Dallas, 5th highest in credit card debt?? (Sanger, Montgomery: houses, luxury)

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by preppyglam

haha! okay, now i get it. how is that even possible?

It's not...that's why they go into debt!

[elan]

Well, it didn't used to be this way. People paid with cash. It's either the new comers (not all of course) or we have raised a bunch of materialistic kids.

[lh_newbie]

I'm going to implant a chip in my kid's head - when she has a brand-oriented desire, she'll get shocked. LOL! My wife and I have talked about this issue a lot and want to ensure we not only lead by example in living frugal (yet still buy quality, just not being brand-aware and following trends) as well as will work with her to build a budget so she makes choices and lives with the consequences (if she wants one trendy t-shirt instead of three or four "regular" ones, she'll be wearing it a lot more, even if it's dirty cause it hasn't been washed, so she understands the weight of her decisions). Sounds good in theory - and thank God she's only 3 months old so we don't have to start implementing it yet. HAHA!

Brian

[loves2read]

Well, it didn't used to be this way. People paid with cash. It's either the new comers (not all of course) or we have raised a bunch of materialistic kids.

Just think that is grossly oversimplied generalization--
people paid with cash in the past because there WAS no credit--
I grew up in 60s and graduated in early 70s--there WAS no credit--you paid cash (by check usually) or you MIGHT be able to run a weekly tab at local store like a grocery and total up when you or your spouse got paid on Friday/Saturday--
but the entire country was run on cash/checks--
I think it likely that corporations/businesses were held to much more stringent standards for credit/paying their bills than now

Credit started to be more available in the 70s but was STILL very restricted--I can remember applying and being granted a JC Penney card--which was considered a hallmark for a good credit risk back then

Credit card companies/banks started pushing credit on everyone in the 90s to grow their businesses--there was so much money to be made by the interest payments alone they NEVER wanted people to pay off their bills--even some pets that people owned received unsolicited working credit cards in the mail

--and when I worked for the state dept of health and humans services in the early 90s I found parents that were using their children's SSN to have utilities turned on and apply for apts because their credit was already so messed up

BUT some people have never abused credit--we never did--
partly that comes from having enough income to pay those bills you incur--

if you really analyze WHY the growth of credit has strangled the American consumer you also have to take into account the drop in real wages that has happened over the past 20 yrs--the fact that the actual number of workers making min wage has grown so that the working poor in this country are more numerous than at any time since before the Depression--

I know there are people who overspend and spend unwisely--can't deny that--
and there are some people who are credit junkies as much as any addictive substance--
BUT there is also a serious problem in this country because people are going into credit card debt because of the lack of decent jobs/employment, the shrinking of the middle class salary base, the inflationary costs of medical care tied to shrinking medical/insurance benefits for workers, the rising costs of college at even a middle-level school...
inflation has been at work in the country for the past 15 yrs although Greenspan did everything he could to sweep it under the rug--and the FED is still doing that--

THIS economy runs on American consumerism--when the consumer stops spending our GNP starts to dry up and there is panic in the markets
what people have back-assward is that it is more important for the COMPANY to make a profit than for the workers to be fairly well paid--
Henry Ford was a racist and a very unplesant man and really had no liking for unions or most policies designed to benefit workers over management--but he got one thing right---
he understood that for his company to survive and grow his WORKERS had to be capable of being his consumers--and he paid them a "living wage" so that they could buy the cars they manufactored--which made him immensely wealthy--
corporate greed and shareholder profit have turned that POV around--now companies believe it is in their best interest to screw their workers out of whatever they can to enrich the bottom line of the company--and that benefits management and shareholders--
yet workers in American outnumber those smaller segments by high %--
it is just not smart economics but it has been the lay of the land for the past 30 yrs now--and does not seem likely to change despite so much evidence of how damaging it is overall--
as long as those two powerful sections are happy then other people can twist in the wind...

[feufoma]

I'm surprised it isn't higher given the rampant consumerism displayed there (not to mention the "keeping up with the Joneses" vibe).

[racehorse]

I think a certain amount of debt is OK. When we went to go buy our house, one of the things that hurt our credit scores was the fact that we didn't have more credit cards. Once we bought the house, we applied for a bunch of cards that we'll hold onto in case we need to buy something else major and need a better credit score. It's really kind of a racket the way credit scoring works, but there you have it.

[GreyDay]

Ed Hardy doesn't come cheap.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by ganongrey

Ed Hardy doesn't come cheap.

Ed Hardy is so last year. You can find knock off Ed Hardy stuff on Harry Hines. Phwww. It's Affliction now.

[elan]

"people paid with cash in the past because there WAS no credit--
I grew up in 60s and graduated in early 70s--there WAS no credit--you paid cash (by check usually) or you MIGHT be able to run a weekly tab at local store like a grocery and total up when you or....."

^Are you kidding, there were plenty of credit cards in the 60's. Probably more because people tended to have a Sangers card (Macy's), Tiches (Dillards), Neimans, Sears, Montgomery Ward, etc. Don't forget all the darn gasoline cards people used to get. The Mom & Pop grocery's around here sure ran a tab, my parents never used them though. Anywho, folks just used more restraint back then.

[elan]

Originally Posted by lh_newbie

I'm going to implant a chip in my kid's head - when she has a brand-oriented desire, she'll get shocked. LOL! My wife and I have talked about this issue a lot and want to ensure we not only lead by example in living frugal (yet still buy quality, just not being brand-aware and following trends) as well as will work with her to build a budget so she makes choices and lives with the consequences (if she wants one trendy t-shirt instead of three or four "regular" ones, she'll be wearing it a lot more, even if it's dirty cause it hasn't been washed, so she understands the weight of her decisions). Sounds good in theory - and thank God she's only 3 months old so we don't have to start implementing it yet. HAHA!

Brian

Fantastic! Might as well start early, lol.