Credit debt in American society and credit cards for college students
The dominant cultural ethos toward credit cards for college students and debt in American society has been shaped historically by the Puritan ethic of "economic virtue." This focus on individual discipline emphasizes Calvinist values such as hard work, frugality, and self-sufficiency as signs of superior individual qualities and future otherworldly salvation. Embodied in cultural maxims such as Ben Franklin’s "A penny saved is a penny earned" and Horatio Alger ragsto-riches stories, such themes have glorified individual industriousness as the hallmark of social and economic success. Indeed, those who managed to save were lauded for not succumbing to the temptations of self-indulgence. For those who could not control the "sin" of impoverishment, debtors’ prisons and various forms of debt peonage became their living "hell" where they repented for their improvident behavior.
During periods of economic recession, poverty was decried by more powerful groups as the consequence of lazy habits and immoral leisure activities such as drinking and gambling. On June 8, 1999, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) convened a major press conference on student credit cards for college students debt at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The program featured leading consumer advocates, mothers of two college students whose credit cards for college students debts contributed to their recent suicides, and the release of the first major academic study of student credit cards for college students debt that was based on both in-depth interviews and cross-sectional survey data. The highly publicized event drew national attention to the previously neglected social consequences of credit cards for college students debt. The topic was discussed in front-page newspaper stories, magazine articles, newspaper editorials, morning and evening television news programs, cable TV interviews, and radio call-in shows.
Although Americans have become inured to the tremendous growth of the national debt and economic consequences of corporate mergers, the newly reported social impacts of student debt struck a chord in the national consciousness. Most Americans had assumed that college administrators were responsible for providing a safe, nurturing environment where parents could expect that their children would acquire the personal skills and professional experiences necessary for a rewarding future. Instead, it was a national revelation that young lives were being ruined by credit cards for college students debt that led to dropping out of college (misclassified as academic casualties), health problems (physical and emotional), family conflicts, bankruptcy, job rejections (due to poor credit histories), loan denials, inability to rent apartments, professional school rejection, and even suicide. Many people were aware of anecdotal stories of family members or friends whose collegiate careers were disrupted or abruptly ended by credit cards for college students debts. However, most had been persuaded by the assurances of the credit cards for college students industry that the problem affected only a small number of students (3-4 percent) and most of them would suffer only a minor financial inconvenience after beginning their work careers.