Comments on: Congress doesn’t trust teenagers http://jaystream.com/2009/05/19/congress-doesnt-trust-teenagers/ Common sense analysis of anything below the jet stream. Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:47:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Jay http://jaystream.com/2009/05/19/congress-doesnt-trust-teenagers/comment-page-1/#comment-39 Jay Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:30:47 +0000 http://jaystream.com/?p=1068#comment-39 Tom: When someone is 18 or 19, they have full adult rights to do just about anything else in America. I believe what should happen is that young people should be phased in as beginners - give them a credit line of a few hundred dollars (some amount that won't cripple them for life) or so just to see how they do with it. If they prove responsible, their credit card limit can increase with time. That is what happened with me, and it taught me discipline in a tangible way. If one has a co-signer, that is just a safety net or parachute which doesn't teach the same lesson. Tom: When someone is 18 or 19, they have full adult rights to do just about anything else in America. I believe what should happen is that young people should be phased in as beginners – give them a credit line of a few hundred dollars (some amount that won’t cripple them for life) or so just to see how they do with it. If they prove responsible, their credit card limit can increase with time. That is what happened with me, and it taught me discipline in a tangible way. If one has a co-signer, that is just a safety net or parachute which doesn’t teach the same lesson.

]]> By: Tom http://jaystream.com/2009/05/19/congress-doesnt-trust-teenagers/comment-page-1/#comment-37 Tom Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:44:00 +0000 http://jaystream.com/?p=1068#comment-37 Why is it a bad idea to have a co-signer or proof that they can pay bills? That makes so much sense. I'm not sure I understand why you find fault with this notion. Why is it a bad idea to have a co-signer or proof that they can pay bills? That makes so much sense. I’m not sure I understand why you find fault with this notion.

]]> By: William J Reynolds http://jaystream.com/2009/05/19/congress-doesnt-trust-teenagers/comment-page-1/#comment-27 William J Reynolds Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:24:53 +0000 http://jaystream.com/?p=1068#comment-27 The question is not whether college-age people are "smart enough"; the question is whether it's a good idea to leave them at the mercy of an increasingly predatory and underhanded "easy credit" industry. I suggest that things were quite a bit different back in the days when you and I were getting those first credit cards (for me it was Conoco card and Brandeis, an Omaha department store). Now the easy-credit industry can and does jack up a customer's interest rate pretty much whenever it feels like it; it has shortened the "grace period" for making payments; it has hidden fees in the extremely fine, dense, gray print; it has demonstrated that it sees its customers as prey. Since there's no reason in the world to expect that the industry will police itself, it becomes the rightful duty of society to do so. Especially since these young people are amassing student debt far exceeding that which most of our generation entered the working world with, it is callous to leave them to the nonexistent mercies of predatory lenders. As the parent of a (responsible) college student, I say we owe it to the upcoming generation to watch out for them. Let them feel insulted. Methinks they'll thank us for it when they're writing checks to pay off their student loans! WJR The question is not whether college-age people are “smart enough”; the question is whether it’s a good idea to leave them at the mercy of an increasingly predatory and underhanded “easy credit” industry. I suggest that things were quite a bit different back in the days when you and I were getting those first credit cards (for me it was Conoco card and Brandeis, an Omaha department store). Now the easy-credit industry can and does jack up a customer’s interest rate pretty much whenever it feels like it; it has shortened the “grace period” for making payments; it has hidden fees in the extremely fine, dense, gray print; it has demonstrated that it sees its customers as prey. Since there’s no reason in the world to expect that the industry will police itself, it becomes the rightful duty of society to do so. Especially since these young people are amassing student debt far exceeding that which most of our generation entered the working world with, it is callous to leave them to the nonexistent mercies of predatory lenders.

As the parent of a (responsible) college student, I say we owe it to the upcoming generation to watch out for them. Let them feel insulted. Methinks they’ll thank us for it when they’re writing checks to pay off their student loans!

WJR

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