genuinely nuts to me: “24% of all Disney-goers have accrued debt during their trips, along with 45% of parents with children under the age of 18. The average amount of debt for those parents was $1,983” www.usatoday.com/story/travel... - ThreadSky

ahjohnson.bsky.social • 173 days ago

genuinely nuts to me:

“24% of all Disney-goers have accrued debt during their trips, along with 45% of parents with children under the age of 18. The average amount of debt for those parents was $1,983”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/theme-parks/2024/06/14/disney-vacation-parents-children-debt/74102655007/

Comments

twodumb.bsky.social•173 days ago

No way ppl actually get into debt from Disney

miscu.bsky.social•173 days ago

the park's marketing has a very manipulative bent of "remember how this was a formative experience for you? well you'd better do the same for your kids, and sort out the costs later"

though I can see an inflection point happening for them in the next couple of years. the prices are disgusting

thegenerouspirate.bsky.social•173 days ago

I grew up in poverty and once my mom asked me (at 8years old) if I wanted to go to Disney World and I chuckled in disbelief and said NO. I knew we couldn’t afford it as we had enough issues with paying the grocery and utility bills.

thegenerouspirate.bsky.social•173 days ago

To this day I can’t believe this was something that was considered by my Mom. Yet is seems like this is not unusual for others.

rowyourbot.bsky.social•173 days ago

It’s not nuts even if financially unwise. Most people in America don’t have any money, and they want to take their kids to go to Disneyland. They won’t stay kids forever so they take their shot and go. With everything so hard, little things like your kids being excited is a thing you reach for.

ahjohnson.bsky.social•173 days ago

I mean nuts in an abstract or political sense, I’m not judging anyone’s specific choices. It’s not a good sign when fairly run of the mill middle class indicators require so much debt

dominantdeluise.bsky.social•173 days ago

i’m sure a certain % of them charged the expenses for convenience & can pay it off fairly quickly but that is a painful amount of money to be spending on a theme park vacation. also reminds me of a recent post from a person who has like $85k in auto loans at some insane double digit interest rate

rupertramsgate.bsky.social•173 days ago

Based on anecdotal evidence I have accumulated over the years, a lot of Americans are paying large amounts of money every month to either pay off auto loans or lease cars.
Neither of those actions are the hallmark of good financial judgment. But keeping up with the neighbors is often an imperative.

cor-layard.bsky.social•173 days ago

Is this article not just saying “many of the people who went to Disney put it on their credit card”?

ahjohnson.bsky.social•173 days ago

Americans have $1.2 trillion in credit card debt, yes. The survey timeline seems to indicate its debt that is not immediately paid off. I assumed this was a fairly obvious definition of debt. What else would it be

uwes98.bsky.social•173 days ago

If all credit card use were clocked as "debt" then the number would be more like 90% rather than 24%, because who pays by check or pays those kinds of sums with banknotes?

Debit cards might be a sizeable fraction, less than CC I'm sure.

ahjohnson.bsky.social•173 days ago

People pay in debit all the time! That’s all I pay in. But given the wording of the survey question it’s not just “using a credit card” it’s credit usage that takes several months or longer to pay off

uwes98.bsky.social•173 days ago

sorry if that came off wrong, I completely agree with this interpretation.

mrfahrenheit.bsky.social•173 days ago

JFC. It's madness.

hockeenight.bsky.social•173 days ago

After reading that article, I'd love to see a follow up to how long it actually took for them to pay it off.

hormiga.bsky.social•173 days ago

this article seems very weird to me. It says that 3/4 of people who go into "debt" will pay off within 1-6 months. Which I think just means that they put it on credit cards?

So if you pay off your credit card balance immediately, then I think this survey still counts it as "debt?"

ahjohnson.bsky.social•173 days ago

I would say that months bill would not be debt but yes anything past a short term pay off is debt, by definition.

mikusa.bsky.social•173 days ago

You can’t repossess a cherished memory

susannyc.bsky.social•173 days ago

It's not that we just want out kids to have the same experience as we did when I paid my own entrance fee of $20 to Disneyland in the 70s. We also brough our own lunch and picnicked at the car! Not possible now. I personally gave up that dream and just to the kid to coney island.

hartwellbrooks.bsky.social•173 days ago

We built our own prison and now pay to maintain it.

balrog4u.bsky.social•173 days ago

Really? Idk how you can be surprised, you know how this country operates.

Everything runs on debt. Families do this because they only have debt to spend. Capitalism took all of our spending power and then invented credit cards.

Or is the shocking part the fact that they do it for Disney

manofsuds.bsky.social•173 days ago

Forget where I read this but Disney has figured out how to minmax tourists where they get the super frugal travelers who cut literally every corner, or they get the families who spend like they're the Rockefellers, and nobody in between

battynatty.bsky.social•173 days ago

Interesting

ahjohnson.bsky.social•173 days ago

I was wondering how in a country with a median annual income of $75K so many people afforded a $6,200 trip to Disney World and the answer seems to be almost half cannot but do it anyway

phillytradesman.bsky.social•173 days ago

Will Stancil will be along in minute to explain how we simply don’t understand the Magic of the Magic Kingdom

worldjustice7.bsky.social•172 days ago

Which is why millions of Americans are drowning in debt.

