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Credit and debt appear to be natural, permanent facets of Americans' lives, but a debt-based economy and debt-financed lifestyles are actually recent inventions. In 1951 Diners Club issued a plastic card that enabled patrons to pay for their meals at select New York City restaurants at the end of each month. Soon other "charge cards" (as they were then known) offered the convenience for travelers throughout the United States to pay for hotels, food, and entertainment on credit. In the 1970s the advent of computers and the deregulation of banking created an explosion in credit card use—and consumer debt. With gigantic national banks and computer systems that allowed variable interest rates, consumer screening, mass mailings, and methods to discipline slow payers with penalties and fees, middle-class Americans experienced a sea change in their lives.
Given the enormous profits from issuing credit, banks and chain stores used aggressive marketing to reach Americans experiencing such crises as divorce or unemployment, to help them make ends meet or to persuade them that they could live beyond their means. After banks exhausted the profits from this group of people, they moved into the market for college credit cards and student loans and then into predatory lending (through check-cashing stores and pawnshops) to the poor. In 2003, Americans owed nearly $8 trillion in consumer debt, amounting to 130 percent of their average disposable income. The role of credit and debt in people's lives is one of the most important social and economic issues of our age.
Brett Williams provides a sobering and frank investigation of the credit industry and how it came to dominate the lives of most Americans by propelling the social changes that are enacted when an economy is based on debt. Williams argues that credit and debt act to obscure, reproduce, and exacerbate other inequalities. It is in the best interest of the banks, corporations, and their shareholders to keep consumer debt at high levels. By targeting low-income and young people who would not be eligible for credit in other businesses, these companies are able quickly to gain a stranglehold on the finances of millions. Throughout, Williams provides firsthand accounts of how Americans from all socioeconomic levels use credit. These vignettes complement the history and technical issues of the credit industry, including strategies people use to manage debt, how credit functions in their lives, how they understand their own indebtedness, and the sometimes tragic impact of massive debt on people's lives.
- Sales Rank: #1237621 in eBooks
- Published on: 2011-04-20
- Released on: 2011-04-20
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
Williams is "right on the money," both in her analysis and the solutions she suggests. -- Monthly Labor Review, June 2007
From the Publisher
Brett Williams is Professor of Anthropology at American University. She is the author of Upscaling Downtown: Stalled Gentrification in Washington, D.C.
About the Author
Brett Williams is Professor of Anthropology at American University. She is the author of Upscaling Downtown: Stalled Gentrification in Washington, D.C.
Most helpful customer reviews
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
Incredibly important topic
By Bryan Cantrill
Debt -- and the degree to which our society and economy have become dependent on it -- is an incredibly important topic. It was thus with high hopes that I picked up "Debt for Sale", Brett Williams' history of the "credit trap." The book made for a quick, emotionally-charged read, but its flaws ultimately left me hoping for a more balanced, more complete treatise in the future.
The emotional charge of the book comes from its many anecdotes of the victims of predatory lending, many of which make one's stomach turn and one's blood boil. One cannot help but be disgusted by the rapaciousness of credit card companies tempting college students with easy money, or the avariciousness of the banking marketing exec explicitly targeting the poor with usurious check cashing services. The many stories of those living in debt penury (stories that Williams calls "debt porn") and a solid (if brief) history of the credit card business are the strengths of this book.
Unfortunately, the book does a better job convincing of the seriousness of the problem than it does explaining its broad scope or inner workings, let alone exploring solutions. Among the book's several flaws is its nearly exclusive focus on the poor. Debt is an important topic because it is has become pervasive -- it is not limited to just the poor. And indeed, the elephant of debt -- mortgage debt -- is virtually undiscussed by the book. Given the rise of insane debt devices like interest-only ARMs and flexible payment ARMs -- and the dubious judgement of the GSEs pumping the liquidity in the first place -- the lack of discussion of mortgage debt is a serious failing.
Even when the book is on its home turf of credit card debt, there are dubious assignments of blame. For example, the author accuses those of us who don't keep a balance on our credit cards as getting a "free ride" on the backs of those who are paying crushing interest. Further, the author suggests that mandatory monthly payments should be required for such people. This is a naive suggestion: if my credit card company were to not extend a grace period, I would simply stop using my credit card. Remember, the point is that I (and millions of others like me) have the money in the bank to back every one of our purchases; the credit card is thus simply a convenience, not a source of true credit.
