When credit awaits, it’s hard to say no
The credit industry has hunted the field empty, giving American consumers enough rope where they have hanged themselves and are threatening to take the economy down with them.
The major economic downturn we are about to get hit with in the mouth has been many years in coming and is really the result of the most ingenious marketing campaign in the history of business (aside from bottled water) aimed at the Achilles’ heel of Americans, a deadly sin common to most people ‘ envy.
Face it, we all want what the other guy has. If Jimmy has a 42-inch flat screen TV, you want a 46-inch. If Jimmy has a BMW then you want a Mercedes. Hey, I work hard, sacrifice every day for my family, why shouldn’t I get to enjoy life just like the richer people do? Why should I have to wait and save to enjoy the good life? What makes Jimmy so much better than me?
Back before we all went financially crazy, the answer there would have been that you don’t earn enough money and can’t afford all the trappings of wealth. Back before people lost all track of fiscal responsibility, the answer would have been that you needed to save up and buy it when you could afford it. Back before people were begging to extend you an endless line of credit, the answer would have been that you can’t live beyond your means.
Welcome to the 21st century, where there’s no such thing as living beyond your means. According to the commercials I’m bombarded with on TV, only a real loser would wait to save when Visa, Mastercard, American Express and countless other financial institutions are ready to give me all the money I want. According to some commercials, only real nerds slow down the flow by using money or writing checks. You have to use the card. It’s painless. It’s magic. It’s free money!
What’s in your wallet? Nothing. There’s nothing in your wallet because you are in debt up to your eyeballs with finance and late fees, since that sweet introductory rate which allowed you to buy that stereo you didn’t need tripled once you were an hour late with a payment.
Folks, what credit card companies do is hunt in a baited field. They flood us with commercials to seduce us and then they hook us with our own envy of other people. Why shouldn’t you live as well as the neighbors? Because you often can’t afford it.
Now it’s time to pay the piper. You can do all the calling to Dave Ramsey that you want, cut up the cards and swear never to charge again, but it’s too late. This isn’t ‘A Christmas Carol.’ You don’t get visits from three spirits the night before Christmas. Instead, you get visits from collection agencies when your friends over at the credit card company go bah humbug on your purchases from Christmas past, which you have been paying interest on for the past five years. Hope Aunt Betty liked that sweater since you’ve, to this date, paid about $300 for it when you charged it at the retail store back before Christmas in 2002 for $30. And the worst part is Aunt Betty doesn’t even wear the sweater because she maxed out her Diner’s Club card eating at fancy restaurants she couldn’t afford and now she’s too fat to fit into the sweater.
Fancy sweater ‘ $30. Dinner for four at Red Lobster ‘ $90. The look on your face when they repossess your Hummer ‘ priceless. It’s one thing to have bad luck and go broke. It’s another when you spend yourself into the poor house.
Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at news@southernstandard.com.