Or they're smart and put everything on their credit card possible to get either cash back or airline miles and pay off their balance in full every month. Notice how they conflate credit card balances with credit card debt? If you do a little math, they say the average household pays $1,292 in interest payments each year. At 15% interest, that's an actual debt of $8,600, almost exactly half the "average balance" that they purposely misled us to believe was debt. And again with the numbers getting thrown out, without context it's meaningless. Even $8,600 in debt is a big deal against a $24,000/year income. For most of us it's an average balance we pay off every month, and even if it were debt it would be minimal in the grand scheme of things.
I don't think it is the income not keeping pace so much as it is people wanting to buy the latest and greatest of everything without thinking about the cost. $800 surface pro to be current, $299 iphone since last year's is so uncool. I think if people really added up the amount they spend on electronics alone (especially families with kids) they would be shocked. People have lost their minds.