Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Politics / Silverman Not a Good Sign the Sequel: Tennesseans Are No. 2 in Credit Card Debt
Posted by Jack Silverman on Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 12:14 PM
A new study shows that Tennessee is carrying the second-highest average credit card debt in the country, with an average debt per borrower of $2,168. (The average is $1742.) The home state of Sarah "The Wasilla Drilla" Palin is in first place, at $2,486.
Of course, maybe this bad news is really good news. After all, if we have no state income tax and rely on an exorbitant sales tax, it's a good thing Tennesseans are spending way beyond their means, no? That way there's at least a slim chance TennCare will be able to handle us when we're out of a job and have no health insurance, right? OK, maybe there's some circular logic here, but I'm just trying to find the silver lining.
And remember President-elect Obama's controversial claim that in tough times, rural folks cling to guns or religion? Well he may have been right about the guns, but maybe not so much about the religion. Apparently sales of religious books have declined 8.9 percent since this time last year, leading Nashville's Christian book publishing powerhouse Thomas Nelson to lay off 55 employees. And that's after cutting 60 jobs in April, as well as half of the titles it publishes.
So Tennesseans, rural and otherwise, what are you clinging to in these difficult times? (Me? I've been watching season one of HBO's The Wire, which takes place in Baltimore. Believe me, Nashville, it could be much worse.)
Comments (5)
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Lets see. I have $0 CC debt. So who has the $4300+?
Don't spend what you don't have. Simple, but its always worked for me.
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Mr. Silverman, Taking a couple of news items out of this morning's Tennessean and describing them them here in "Pith" doesn't show much ingenuity. If you want to write about how the economy is affecting local businesses, perhaps you should mention the dozen or so Tennessean staffers laid off yesterday and today as part of a Gannett-wide cutback. Try covering The Tennessean instead of copying it.
Henry, someone burn your toast this morning?
First, I got the credit card item from Google. I did get the news about Thomas Nelson from The Tennessean, and make that clear by linking to their story. And I don't recall seeing anything in The Tennessean about the higher credit card debt perhaps having a silver lining due to our dependence on sales tax. Or linking the Obama comment to the drop in sales in religious books. And in case your new to the Internet, blogging often includes commenting on the news stories of the day.
Job losses at The Tennessean are highly unfortunate. But that's not what this blog post was about. Why didn't Pete mention the 11-and-1 Titans in his Music City Bowl post? Uh, because that wasn't the topic of the post.
Mr. Silverman, I did not realize when I posted my earlier comment that you are new to Nashville and The Scene. Welcome to Music City. We can agree to disagree as to whether Pith is better used--as it is often used--for breaking news rather than as a forum for your comments on two items which were both in yesterday's Tennessean. That discussion aside, you missed my main point: I was letting you know about an important local story that our alternative weekly ought to be covering and, as of this morning, still isn't.
