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PBS FRONTLINE: The Secret History Of The Credit Card...
ChillyDawg
Member Posts: 1,469
PBS https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/
IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0583866/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mHsTKvAuZc
FRONTLINE PBS (2004): The average American family today carries eight credit cards. Credit card debt and personal bankruptcies are now at an all time high. With no legal limit on the amount of interest or fees that can be charged, credit cards have become the most profitable sector of the American banking industry: more than $30 billion in profits last year alone. FRONTLINE and The New York Times examine how the credit card industry became so pervasive, so lucrative, and so politically powerful. Millions of American families use their personal, general-purpose credit cards to make ends meet. With no federal laws on the amount of interest or fees that can be charged, credit cards have become the most profitable sector of the American banking industry.” In “Secret History of the Credit Card,” correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt. Some experts argue the profitability of credit cards began when the banking industry successfully eliminated a critical restriction: the limit on the interest rate a lender can charge a borrower. Deregulation, coupled with a revolution in technology enabled the almost real-time tracking of personal financial information and the emergence of nationwide banking, facilitated the widening availability of credit cards across the economic spectrum. But for some, the cost of credit is often far greater than it appears.
IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0583866/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mHsTKvAuZcFRONTLINE PBS (2004): The average American family today carries eight credit cards. Credit card debt and personal bankruptcies are now at an all time high. With no legal limit on the amount of interest or fees that can be charged, credit cards have become the most profitable sector of the American banking industry: more than $30 billion in profits last year alone. FRONTLINE and The New York Times examine how the credit card industry became so pervasive, so lucrative, and so politically powerful. Millions of American families use their personal, general-purpose credit cards to make ends meet. With no federal laws on the amount of interest or fees that can be charged, credit cards have become the most profitable sector of the American banking industry.” In “Secret History of the Credit Card,” correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt. Some experts argue the profitability of credit cards began when the banking industry successfully eliminated a critical restriction: the limit on the interest rate a lender can charge a borrower. Deregulation, coupled with a revolution in technology enabled the almost real-time tracking of personal financial information and the emergence of nationwide banking, facilitated the widening availability of credit cards across the economic spectrum. But for some, the cost of credit is often far greater than it appears.
Comments
They are great, people just suck with them because they see a credit line as extra money they have and have no control over bigger impulse purchases.
Combined with the rising cost of living (food, rent, household bills, etc) due to societal inflation https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/pub/d17/d1709.pdf many people have turned to credit cards just to make ends meet every month while deteriorating their personal credit scores in the process.
Credit cards companies are like mafia loan sharks, neighborhood Shylocks as they target many people in financial binds to use their cards for a short term fix but a long term problem of paying interest, collecting personal debt https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-spot-a-predatory-credit-card-2016-08-24 .
Both are a tool that I was advised to use wisely so I didn't.
I do now
This is a simple thing that could be taught in school
US National Debt Clock (Continuously Updated) https://www.usdebtclock.org/
Consumer Protection Hub: The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Do Not Need. The Overspent American explores why so many of us feel materially dissatisfied, why we work staggeringly long hours and yet walk around with ever-present mental "wish lists" of things to buy or get, and why Americans save less than virtually anyone in the world. Unlike many experts, Harvard economist Juliet B. Schor does not blame consumers' lack of self-discipline. Nor does she blame advertisers. Instead she analyzes the crisis of the American consumer in a culture where spending has become the ultimate social art. Media = Medium = Hypnotizing Minds.
FRONTLINE PBS: Two American Families (Full Documentary). This 2013 documentary tells the stories of two families in Milwaukee—one black, one white—in a battle to keep from sliding into poverty. “Two American Families” raises questions about the U.S. economy and the declining middle class through the stories of the Neumanns and the Stanleys, which began when the breadwinners in both families lost their well-paying factory jobs. For more than two decades, Correspondent Bill Moyers documented their struggle to keep their homes, their health insurance and their dignity.
TTTTT, I know - but if people haven't seen for the last 30 years that technologies have shifted and adjusted their skillset, they are too fucking stupid to assist economically.
There's a massive shift going on elsewhere right now too. Having a CDL is like printing money. It takes 4.5 weeks at a local community college to get the certification. If you can't take 4 1/2 weeks to change your life situation, fuck off. Same in almost all the trades right now. Learn how to fucking weld. Learn how to be a plumber. Learn how to drive an excavator. Those are all cool ass Tonka toy type jobs that pay bank.
Do something but sit on your ass waiting for an economic savior.
The Throbber sheds no tears for faggots sitting around whining about their debt load or inability to be paid 'what they're worth'. This is quite literally the BEST labor conditions of my lifetime. If you can't find a job at top rate, you're a fucking idiot. Opportunity is everywhere right now.