I guess a lot hinges on the elasticity of 'struggle' here.
Having adequate credit, and being able to pay that off within a month, with zero impact on your ability to pay other bills, doesn't sound like too much of a 'struggle' to me. Sure, people complain, it's inconvenient, some other discretionary expenditures will be clipped, you might pay some extra interest or late fees, boo-hoo. But it's not necessarily a symbol of notable hardship on either historical or international levels. (And if these people didn't have easy credit they're confident they could pay off: they'd have kept more hard cash around, like is common in other countries.)
Just like there's a 'hedonic treadmill', where things that used to bring pleasure wear out from familiarity, there's "complaint inflation", in a generally rich & comfortable place like the USA, where whatever remaining nuisances exist become headline news, and get described in grandiose language previously reserved for deathly serious hardships.
I'm sure something like 40% of Americans "struggle" to get out of bed some mornings. Or "struggle" to choose between a $400 and a $1200 smart phone. Or "can't even" achieve some imprecise euphemestic lifestyle goal like "making ends meet" or "the American Dream". It's mostly hyperbole.
Having adequate credit, and being able to pay that off within a month, with zero impact on your ability to pay other bills, doesn't sound like too much of a 'struggle' to me. Sure, people complain, it's inconvenient, some other discretionary expenditures will be clipped, you might pay some extra interest or late fees, boo-hoo. But it's not necessarily a symbol of notable hardship on either historical or international levels. (And if these people didn't have easy credit they're confident they could pay off: they'd have kept more hard cash around, like is common in other countries.)
Just like there's a 'hedonic treadmill', where things that used to bring pleasure wear out from familiarity, there's "complaint inflation", in a generally rich & comfortable place like the USA, where whatever remaining nuisances exist become headline news, and get described in grandiose language previously reserved for deathly serious hardships.
I'm sure something like 40% of Americans "struggle" to get out of bed some mornings. Or "struggle" to choose between a $400 and a $1200 smart phone. Or "can't even" achieve some imprecise euphemestic lifestyle goal like "making ends meet" or "the American Dream". It's mostly hyperbole.