This elides a more fundamental problem. For a lot of middle class earners, it's difficult to keep non-trivial amounts of cash on hand. So there's no cash to cov

This elides a more fundamental problem. For a lot of middle class earners, it's difficult to keep non-trivial amounts of cash on hand. So there's no cash to cover the cost of a broken appliance or repair on a car. A credit card is many people's only accessible $1k for some emergency bill. It's not that most people are maxing out credit cards on fur coats and caviar, they're paying for necessary and often unplanned expenses. They rack up credit card charges because as soon as they pay off one expense they get hit with another. This is especially true for people stuck with 15% interest rates.