Credit Card Reform - Standing up for the Big Guy

America, let’s all hold hands and shed a collective tear for the credit card companies. Oh, woe is me! No more charging outrageous interest rates, no more changing billing cycles without notification, and now you have to send out account statements twenty one days instead of fourteen days in advance. Boo-hoo! Can someone pah-lease pass the tissues.

Really, come on-any person with (and I’m not going to say common sense) but with any sense of human decency would realize that charging more the 15% interest is consumer exploitation. Changing billing cycles without notification is just freaking sneaky and the twisted, double talking jargon of the fine print is difficult for economists to understand. Look, it’s going to harm no one for these credit card companies to make the fine print easier to understand. My bigger question is this, why do many in this nation want to stand up and defend the big guys. When did standing up for the little guy and the misfortunate become a bad thing?

Bill Maher said it best when he compared the love of money to religion, and for me these corporations are like God in the eyes of many-they are Omni-potent and Omni-powerful. We bow down to the CEO’s and beg for mercy for our decrepit, debtor souls. Have we not learned anything from AIG? These corporate Gods are not kind gods; they are the wrathful, greedy gods-who needs them!

So why do many fret to regulate corporate exploitation of consumers? One, I believe many people aspire to the wealth and power of these CEO’s, or they have a form of Stockholm Syndrome-identifying with your abuser. You know it’s kind of like taking the side of the bully on the playground so you, yourself won’t get beat up. I think mostly people are more concerned with their own well being. “I was good with my credit, what will happen to me? Will I still be able to get my rewards? Will I have to pay a higher fees and interest rates?”

Here’s the bottom line-if these credit card companies are in the practice of stealing from Peter to pay Paul, who do you blame-Paul? Why not blame the stealer-the credit card companies? Look, if a credit card company raises the fees and reduces rewards because they cannot charge another person 24% interest rate, then shame on the credit card company. That is bad business and bad customer service. Credit card customer service-that will be another blog.

I agree with many, the consumers with debt are responsible for their debt. No one is speaking otherwise. The point is merely this; do not exploit those with debt by making it impossible to pay down with a high interest rate. I shed no tears for the credit card companies-they bought it one themselves just like the people who overspent on credit.