This topic may relate only peripherally to Howard Dean's spirituality, but I think it reveals a lot about his character. Apparently the good Doctor Governor Chairman is using his name to hawk Visa credit cards that donate their 1% rebate to the DNC.
Howard Dean wrote a personal letter to my girlfriend this week. It started, "Dear Heather..." and ended "Governor Howard Dean, M.D., Chariman, DNC" He even included a post script reminder that said, "Don't forget to check the box below to donate your 1% rebate to help the Democratic National Committee."
Now, I use credit cards, and I'm in favor of free enterprise, but it cannot be denied that easy, misused credit is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for poor Americans, and that credit cards make most of their money from people who make purchases with money they don't have. I hardly think it's in the best interests of most Democrats to get yet another credit card. Although I certainly think credit cards should exist, they need to be used responsibly, and I'm uncomfortable with the idea of pushing them on people. The Bible teaches about usury, and credit card companies have possibly one of the least moral legal business plans I can think of.
Update:
It's too bad that, despite his tactics, Howard Dean isn't raising much money.
couldn't agree more! my undergrad university's forever sending me invitations to get a credit card through them, so they can get a portion of the interest or rebate. It does seem insidious. Debt among young people is climbing, and personal debt in the UK is I think higher than ever. Bankruptcy is apparently loosing its stigma.
A few points:
The frist is about money lending and the Bible, is the reason why the first bankers were non-Christians usually Jews.
I find abortion clinics far far less moral but legal than credit card companies.
Credit Card misuse is a huge problem, but a lot of it is people aren't taught to use it responsibly. My prefferred choice is credit cards and I avoid debt cards at all costs, mostly cause my dad used it at Midas once and with in 3 hours the bank account had been whipped out mostly at the Lowes in Hawthorne while he still had the car. I keep low limits on my cards and keepp on top of checking the charges to minimize fraud loss if it happens. Plus I use crdit cards to build credit for future things like home loans. But most people don't plan that far in advance.
The other issue is bankruptcy was far too easy to let people scrwe everyone else with their irresponsibility. Plus like bankruptcy they did remove the stigma because they don't want people to 'feel bad' just like they are trying to make food stamps less obvious or turn them into food stam ATM cards so no one will know, when the stigma is the biggest reason to get off of it. I'd be for bring back debtors prison (or giant flashing signs), go into debt go to jail till a) you family pays off your debt, or b) you work enough for the state to recoup the cost of your irresponsibility.
The thing with credit card debt is that it takes two to tango, so to speak. Credit card companies played really fast and loose with the credit in the 90's... and consumers used all that credit irresponsibly.
Mitsubishi learned a hard lesson with it's 0% financing offer. They offered nearly everyone 0% financing... and got their clocks cleaned by all the people who defaulted on all those interest-free loans.
"and got their clocks cleaned by all the people who defaulted on all those interest-free loans." Exactly why we need debtors "pound-me-in-the-ass" prison!
the Pirate: Throwing irresponsible consumers in prison is only half of the solution. The other half is for lenders to be more responsible about who they extend credit to.
Its the customers responsibility to be responsible for their own actions. Should we hold Ralphs responsible when Nick Nolte gets drunk and crashes his car? We could probably hold Ford responsible too for seeling him the car. If a person is too stupid to read an agreement before signing and either a) too stupid to pay their bill, b) too stupid to not spend more money than they have, or c) too stupid to realize that they have to pay the money back, they should go to dumbass prison.
tP: It is also the lender's responsibility to not lend in a careless fashion.
Credit card companies give out large lines of credit to almost anyone who applies, car companies offer 0% financing to people with a questionable credit history or no credit history at all, and you're telling me that the lenders bear NO responsibility?
Sorry.. but if you're that stupid of a lender, then you deserve to have lots of people default and you don't deserve collection on those debts.
Worthiness to receive the lowest interest rates and the highest credit limits should be EARNED... not bestowed.
