United in debt: America has become a nation of fake rich people

In a cultural critique, John Mac Ghlionn describes a United States split between two coexisting realities: a visible, curated online life of conspicuous consumption and a material life marked by constrained finances. He uses everyday scenes—lines at coffee shops for $7 oat milk lattes and staged photos for social feeds—to illustrate how many people fund appearances with borrowed money. Mac Ghlionn points to survey findings from Empower showing that nearly a quarter of Gen Z feel intense pressure to display wealth online and that 41 percent of Americans do not see themselves as financially well-off.

The essay links this performative spending to readily available forms of consumer credit. Mac Ghlionn notes typical credit-card dynamics—short purchases followed by balance-sheet obligations that can include high annual percentage rates, citing an example APR of 28 percent—and the growing use of buy-now-pay-later services. He gives concrete examples: a $400 branded t-shirt purchased for its logo, a $120 sit-down dinner split into four BNPL installments, and an $80,000 pickup truck bought for suburban driving. These vignettes are used to show how different demographic and political groups participate in similar patterns of debt-financed consumption.

Mac Ghlionn also examines how the internet adapts to and monetizes fatigue from overconsumption. He describes the rise of “de-influencing,” where creators urge followers not to buy certain expensive items then link to cheaper alternatives, often earning small commissions—about 5 percent—on those replacement purchases. Vacation spending is another focus: he argues that many lavish trips promoted on social media are financed on high-interest credit and can become multiyear liabilities, turning a seven-day trip to Europe into a three-year financial commitment.

Throughout the essay, Mac Ghlionn frames the phenomenon as a cultural equilibrium that persists because individuals fear social penalty for opting out. He contrasts the digital self—portrayed as living in luxury and leisure—with the physical self, which may be subsisting on inexpensive food and watching a dwindling bank balance. His central claim is that the country is "united in debt": a broad, cross-cutting reliance on credit and performance that transcends typical social or political divisions.