“Scottish children are raised to neither a borrower nor a lender be. The reason being that incremental percentile inflation can and does outstrip fundamental reality’s ability to settle accounts.” Christophe Romanet

In America, we are actually told (and it is true) that “credit is necessary” for employment–background checks for even the most meaningless jobs, to rent or buy a house–credit check/good credit required, to rent a car, to get a cell phone plan, et c. Participation in our economy is largely necessitated by the coercive use of credit.

“No credit is worse than bad credit” (also true). And the credit you get, comes with interest rates which essentially amount to extortion, and folks are made to pay their debt in installments.

Higher education comes at exorbitant cost in the United States, and five & six figure debt loads are not uncommon twenty/thirty-somethings. Is the debt-holder to blame in what appears to be a financial services shakedown?