Reader Mail: NYTimes Couple Profile

A fellow credit-enthusiast of mine, Shawn Weeks, of PlasticEconomy, emailed me about the NYTimes article I linked to. I agreed with a lot that he had to say, so I decided to share it with my readers.

LaToya,

I read your recent blog post at About, including the article you linked to at The New York Times. I have to say, the NYT article struck a big nerve with me – I thought I’d share:

So many people blame the credit card companies, or financial institutions, for just giving away credit like it’s candy. Sure, they do -- but if you read the article – it’s clearly poor choices by the couple. First, the lady had $6,000 of debt when she got married – she went to school and instead of putting her books/tuition on low interest school loans (usually running around 6%), she chose credit cards.

Secondly, the article mentions that just recently the husband bought an $800 42-inch plasma television for his wife as a Christmas gift. Are you kidding me? If I were tens of thousands of dollars in debt, I wouldn’t even have basic cable. The article even mentions that she goes out to eat whenever they have a bad day at work – again, ridiculous. They’re not entitled to be served a meal by a waiter or waitress for $40+ (they have kids). If I were that much in debt, I’d eat ramen noodle soup every day (which I’ve had to do in my past life).

The biggest thing is this: “For the Moellerings, juggling balances and interest rates has enabled them to pay for things they could not otherwise afford, like their 2004 wedding and house renovation.”

That’s the “spin” I hate. The article reads: the juggled balances/rates “enabled” them to pay for things they could not otherwise afford. So, it’s the credit card companies for enabling them? They got into debt to renovate their house. Not buy one, but to renovate. Unbelievable. It is 100% the couples fault that they got into debt – nobody enabled them to do anything. Their buying plasma televisions, house improvements, and them chasing the Jones’ got them into debt – nobody else.

That’s all, sorry for the rant. We try to help people, but articles like these make me so upset – no matter how much we help people, if people don’t help themselves – we’re wasting our time.

Take care – Shawn.

Sadly, a lot of consumers have the wrong mindset about using debt to live what I like to call a "borrowed lifestyle." They incur mountains of consumer debt to live a lifestyle they believe they're entitled to. The alternative, working hard and saving up to afford a better lifestyle, is less attractive to most people.

I can sum up the key to getting out of debt and staying out of debt in three words, "Make better choices."