Ethics, Credit Cards, and Free Will
A friend of mine recently accused me of being inconsistent by being a personal finance blogger dedicated to helping people be more responsible with money while simultaneously holding a job in which I promote the use of credit to increase consumers' purchasing power. This accusation merits attention in this blog due to the fact that I believe this combination to be perfectly consistent on my part.
The feature of human existence that allows for the compatibility of my views on personal finance with my employment activities is free will. In general I am what could be described as a "libertarian"; not in the political sense but in the sense of believing that each of us must take responsibility for our own actions and the consequences thereof. Under this view, taking out credit is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. However, the abuse of credit through lack of personal and fiscal responsibility is a very bad thing. It is for this reason that I do not feel remotely remorseful about recommending credit to my customers. I even (generously!) go so far as to recommend to my customers that they immediately pay off their balance in full when using their new credit to receive promotional savings. But even if this were not the case on my part, the decision to take out credit for one's purchases is up to the individual consumer, who is the sole person responsible for handling his/her new credit wisely.
There are certainly rules of thumb to follow when taking out credit, such as not carrying a balance on a high interest credit account, and it is up to the individual consumer to educate himself/herself about the sound use of credit before taking on a responsibility that he/she does not understand. I view this blog as part of my own larger responsibility to educate people about responsible money management (including the responsible use of credit), but I also believe that credit can be a benefit to many people if handled properly.
Personal responsibility and free will are distinctly human qualities, and I have little tolerance for those who refuse to take responsibility for their own financial situations (although there are certainly genuine cases of victimization in which one's poor financial situation is not his/her own fault). My own personal financial situation, such as my owing many thousands of dollars in student loans, is purely a result of my own decisions and my own cost/benefit analysis as to whether it would be worthwhile to incur the debt. If those decisions lead me into trouble in the future, I have no one to blame but myself. It is a red herring to blame the loan companies or the university when the responsibility for taking out, and for repaying, the loans is solely my own. And my credit customers are in the exact same position. The customers are informed of their responsibility when taking out new credit, and they themselves are human beings with unrestricted free agency and free will to decide whether to accept the terms of the credit agreement.
In conclusion, please remember that there is nothing with wrong with credit in and of itself. Like a weapon (such as a lightsaber, for all you Star Wars fans out there), it can be used for good or for evil based on the intentions and responsibility of its bearer. One should never carry a balance on a high interest credit account, and one should always pay off the balance in full each month so as not to incur any interest charges. But should this guideline be ignored, those who do the ignoring have no one to blame but themselves and their own poor judgment.
