http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m31246&hd=&size=1&l=eDebt doesn’t "just happen"; it is consciously, carefully engineered by the debt industry to begin in childhood with the Saturday morning cartoon consumption-fest of products aimed at children, including "Credit Barbie Dolls" and "Shopping Barbie Dolls" that make the sounds of credit card transactions when they complete their imaginary purchases in "Barbie Land." A few years later, the same child, now in college, is deluged at freshman registration with a plethora of credit card offers which although they may begin with only a $500 limit, are soon increased if the student makes regular payments. While as a college professor I have long been aware of the financially lethal consequences of college students holding three or four credit cards at a time, I was unaware that the average college student graduates with $20,000 in credit card debt. I am well aware, however, that the same student is likely to graduate with an additional $30,000 + debt in student loans. Thus, it is not unusual for a college graduate to commence his/her career, in debt to the tune of $50,000. Still more frightening is the reality that for that graduate, and indeed for most of the working and middle-class U.S. population, indebtedness never ends! As credit card customers get older, their diminished consumption needs must be replaced by younger customers whose "buy now, pay later" illusions are unchallenged by life experience.
In the documentary, Schecter reveals that the debt industry sets up consumers to be in debt from cradle to grave by getting them dependent on credit cards, carrying student loans, making car payments, and buying a house which then necessitates myriad additional purchases, leading in a majority of cases, to re-financing or the proverbial turning of one’s house into an ATM machine. Whereas in the old days, a "deadbeat" was a person who never paid his debt, in today’s debt industry, the term means just the opposite. In fact, what lenders hate more than anything is the consumer who regularly pays off her debt—so much so that within the industry, these people are called "deadbeats" because they are of no value to the industry. Only those consumers who perpetually carry debt have value for the debt industrial complex. In other words, from the standpoint of the debt industry, risk equals profit.
Not only does perpetual indebtedness serve the American financial system, it serves the political establishment as well by making it exceedingly difficult to protest that establishment when one is over one’s head in debt. As a matter of fact, perpetual indebtedness serves to make the consumer subservient not just because his credit rating might be used against him should he choose to organize politically, but to a certain extent, the consumer, particularly if he/she is uninformed, often feels a certain sense of "gratitude" for those pieces of plastic and the "privilege" of owning one’s own home. Debt industry propaganda markets not only the very expensive use of someone else’s money, but an idea, an image, and philosophy—that is, the notion that this is America, and where else in the world can one have what one wants so instantly? Notice Mastercard’s use of the word "priceless" in many of its commercials that depict families enjoying an expensive evening at a restaurant or baseball game courtesy of Mastercard. What’s "priceless", of course, is not what is consumed, but sacred family time. The logic of Mastercard’s ads communicate the message that since no price can be put on family time, why would you not want to charge the expenses of that time with Mastercard? You may be in perpetual debt, but wasn’t it all worth it to have those priceless moments with family? Whether by way of playing on "family values" or using some other manipulative tactic, all debt industry marketing strategies are designed
to encourage consumers to "accept more debt."
(more at the link)
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