March 21, 2025 - 7:30pm
DoorDash, the popular gig economy food delivery service, has announced that it will be partnering with Klarna, the financing service, to offer consumers the option to buy delivery and then pay for it later. Thatâs right, you can now finance a pizza.
Buying now and paying later has long been a feature of American consumer life when it comes to pricey goods like cars or homes, and few Americans could ever afford to pay for those goods entirely in cash. But while it makes for funny memes to imagine being hit up by a debt collector for a Chipotle payment, the truth is that the American economy is increasingly resembling a dystopian film directed by Bong Joon Ho, the famed Korean filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning Parasite and the new Mickey 17.
Those movies showed us the lengths people would go to escape from debt, whether it was turning your family into conmen or signing up for a mission in outer space that guarantees you will live and die repeatedly until the end of your days.
For Americans, debt is now everywhere, even on the holidays. One survey released in November 2024 found that nearly half of Americans were still paying off debt from the previous yearâs holiday spending. âSix in 10 people with credit card debt have had it for at least a year. Thatâs up 10 percentage points from three years ago,â Bankrate analyst Tedd Rossman explained at the time.
It would be easy to blame this all on peopleâs lack of individual responsibility. Indeed, financial literacy isnât a strong suit for a lot of Americans. But as debt invades every aspect of our lives, is it really that Americans have just suddenly become much more irresponsible and unable to live within their means?
Thereâs an old Chinese proverb that says that our ancestors plant the trees so that we can sit in the shade. The seeds of the debt economy have been laid everywhere, from colleges and universities portraying their outrageous tuition and fees as an âinvestmentâ Americans should be willing to go deeply into debt for to the ubiquitous credit card commercials theyâre greeted with any time you sit down to watch television.
Our society is telling us that living outside your means is no problem, and weâre listening. But over time we may also see a counterculture start to take root. Financial gurus like Dave Ramsey are building a fanbase based on preaching a philosophy of keeping people out of debt. One issue some Democrats and Republicans have found common ground on is capping credit card interest rates (although any such bill faces long odds in Congress). The absurdity of the DoorDash-Klarna venture is self-evident to many Americans.
Americans are increasingly living in a society that not only expects them to go deep into debt but encourages them to be trapped in their own personal debtorâs jail. A prison break still might be possible, but the recent DoorDash-Klarna agreement is a truly dystopian move.
Zaid Jilani is a journalist who has worked for UC Berkeleyâs Greater Good Science Center, The Intercept, and the Center for American Progress.
ZaidJilani
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SubscribeâThe rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.â
Ancient wisdom, sadly neglected.
I prefer â A fool and their money are soon partedâ.
Itâs the same the whole world over
Its the poor what gets the blame
Its the rich gets all the pleasure
Aint it a blâdin shame
If you owe the bank ÂŁ1 million then youâve got a problem. If you owe the bank ÂŁ100 million itâs the bank thatâs got a problem.
Your quote, and the Chinese proverb in the article plus the many wise teachings in the Bible are what successful people follow. Those who donât are destined for the coming idiocracy. Financing a pizza may well be an indicator that we are already there.
But surely the point is that this particular piece of ancient wisdom stopped being true about 150 years ago, with the miracle of living standards noticeably improving at a visible rate within a single human lifetime, and lately even within a single generation. That stopped and went backwards after the financial crisis in 2009, and now weâre at the ludicrous point where some people need credit to afford a pizza.
Now I know that some people have absurd expectations of what they deserve from life based on how little effort they put into it, but most people are not like that, yet most people have experienced a noticeable compression in their living standards while the prices of most basics and essentials â food, water, energy, transport, housing etc â seem to take up more of what theyâre capable of earning.
Something has gone very wrong lately, and the ancient wisdom canât explain it for the simple reason that the ancient wisdom had nothing to say about the miracle of modern existence in the first place. We need new wisdom and new insight to solve this conundrum.
âOne issue some Democrats and Republicans have found common ground on is capping credit card interest rates â
Such restrictions would make it unprofitable to lend to large numbers of people, because of the risk of default. Many would turn to loan sharks.
The answer is to address the problem at source. My least libertarian view is that all advertising should be banned.
I avoid adverts like the plague. AdBlock of course, and tend to watch terrestrial tv âon recordâ so i can skip through the ads. If i see a billboard, i look away â not interested.
I find it incredible, the amount time. money and effort wasted on them, but there must be some numbskulls that take notice.
