So you ask is credit leading to the downfall of society? My answer is YES, YES, YES! It is a trap for the young and the less fortunate. I just don’t understand how you can hold someone accountable for something that they did when they were eighteen years old, who is now in their mid to late twenties and in a different state of mind. I personally think that it should be against the law to lure the young with VISA, MASTERCARD, and store credit cards to their favorite department store, when to an eighteen year old, having the latest fashion in clothes and shoes are the most important thing to them and having a piece of plastic in their pocketbook or wallet can allow them all of the finer things that seem so important at the time with no trouble at all.
Its funny, the only time you are offered credit counseling is when you have messed it up or in danger of being in over your head, when in reality, that is something that should be taught first before allowing you credit. Especially since your credit score pretty much determines everything you are in America. It doesn’t matter how smart you are. How qualified for the job you are going after, or how much college education you have. If your credit is out of whack, you are out of the job. They never ask you about how when you were in college, getting this expensive education that is supposed to almost guarantee you a job, that on your way to class one day there was this sparkly booth set up with some representative there promising you a FREE phone card with a thousand minutes on it if you just fill out this three minute application for the new “Student Visa”. To a college student who is far away from home and missing their family and friends, this could sound like the deal of a lifetime, but in reality it is the beginning of the end for most young people without proper education on financial freedom. We are never allowed the opportunity to explain to these people that we are great for the job and would be better for the job than “Susan”, but “Susan” has a better credit score with less qualifications.
I never understood what credit really was and how it determined what kind of life you will live until it was too late. I had great parents, but they never told me about credit and what could happen if you mess it up. I think that the same way in high school you are made to learn algebra, and history, there should be a class that teaches you about credit and how to manage your finances properly. That is a subject that you will leave high school with and actually get to apply to life. I guarantee if you enlightened a young person on what credit is and how it affects your life if you mismanage it before they have access to credit, we would all see a dramatic decline in America’s debt problem.