It’s January, it’s a New Year, and the bills for the holidays are beginning to come in. All those happy credit card purchases that seemed so effortless at the time now, suddenly, have a real price tag attached. We often hear how much simpler and less expensive The Holidays were in “the old days,” and it’s true, I was there in the old days, and I remember that Christmas gifts in particular were annoyingly small and cheap. Children naturally prefer flashy and expensive, and I can’t help feeling some envy for the kids of today. A six year old across the street got a real electric go-cart, and almost every child over the age of three seems to have been gifted with a state of the art smart phone. My cell phone is far older than most of these kids, not at all smart, and cost about ten dollars.
I can’t complain because I know that my parents weren’t mean. They just didn’t have credit cards, so when they bought something they paid in real, tangible cash. There’s something very sobering about handing over cash. It’s almost physically painful, and credit cards act as a powerful painkiller, perhaps even one of those dangerous painkillers that take away the pain and make you feel good at the same time.
Credit is delightful, but risky, as we discovered in 2008 and will no doubt rediscover again in the future. The banks that issue credit cards should take some responsibility for this, and it occurs to me that, with today’s technology, a sense of responsibility could be built into the cards themselves.
You must have seen those electronic speed limit signs that flash up your speed as you pass by with a warning if you are going too fast, which almost everybody is. These are very common in Europe and the French call them panneaux pédagogique or educational signs. So why not an educational credit card that would teach us to pay some attention to how much we are spending, and why?
Perhaps in some more economical future age we will be issued with cards that simply get hotter and hotter as we spend more and more, until it they get too hot to hold and eventually melt into little puddles of plastic. That would work. But right now a less technically sophisticated solution would be a monthly card statement with added commentary on our purchases. Was it wise to go to that expensive restaurant in Berlin, by taxi? Did you really need that new tablet computer?
A truly helpful credit card statement could even nudge us in the right direction. Why so many restaurant meals and so few museum or concert tickets? Why so many DVD rentals and no gym membership? It would be like a monthly message from an all-seeing mother.
This good advice would come too late, but it might have a cumulative effect. Psychologists call it the conditioned reflex. In time the very sight of the educational credit card would remind us of all the criticisms we have had from it in the past. Every tempting web site, expensive restaurant, jewelry store, or up-market car dealership would set off mental alarm bells. STOP, THINK, DON’T DO IT! What would the credit card say?
After a few such reminders of extravagance there would be a great rush back to cash transactions, consumer debt would go down, and we would all live economically ever after. But the banks wouldn’t like it, and I don’t think we would like it. Who wants to listen to the infuriating voice of reason?
Copyright: David Bouchier.
