Letters to the Editor
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Low Wages And Job Loss Are Forcing people To use Credit Cards To Supplement Their Income!
The real lissue here is how spoiled and detached from reality we have become as a society and how brutal it will be when "the bill is finally due."
We now consider as entitlements things that were once luxuries -- premium cable TV, cell phones, i-pods, Netflix, high speed internet, $4 coffee drinks, takeout food several times a week, etc. -- and I notice how many people posting here TALK "eat top ramen" but get all huffy at the idea of giving up Starbucks ("I'd feel deprived"). -- Laurel962
The kid in the article is not typical of how most adults get into debt in 2008!
Two myths:
All debtors are either young kids or lazy drug addicts.
All the debt is just luxury purchases (ipods, big tv's) and 100 percent preventable.
WRONG! If you live in Michigan (one of the states hardest hit by the "new economy") you'll see these people weren't flying to Paris every year on their credit cards. These people lost their jobs because the child labor in China is cheaper.
And when you're in a city where EVERYONE is laid-off and the value of your house just dropped 20 percent -- no one is going to buy it! You can't really afford your mortgage anymore but you can't sell your house for tens of thousands less than what you owe on it and no one want to buy a house in a city wherein the only major employer just left! You're stuck in a horrible situation.
So everyone is stuck paying a mortgage they can't really afford and using Visa and Mastercard to buy groceries, put gas in the car, pay for medicine. That's how they get deep into credit card debt -- not trips to Paris to catch the latest fashion show.
This idea that debt is just a "choice" used to be true 30 years ago and to be fair, yeah, for some people it is just the result of bas decisions.
But we're creating LAWS now in Congress based on this mistaken (mistaken, mistaken) assumption that debt is a problem faced only by a few thousand young kids living at home or a few drug addicts trying to rip off the credit card companies.
When you're entire concept of "poverty" and "debt" is a 20-something living at home or a drug addict and you write laws to "punish" those people -- what you're really doing is ruining the lives of decent hard working Americans who got ripped up by the globalization machine. They didn't do anything wrong -- but because we all think "debt" is just something lazy kids or drug addicts fall into then we're punishing the wrong people
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USURY
The credit card companies are running a form of USURY, which used to be illegal. If we were Muslim, we wouldn't let them do this!
Just kidding about the Muslim thing.
These stories in the letters are sad. There should be a cap on interest, on 'penalties,' some date leeway, etc. The fact these criminals are legal, and accepted, and feted by business and by politicians shows you how little power the working class has in this country. Bank credit card companies are no different from the Mafia thugs who would break your legs if you didn't pay at the end of the month.
The consumerism pushed by the rest of the commercial interests in this country feed right in. There should be limits to advertising as well. The politicians should react to the real estate bubble and securitization with something other than more money to pay ... our credit card bills.
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Let me Explain Insurance To RegeanD
I consider the insurance premiums my employer and I pay to be hedge against crushing medical debt. I don't expect my homeowner's insurance to replace windows or fix the furnace-I have to save up for those things. I don't expect my auto insurance to fill my gas tank or change oil, either. Those are living/driving expenses that are my responsibility.
Buying a home and maintaining it is a choice.
Buying a car and maintaining it is a choice.
Is getting chemotherapy to continue living a choice?
Is it?
Do you fault people who opt to get lifesaving chemo they cannot afford as being "childish" or "irresponsible?"
So I find it a little sad that you can't see the difference between a consumer choice (like buying a home) and something entirely separate and distinct like illness.
We cannot choose what illnesses we will get.
We cannot choose when we will get sick.
We cannot choose where we will get ill.
We cannot choose a more inexpensive/generic brand of chemotherapy or heart surgery -- we pay what it costs or we die.
Do you understand now the difference between a consumer choice and a illness?
Do you understand now why it is illogical and immoral to bankrupt someone (or simply ruin their credit) over an illness they had no choice over?
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"Can't afford" means "Shouldn't buy"
I am in the same boat as the poster many pages back who learned good spending habits at his mother's knee. I'm not talking about the real tragedies of people who lose their jobs or have outrageous medical bills, but for all you young "I'm living in the city!!" hipsters, all you have to do is PAY CREDIT CARDS OFF IN FULL EACH MONTH. I can't imagine _not_ doing so. Carrying a charge along means you _can't afford_ what you're buying. "Can't afford" means "Shouldn't buy", not "Might as well finance at 23% interest"--why do people need so much extraneous crap? I'm no monk--I have friends, go out, wear clothes, listen to music, etc., but all at a level that I can afford to pay off each month, and it's NO BIG DEAL! None of my friends with the expensive handbags and latest cellphones and spa treatment appointments (and giant credit card debt) seem to think less of me for forgoing these things, and I certainly sleep a lot better at night!
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I can use this article
I teach a time & money managment class for entering college students, and really hammer home the "don't use your credit cards to pay for overpriced coffee and other stuff" message, especially when these kids are paying the minimum balance - 18% to 30% depending on the cards. They also have student loans on top of credit card debt - and they're only 18-24 years old. We also do a budgeting assignment requiring them to itemize everything they spend money on. Sometimes the message gets through, but I've had many of them tell me that they just don't want to know how much they're spending. Well, it's gonna bite no matter what. I'm so glad I didn't have any credit cards until I was in my late 20s and knew how to pay off the balance every month and/or just pay cash.
I printed out this article and will pass it out to my students.