David Brooks: The Great Seduction (re: Debt)
Brooks' column today happens to coincide with a HuffPo highlighted piece by the AP called "How Debt Stress Makes You Sick." Overall, Brooks gets most of it right. Debt is destroying our social fabric. He's no Elizabeth Warren, so he doesn't understand the true depth of the problem, and his constant need to suck-up to conservative ideologists gets him into trouble, but at least he's admitting there's a massive, massive problem here. (I love when his Chicago Sociology background wins out in his columns...)
Here are some questions for people that care about fixing this "Debt Culture":
1. Does household debt decrease active citizenship? (I tend to think people are less likely to get involved or to protest unfair corporate practices or gov't policies if they're under a mountain of debt and struggling to keep their families intact.)
2. Do Credit Card companies really produce a "good" for society? I don't think so. Sure, they "lubricate" the wheels of transactions and help consolidate wealth at the top quicker, but in the end, there's nothing to put a "Made in America" tag onto. Brooks says Bill Gates made a "socially useful" product, but not hedge fund managers. I agree.
3. How could a public relations campaign be set up to deglamorize debt, as Brooks suggests? Who would pay for it? Can it start soon, or would it have to wait for a settlement against VISA?
4. "Usury laws could be enforced and strengthened", Brooks says. I don't know of any usury laws anymore. Do you? I thought they were destroyed in the late 70's.
5. Ever notice that wealth began to consolidate in 1980 and the gap between rich and poor became unbridgeable since then? Sure, a lot of it has to do with the Reagan Revolution and movement conservatism since then, but I gotta think a lot of it coincides with the creation of Credit Cards in the mid to late-70's.
6. The best prescription I've seen for this "Debt Culture" is the author/Radio/TV host Dave Ramsey. I'm also encouraged by the new book "The Great Risk Shift" which recommends Americans "Get Mad, Get Wise, and Get Even."
I like the <b>Get Even</b> part best. Hopefully someone will find the smoking gun memo out there by VISA / Mastercard / CapitalOne / Providian, et al. which proves they actively plan to trap hardworking families into debt for life.
Here are some questions for people that care about fixing this "Debt Culture":
1. Does household debt decrease active citizenship? (I tend to think people are less likely to get involved or to protest unfair corporate practices or gov't policies if they're under a mountain of debt and struggling to keep their families intact.)
2. Do Credit Card companies really produce a "good" for society? I don't think so. Sure, they "lubricate" the wheels of transactions and help consolidate wealth at the top quicker, but in the end, there's nothing to put a "Made in America" tag onto. Brooks says Bill Gates made a "socially useful" product, but not hedge fund managers. I agree.
3. How could a public relations campaign be set up to deglamorize debt, as Brooks suggests? Who would pay for it? Can it start soon, or would it have to wait for a settlement against VISA?
4. "Usury laws could be enforced and strengthened", Brooks says. I don't know of any usury laws anymore. Do you? I thought they were destroyed in the late 70's.
5. Ever notice that wealth began to consolidate in 1980 and the gap between rich and poor became unbridgeable since then? Sure, a lot of it has to do with the Reagan Revolution and movement conservatism since then, but I gotta think a lot of it coincides with the creation of Credit Cards in the mid to late-70's.
6. The best prescription I've seen for this "Debt Culture" is the author/Radio/TV host Dave Ramsey. I'm also encouraged by the new book "The Great Risk Shift" which recommends Americans "Get Mad, Get Wise, and Get Even."
I like the <b>Get Even</b> part best. Hopefully someone will find the smoking gun memo out there by VISA / Mastercard / CapitalOne / Providian, et al. which proves they actively plan to trap hardworking families into debt for life.
