Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Required Reading

David Brooks on how debt is undermining society. Two scary statistics:
A household with income under $13,000 spends, on average, $645 a year on lottery tickets, about 9 percent of all income.
Fifty-six percent of students in their final year of college carry four or more credit cards.
We have one credit card, and we pay cash for our cars. Nevertheless, we're too much a part of this debt-loaded tradition for my taste.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brooks blames many things, but fails to address the singular feature that drove (and continues to drive) the crushing debt craze and its related travails -- the demagogic free-market "greed is good" philosophy of the Republican party. Funny how he left that out.

KAZ said...

Uh huh. I think it embarrasses him. He's the real deal--a true conservative. The current climate is just a bit distasteful to people like Brooks.

Anonymous said...

He's the real deal -- a true elitist. The man wears bow-ties, for goodness' sake. That doesn't make him a conservative, it makes him a geek.