Credit Card Webs

For all the time I was working in Bangalore, I always wondered why people who earned a decent sum of money would want to live a life on credit? And who ever came up with the concept of awarding a point for every 100Rs spent is an absolute genius. Because it's so damn easy to lure people into taking loans when they can afford not to by simply telling them that they'd be rewarded for it. No matter how small and stupid the reward is. I actually thank myself for not buying a credit card. It's that one decision that helped me save a lot. And use that money on things that actually gave me value. 

Consuming is good. But it's sad that it has reached such voyeuristic proportions that people can almost not live without it. I know of a person who spent 4000Rs on a pair of trousers which he said he had not worn more than once. What's this insane temporary joy we thrive on? How genius is it that someone devised a method to make people spend and be happy about it because the expense isn't immediately reflected in their bank account. If i'd use a debit card or cash to buy something worth 1000bucks, i'd see a dip in my savings the moment I spend it. And that's pretty darn effective in making me not buy things I could very well do without. However, if one were to buy the same object and still not see a dip in the savings, and be ok with it, I know that the person's seeing a mirage.

Consider stuff like Shopper's Stop membership cards, where they are so eager to award 1 point to me every time I spend 100Rs. And after I accumulate 100 points, I can buy something valued at 100Rs. Now, there's nothing that costs 100Rs at shopper's stop that I fancy, right. So, I wait until i've accumulated 500Rs and then buy something 'worth' 500Rs and show it off with glee. All this without fully realising that i'd have spent 500x100Rs. Now, i'm happy that I wasn't ME. It was some poor soul caught in an unforgiving web of consumerism.

And it's now that i see that my aversion to credit cards holds good. The United States lives on credit cards. And how i hate that! Swipe and buy; pay later. Why would that make me happy? I cannot, for the life of me, understand that. What would make me happy is knowing that i am capable of spending from what i have saved. It gives me a sense of accomplishment in knowing that i can afford buying something. But no, that's not how it works. Buy first, borrowing when there's no necessity, slowly build a huge bill, and then realize you are in debt. Even if the debt is $1000, I'd still hate it because i know i can afford to pay that much without the damn loan.

And the irony is that we can't do away with these damn credit cards because that's how we're gonna buy anything that has any value later on. Want a house? Show me your credit score. Want a car? Show me your credit score... You see, we're driven it to a point where we must take loans to be given some loan sometime in the future. So I have to, HAVE TO, use a credit card.

We are required to prove that we have a history of clearing loans to be able to take a bigger loan. While that might make sense from some twisted angle, it's still funny. In the simple world, trusting someone who has taken a lot of loans is a no-no.

The world would be a better place without credit cards. Do it the old fashioned way. Save and spend. Making things easier to buy has led us to downfall. Can someone please learn from it already?