Letters to the Editor
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From a 'holier-than-thou type'
To you holier-than-thou types: That's easy for YOU to say! Yes, we should pay off or at least pay down our credit cards whenever possible. Yes, we shouldn't be "maxing out" our $12,000 credit line at Bloomingdale's just because we "can." However, it is unrealistic and insensitive to say that nobody should ever use consumer credit vehicles, ever, and depend only on savings, etc. If you are in a socioeconomic class that allows you to do so, HOORAY FOR YOU
I think you're "judging" us too quickly... I lived with NO credit when I earned a mere $10,500 annually in an expensive major metro area (whoops, there goes your SOCIOECONOMIC CLASS argument). I refused credit card offers. I allowed myself to own a single credit card only when I reached the point where I could afford to. And even then I kept the credit limit very very low ($600) for years.
YOU have made a decision to buy things you couldn't afford.. even more fundamentally you made a decision to OWN A CREDIT card when you were in a position where you couldn't pay it off.
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Debt Problems?
Hello,
I'm working on a CNBC documentary that will address consumer spending and debt and am looking for someone who is or was in debt (about $30,000 or more ) and is interested in being interviewed. Please contact me if you are interested in possibly participating: (201) 735-2370 or lauren.kesner@nbcuni.com.
Thanks,
Lauren Kesner
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it's nice and everything
I imagine it's nice and everything for the people who've never made a mistake to smug it up about their lack of credit related shenanigans.
I'm trying to imagine what it must be like to live a life so devoid of any sort of mistake that you are qualified to pick up the stone and take aim at the rest of us.
Yeah, massive debt can be accumulated due to job loss and medical emergencies. Sometimes, however, the rest of the human race makes mistakes. We screw up, we make bad decisions, we put into motion a series of events that culminate in drowning. yeah, it's irresponsible, immature, goofy, whatever, but it's real and it happened and then an article got written about it.
Maybe one of you would like to step up and write a couple pages on this amazing mistake-free life. I know reading about it would be...well, i'm sure it would be interesting to other perfect people.
As for me, it's the foibles, the mistakes, the weird crooked spine of humanity that I can relate to and appreciate.
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boringly spending within my means
Sorry, Strawberry, that I can't entertain you with my shenanigans. I live responsibly and don't spend what I can't pay off that month, so I guess I must be an inherently uninteresting person, despite my experiences living overseas, my unusual education, my fulfilling charity work... All those people who MUST have the latest gadgets and eat expensive takeout all the time are clearly a thousand times more interesting, since their "foible" of irresponsibility is so charming.
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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.
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The US economy is literally propped up by credit
If people start being "responsible" about credit cards, our economy will surely collapse. It might well anyway. Why? Because of the housing loan crisis. Hand out free money, give people a dose of "you better buy a house now or forever be priced out" and bubbles will grow. Why do you think things are so expensive relative to salaries? Hmmmm, could it be easy credit? Those of you who are getting all dewy-eyed about the good old days when people paid cash are apparently unaware of the epic inflation that has taken place since credit cards were in everyone's wallet. It really does sometimes take a credit card to pay the grocery bill at the end of the month, even if you don't have cable, new clothes, a new car or anything at all. Do you know why? Because everyone has credit cards. It is axiomatic. Have you looked at the price of a gallon of milk these days? It's around six dollars--nearly an hour's work at minimum wage. What was the ratio back in the good old responsible days?