NOT IT!Who is responsible for the credit

card debt crisis?

Problem In the fallen economy, many consumers are

struggling to pay back debt acquired via the use of credit cards. For some, this seems like a losing battle. Is this struggle due to irresponsibility on the consumer’s part?

Or, is there something more sinister at work behind the scenes?

Thesis

Consumers have vulnerabilities. Creditors are deceitful and opportunistic. Responsibility implies doing the right

thing . Deceitful people cannot be trusted to act

responsibly. Therefore, creditors may be at fault for

the credit card debt problems, but the responsibility to fix or prevent these problems lies in the hands of the consumers.

Consumers Aren’t Fool Proof Instincts can be misleading.

Creditors Love Money

Creditors may use unethical practices to increase their income regardless of who it hurts.

Conclusion

Consumers need to take a defensive stand against creditors by educating themselves on creditor practices and calculating methods, and staying alert when spending money.

Works Cited Works Cited Bhandari, Shyam B. "Some Ethical Issues in Computation and Disclosure of Interest Rate and

Cost of Credit." Journal of Business Ethics 16.5 (1997), 531-535. Print. Braunsberger, Karin, Laurie A. Lucas, and Dave Roach. "The effectiveness of credit-card

regulation for vulnerable consumers." Journal of Services Marketing 18.5 (2004), 358-370. Print.

Chakravorti, S. and A Shah. "Underlying incentives in credit card networks." Antitrust Bulletin 68.1 (2003): 53-75. Print.

Chien, Yi-wen and Sharon A Devaney. "The Effects of Credit Attitude and Socioeconomic Factors on Credit Card and Installment Debt." Journal of Consumer Affairs 35.1 (2001), 162-179. Print.

Feinberg , Richard A. “Credit Cards as Spending Facilitating Stimuli: A Conditioning Interpretation.” The Journal of Consumer Research, 13.3 (Dec., 1986), pp. 348-356. Print.

Pae, P. “Watching for ‘Traps’ on Lower Card Rates.” The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 21,1992), pp. 5. Print.

Srivastava, Joydeep and Priya Raghubir. “Debiasing Using Decomposition: The Case of Memory-Based Credit Card Expense Estimates.” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 12.3 (2002), pp. 253-264. Print.

Raghubir, Priya and Joydeep Srivastava. "Monopoly Money." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 14.3 (2008), 213-225. Print.

Wiener, Richard L., et al. "Consumer Credit Card Use." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 13.1 (2007), 32-46. Print.