airplane earlier this year and other problems happened recently with these planes. So clearly, they're not following the protocol they need to in terms of quality control and they're kind of grading their own report card over there. And now that Boeing is letting go of 17,000 people, I hope it's all the people that are falling asleep at the wheel over there because nobody wants to be on an airplane that's not safe. But just another thing that shows you the state of the economy right now when a big company like that, you know, people fly basically no matter what. The only thing that ever really shut down the air travel was the pandemic. Obviously, things have gotten back to normal since then and a company like Boeing needs to let go of that many people, it's a problem. When you read about all this stuff, it's kind of not really a surprise when you see other things like this. I just got an email the other day from Apple showing how they're going to be integrating the Affirm Buy Now Pay Later program directly with Apple Pay. Check out this, guys. Apple Pay now offers the option to split your purchases into smaller payments over time through Affirm. Shop tech, clothing, and more, then view your payment plan options before making a purchase available online and in apps on iPhone and iPad, and even give you the nice little beautiful screenshots of how to do it. So why would they be doing this if people had the money to actually buy stuff? If business was going well and people were flush with cash, why would they need to offer people to go into debt to buy things if they already had the money? I mean, just answer that question. They wouldn't. They wouldn't have to, right? But companies like Apple are smart and they know and they can see how much the debt levels have been going up and how much the delinquencies have been going up as well. People can use Apple Pay on their iPhones to make purchases and it doesn't affect Apple's bottom line. You know, if things go south and they can't pay the bill, it's Affirm's problem, not Apple's problem. And they know this is the only way a lot of people can afford to continue buying things like clothing and tech and more, as they put it here. I'm sure other people are going to use it to buy even more essentials like clothes and food and who knows what else. You know, all these stats are showing the real state of the economy right now, but some people are doing so well and are so rich and can spend so much money that it almost kind of outshines, you know, what's going on behind the scenes for a lot of other people. And just that alone, just the spending power of the rich can make up for 40% of the nation's GDP and 40% of all of the purchases that are made. And that's powerful. And then of course, people that aren't doing well still have to buy stuff. It's not like if you're not doing well financially, you just stop buying groceries or you just stop buying clothes or you just stop buying food. No, you still have to buy all this stuff. Just that how you pay for it is changing. People need to use these buy now, pay later services and credit cards more than ever. And that's why you're seeing the balances as well as the delinquencies with all of these things continue to rise. And going back to the earlier point of this video, you know, 76% of people claiming that they're basically broke right now and out of money. How does that really translate into a healthy economy for us moving forward? How are we going to continue to see the stock market explode and continue to see home prices go up forever and ever if that's the true state of affairs right now? Because even with how rich all the rich people are, they can't buy everything, guys. They're not going to buy all the houses. They're not going to, you know, buy all the groceries. They're not going to continue buying all the clothes and all the tech that these companies need to continue seeing these sales numbers to continue growing. And we're already seeing the slowdown with all these businesses. That's why you see Fruit of the Loom, you know, laying people off. And what do they mainly sell? Underwear, right? Underwear is something that everybody needs whether you're rich or poor, no matter what your social status is, you need to buy underwear. And if they're seeing their sales slow down and they're a cheap company, right? This isn't one of those designer underwear companies, you know, you're not buying Gucci or Armani underwear here for, you know, $50 a pair of tighty-whities. We're talking the 10-pack at Walmart for 15 bucks, 7-Eleven, they're a convenience store that typically the lower end consumer will visit, right? People that are just stopping in for a drink or, you know, just a quick bite to eat, you know, a lot of them are just convenience stores. They're not even gas stations. There's some of them that are. We have one in Miami that's a gas station too. But people just kind of run in there and grab a few things. And it's not typically a place that, you know, rich folks are going to be drawn to. And so that shows you that the bottom 60% or so of consumers are starting to fall behind with everything, guys, and are not able to keep up with the level of spending that's required to keep this economy afloat. And that's why all of the tricks and all of the stimulus that our government is using right now isn't working. This is something completely off topic and not related to what I was just talking about. But something I want to share with you guys that was also brought to my attention is that after Hurricane Milton, there was a lot of electric cars that got flooded in Florida and ended up catching fire, guys, because especially when these cars get submerged in saltwater and somehow the water is able to penetrate the battery, this can cause a fire that really is almost impossible to put out. It just kind of needs to burn out on its own. And as if there weren't enough threats already, people have to contend with stuff like this. And people were warned well in advance of the storm. In fact, even people that have Teslas were sent a push notification to the car telling them to move the car somewhere away from your home. So in the event it does get flooded or it does catch fire, then it's not going to burn your house down. But so many people didn't listen. And this wasn't like a huge problem. You didn't have thousands of houses burning to the ground because of this, but it did happen to some people. And there was other people that had problems with electric bikes and stuff starting fires as well. But I just want to bring this up because after hearing about dozens of hurricanes hitting Florida over the years before electric cars were really a thing, you never heard about fires, guys. That's one thing you really don't have to worry about with a hurricane typically is a fire. Because you have so much wind and so much rain that having a fire start and sustain, then the probability of that happening are very low. But now that more and more people are driving electric cars, this is a new threat that people have to worry about. So just something else to think about when you're considering what kind of car to buy if that's a problem that you're willing to deal with in an event like this. Even GEICO, the insurance company, they sent out notifications to people that own these electric cars warning them about the threat of being flooded and parking them in protected areas. I'm willing to bet you that people that didn't listen to these warnings from places like GEICO or Tesla and they ignored it anyways and the car started on fire, I bet you there's a high probability that insurance will not cover that loss because you were told to do something and if you ignored it and you still had a problem, then now they're going to deny your claim. That would be just another reason for them to deny it. There's probably somewhere within the fine print of all of the insurance legal documents that say, if we give you a heads up on something and you deliberately ignore it, like something like this with the electric car and it burns your house down or you have property damage or your car gets totaled, we're not going to be paying out for it. Insurance companies think of thousands of ways to not pay people claims. You don't think they got this one covered too? Of course they do. And sometimes when I make these videos, I find myself asking like, is this information valuable to you? Did anything I tell you in this video help you in any way? And I want to know guys, just let me know in the comments, did you get something out of this video? Maybe you didn't know before. Does it help you change your perspective on how you see the American economy right now? Does any of this matter to you? Are you being personally affected by this stuff? I want to know. I just want to know what my viewers are interested in, like what you guys want to see. Because like I said, pretty much this entire video was planned by you. Okay? I didn't plan this video. All of you did by sending me these stories and I want to continue to share the most relevant content that I can with everyone to ensure that I'm making the type of videos that you guys are interested in and are going to get some entertainment and knowledge out of watching. So just let me know. And if you enjoyed this video, please make sure you subscribe to the channel. And if you don't want to wait for my next video to come out, check out this one on the screen right over here, and I'll see you in the next one.