Has the era of "plastic money" about to come to an end?

I hope not, I charge everything. I just flew round trip with my husband, which would have been $700 flights, for $50 because I had miles from my airline credit card. If inflation ever comes back I really want my credit cards then.

I am not in favor of a total forgive and forget, but an adjustment to people’s balances would be ok with me because I feel the interest rates were criminal. Although, the pissed off part of me doesn’t want to give the right wingers who cant pay their bills anything because they are voting against caps on interest rates. In the 70’s the fed got rid of usury laws, and so for years people were borrowing money from the Sopranos sans the broken knees. Mostly I blame the consumer, not the government or the companies, but obviously our consumers are pretty stupid and need mommy to give them rules and say no.

Let me guess… you believe that Obama’s “stimulus program” has been a great idea, right? Free money! w00t!

It doesn’t work that way. It would be another disaster.

JLeslie, great answer.

Cyanotic Wash, i do not believe in Obamas failed stimulus package. it was a dead fish in the sea and everyone knows it. you cannot give money to a drug addict and expect them to pay a bill with it, as an example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thSTpGnWEAs

Clarke and Dawe explain in 2 minutes how every economy is based on plastic money.

I think that instead of fingerprints, RFID chips will be used. Positive ID corp, formally Verichip, used to specialize in RFID for medical use. They recently expanded to credit monitoring and identity theft. The RFID chip will be for everything, ID, money, health records, taxes, marketing, etc.

Chris6137, watched the video. interesting.

@john65pennington So you are against forgiving the credit card debt also? Or, are you waiting to hear opinions? I was not against all of the stimulus and TARP money, but definitely not happy with all of it. I was against most of the mortgage help by the government, although like the credit cards, I think the companies should have been more willing to work with people for a fair compromise of some sort.

@john65pennington

They are the Stephen Colbert of Australia. They are hysterical and do many short mock interviews on subjects such as the economy, subprime lending, the oil spill, etc. They are all on youtube.

Have you ever read 1984 by George Orwell?

Credit cards are tools, nothing more. They can be used to great beneficial effect. They can also be abused and misused to disastrous effect. The fact that some are abused doesn’t negate the benefit others – like myself – get from them. No, the era of Plastic Currency is not over. Indeed, it’s only growing. Paper Currency, on the other hand, is on its way out.

I think a better way to “forgive and forget” would be to take away any fees and interest charges, and leave the person responsible for simply the amount of their purchases. That way they’re not getting stuff for free.

I have an American Express Gold card. I like it, because I HAVE TO PAY the balance every month. That is why I use it. I cannot understand how people spend money they don’t have. It just does not compute with me. I have another credit card that I never use, basically just because I want it in case of an emergency. It has like a $5000 limit on it, and I havent used it in 2 years… Why? I was raised to pay cash for things. If you don’t have the money for something, you don’t buy it.

My grandpa went to go buy a car at some point in his life, and the offered him financing. He did not understand the concept… couldn’t get why someone would pay more money over a certain amount of time to get a car right then.

The entire world runs on credit. When governments can run on cash on hand maybe people will. In other words, no. Credit cards are here to stay.

The answer is NO and to understand why the answer is no you must understand how money is made in our system. You refer to credit cards as being plastic money but really there is no difference between credit cards and green dollar bills that you carry in your wallet.

Essentially all money in the current economic system comes from monetizing debt. It is not based on any physical standard – such as gold. Money is literally created out of debt. This isn’t a mystery- it is not only admitted by members of the Federal Reserve itself, the very mechanics of “loaning” money into existence makes it obvious enough.

The only thing that gives our money value is the public faith and how much of it is in circulation. Therefore, the power to regulate the money supply is also the power to regulate its value which is also the power to manipulate and control entire economies.

Long story short. Every dollar you have IS PLASTIC money. Every dollar in your wallet is owed to somebody else. Essentially, this nation can never be debt free because if we are there will be no money in circulation.

mriaconic, truly an excellent answer. john

@mrlaconic Although I think most of your answer is truly brilliant, and an explanation I have never heard given before on this topic or related ones, and I did give you a GA, I can’t quite agree that we all use borrowed money in the sense that credit cards actually extend money on your behalf, while “cash” is money we have actually earned or own so to speak. I agree with your premise that money is no longer backed by gold, or some other commodity, and basically runs on the faith and acceptance of the public at large, but the credit card is one step further, a promise of money to be paid.

As I think about your answer it almost seems like you are saying cash and credit are equal, and they aren’t in my opinion.

Also, back to the main question. I understand a bill that was before congress wants to allow businesses to give a discount for cash, if that ever passes, then I guess maybe people will use more cash, especially if bank interest rates on savings stay low. I got in the habit of charging everything back when the float game was very profitable for me, the longer I held onto my money the better.

@JLeslie thank you for your comments it is always good to have ones opinion challenged.

I do see the point you are making because yes if you use credit that money is being extended on your behalf and you pay later…where as with paper money you are paying your immediate debt right then and there.

But look at this way: Take into consideration what the Federal Reserve is.

The Federal reserve is the central bank of the united states and it produces the currency of the united states. Central banks have two specific powers: The control of interest rates, and the control of the money supply, or inflation. A central bank does not simply supply a government’s economy with money, it loans it to them at interest. Then, through the use of increasing and decreasing the supply of money, the central bank regulates the value of the currency being issued. It is critical to understand that the entire structure of this system can only produce one thing in the long run: debt.

t’s important to clearly understand: the Federal Reserve is a private corporation. It is about as “Federal” as “Federal Express.” It makes its own policies, and is under virtually no regulation by the US government. Even now post the crash of 2008 and all the new banking policies that have been passed.. all congress did was give more power to the fed.

So through with paper money you do pay for your immediate debt immediately in the long run, you still pay later in the form of income tax.. which is not collected to pay for government services, it is collected to pay the interest on the issued money.