Is Greed Good?

There's a lively debate going on over at this site. Creditors Not To Blame For Our Greed. It's an opinion piece about the problems of debt and greed. Alas, my flesh was weak. I got drawn in, I made a couple of comments. But it is something I feel strongly about. Debt is a terrible master. I know, I have feared it much of my adult life.

I started out after the Navy with a new wife and a baby on the way. And no job. In a poor economy headed for recession. I was lucky, I got a job that had security though not great pay. One that had benefits. One that I liked. But we struggled. We lived in a house my mother owned (a scheme to get rich buying old houses and fixing them up... it didn't pan out) and paid rent that was enough to barely cover her mortgage payment. We watched our money carefully. We lived frugally.

When I was a small child, my parents were struggling to get my father's business going. We ate a lot of spaghetti, and Spam, and baloney (it was cheap then). In my teens, my parents weren't well off. My father no longer had his own business but was a salesman. My mother worked as a secretary. She also juggled the finances. And juggled them well. But occasionally dropped a ball or two. There were a few times I came home from school and found the electricity turned off. I knew Mom sometimes cashed a check at the supermarket and deposited the cash to cover a check she had written previously.

I was determined never to do that. And I didn't. But I didn't have a credit card until 10 years into my marriage. I was 34. I only got it so that I would be able to rent cars when I traveled. The rental companies would no longer hold your return flight ticket as collateral. Even though I had a card, I paid cash when I returned the car. I tucked money away in a space in my wallet, away from the regular cash, so I would always have something in reserve.

Even today, I have a little "mad money" in my wallet. Even though I have a few credit cards. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

I was given some advice when I was taking evening classes at the community college. I was mostly majoring in "G.I. Bill", to collect some monthly cash from the government for my service during Vietnam, and not so much to advance my knowledge. My math instructor, an engineer at Raytheon, told me to save money for any purchase less than a house. Then pay cash and pay myself back in payments equal to what a loan company would charge. In essence, be my own personal loan company. It was advice I tried my best to follow.

I see people around me who are immersed in debt. Who have large balances on their credit cards (I pay off each month). And I wonder how they can live with that on their minds.

Whose fault is it? The credit card people? The lax loan policies at the banks? The constant enticement to buy by stores and car dealers?

Or is it the consumers? The ones who make the choice to buy?

What say you?

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