Unsurprisingly, 43% is also the number of people who carry credit card debt every month. I’m not saying that this is the only cause of poverty, but the lack of basic financial literacy in America is certainly a contributing factor. Are Americans poor because that’s just the way things are or are they poor because they buy shit they don’t need and get nailed by ridiculous interest rates instead of investing in the future? There are almost always ways to spend less and save more. We just don’t want to acknowledge them.