Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive Study of Consumer Debt
Review: A striking and keen assessment of the credit card industry and damning expose'of corporate tactics to lure the unsuspecting and inexperienced into a life of consumerism. This comprehensive text outlines many of the megabanking tactics to increase their bottom line at the expense of the American consumer. The predatory marketing strategies and extensive profits of the credit card industry are exposed and provide the reader with information the banks do not want you to know.
Rating: 
Summary: What's the big deal?
Review: First off, I didn't buy or read this book. However, all the reviews motivated me to wonder what all these folks were thinking BEFORE they read the book. Apparently, the contents merely explains what happens when people buy things they can't afford by borrowing money at horrendous rates of interest. What I don't understand is why the credit card companies are getting the bum rap. The culprit in all this seems to be the ignorance of sheeplike consumers.I think anyone who is wealthy enough and educated enough to be going to college ought to be able to understand that borrowing money at inflated interest rates to buy things you really can't afford is dumb. Or is it just me? Anyway, I don't think I need a book from a sociologist to tell me that.
Rating: 
Summary: Yawn.
Review: Having just finished Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation," I had high expectations for this book as well. I suppose if I were drowning in debt myself I might appreciate it more. Here are the problems: While Schlosser's book explores many issues surrounding the fast food industry, each of them has clear relevance to the central theme. Not so, alas, with Manning's book. For instance, chapter 2 seems to be mostly about corporate mergers. Chapter 3 appears to have as its central theme the fact that banks decided they wanted to make more money off credit cards. But while the fact that banks want more credit card money is relevant to the book, the reasons why they want this money, and the statistics that relate to this, are profoundly uninteresting. (Honestly, is is that hard to figure out that everybody wants more money than they have?) Fortunately, later in the book we get some personal interest material. But the people profiled in these chapters can be hard to identify with. Were those college students really too dumb to know that credit cards have interest rates? Many of them seem to insist, for instance, that credit card companies shouldn't issue twenty thousand in credit to a student who makes nine thousand a year. Perhaps they're right; but then, would they similarly insist that McDonald's shouldn't serve its high-fat food to a person who weighs four hundred pounds? Chalk up one more for the American culture of self-victimization; God forbid I should take responsibility myself for my finances. Manning's book fails where Schlosser's succeeds brilliantly: showing the human side of things. Manning does give us some anecdotes that help to show the human consequences of credit card debt; but these have to be sought out between the droning statistics. I think that with some heavy editing this could be a great book. Right now, though, much of it is simply a cure for insomnia.
Rating: 
Summary: Had this professor when he was researching this book
Review: I know Professor Manning from his days teaching class at Georgetown and American universities in DC. He was a fairly nice guy and a decent professor, with some fun arguments. My problem with this book was how selectively he researched some of the information. Not that he ignores importent sociological and economic trends, but for example I remember him polling me about my credit card spending as a college student. When I responded that I got the card as part of a through-the-mail low-interest offer when I was 18 and had successfully managed the debt and payments, he seemed uninterested, largely because my response did not fall within the paradigm supporting his book. All in all an interesting book, with some important facts, but skewed.
Rating: 
Summary: What Manning is saying
Review: I think reviewers are overlooking the central theme of Manning's book, made up of two observations by which he reaches his conclusion.
First, he is telling us that our society has changed from the time when a person was known for his/her personal character, and Puritanical thrift was the rule to guide all. In times past, most people couldn't begin to afford to create an image or build their persona from non-essential purchases. Only minimal credit was available to Joe Average and that usually from a local merchant who sold essentials. As my dad (born 1898) used to tell me: never use credit except for a house and a car. He exploded with rage when credit cards began arriving unsolicited in the mail as he saw it as an extreme danger to society.
Now, people are known for their lifestyle. They present themselves as an image built through their possessions. Revolving credit has been slipped into the toolbox of the average citizen through the careful marketing of the credit providers as an aid, an essential one, for the non-wealthy to participate in the culture-wide activity of individual identity creation and the maintenance of "success".
Conclusion from the above: to participate in American culture, literally to be somebody (sad to say), you have to put up an image based on possessions. If you have money you do it effortlessly. If you don't have money, you do it with revolving credit. In other words, for those without money, credit is the foundation for being socialized into popular culture, in addition to being a lifesaver for status when a job is lost, or becomes part-time.
