I was reading today about the problems Andrew Jackson had with the Second Bank. That was a long time ago. You probably don't remember. Jackson had a deep belief in hard currency, none of this fancy credit that gets people in trouble. His stubborness ended in the demand that all large transactions be paid for in shiny metal coinage as well as a bad depression handed to his successor, Martin Van Buren. No, credit is a good thing.
Our present economy runs on credit. Nary a single person saves money any longer. What's the point? If you max out one credit card, you pay it off with another. Hell, you can finance your entire retirement that way. Social Security? Bah. Visa or Mastercard. Walmart, Target, Sears, they all depend on our credit cards. They love our credit cards. They keep asking if I want more everytime I stand waiting for things to be scanned by the cashier.
It makes each of us a de facto millionaire, this access to as much money as we can possibly desire. But no, it doesn't work that way. I don't know why, because theoretically it should. Imagine how the economy would hum along if all of us just bought whatever the heck we wanted. Some banker should think of that. If we were all millionaires, the economy would be jazzed beyond description. We wouldn't need welfare or socialized health care. We could be free market all the way, baby. We could invest with impunity. If our investments dry up, we just pull out the old credit card and invest in something else. No worries, no cares. We'd all be republicans.
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