In a survey of 1,000 adults, we find a public widely aware of the problem of growing household debt and overwhelmingly supporting solutions to this issue. The public’s concern over this issue results from perceptions of an economy performing unevenly, from perceptions of rising costs of living, and for a surprising and pressing number, from first-hand experience with excess or unmanageable debt.
Topping most people's list of scary items are catastrophic medical issues. There is no forgiveness, no slack, no margin for error. A case of cancer, a serious accident, or any number of unanticipated calamities can knock even the most frugal and sensible saver right out of the water.
There is also too much spending for toys and items of no consequence. Driving around Silicon Valley, you can see driveways laden with boats, monster (and beyond) trucks with bells, whistles and huge tires, seadoos, huge RVs and none of those come cheap. I'm constantly amazed to see teenagers at the car wash with shiny, new wheels that cost major bucks. Are people paying cash for all of this? Who can say, but those toys can add up to some huge monthly payments.
But what do we expect? I grew up in the 50's and TV was mercifully absent until I was in high school. Now kids are bombarded with commercials before they even learn to talk. Every stage of life is now marked by a "demographic." My mother once complained about a silly car commercial and I pointed out that she wasn't part of the target demographic.
It's almost disappointing how vulnerable and how easily manipulated people are by ads. But having said that, millions of dollars are spent on research, testing and production so that each ad strikes its target with maximum impact. We are a nation being driven to consume. It's almost portrayed as a patriotic duty to consume in order to keep the economy firing on all cylinders, keep the corporate coffers flush with ever-increasing revenue.
So is it any wonder that the pursuit of goods is driving so many deeper into debt? Digby's post isn't easy on the banking industry either, and rightly so:
It isn't taxes that are keeping American up at night and it probably isn't jobs, at least on a massive scale. It isn't even terrorism or the war.
It's debt. People are going to be looking for some help with this problem and one place to start would be to rein in these avaricious credit card companies who got a nice handsome payoff with that heinous bankruptcy bill. This is an issue to which average Americans can relate: greedy credit card companies who can literally raise your rates for any reason at all causing your debt to cascade from manageable to overwhelming overnight. It wouldn't be hard to fix. There used to be laws against usury --- we can just dust them off.
Not a day goes by that I don't get not one, but several pitches from banks to apply for their credit cards. I recently canceled one of my MasterCards because I just didn't use it anymore. I had to actually argue with the representative to get her to cancel the account. They don't let go lightly.
Where is all of this headed? I'm a cycle believer, and I think that if (God forbid) we don't have an economic disaster of some kind, that people are just going to get sick and tired of buying, of getting, of having.
It's ironic that we keep hearing about "values voters" and the rise of religion in the US, while at the same time what we see are "values shoppers" and the continuing upward spiral of consumerism. Materialism is winning so far. It will be interesting to see how long we can sustain this decades-long shopping spree without bankrupting vast segments of the population, as well as the Treasury of the US.
No comments:
Post a Comment