On another thread I posted how I was going to see a show on the 4th of July, a comedy, musical, African Tale about the credit system. This is a very liberal political theatre company that I used to be a member of for a few years.

If you'd like to know more google The San Francisco Mime Troupe.

Okay this maybe a spoiler for those of you in the Bay Area who may come to see the show this Summer but, at the end of the show the village realizes that they a have been believing in some kind of 'magic' when really it was all a 'trick'. The people of the village also realized that they have well paid off their debt to the Demon and if they want to release themselves of the Demon's spell they have to.....

stop paying their "debt" to the demon!

And, the demon will FALL!

And, everyone will be released from it's spell!

....thoughts......?

I know sometimes these open ended questions can be annoying on a forum but since I have established (to myself) that you are all much smarter than me, I'd love to hear (or read) any thoughts on this hypothetical situation.

What if even a third of the credit card debt owing population of America just stopped paying their debt? If not a third, half then, 3 quarters, ALL, THE WORLD!!!!!

What would happen....?

C

I really haven't had time to think the question through, Christian, but here are my thoughts so far.

The 'demon' isn't really the credit card companies with their outrageous interest rates and very 'fine print' agreements. If I recall correctly, credit cards were initiated in order to provide businessmen and the companies to which they were affiliated with, an 'easy' way to keep track of, and pay for, business expenses; however, given the success of the 'business' credit card, companies were formed to extend totally unregulated credit to the general public. This is the entrepreneurial way in the US, after all.

But, are those credit card companies the 'demon,' or is the demon not 'envy and greed' among the US population? Is it envy that leads the US public to 'need' what's offered to them, especially when it's offered to everyone, no matter who can pay for it outright and who has to go into credit debt in order to get the 'new toy?'

Closely tied to that is US greed--the need to have more and better than anyone else. It makes no difference to the average citizen of the US that most of the 'toys' they're buying come from other countries--so long as they can buy! And if they buy on credit, so what? It's so convenient--just put that plastic down, man, put that plastic down.

Given that atmosphere and the fact that credit card companies have been totally unregulated--can change their interest rates whenever in order to give their investors a good return on their investment dollars--and you have a good view of how the entrepreneurial US economy works.

What would happen if everyone (everyone, that is, who thinks that 'credit' or credit card companies are the demon) stopped paying on their credit card bills? I don't know. I think, however, that before they did that, they'd have to cut their credit cards into quarters and throw them all away.

Please notice that I'm only talking about the US population and not about the 'American' population. The American population is far greater than the US population and credit within the Americas and the World is part of the system of trade.

Also, it seems to me, the bulk of the world cannot pay off its debt,

Would simply canceling any country's debt to any other country--hey, let's just wipe the slate clean and say no one owes anything to anyone else so we can all start all over from a zero baseline do anything.

I think not.

First, the credit used is our responsibility. But a close second is the way credit card companies are allowed to use deception and deception through complication to lure in applicants, and then they are allowed to change the game midstream. If you bought a car and decided 1 year down the road you wanted leather seats and sent a deceptive letter filled with mumbo jumbo to the car manufacturer that if they didn't deny your request in 15 days then they would have to replace your seats for leather ones - well that wouldn't fly now would it. But that is what credit cards are allowed to do.

Isn't that what I said?

When credit cards are not regulated, it reminds me of the old Dick Cavett joke about a zookeeper who took down all the bars and ran the zoo on the honor system.