I have never, not once, purchased something because of an advertisement. The best that an ad can do is make me aware that a product exists. Aside from that, Iâm baffled by many of them, which donât even attempt to sell a product to me.
hahaâŠself awarenessâŠâŠâŠ
Like a sheep saying;
âI am stunning and brave and free thinking; I never follow the sound of the bellwether sheep â I go where I wish, I do as I will, I think asâŠâŠâŠ
Oh; the bell is moving off⊠gotta go, by thenââŠâŠ
That was my first response too: naive and lacking self awareness. Though to be fair, some people are more influenced by ads than others. Usually I find its people in different market segments to myself
ââAmericans are increasingly living in a society that not only expects them to go deep into debt but encourages them to be trapped in their own personal debtorâs jail.ââ
OK, truth there, so you admit it is the âsocietyâ that actually works to make the citizens in debtâŠ.. so it is not a conspiracy theory then; That this is then Intentional, this is a goal of some great power working on us, haha, and thus, as you are a reporter â how about you do a bit of journalism and answer the 5:
âwho, what, where, when, and whyâ
But I know you will not, because no one does, so I will tell why âSocietyâ keeps us in debt for nefarious reasons. âThriftâ as the bible teaches us, as every ancestor did; why is that basic virtue being destroyed????
Well, as you may know my thinking already â Because they are out to destroy the West. See â Debt breaks families, and now prevents families from forming at all. This is the reason.
The greatest crime against Westerners ever done is âStudent Loansâ! In the old days, 1970s, 80s, 10% â 15% went to university. It was affordable, grants for the low income â BUT it took an IQ of 115, and 120 to do a real degree so just 10-15% had the ability. Then the system decreed All must go to university although few were capable â and thus standards lowered, and fake degrees invented â but why? Why do that?
Because they could then raise University prices through the roof (Check out $ inflation on Education!) And give student loans to all. Loans which were insane. Loans which meant the majority left University with a useless degree and huge debt and a very bad habit of accepting debt and not saving. See â the old system was Paid âOn the job trainingâ or paid apprentice, NOT massive debt burden for worthless 3 â 4 years of study when you should be saving and learning skills so you could have a family.
Pow! End of the proper Family. Young people could not marry and buy a house and begin a family because they had been made feckless, spoiled, had a useless degree, and hugely in debt. Fertility crashed. They then made Debt so very easy â low interest, buy a car you cannot afford, live in an apartment you cannot afford, go on holiday, avocado toast, expensive coffee and drinks daily â be broke till mid 40s. As a fun bit push promiscuity, make men weak and feckless, make women intolerant of the weak men but despise strong men. haha â mass decline in fertility and family destructionâŠ..
But why? You may ask⊠and as the reporter will not do his 5, I will tell you. So they âHave Toâ open migration to masses of very different peoples of very different ability â see, if we do not breed, yet our whole health, education, and Pension is a Massive Ponzie, well as we do not replace ourselves, well we have to import bodies to be the ponzi base. hahaâŠâŠ but it will not work, but that is also part of the plan to destroy the West.
See â âTheyâ, the Global Elites, have decided the West had its time, its 200 years of Enlightenment in the sun, and now it is time to return to Feudalism, and so they break us, as individuals, as families, communities, Nations, and as a culture.
Door-dash on credit, haha, just one more trick in their playbook. And remember to tip the guy, he likely has a family back home to support, and he needs the money so he can bring them here â as you, a 34 year old with debt up to your ears, and a cat with massive vet bills, and a degree in Media Studies, and no children, will need someone to fund your pension.
Unfortunately, the radio personality, Dave Ramsey, who preaches financial responsibility is aired on conservative radio stations (at least that is where I have heard him). NPR needs an equivalent liberal-sounding financial guru who can appeal to young people with liberal sensibilities (to catch their interest).
He has lots of material from his show on YouTube. Great stuff! Anyone who heeds him WILL become conservative.
Excellent point. It is so easy to get into debt as paying for things with cards reduces the friction of the transaction.
When I was younger, nearly all my families transactions were in cash or by check. My father was paid weekly. He would cash his check and hand most of the money over to my mom. She kept some for our weekly expenses and the rest went into the bank, mostly into the checking account. My mom would shop at the grocery store and pay in cash, as well as most shops. The few bills that came in the mail would be paid by check, which my mom duly recorded in the checking out. Special expenses, like holiday shopping were saved for. I remember that if I was going to get a nice toy, my dad would put it on layaway. My dad made a deposit at the store, the store took the item off the shelf and stored it for us until my dad paid for it in full and only then we could take it home. College was saved for (and a lot less expensive).
Today nearly all our purchases are with credit cards or on line. We donât even pay for our tolls as they are automated. Some places tell you the toll others donât and you find out only when you get your statement.
The most pernicious debt is for student loans. The colleges lard up on administration and facilities and charge high tuitions, which are too easily financed with student loans. You can get a degree (such as in â â Studiesâ, race studies, gender studies, liberal arts, humanities) that leads to no or lower paying jobs that do not generate the income to pay off the loan quickly. Then the Left works its magic to get the loans forgiven (paid off by the rest of us).
I recommend âThe Millionaire Next Doorâ for financial literacy. At least individuals can better manage their money if they take some of the advice.
The United States has a major reckoning coming as we now spend more on interest than on defense. At least President Trump is trying to cut spending on useless or unnecessary items. However we are going to have to make some tougher decisions as the entitlements seem to grow faster than our ability to pay for them.
I pay for my UnHerd subscription with a credit card. Do I have a choice?
I have a Visa debit card which I use for all on-line purchases. I used to have a credit card, but it got out of control and once I paid if off I cancelled it.