Tuesday, September 30, 2008

It's Not Your Fault

You've heard the commercials.... "Do you owe thousands of dollars in credit card debt... just trying to live your life". The basic premise is that your debt isn't your fault, it's just bad luck or my favorite -- it's those evil credit card companies that are charging you interest.

Here's my question.... did you really think that credit card companies are your friend? Did you forget that they were going to charge you interests? No, the problem is that we think we deserve to have everything... and since we can't afford everything we deserve to have someone else pay for it for us. Then of course, when we can't afford to pay it back, we deserve to have someone wipe that debt clean for us so that we can do it all over again! No wonder we're in trouble in our financial sector! We all want everything, but nobody wants to pay for it.

I understand that sometimes people get into debt because of unforeseen tragedies, but the majority of this country (myself included) are in debt because of their inability to say no. NO, I don't need a new car this year... NO, I don't need to go to the Bahamas 3 times in college (personal experience), NO I don't need a new pair of pants today since I can't afford them.

And here's my final "no". NO -- it is not someone else's responsibility to bail me out of my own decisions!

3 comments:

Bonhomous said...

I blame you!

ReUseItNut said...

You are right on!The idea of 'free credit' seems to be rampant in the corporate world as well!I don't see the Fed.Gov. bailing out individuals!

Tanya said...

Great post. Rick and I are so frustrated this week with Citi's decision to adjust mortgages WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES --- Of course, we're not eligible because we actually planned ahead and chose/choose to live below our means. It's really frustrating to know that we did everything right, but now we have to pick up the bill for everyone who didn't do it right.