ECONOMICS
Stimulus Maximus
“Debt is the prolific mother of folly and of crime.” — Disraeli
In the late 90’s a good friend of mine used to repeatedly express his concerns about personal debt in America. As time marched forward he would, from time to time, share stats about the enormous debt load being accumulated by American consumers. A few years ago he stated that personal debt had increased by 300% since 1990. Wages, in real terms, had been increasing only 1% per year over the same period. In other words, we were spending way more than we were making.
In the James D. Scurlock’s book Maxed Out, Hard Times in the Age of Easy Credit, Scurlock demonstrates how we live in a debt culture. College debt, consumer debt, second mortgages, loan services, easy credit. From the time we enter adulthood at age eighteen we’re not only bombarded with credit card offers, but we’re also told that our ability to handle debt is a good thing for our credit rating.
One review on Amazon.com includes this statement about the book. “This engaging narrative presents numerous stories about easy credit given to students, the poor, the weak and the uninformed, whose lives are ruined by their debt burden, including some cases of suicide.”
