Should the quantity of credit avalibable to American consumer be significantly reduced?

Answer 1

With current national average savings per household in the negative numbers, and Bankruptcy increasing.....Yes

Answer 2

The unasked question is, who should reduce it? We would be better off if people were more conservative with their debt, and voluntarily reduced their debt? Probably. But how do you reduce the credit available? Congressional legislation?

This is a free country that has a relatively free market economy. Most people say they love freedom, but one part of freedom is that people are free to make poor decisions. If you just legislate limiting credit availability, you may help some people bent on making poor decisions about debt (but I'd bet most of them would find some equally poor financial decisions to eliminate whatever gain you get them), but you'd also hurt the parents trying to put two kids through college, the entrepreneur trying to get his start up business going, the parents doing what they have to do to get the special van and equipment needed for a disabled child.

There's a lot of things that would make this country better, if parents were more involved with their children, if married couples didn't cheat, if people limited themselves to no more than 2 drinks per night, etc. However, trying to legally force people to act in their own bet interest rarely accomplishes the intended result, and often hurts others.

A better result would be to proactively educate high school children on how credit/investing/debt works in this country, and give them some general guidelines and things to think about. Maybe we could have one less course on Greek history.

Answer 3

The great depression was caused by people buying things on margin (read: credit). People couldn't pay their debts, which caused the unease that caused Black Tuesday.

Also, the amount of consumer spending has increased at a faster rate than consumer earning, which is creating an inbalance in our economy.*

Answer 4

I don't know about the quantity available, but the quantity USED should be reduced.

Answer 5

Not as long as they are responsible and pay their bills.

Answer 6

No.