The theme of the report is that while credit card use is frequently associated with frivolous consumption, the evidence seems to show that more and more Americans are using credit cards to bridge the difficult gap between household earnings and the cost of essential goods and services. Men and women struggling with such structural problems as job displacement, declining real wages and rising housing and health care costs have been relying on their credit cards as a way of warding off complete disaster.
At the same time the credit card companies have leapt gleefully into an orgy of exploitation. "Late fees," the report said, "have become the fastest growing source of revenue for the industry, jumping from $1.7 billion in 1996 to $7.3 billion in 2002. Late fees now average $29, and most cards have reduced the late payment grace period from 14 days to zero days. In addition to charging late fees, the major credit card companies use the first late payment as an excuse to cancel low, introductory rates — often making a zero percent card jump to between 22 and 29 percent."
Read "Borrowing to Make Ends Meet" (.pdf file). It will illuminate the phenomenon of Credit Card Loan Sharking if you yourself are one of the few Americans not a TechnoSerf, not carrying a debt load or suffering the unregulated world of credit, a world where the word "usury" lies dormant in postmodern irrelevance. Consider your place in the Government/Corporate World Order. Are you one of the 88% of Americans reaping less than 100 dollars from the much vaunted latest Bush Tax cuts? Or are you a Bush Pioneer or Ranger?
Trickle down alright, Mr Bush represents an elite pissing on you and me, working class America. ( please read that last link- it will have you reading the others...)
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