Things were not always this way. Throughout most of western civilization, credit was only ever considered a convenience of already established businessmen or a necessary evil granted familiar patrons. Either way, the practice still held a certain suspicion among normal citizens. One thought less of a shop owner who banked upon the coming profits. One urged children to never borrow a candy bar from the store no matter how happy the owner may have been to grant the request. Debt, every sort of debt, was considered a moral failing. Neither a borrower nor a lender be, the adage goes, and, up until three generations ago, accumulated financial burdens spelled criminal negligence. In the days of our grandparents, even taking out a home mortgage seemed a shady indulgence, credit cards did not even exist, and, if you ever watch a black and white movie, the gal who has the charge account? Dollars to donuts, she ends up betraying the hero.

Of course, all the same, the notion that every man could own his home would've seemed crazy one hundred years ago. The sudden population move westward shook America in so many ways, but, especially in Los Angeles, the shift first gave rise to the notion that workers could afford their own single family residences. Not simply because the land was so inexpensive and the populace so dispersed, but, also, because temperate climates allowed shoddy construction! Above and beyond the famously de-centered metropolis that grew without a downtown or urban focus to speak of, the miraculous example of southern California also suggested - to mustache-twirlers across the nation - how cheaply homes could be built and how dearly the new generation wished to live by themselves. Home ownership apart from the larger family is a modern invention. One can argue the benefits and disadvantages, but the notion took off like wildfire. And, as you'd imagine, it wasn't that great a leap for the ruling families to realize that home mortgages held by their workers would not be that far different from rents continually owed. The company store simply changed names.

If widespread home ownership was the kindling for consumer debt, the rise of the automobile provided the spark. Once again, California and the necessity of travel between home and work (still, one can argue the virtues) shines as lead example, but, regardless, the die had been cast. In America, after the turn of the last century, those that could buy their own home and obtain a motor vehicle did so without question. Following in the trend of home mortgage availability for low income workers, automobile manufactures developed their own lending institutions, and, within a generation, personal debt loads were thought to be simply the price of modernity. As financial burdens became chic (and individually imprinted plastic rectangles became cost effective), the Diner's Club card grew from a few hundred members to a few hundred thousand within the year. Credit became sexy! Credit cards became a mark of sophistication. Debt was something, the prevailing theory went, every gentleman should aspire towards.

Moreover, there had been built a new system - the Fair-Isaacs corporation's ineffable logarithms which calculate precisely how borrowers should be trusted based upon current credit capacity and prior payment history - that first allowed new immigrants or the working poor an avenue with which they too could take advantage of the country's largesse. The import of these trends can be hard for the modern consumer to fully understand. First allowing the bottom social demographic increasing greater amounts of credit regardless of income or assets was without precedent and, perhaps, the greatest emblem of the American dream. If virtually anyone could own their own home upon purely the promise of greater earnings and a demonstrable track record of proper spending behavior than what better advertisement for the egalitarian inevitability of capitalist democracy?

Alas, there were drawbacks to this new national fascination with debt and, eventually, credit cards. Originally, there remained some stigma attached to whimsical purchasing or long term maintenance of debts. That stalwart protestant work ethic and underlying desire to chase money lenders from the community took some years to distill. As more and more consumers found themselves dearly wishing for the new labor saving devices (dish washers and washing machines) or 'educational devices' (color televisions) clearly beyond their current means, the department store installment plans subtly instilled debt acceptance within the norm of American life. Once you've already established a charge account for appliances or clothing that, while far from without purpose would never have been considered necessary by our forefathers, it was just a slippery slope to the age of credit cards dominion.

Nowadays, most of us have been offered applications for Visa or MasterCard within our first days at school regardless of past payment history or employment records. Worse yet, to a large degree the American economy began to depend overwhelmingly upon heedless credit card usage to maintain the continual expansion. As savings rates declined and the average household's debt loan grew to a sizable portion of their actual earnings (even as real incomes stayed the same and the manufacturing base declined), our nation's current financial troubles should, in the end, not seem much of a surprise. Even for a country with the largest gross national product ever seen, one cannot continually amass financial obligations without predictable consequences. Other countries have eagerly consolidated our country's debts for far too long, and the United States of America finds itself desperate for a workable debt management solution. And, as they say, all problems are local. Each of us should strive to find a way to best consolidate whatever debts (especially credit card debts) have come about.

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