For 11 months in a row, Americans as a whole have spent more than they have earned. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the personal savings rate fell to negative 1.6 percent in April, a trend that has been progressively worsening since September 2005. In June last year, the savings rate turned negative for the first time since the Great Depression.

Since consumer spending accounts for two thirds of U.S. economic activity, the million-dollar question becomes: How much longer can Americans spend more than they earn? Judging by the spending habits of many Americans, the trend is likely to continue.

Take for example, Tim and Caren Mayberry of Yulee, Fla. According to USA Today, Tim’s job as a senior bank loan officer “qualifies him as an expert at lending money,” but it certainly doesn’t mean that he and his wife know how to save it. Though Tim makes more than $100,000 a year, and Caren makes $65,000 per year as a physical therapist, they say they’re still “absolutely unable to put money aside, except with retirement accounts” (May 22).

Apparently, dining out, repairing their home and giving gifts to each other and their one son have left them only able to scrape by financially, and now a heavy debt load is hampering their ability to save. Their plans for a new hardwood floor and a pool will probably push them further into debt. The couple owe $285,000 on their mortgage on top of a whopping $125,000 they owe in other debt, including credit cards, and loans on cars, a boat and a motorcycle—all depreciating assets.

Tim and Caren are trying to figure out how to best pay off their credit cards. Currently, Caren is only making minimum payments on most of her cards, while Tim usually pays more on the card with the lowest balance.

“We won’t retire until we’re 120 years old,” jokes Tim when describing their current savings rate.

Although Tim and Caren are beginning to worry about their debt problems, the one thing they are not worrying about is how they will pay to send their son to university. “We basically told him that he can work his way through college,” Caren said. “He can get loans; he can get a job. That’s what makes the world go round.”

Although there is not necessarily anything wrong with a person borrowing money to go to college, it does highlight an errant mindset in a growing segment of America—a casualness about spending money one doesn’t have. At almost all levels of society, debt burden is becoming a problem. Eventually, our creditors will not only refuse to extend our credit, but demand to be paid. That will take a toll on the economy and our standard of living.