Credit Card Culture
信用卡文化
The American household has an average of 13 credit cards that, as of December 2008, resulted in $1 trillion in outstanding credit-card debt. The Obama administration passed new legislation in May that soon will require credit-card companies to give people more notice before raising their interest rates.
2008年12月的统计数据显示，美国每个家庭平均拥有13张信用卡，欠款总额达到1万亿美元。奥巴马政府在5月通过了一个新法案，要求信用卡公司在调高借款利息之前必须明确告知客户。
In his new book Collateral Damaged: The Marketing of Consumer Debt to America, author Charles Geisst outlines the rise of what he calls the "Great American Credit Machine." The industry's marketing executives have been adept at framing the conversation, he says, by calling people's mounting bills "credit" rather than "debt." The credit-card companies, in turn, have made it seem like a privilege to hold their cards, a symbol of one's purchasing power. Newsweek's Nancy Cook recently spoke to Geisst about Americans' mounting debt and the way new credit-card legislation could help consumers. Following are the concerns of the current condition of American people from the author:
查尔斯盖斯特在他的新书《间接伤害：让客户为美国负债的 营销》中，描述了这样一种所谓的“超级美国信用机器”。他指出：从事信用卡销售的营销经理们早就将与客户谈话的模式烂熟于心，他们通常只会提及“信用”，而非“债务”。信用卡公司反过来推销说持有他们的卡就等于拥有特权，代表了持卡人的购买力。新闻周刊的南希·考克最近与盖斯特谈及美国人不断增长的债务，以及新的信用卡立法对消费者进行保护的方式。以下为作者对美国人民现今处境的一些担忧：
“There's always been this myth that we were a nation of savers who got misled. When the availability of consumer credit became a commodity, we certainly got in over our heads. Our debt ratios got higher and with rising state and local taxes thrown on top of it, people's fixed costs were higher. Having said all of that, we've been on a bender for the last 20 years and have been spending more than we earn.
有这样的说法我们是一群受到误导的储蓄者。当顾客的信用被当成了一种商品，我们必然会头脑发热。我们的负债率越来越高，加之不断增加的州税地税，民众的固定成本居高不下。关于这些，在过去20年里我们做得有点过火了，早已把“量人为出”的观念抛在了脑后。
When one's back is against the financial wall, people have been defaulting on their mortgages and letting the home default to the lender. They'd rather do this than default on their credit card. From 2000 and onward, people were using their home-equity lines to pay off their credit-cards bills to reduce the interest on their credit cards. Then, they'd congratulate themselves by going out to dinner. They're not realizing that they're eating part of their house at the same time.
人们背负着财务的重担，无法偿还他们的抵押借款，并把房屋出让给借款人。他们宁愿这样做，也要偿还他们的信用卡欠款。从2000年以来，人们开始将自己的房屋净资产用于支付信用卡账单，以降低信用卡的利息支出。然后他们外出大吃一顿，庆祝偿还了欠款。他们还没意识到他们此时消耗的是他们自己的房屋。
People use credit cards as a source of working capital. They fund everyday living on their cards. It's better to preserve the one line that you have left.
人们把信用卡用作周转资金的一种来源，靠信用卡度日。最好还是保留一点已经偏离的生活方式吧。

Commercials paint it as a privilege to be a member. They emphasize the positive, by saying，"This shows your purchasing power." I think that's been one side of it-to stroke people's emotions. The credit-card companies are also very good at designing statements that can't be read. So, basically, it's been slick marketing and deceptive billing practices.
广告宣扬拥有信用卡将是一种身份的象征。他们只对其进行正面的宣传，“这显示了您的购买力”，我觉得这种做法很大一部分是在煽动民众。信用卡公司对于撰写申明也非常在行，通常都写得晦涩难懂。因此，本质上来说，这是一种圆滑的营销、欺骗的记账方式。
We need to reinstate a national usury law for consumer interest. There's no reason why we can't do this. Ideally, it would cap interest so that it doesn't exceed 12 or 13 percent. As far as resolving the crisis, I think the credit-card crisis is still looming. It will take a few years before people are completely stretched. Unemployment is the straw that will break the earners back. The default rates already are twice what they used to be. I think it'll get worse.
出于对消费者利益的维护，我们必须重新修订髙利贷的国家法律。我们没有理由不这样做。理想来看，它将对利息进行限制，不得超过12%—13%。只要解决这个危机，我相信信用卡的危机也就来了。民众要完全恢复需要很多年。失业问题将会成为那压垮骆驼的最后一根稻草。银行坏账率巳经是正常的两倍了，我想情况还会变得更糟。
There's about 300 million in the country are in credit debt, and the average household has about 13 credit cards or four per person. It's fair to say that if we multiply that by the population, then we have well over a billion credit cards floating around. In the later months of 2008，we had $1 trillion of consumer debt outstanding. Eighty-five percent of that was represented by credit cards and about $750 billion was actually securitized, meaning it wasn't in the hands of the original lender. What I find interesting is the numbers. Just before the Depression started in 1929, we had a population of 130 million people, and we had outstanding consumer credit of $6 billion dollars. It's clear that there's something going on here. People can't stop spending.”
全国有大约有3亿人拥有信用卡欠款，平均每个家庭拥有13张信用卡，人均是4张。如果乘以我们的人口总数，那么我们有10多亿的信用卡在外流通。在2008年底，未偿还的信用贷款达到1万亿美元，其中85%是信用卡欠款，大约7500亿已经转为债券,这就意味着这些债务已经不在原来的借款人手里了。我觉得这个数字非常有趣。在1929年大萧条之前，我们有1.3亿的人口，我们的未偿还借贷为60亿美元。而现在很明显有什么事情正在发生，人们无节制地进行着消费。