Most of the other suggestions for improving the system are similarly untenable, even in the absence of the banking lobby. For example, in one paragraph, the author advocated debt forgiveness -- but in the next, feared that the government would have to bail out the greedy, overextended banks. It is clear that the author didn't understand that the first suggestion would bring her fears to reality. The problem with debt is that it becomes repackaged and resold so many times over, that forgiving debt at one end of the system is robbing savings at the other. The book doesn't touch on this interconnectedness at all; the author doesn't seem to realize the connection between an Asian central bank soaking up 10-year treasuries and a new credit card offer showing up in the mail. There very much is a connection, of course, but the task of exploring it awaits a more comprehensive book...
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Mouse On A Wheel
By K. Johnson
In "Debt for Sale" Brett Williams examines the history of debt in America and focuses on the many tenets of the Debt Industry. Debt is not only a financial phenomenon but also a social and cultural one heavily embedded into U.S. society. The Debt Industry is a very sophisticated, organized, methodical, and politically powerful industry in America. Close to 70% of the American economy is now propelled and highly dependent upon, consumer spending. As fixed expenses (expenses we have to pay) increase and take more and more out of the average American's income, Americans are increasingly, spending and borrowing --> borrowing to spend. A high percentage of Americans are now using debt for "cost of living" and not soley for crass, mass consumption. This has become increasingly common for the middle class.
There's also the ignorant and myopic:
In 2007 the ARM mortgage payments will increase we'll be hearing more and more of the people who used them. :)
Most of us have been in these debt situations. I certainly have. But the degree and size of this situation is what has been increasing dramatically, in particular over the last 2 decades. Debt can help us in many ways (Good debt). However, one question to ask is: how did the *size* (per capita debt ratios) get so big?
Williams discusses how debt is now arguably one of the most pervasive aspects in American society. Yet it seems real discourse regarding it is rarely if ever discussed. If there is discussion, it remains on the superficial level of TV talk shows, and newspapers and web articles that redundantly regurgitate "How to get out of debt" or "How to dig your way out of the hole." "Cut up your cards, pay off the higher interest rates first, establish a budget, itemize all expenses." And, "cut down on the Cappuccino from 5 days a week to two. You'll save X amount of dollars per year this way."
Perhaps the question should be not "how" (to dig out of it) but "why" it is there in the first place. Per capita has debt grown so much in the last 20 years that simply 'living beyond one's means' is not the main factor, for many. Further anchoring (revolving) debt into lifestyle normalcy is potential employers running credit checks on non-financially sensitive positions being applied for by job applicants.
In many instances, the FICO score has become an almighty determiner about "who a person is." Further confusing the already bemused, are the Self-anointed pop culture gurus and money management helpers who rarely if ever ask the "why" questions, as well. Of course there is good debt, and borrowing can help us in many ways. Obviously, most of us cannot pay cash for certain necessities, such as the car we need to commute to work. (In the U.S. a car is a necessity in most areas.)
Excluding the Mortgage and Car Loan, (and in many instances including these 2 debts) one could look at the concept of American debt this way: the systematic engineering to encourage, promote, and place Americans, in debt. Many organizations benefit from this. Corporations prefer to hire and employ people with revolving debt payments. This provides the control and leverage to the employer. The employee is the dependent party in the relationship. The employee works for income and then pays creditors, over a period of months and/or years, while the principle of the debt balance slowly whittles away. The employer holds a disproportionate amount of power in the relationship because the worker has given Self-Determination, or choice, up.
As for the non-interest payment treadmill, whatever happened to pay as you go? We sign contracts from everything from cell phones, to gym memberships, to Karate lessons, now.
The government likes and wants to keep its citizens in debt. Employees will work longer hours and be more efficient. And productivity improves statistically, when workers have certain minimum Per Capita Debt Ratios.
The author notes the normal concept of having debt begins during or right after high school, and usually extends until death. Debt has been internalized by a high percentage of Americans. It is a cultural norm.
As for the recent explosion in education costs since 1999, how does the U.S. government address it? By loaning more money; increase the debt ceiling.
Williams also asserts the poor get targeted more, proportionally. This is true, however everyone on the socio-economic spectrum gets targeted to acquire, increase, and maintain debts. The poor are the ones that are affected the most severely. The poor get hit more than than the socio-economic groups above them in many ways.
This book examines the social history of debt and the credit trap. And although credit card companies can seem predatory, how will "debt forgiveness" advocated in this book, help? Would these people change their behavior? And, would they be able to reduce their fixed expenses? Could debt forgiveness just exacerbate the problem for a sizeable percentage of the population? We also know forgiveness won't happen.
