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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026

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Some Noticing from Capital One supports the online wrongthinker hypothesis that young women are racking up debt and/or are getting subsidized by boyfriends/parents so they can have the rightful FUN they deserve.

In one month, the average single American male consumer spends $4,114 or 85.8% of his income before taxes.

The average single female spends $3,862 in one month or 101% of her income before taxes.

Before taxes!

I can only imagine the spending to income ratio would be even higher for young attractive women, all else equal. Like Daniel Tosh remarked, being an ugly chick is like being a man: you’re going to have to work.

From what I’ve seen of a lot of young women, stuff like make-up, nails, new clothes are non-negotiable monthly expenses like food or rent, in addition to other FUN expenses like restaurants, festivals, and traveling.

Please note that this report conforms to terminology used in source data. In most sources, sex and gender terms are not clearly defined and may be used interchangeably. For example, both “male” and “men” may refer to cis-males or male-born consumers.

Tiresome status: It’s all so.

Before taxes!

Putting aside the female numbers (which confirm my biases and thus are obviously correct), how does that even work for the male numbers? 86% before taxes would still seem to be over 100% once taxes are included.

The average effective tax rate for Americans is in the neighborhood of 14-15%. Unmarried men tend to be younger; young people tend to earn less than older people and unmarried men tend to earn less than married men, which means a lower effective tax rate for unmarried men.

It's also possible Capital One is only referring to the income it "sees," which in such a case, I picture would be after withholding but before taxes like capital gains, interest/dividend income, remaining state taxes.