In the United States, it used to be that only the poorest people lived paycheck-to-paycheck, but now most people do. This means ever more people are subject to this “poverty trap” at every level of society: They can’t make rational long-term choices because they only have the capital and credit to make rational short-term choices.

Of course, since the least expensive options in most spending categories provide the least value for the money, someone is getting that surplus value—which Wall Street just loves, since it makes numbers go up.