I read the original NYT's article, Given a shovel, Americans dig deeper into debt because I subscribe to the times.

I also use bloglines to keep track of a lot of informational blogs that I enjoy reading. Today, I checked my subs on bloglines and came up with this article about the NYT article, that goes even further in talking about how Americans find themselves in difficult circumstances. "The Article Everyone is Talking About Today" on the "I will Teach you to be rich site" is an excellent expansion on the difficulties.

I have one credit card and a charge account at an online store. That's all. I don't want more. Can't afford more. I try to keep them paid down, but there are months when it is harder than others to make the extra payments I prefer doing so I have to pay the minimum due.

When I was a kid, if you had too many credit cards, you could not get another one after a certain point and people looked at you like you were a poor dumb slob for having too many. How many was too many? Mama and Papa had three. At one point they had four. When Mama discovered that Papa was using the Mastercard to buy liquor, she had the card turned off.

The other three were store accounts, Sears, Penny's, and Montgomery Wards. Mama always said that paying bills made her sick to her stomach, so she kept the cards paid down or off.


With all the rampant job losses that we are currently seeing in this country, credit too easy to come by, and the cuts in benefits that once helped Americans through difficult times, it is no wonder than many members of the Middle Class, are sinking into the ranks of the working poor -- assuming they can even find jobs to begin with.

It's a growing concern in America and there are no easy solutions.