Credit Card Debt: Negative effects among society - Essay Example

Consumers are implicitly told that credit privileges facilitate the increasingly complex choices within their lives. A myriad combination of complex choices arises when individuals seek out distinctive status in a society offering various recreational and professional lifestyles. No doubt credit cards, and the privileges attributed to possessing spending power, are vital social elements defining our position in society. Consumer has not only accepted the unlimited spending freedom of credit extension but has also welcomed the social desirability of consumer debt.

According to Foucault (1977) claim, He believes that we are shaped and defined by contradictory cultural definitions of cultural success measured by available economic resources. He is right in this aspect when seen from an economical aspect as credit allocation and diversified incentives or credit card premiums are factors stemming from the increasing industrialization of the American business sector. Credit cards facilitated the rise of consumer spending for consumer products or services. (Klein, 1999) The democratized spread of credit card utilization originally began with a product marketed for the very affluent and is till on its way towards the diversification that a credit card allocation facilitates the spending ability of larger consumer populations and a pronounced trend toward niche marketing.

Consumers are manipulated. Apart from the credit card annual fee, first, the consumers are bound to pay monthly interest rates, and installment payments. Second, when the matter is about a middle-lower class-conscious consumer, the consumer is unable to cope up with the everyday inflation rates. The degree of reward through credit privileges and extended credit lines is utilized and enjoyed only by middle-upper or upper-upper class people. The ideal class-conscious customer is the one who actively engages in consumer credit activity and makes regular payments.

This economic pattern is one end of the process. The other end refers to those painful circumstances, which the consumer experiences during the process.No doubt one's credit card or line of credit provides an access for products marketed through advertising and offered as cultural alternatives, but one cannot ignore the drawbacks of keeping credit card in today's era when consumers are continuously getting burdened up with the high energy prices and continuous rising rates. According to U.S analysts,"Interest rates are still historically low, the jobs market is healthy, and wages are increasing, albeit at a restrained pace.

So, the deterioration of consumer financial health is expected to be gradual at worst, and unlikely to create a collapse either in any particular capital market or in the economy overall" (Jones, 2005) According to a study, in "The plastic Safety Net: The Reality Behind Credit Card Debt in America" published by the Center and Washington D.C.-based think tank, Demos "The average low- and middle-income household with debt owes about $8,650.00 in credit card debt out of