This book can motivate some to get off of the treadmill if they choose to, if it's not too late.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Debt for Sale
By C. Jordan-detamore
"Your account is now delinquent in the amount of $40.00. Until your account is current and below your established credit line, we must insist that you do not use your card. We must inform you that failure to make at least the minimum monthly payment will leave us no other alternative but to turn your account over to our Collection Attorneys. Please be advised your account is also being reported as delinquent to a local credit bureau. Key Federal Savings Bank." (107) All this heckling is the name of $40. Imagine you are in the shoes of Will Harrison suffering from diabetes with two amputated legs that opened his own small flower shop years ago and owed $1,000 a month in interest payments alone. Imagine you are Megan of whom half of her earnings go to pay the minimum of each of credit card bills who has a girlfriend screen her calls as she is terrified of the collection agencies and is depressed as a result of her debt. What a depressing, demoralizing, and humiliating toll the credit industry is taking on the poor of our country.
These are the stories of exploitation that Brett Williams recounts in her newest book Debt for Sale: A Social History of the Credit Trap. Williams is clear from the very onset that she is making no attempts at neutrality and objectivity; she is simply telling it like it is, or at least the way she thinks it is. She herself suffers from massive credit debt. And yes, the language of suffering and victimization saturate this expose. The institutions, the government, even the consumer culture are to blame in this book for the downfall of the American poor and lower middle class. She uses the tragic tales of the few to stand in for the exploitation and suppression of the masses at the benefit of these ambiguous, all encompassing, and greedy financial entities, who ironically are the major source for employment in the US's new service sector economy. Despite this irony, the book is well put together in its explanations about how creditors, whether credit card companies, cash checking facilities, pawn shops, or mortgage brokers, exploit notions of American entitlement to freedom, choice, flexibility, and materialism in order to pedal their products.
Our story begins in the 1970s when credit and debt became "the engine of the US economy." Through acquisitions, mergers, improvements in technology and communication, the financial services and credit industry has boomed and enabled the wealthy to become wealthier while feeding on the misfortune and inability of repayment of the poor debtors. Attempts have been made in constraining these financial giants such as Senator D'Amato's push for a 14% cap on usury, but have mostly been defeated through the rhetoric of credit as the new welfare, enabling the poor to get by when even their own government was not there to support them. Williams demonstrates the cyclical damage that the credit industry has laid upon the less fortunate through treating those who pay their bills and do not carry a balance as "deadbeats", and therefore encouraging people to pay the bare minimum and get caught up on exponentially high interest rates.
The industry paints a picture of comfort, freedom, and security for those in tight financial situations and not only could care less, but thrive on the automatic cycle of debt. She tackles the idea of convenience users verses revolvers; convenience users being those who basically use credit as short-term, low-interest loans, and revolvers being those who get stuck in an endless succession of barely paying the minimum and rolling over their balance and interest into future periods. The institutions seek out those who are desperate and/or ignorant and turn their bad year into a horrific one. If you thought that credit cards and banks were the only people profiting off of ridiculously high interest rates, Williams offers up some additional institutions for examination. Student loans have become a large portion of current financial aid packages, putting terror in the eyes of those who intend to use their education for the betterment of the world instead of their own purses. Rent-A-Centers charge outrageous monthly fees for usage of furniture, appliances and more that amount to interest rates of up to 150 percent. At pawn shops, customers often pay $0.25 for every dollar of an items value while it is being held. Payday Loan Corporation reckons that its customers pay a whooping 1288.5 percent interest on five day loans. (98)
The point of Williams book, however, is not entirely wrapped up in the banking and credit world of fancy terminology and high interest rates, but perhaps more importantly attempts to expose how credit is linked to American society. She states, "Credit and debt only make sense in the context of other social relations and obligations." (5) This theme of the book is expressed well in the chapter entitled Seducing Students in which credit almost becomes a rite of passage for teenagers, ushering them into the mature, responsible adult world. Materialism and the need to put up a front of lavishness and style are cited as additional reasons that people are seduced into the world of credit. The book is not at all intended, however, to focus on why people make certain purchases, or how they get into debt, but the institutions that take advantage of their bad luck and keep people there at their own profit.
Williams does, unfortunately, leave the reader wanting for more. The book is challenging for those with little economics background or credit training. It spends virtually no time discussing what a credit score is and how that influences ones ability to purchase and pay, and the extent to which it can sway interest rates. Williams offers a myriad of solutions in her short conclusion including usury caps, reenact New-Deal-type programs for employment, and the government liquidating debt burdens. The distressing part though, is that the suggestions for the most part are barely explained and not feasible solutions for the problem of debt inequalities in America. What is realistic in a capitalist country based on a consumer culture in which the ability to buy is the ultimate test of citizenship?
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