Credit card is a recent invention that reached its wide and almost universal use in the past decades not only in the United States but also in other parts of the globe. The use of credit cards is contrasted directly to paying hard-earned cash to services and products that are bought or availed. Many credits are made possible and became more convenient for both buyers and merchants since a third-party entity will ensure that the services or products shall be paid. It is true that the use of credit cards provided numerous advantages as people managed to secure their purchases, instantly gain the trust of merchants, and access cash in emergency situation. Nevertheless, the wide use of credit card also became the reason for the rise of an illness that creeps and contaminates the society. As people possess these magical plastic cards, they learn to purchase and consume what they cannot really pay.
The power of credit cards to provide a huge line between the period of buying and the period of payment slowly transforms people to machines of consumption. People who are unable to control their credit card debts became creatures that are driven by their desires for products and services that are way beyond their spending power. These people’s financial habits became an object of their emotion (i.e. greed). The human mind, the rational faculty that all humans have was put aside.
Since there is a growing gap between what people consume and what people can pay, the debts to credit card firms are stockpiling. People who are buried in their credit card debts endlessly work for money just to pay the interests and the minimum payment for their credit card debts. The most important financial habit of saving is slowly vanishing. The society from where they belong now values lending more than savings.
Instead of saving for the future, people are working today until tomorrow to pay the expenses of the yesterday. This is a very grave situation for people since the opportunity of growth is loss. The promises of riches for those who are frugal and thrifty are now difficult to achieve since the opportunity of accumulating wealth escapes the ordinary people. Worse, such opportunities are now being shifted and concentrated to the few individuals who hold the debts of the society.
As the financial habit of saving for the future slowly loses its hold, the doom waiting for the general society is difficult to avoid.