I was emailed an interesting article by CV Rick and here's an excerpt from The Cash Cows of Personal Debt:
"When card users are late making payments, as the complex algorithms used by card issuers predict they will, interest rates rise dramatically and multiple user fees are added to the monthly bill. Millions of card users spend most of their income paying exorbitant user fees, without reducing the balance or reducing it only minimally. The bankers are raking in billions, while working class families are becoming debt slaves to the predatory capitalists of the credit card industry. This was made possible with the blessings of Congress operating under the influence of the corporate lobbyists that swarm on Capitol Hill like maggots on a corpse."
The article paints a pretty bleak picture of what credit cards are doing to people, their families, and their lives.
Where it goes off track, I believe, is putting all the blame on credit card companies and the government. Yes, the cc companies are screwing people over and yes, the government is allowing it but it's the people themselves that are using the cards.
I think that placing all the blame on the cc companies and government takes away the responsibility from the card owner. If it's an accepted fact that cc companies are in control and there is nothing we can do about, people can just shrug and keep on charging things while cussing the cc company.
If everyone stopped using credit cards, the companies would change how they operate so that credit cards were a better option. If people keep blindly using the cards, the companies are going to continue to capitalize as much as possible. That's there job.