# are credit card companies to blame for consumer debt?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-credit-card-companies-to-blame-for-consumer-debt/277305>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 30, 2004, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-credit-card-companies-to-blame-for-consumer-debt/277305 "2004-11-30T10:04:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-credit-card-companies-to-blame-for-consumer-debt/277305/121 "2004-12-05T22:15:08Z")

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Victim much, **Wake up call**?

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-credit-card-companies-to-blame-for-consumer-debt/277305/122 "2004-12-05T22:27:14Z")

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**Wuc:** \*We don’t have to use terms such as “usury” and relate it to “religious grounds”, but we can at least do the right thing by outlawing modern loan sharking practiced by the Credit Card Companies charging outrageous interest rates. \*

I see. I thought from your references to America as a heavily Christian society, and to religious conservatives among Muslims and Jews avoiding credit cards, that you were thinking that we ought to be advocating the outlawing of credit cards on the grounds of religious principle.

I have nothing against anybody stumping for the abolition of credit cards on general ethical principles, but I think it’s very unlikely to work.

**AC:** \*We live in an immoral world. Christians know this. Corporations are going to do everything the law allows: if they could charge 60% interest, they would. It makes more sense to expect the individual to restrain themself than a corporation whose only goal is to make money. \*

This, on the other hand, is plain defeatist. We don’t have to just roll over and take **anything** a business decides to dish out. After all, one of the reasons that credit card companies **aren’t** charging 60% interest is that many states have “usury caps” on permitted interest rates, which helps keep the rates down even for CC companies in other states. I’m in favor of market solutions to problems wherever feasible, but we shouldn’t forget that the government does have the ability and the right to regulate businesses, and we are perfectly entitled to advocate for greater regulation if we think it necessary.

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**Author:** ![TLC1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@TLC1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLC1)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-credit-card-companies-to-blame-for-consumer-debt/277305/123 "2004-12-06T16:52:43Z")

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> [@msmith537](#):
>
> Are they? They get a bunch of stuff and then they don’t have to pay for most of it.
> 
> "Anyhow, I have little sympathy for anyone who is too stupid to manage their own financial affairs. You don’t need an MBA to know that you can’t spend more than you earn.

"  
Does this mean you have little sympathy for the U.S. government, that in spending more than it earns on a seemingly never ending continuing basis, sets a poor example for it’s citizens? It seems that debt is not the evil monster that it used to be. There was a time when there was such a thing as “debtors prison”. Maybe it’s time to bring it back?

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