Debt Culture
April 16th, 2007 by insighter
Our youth has many liberties but not enough responsibilities. One of them is being responsible and accountable for their own finances to match the way they spend.
It is not very difficult for high-schoolers to acquire credit cards and accumulate debt just shopping and become what I call a “capable”. I got my 1st credit card when I was 18 and soon followed the others - many others, mostly store credit cards which I used mainly for shopping and trying to fit in with “the capables”. The temptation is great when the purchasing power is so available and one doesn’t understand the way debt works, how it should be used if at all, and how it can affect us in the future. When we are young we are only interested in the things that are convenient for our purposes of the time. We are not expected to perform like adults and therefore we don’t. So when does that change? Well, that could be another conversation of its own but in the case of debt that could change when nothing can save you from bankruptcy OR it may never change and you might become indefenetely stuck in the maddening cycle of debt!
In many other cultures around the world, there’s nothing more embarrasing than having debt - it reflects badly on one’s character and people do what it takes not to have it: including being very very humble. In our culture, we chase after debt. We want the purchasing power. Consumerism is more important to us than stable finances, financial goals, or logical investments.
Finances are an intimidating subject matter and most people avoid having to deal with it or learn it. In the homes, financial conversations are avoided around the children and they never learn what the economic reality of their home is, what economics are, or how it works. They do learn skewed perceptions of themselves or of their purchasing power. Eventually a future with financial progress or independence becomes a distant reality and so do any goals of investing, purchasing a home, living comfortably, or being debt-free.
We are often in shock when we find ourselves bound to creditors or bad credit history or spending 90% of our income in repaying debts. “How did this happen?” we ask ourselves as if we were not present during the decision-making. Like most things though, if we want to know how we can make money work for us, not against us, we have to leave our fear of numbers behind and grab the bull by the horns.
Here is a little preview for a documentary regarding this matter.