In the United States alone, millions have obligingly spent themselves into perpetual debt. About 75 percent of American credit-card holders have outstanding balances on their accounts, for which they must pay exorbitant interest each month. The average American credit-card debtor owes over $2,000 on his monthly account.

The real danger in credit cards lies in the hardships and suffering that come if you fall deep into debt. The Credit Jungle notes that “countless people who are able to resist the temptation to buy luxurious goods and services they can’t afford when paying cash, are totally helpless to resist temptation when they have a credit card in their hands. Many a family eats beans for a couple of weeks after paying for the lobster dinners charged on the credit card the previous month.”

But more than your eating habits can suffer if your debts consume a major portion of your income. The book Credit​—The Cutting Edge reports that “on the average, Americans spend approximately 75% of their income each month repaying loans, debts, and credit cards.”

Sadly, for too many consumers, a credit card is, not a gateway to economic paradise, but a slippery slide to long-term debt and anxiety. American consumers, for example, have in recent years been piling up credit-card debt, which has resulted in more credit-card delinquencies, defaults, and bankruptcies. In 1990, U.S. consumers owed a total of $3.2 trillion on credit cards, car loans, and mortgages! The average household owed about $35,000 and paid about $3,500 a year in interest.

Not surprisingly, personal bankruptcies have soared. In 1990 a record 720,000 Americans filed for bankruptcy, nearly a 17-percent increase over 1989. In 1991 this number went up to 800,000, and in 1992 the new record was 971,517 personal bankruptcies.