Credit Junkies

My friends are credit junkies. They are so much in debt that they need to borrow money every other week to get by until the paycheck comes in. They never have enough food in the house for the kids - yet they'll eat at Macdonalds a couple times a week. They struggle to keep up with their debt payments - and yet they just got a new car! Today they tell me they got another credit card to help to keep up with the payments on the others.

When I suggest they try spending differently and learning to budget, they make all sorts of excuses why they can't.

Why do people do this to themselves?

Some people may not really know how to make a budget and stick to it. It's easier to get into debt than acknowldge the underlying problems. It isn't until it's totally out of control and to the point of losing what they own do they realize no one can live that way for long without it catching up.

I agree with you, tmostuff. But surely if someone is in the situation of having to borrow money from friends/family/credit cards regularly to make payments, they must already know there's a problem?

Refinancing or consolidating won't fix that spending problem

because they want what they want when they want it.

 

i know lots of greed is key with these types of people. it makes me sad for them,yet they do not want help. so i guess they're getting something out of it. though i have no clue what they're getting out of it.

It is in part a social problem. Gotta have it is in our face every day and keeping up with the Jones'es is an American tradition. The question for some on this forum is why are you here if you have all of the answers ? Credit debt in excess is reaching epidemic proportions and as the economy gets worse the problem will likely get worse. My problem started as a divorce issue and false optomism that I could easily fix the problem later. Like many, how could I know the economy was going downhill, gas would double which rippled into groceries increasing etc. etc., my house would lose 75,000.00 in value within two years. It's very easy to get in trouble.........fast. Meanwhile, I hear very little on this site addressing the problem with predatory lenders or suggesting lenders should hold some responsibility for poor lending practices. I make $ 35,000.00 per year. Why would any single credit card company give me a $ 12,000.00 limit much less several others giving me $ 5,000.00 here, $ 3,000.00 there. When you get hungry or face homelessness it's very easy to seek credit like this.

A discussion on pure freedom - I love it. If I want to be a credit junkie why is that wrong? Probably because I don't accept the responsibility that goes with my credit junkieness, right? Nonetheless, pure freedom means I can be a credit junkie and you can decide not to be a credit junkie. Pure freedom is also me accepting the consequences of my credit junkieness.

The sad truth is NO one wants the repsonsibility. They only want the right.

Therein lies the rub Dr. Holmes...

junkie...........a term frequently used for one who is addicted to drugs................the person who sells the drugs to the junkie is sometimes known as a............"pusher".............both the junkie and the pusher are frowned upon in our society by the popular mass...........the question is.............do we hold pushers accountable in our society ? Sometimes we hold the junkie accountable as well but sometimes we treat the junkie.............the pusher almost always ends up in prison.

Frequency as a parameter, marvelous. Should we apply frequency as a parameter to all of life's perceived ills? Who will define frequency? Who will define ills? Who will define responsibility? Who will accept responsibility?

The list is endless, isn't it? More prisons anyone? Creed has an excellent song on prisons. If you haven't listened, please accept my invitation and listen to the lyrics. In fact, you don't even have to listen. Type Creed prison lyrics into a search engine and I bet you will have an instantaneous menu of sites w/the lyrics.

Since there is silence in the court room but for the sound of my breath...

We have a whole generation of people who run with the thought........if it feels good do it..........to go the opposite direction for my benefit.........if it doesn't feel good it probably isn't and therefore I want my slice of the handouts for those who have self sabotaged their lives. I've never taken a dime from the goverment in assistance or aid.........naw, ain't worth it.