I don’t disagree with your groupings but the responsibility is still theirs. There is no excuse and no situation where living off a credit card for day-to-day expenses is ever a good idea. The first time the grocery shopping is done on a credit card is the time to sit down and cut back or increase your earnings.I think its easy to judge others, a lot of people in incredible debt actually have good jobs and have prospects and a lot of people with lower paying jobs actually have an abundance of common sense and no debt. There is no generalization debt (stupid or otherwise) effects all types of people. While the debt is stupid more often than not the person isnt.
While I dont think credit card companies are to be blamed that doesnt make them blameless.
I can see 2 types of people (anyone can fall into debt but in Ireland today these 2 categories that seem to be very prevalent) that are prone to falling into debt and therefore more prone to the stupid debt. There is the young professional, everyone around him and her are buying houses, cars, xboxs, latest fashions, 2 holidays a year most of the peers have high CC debt. Unless they hang out on AAM or have a parent or friend who explicitly points out the danger they are in they find themselves owing a lot of money.
The second type are young families, creche fees, cars, kids, pressure to keep up with jones, not wanting to let your kids down at christmas time, Mortgage etc. slowly and surely bills consume all the salary and living is off the CC. This group are more savvy than the first but are caught in a debt trap of types.
Getting out of debt is like dieting - every new year you swear you'll lose it this year. You read testimonials, you follow books perhaps but there has to be a click inside you to make you want to lose the debt to make that ultimate step.
I suppose what bothers me is when people start to blame banks or credit card companies for their woes. We have too choices; we can live within our means and stay safe or we can borrow and gamble. When we borrow we should ask a few what if questions. If we don’t ask these questions or we ignore the answers that’s nobodies fault but ours.
I just don’t buy the “It’s not all their fault” line. It is, 100%. If things don’t work out based on actions that adults took then they have no-one else to blame.