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  • Cerberus: 
  • Comments (115)
  •  • StockTalk (2)
  WTF?! We don't exploit that stuff, who posted this a left leaning liberal?

  May 12 01:22 PM | Link | Reply
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  • Whippet: 
  • Comments (471)
  •  • Instablog (1)
  •  • StockTalk (1)
  Yep. Definitely the companies' fault. They gave me a cardholder agreement, I couldn't read it with my Dr. Seuss level vocabulary, I signed it, and I immediately maxed it out and got another one. Haven't paid it in years. All their fault. I'm the wildebeest, they're the lions.

  May 12 01:37 PM | Link | Reply
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  • D_Virginia: 
  • Comments (203)
  Sure, but you could say this about any business.
  
  Almost every product or service sold relies at least in part on the buyer not keeping all the information in mind when making a purchasing decision.
  
  McDonald's doesn't want you do know what's really in that hamburger, Nike doesn't want you to know how much child labor it uses, and Sears doesn't want you to know that you can get a cheaper lawnmower at Home Depot.
  
  If you do some research you can find a lot of that stuff out, but it's not the company's job to give you the whole picture at the time of purchase -- they just can't lie in their advertising.
  
  That said, hamburgers, shoes, and lawnmowers have never been a major source of individual financial ruin, credit cards have.
  
  For a contrary example, people knew (or could have found out) for many years that cigarettes cause cancer, but the tobacco companies never put up a disclaimer until they were forced to.
  
  If cigarette makers have to put warning on their products, maybe credit card companies should too?

  May 12 01:45 PM | Link | Reply
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  • CM in MA: 
  • Comments (119)
  The program to turn Americans into wards of the state continues, aided and abetted by ourselves.

  May 12 01:51 PM | Link | Reply
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  • Whippet: 
  • Comments (471)
  •  • Instablog (1)
  •  • StockTalk (1)
  Yeah, those cute one-liners from the Surgeon General really make a difference... As someone who has not carried a credit card balance for a single month of his life, even when I was an "impressionable college-aged victim", I have zero empathy. I get a couple hundred dollars of free stuff from Amazon.com per year from JPMorganChase, and get to defer payment for a month, for expenses I already have. What a bunch of evil ba$tards they are.
  
  
  On May 12 01:45 PM D_Virginia wrote:
  
  > Sure, but you could say this about any business.
  >
  > Almost every product or service sold relies at least in part on the
  > buyer not keeping all the information in mind when making a purchasing
  > decision.
  >
  > McDonald's doesn't want you do know what's really in that hamburger,
  > Nike doesn't want you to know how much child labor it uses, and Sears
  > doesn't want you to know that you can get a cheaper lawnmower at
  > Home Depot.
  >
  > If you do some research you can find a lot of that stuff out, but
  > it's not the company's job to give you the whole picture at the time
  > of purchase -- they just can't lie in their advertising.
  >
  > That said, hamburgers, shoes, and lawnmowers have never been a major
  > source of individual financial ruin, credit cards have.
  >
  > For a contrary example, people knew (or could have found out) for
  > many years that cigarettes cause cancer, but the tobacco companies
  > never put up a disclaimer until they were forced to.
  >
  > If cigarette makers have to put warning on their products, maybe
  > credit card companies should too?

  May 12 02:16 PM | Link | Reply
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  • CM in MA: 
  • Comments (119)
  Whippett, amen! My card company forces me to take cash back. Like you, I've always carried a zero balance. Discounted prices and deferred payment. All I have to bring to the table is personal responsibility and discipline. It's a terrible deal! Thank goodness the government is here to save us all!

  May 12 02:30 PM | Link | Reply