Letters to the Editor
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debt horribly simplified is worse than no debt at all
I was ready to read this article and revel in some sort of solidarity. Debt sucks, and credit card debt is the worst, as its origins tend to dwell in murky places. Yet, Hepola has turned debt into nothing more than a wryly ended fairy tale, and that she got paid for this article blows my mind. What's more, the smallish size of her debt (albeit, she didn't attach numbers to her back taxes) coupled w/the "daddy loan" made light of a typically heavy problem. Lots of us owe less than she owes on credit cards, but we also have student loans. And car loans. Maybe kids who want food and clothing. And almost certainly, many of us have parents somehow impervious to the practice of shelling out sizeable amounts of money/loans in a pinch.
What I want to read about is someone like me: credit cards a burden, for certain, but with heavy student loans on top of it, and cars that need gas and mufflers and the odd belt/hose/alternator, mixed in with some emergency medical bills that insurance companies and their high deductibles make mountains of....well, that's when debt become more than a one dimensional plight caused by too many high-end lattes.
Also, nothing was mentioned about the debatable practices of credit card companies and their representatives. Case in point: I got my first credit opportunity at a young 18, on my first day of college, as Bay Bank of Boston had a kiosk set up right next to where I got my ID picture snapped. It almost seemed like getting a bank account (with 500 overdraft protection) as well as BB Visa w/1000 limit was part of the college registration process. Was it possible that these banks actually thought that college students w/shoddy work study jobs would be able to handle the debt? Doubtful. Was I stupid? Yes. Did I learn? Sort of. Does this happen to tons of people? The answer is obvious. Which is why the article, for all of it's slight entertainment value, amounts to little more than a shallow parable with a side of self-congratulation.