Today I saw a graph of the percentage growth of US personal income and spending, April - August. In every month but May spending exceeded income. The biggest difference was July, where income increased 0.2 and spending was up 0.9. August was 'even', income and spending both up 0,4.

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

I suppose that somewhere there are stats on *where* the money went and what comprises 'income'.

Do you think that income/spending stats were different in the years before everyone had credit cards?

Adding: Please look at Annie's chart (below). It puts my conjecture in its place.