Reflections on the First Week

Today marks my first full week of employment. I am very happy with my job so far - I like my colleagues, the work is somewhat fulfilling, and I generally come home satisfied if not very tired. I am still adjusting to the work schedule, after such an extended period of unemployment.

What amazes me, although perhaps it shouldn't, is the depth and breadth of the stupidity of the credit companies. I don't think I need to elaborate on the general "bad idea" of racking up tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, but someone at the credit companies need to grow a brain.

The credit company model is little more than a pyramid scheme - it almost requires its "customer" base to be morons. If someone uses credit ideally, by paying off any balances monthly, the credit company will make about 3% on each transaction, since it only pays the merchant ~97% of the receipt price. That margin is not, by any means, a high profit area, and certainly not enough to warrant some of the monster corporations that extend credit.

Instead, the typical and bad users build a house of cards, of sorts - using credit to buy necessities and luxuries in equal measure with almost no regard for the eventual payback. Instead, the credit card becomes another monthly bill, like a telephone or internet. However, instead of some useful service, the credit company provides only a space of time to hold back on its collections.

It is a racket, separated only from the loan shark model by a matter of degree, not in nature.