There in lies several problems:
1. You can't get credit unless you have credit and the only way to get credit is to have credit. Heck I went through that, I first applied through Citi for a card and they rejected me 6 times many times in person, even after I had banked with them for well over 10 years (actually it was Glendale Federal which became Part of Cal Fed which then became part of Citibank, before that I was with Lincoln Sacvings & Loan, which mom switched me out of about 3 months before many people lost everyhting of course that would of meant I would of been out all of $500). But the credit to get credit is a problem people have..hell my grandparents had to have my uncle co-sign a loan for them because they hadn't borrowed moeny in 30 something years so they had imsufficent credit to borrow on their own, that was a funny Thanksgiving conversation because my grandfather isn't what you call a patient man (he walked out of pacemaker surgery because the doctor was late).
2. Deals are to get people in, every buisness does it and the details are the fine print, why you read everything before you sign it.
3. The Credit companies make no claim that you will not have to pay them back heck my loan companies send me notices of how much I still owe them even though I am on education defferment, just so I don't forget.
4. When people don't pay they get their money back through high rates (which I avoid by paying on time, per the contract) or screwing over business in the case of fraud (which happened to a few places when my pops got his bank account back after his debt card number was stolen).
5. You don't always know about the person, there are crooks out there who are more than williong to stick the bill to someone else. Its the same thing as selling a car to billy joel, he can afford it and the dealer is willing to sell it to him, but when he wraps it around someone's tree is it the dealer's fault for selling it to him?
6. Ignorance isn't and excuse for being irresponsible.
7. With bankruptcy its far too easy to get free of it, when I law clerked we had a woman not pay rent (it was $300 a month) for two months, when she got notice she sued for being made to pay, then she declared bankruptcy and by the time she was out, the landlord was out a years worth of rent infact the landlord had to pay HER because of all the trauma he caused!
8. Credit Card compaines (you can add in lenders of all types) take risks when they lend people money but there are differences the auto/home loaner can take your car/house back and recoup some losses, the credit card companies can attemt to reposess also but it can be a slight more difficult to do, in some cases impossible if its like 10,000 lap dances. So throw them in jail make them work it off.
9. Low interest rates, ha, even mine were low for like 2 months then the shot up, they don't stay low forever.
10. The person signed a contract a legal document and the should be held responsible for upholding their end of the deal, because the credit card company held up to theirs. Just liek buisness we get a $15m contract there are certian requirements we must meet to keep the contract, if we don't we get fired from it and quitre possibly sued to recoup the losses. So why shouldn't credit card companies get the same deal to enforce theirs.
Of course the credit card companies should be legally bound to be honest and hold up their end of the contract. But personally I'm tired of getting screwed over because some dumbass decides they need to be irresponsible and breach their contract and if jail/forced labor/deportation/excution will sove some of the abuse, I'm all for it.
the Pirate:
1. That's not quite how it used to be. Large amounts of credit with low (or no) interest rates were very easy to get. Credit card companies sent pre-approved notices and offers to just about everyone.
2. Yeah, I know all about deals. There are good deals that get the right people in... and there are bad deals that get in the right people but also get in a lot of wrong people. Far fewer people should've received as much credit or as low of a rate.
3. Of course they don't make a claim that you don't have to pay them back. That's not the issue. I never said that consumers are blameless here.
4. Yeah, a nice factoid... that is irrelevant to what we're talking about.
5. That's right.. you don't always know about the person. That's why you don't give away such high-limit, low-interest deals to as many people as they did... because you don't always know who you're dealing with.
6. Never have I said that it was.
7. I agree that bankruptcy is abused.
8. Irrelevant facts. We're talking about how massive amounts of debt are both the fault of the fast-and-loose lender and the fast-and-loose spender... not about the differences in credit card lending and auto/home lending.
9. Irrelevant.
10. Of course the person who signed should be held responsible for holding up their end of the deal. Remember: I didn't say that wasn't true.
All I'm saying is that lenders should've been smarter about who they extended such high-limit, low-interest offers to... and that this debt mess we're in as a country is PARTLY their responsibility because of the ridiculously-easy-to-get offers they made in the past. None of this excuses the consumer from paying back what they foolishly spent, but it also doesn't make them the only guilty party.