4 ms·

I don't know about adding to total wealth, but from a personal finance/welfare standpoint, it's a very good thing. Access to credit smooths out cash flow, whic

I don't know about adding to total wealth, but from a personal finance/welfare standpoint, it's a very good thing. Access to credit smooths out cash flow, which is the hardest part of being poor. You might be able to save up for something over a month or a year, but what if you have to have it right now (healthy groceries, car problems, hell, maybe even lightbulbs)? What are your options? Either you get a shoddy version that winds up costing you more in the long run, or, currently, you go to a loanshark. If you could just float it on a credit card for a few weeks or even a couple months at low interest, it would be drastically easier. I'm not advocating living off of credit cards - at some point you have to come up with the money - but if it can turn one absolutely impossible payment that would put you on the streets into three moderate payments, then that can be a very powerful option to have, and it's currently something that rich people can generally do and poor people generally can't.

pessimizer 12y ago
If you can't save enough to not live from check to check, what are the odds that you're going to come up with the money every time that you borrow vs. the odds that you become a revolving borrower borrowing a steadily increasing amount to cover interest payments? Also: poor people don't have low interest credit cards. As a middle-class 40 year old who has spent time in his life poor to the point of homelessness, I've never had a credit card or understood the necessity. I understand that people with money use them for the promotional treats, but for people without money? Money should be borrowed in order to purchase capital IMO, not to paper over poverty until a catastrophic bankruptcy.
- GeneralMayhem 12y ago
  >poor people don't have low interest credit cards. That's exactly the point. They don't currently, but it would be enormously helpful if they could.

pessimizer 12y ago

If you can't save enough to not live from check to check, what are the odds that you're going to come up with the money every time that you borrow vs. the odds that you become a revolving borrower borrowing a steadily increasing amount to cover interest payments? Also: poor people don't have low interest credit cards. As a middle-class 40 year old who has spent time in his life poor to the point of homelessness, I've never had a credit card or understood the necessity. I understand that people with money use them for the promotional treats, but for people without money? Money should be borrowed in order to purchase capital IMO, not to paper over poverty until a catastrophic bankruptcy.

GeneralMayhem 12y ago
>poor people don't have low interest credit cards. That's exactly the point. They don't currently, but it would be enormously helpful if they could.