Wonder why they can't live below their means, save and invest?

Our public schools needs a subject and course curriculum titled "Investing 101" (through Investing 106) for grades 7-12.

strangernalps.bsky.social•173 days ago

Why save it just to give it to UnitedHealth to not cover you? 🤷

digitaljedimaster.bsky.social•173 days ago

The other element is...discounts.

austinbroth.bsky.social•173 days ago

What’s more American than that!

rupertramsgate.bsky.social•173 days ago

It is a tribute to Disney that they have managed to move Disney World visits from discretionary to mandatory expenditures for many families.

kipenyan.bsky.social•173 days ago

This same question and answer exists in almost every corner of our economy at present. “But how can—“ Massive, unprecedented amounts of credit card debt. It has gotten completely ubiquitous.

austinbroth.bsky.social•173 days ago

I tell this to my wife every time she asks how someone she knows on Instagram affords something. We don’t do that but I know a lot of people do!

kipenyan.bsky.social•173 days ago

If you do the math on it, on average every household in the country is carrying ~$9,000 in CC debt, and for the last 4 years that’s been rising by ~$800 a year. Not great!

ahjohnson.bsky.social•173 days ago

I am not moralizing and I appreciate the pressure to keep up with the Joneses but $2000 avg debt to go to Disney World means there’s little incentive to adjust prices to be in line with the realities of people’s finances. And clearly this applies to a billion other consumer goods

ccchicky.bsky.social•173 days ago

You can't exit Disney, World or Land, without trekking past probably 200 retail outlets on your way to the parking lot shuttle. I remember it being almost as exhausting as getting out of The House On The Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin. 1/2

ccchicky.bsky.social•173 days ago

Furthermore, i remember hearing Disney brass at a telecommunications trade show in Orlando explain how they plan to extract 10's of thousands of $$ from each of their adoring customers. 2/3

ccchicky.bsky.social•173 days ago

They also outlined how they measured their success with Plan A and then planted the necessary seeds to get even more $$ from those who took a bite out of the cheese. I remember how weird I felt hearing them admit what they were so brazenly admitting as their kinda predatory business model.👀3/3

n-r-g.bsky.social•173 days ago

Part of the incoherence of the entire American capitalist project is how it depends on people who make too little at their jobs to go into debt to purchase products from firms that pay their employees too little to afford the products they need/want… etc and so forth

n-r-g.bsky.social•173 days ago

Guys in the local Facebook group will be like “I’m a small business owner and everyone needs to tighten their belts so self made entrepreneurs like me don’t have to support them” and their business is, like, auto detailing or landscaping or something else that’s not even close to a necessity

bakerblue.bsky.social•173 days ago

Many of those small biz owners just chose a different way to join the precariate while being “independent”..

mithos343.bsky.social•173 days ago

Also they got the business from their dad and they think employing people means they're serfs

n-r-g.bsky.social•173 days ago

There are reactionary small biz owner/operators who provide important services like plumbing and electrical work etc but even their business model is dependent on the disposable income produced from the irresponsibility economy. If everyone was smart about Disney this all would grind to a halt

miasmo.bsky.social•173 days ago

"the pressure to keep up with Joneses" = consumer capitalism brainwashing that we should all remain vigilant against. Seriously, fuck the Disney Corporation. Go to a public park and play with your kids.

ahjohnson.bsky.social•173 days ago

Ok sure but I don’t think reducing the issue to discrete moral choices is very useful, politically

miasmo.bsky.social•173 days ago

Maybe. I think supporting people's choice to not play that game is helpful. For me personally, unless it's intentionally hilarious, I find most advertising to be an offense assault on intelligence.

ahjohnson.bsky.social•173 days ago

i am not a big fan of Ad Busters Left stuff. I think the distinction is mostly aesthetic. People work miserable jobs and want 2wks of magic at some corporate confectionery. Ok, fine. My wanting to visit Greece or Vietnam burns just as much carbon and exploits just as many low wage workers. Who cares

mikeobrien1492.bsky.social•173 days ago

'But, but, eggs and bacon are too expensive!'

Yeah, it's nuts

venomous.bsky.social•172 days ago

no, it's poultry and meat, gawd

balrog4u.bsky.social•173 days ago

Adam if you have 4 hours to kill you should watch Jenny Nicholson’s video about the Star Wars park. Even if you don’t have 4 hours tbh

adambuckled.bsky.social•173 days ago

The normalization of debt is maybe the key factor in our economy. I think Americans carry something like $1.6 trillion in credit card debt. If we as a country simply stop spending money we didn’t have, businesses would crumble.

kevvikevs.bsky.social•173 days ago

The level of debt that American working people hold completely hamstrings them from striking out politically for their own interests.

Deleveraging America should be right of the top of the list of priorities for any general leftist/progressive movement

bobdobalina30.bsky.social•173 days ago

Taking on debt to wait in long ass lines

banditelli.org•173 days ago

This cost $160 and it was like 20 miles from Anaheim. https://bsky.app/profile/banditelli.org/post/3lb6jtwu5zc2s

banditelli.org•173 days ago

And top 5 coolest things to see in person on earth.

reniem.bsky.social•173 days ago

When my daughter was little, one of the pre-school moms told me that not taking kids to Disney World was pretty much child abuse. She wasn't kidding.

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