Nathan

MSNBC - No Principle, Just Interest: "Home foreclosures have become commonplace in recent years as consumers bought houses they could scarcely afford, then took second mortgages on them to pay other bills. Bankruptcy filings were widespread as well. While the very word was once synonymous with disgrace, now it constitutes a kind of automatic absolution: fess up, and the blot is gone. By contrast, the savings rate has plummeted during the last 20 years. One study showed the average American household with nearly triple the amount of credit-card debt it had a decade ago, scarcely surprising when unsolicited offers are sometimes sent to infants, the dead, even the occasional family pet. (If Woofie had opposable thumbs, he'd sign up.) When a family friend told Benjamin Braddock in 'The Graduate' that the future was plastics, he was off by only that last letter."