There is an interesting phenomenon worth pondering: currently, US economic data shows a positive trend, yet credit card default rates are continuously rising—behind this seemingly contradictory situation, it reflects two completely different consumer-driven mechanisms in the two countries.

Simply put, China's consumption logic is straightforward: you only dare to spend if you have income. The US, on the other hand, does the opposite: first spend using credit limits, then consider repaying debt. The underlying structures of these two systems are fundamentally different.

Why can the US economy maintain growth? It’s not by increasing workers’ income and purchasing power—doing so would trigger a series of political and capital backlash. So what is the real trick? Easing credit regulation. Lowering credit card issuance thresholds, expanding interest rate flexibility, increasing subprime loan scales, relaxing asset re-mortgaging conditions... these operations allow consumption to be directly activated without relying on income growth.

Since the 1990s, the US has been repeating this pattern. This also explains why, even when economic data looks impressive, credit card defaults are quietly accumulating.