It Is Always Darkest Before the Dawn

There was a time in the not so distant past where a certain creature freely roamed the shopping malls in Massapequa, Hicksville and Garden City. 

This being had a certain blank gleam in it’s eyes and was driven by a
fierce desire to damage it’s own credit. 

Armed with American Express Gold Cards and the twin fangs of Visa and
MasterCard this vicious predator, now almost extinct, would savage through
aisle after aisle of woman’s wear searching for a way to satisfy its appetite.  Price was of no concern as the ability to repay the debt was never considered. After all, would the like of American Express, Chase, BofA or Cap One each have extended substantial credit lines if there was a problem? These financial giants surely
know what they are doing and besides these purchases actually stimulate the
economy and create new jobs, right?   

There was little to no consideration that these purchases were all actually imports and were, indeed, stimulating the economies of China.  In fact, every night when you came home there were more offers for credit cards at 0 percent interest, no fee, no payments due till I don’t know when…increases in credit lines, decreases in minimum payments…more, more, more.

Good jobs were plentiful and you expected to get that promotion and a big raise anyway you earned a good living, but not enough to pay for all the things you needed, now.  The credit cards paid for the power suits, business lunches, after work dinners, etc.  You also needed power handbags, power shoes, power jewelry,power makeup and power cocktails. You get the idea. You had to “walk the walk and talk the talk” in order to get ahead!

It didn't take long before minimum payments exceeded net income. The 0 percent offers stopped coming in the mail at this point; you were hooked and strung out. 
 The card issuers now considered you a risk and drew on the “small print” which allowed them to increase the interest rate to more than 20% if they, in their infinite wisdom, determined that your situation had changed or your risk of default had increased.

It all became too much to handle and one month you bounced 10 checks. With the NSF fees for each check, you were deep in the hole that month. The promotion that you had expected was put on hold and there was actually talk of layoffs due to an economic downturn.  You stopped making credit card payments for a few months, convincing yourself that your cash flow would have a chance to catch up to my monthly expenses. 

Then, there was that vacation to Cancun that you just had to have and the new clothes and bathing suits just about maxed out all the credit that you had but “what the hey” you only live once. Although, your closet was full you had no remaining credit and all of your cards were maxed-out. 

Then you lost your job…you and 14 million other hard working Americans. 
All of the real jobs with their promotions and pay increases seem to be elsewhere.
  Political leadership has utterly failed to stimulate any economic recovery and times are bleak.

Remember this, “…”