It is not simply a matter of the individual being foolish to choose to get into debt, as it was back in the old days of "a penny saved is a penny earned." Manning is NOT dismissing individual responsibility to keep one's head above water financially. He IS saying that self-creation through possessions is a social demand that has been fed heartily by the self-interested financial services companies, who are eager to see the "individual responsibility" model kept in the spotlight in order to keep attention away from what those companies are really doing: subsidizing one group of people by preying on the habits of another group. This process involves two groups who, in the eyes of a creditor, should not be differentiated. This is the outrage that Manning identifies.
To be specific, those who use credit for convenience get interest-free short term credit at the expense of those who pay dearly for the use of money from the same provider. Person A pays off his/her $2000 credit card balance in one month and has had that $2000 to use for free for any purpose, most likely something that could have been bought with cash. Someone else may need the $2000 for a rent payment, clothes and medicine. They borrow the same amount, for the same one month period, but since they don't pay it off they must pay a high interest rate. The less well off can use money foolishly, just as anyone can, but the point is: everyone should pay the same for the use of the same amount of money from the same provider for the same period of time. As it is, those least able to pay do so while others who could easily pay get free credit and convenience. The clear solution is: you borrow money for a period of time, you pay for it - nobody pays for anyone else.
Credit Card Nation is a great book and a historical reference for how we got into the situation we are today.
Rating:
Summary: Wake Up Call For Americans & Myself
Review: Robert Manning did very objective homework, analysis, and research, in this very interesting book that most of us, myself included, can relate to. I fit the statistics of the American consumer studied. This is a realistic book most Americans can benefit from. I have never considered myself to place a high value on material things, but I have used credit cards in the past to get "this or that thing," later to implicitly acknowledge it wasn't a necessity. And, I didn't really use the things I purchased very much. This is a reader-friendly book. The credit card industry is comprehensively studied. Corporate debt is also examined, and the loopholes that exist to basically erase and forgive these debts is explained. (Someone is getting a free ride.) Our government is in massive debt as well as most of us are aware. The U.S. in actuality operates on a credit card and that is covered. In the last several years we Americans have witnessed, and been lucky to have participated, in one of the most robust economies in decades. Steady economic growth and high consumer confidence, while incomes rose, with low interest rates, and unemployment at record low-levels. Fact: We Americans on average are in more debt today than ever before in our entire history. And the recent ballooning of our debt has occurred very recently. Why? Are we living too high, beyond our means? Yes. How do we give ourselves and others the impression that we are doing O.K. financially? A: credit card and/or personal loan. We can show off our toys, and don't need to explain that we don't really own them. Most American folks today assume that we don't own most of the things that we have. If the economy slows down enough a lot of people will be in for a shock, unable to cover enormous amounts of debt they have accrued. Bankruptcy laws have recently been changed by Congress to legally force those filing for bankruptcy to pay most of the debt back. I'll be sitting back and laughing at these people, living my spartan lifestyle, completely happy and fulfilled.
Rating:
Summary: Mr Manning Should Be Honored By Congress
Review: Robert Manning has provided a vital service to our nation...for many years I was caught in the credit vise, fortunately I entered a counseling program and paid off $30,000 in consumer debt, which I would have been saddled with forever. Sadly, a great portion of our national wealth is consumed by the banking industry, earning it's greatest profits from those who are the most vulnerable. Can one survive without credit cards? I am living proof that says "absolutely." The credit industry would have us believe that their cards are a necessity. They are not. Mr Manning goes into great detail explaining the reasons we got to the point that college students with no income receive multiple offers for credit and get into deep debt, some with tragic circumstances. Read this book if you have ever used a credit card or anticipate educating your children about this important subject.
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Summary: WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD...FROM AN 18 YEAR OLD!............
Review: Robert Manning has written an outstanding history of consumer credit in 20th/21st century America. He covers the significant changes in federal banking laws and regulations, as well as the evolving cultural mores toward consumer debt in post-WWII America. This book is worth its cover price for this alone. Nevertheless, the author is convinced that the banking industry is to blame for debtors who lack the discipline and intelligence to manage their financial responsibilities. He resorts too often to "sob stories" of individuals who made short-sighted decisions and found themselves over their heads in debt. Nevertheless, the author makes clear that he thinks it is the fault of the credit card companies for extending credit to these consumers. But the extension of credit is simply the extension of choice. A consumer need not rack up credit card expenses he can not afford, even if that individual's credit card is burning a hole in his pocket. The author seems to think consumer creditors can offer, in effect, too much freedom to people who can't handle it. This may be true for some, but is NOT grounds for enacting the sweeping legal/regulatory changes the author recommends. In addition, it appears that he can make a fact significant simply by repeating it enough times. He reiterates numerous times the fact that income discrepancy between the top 20% and the bottom 20% is greater in the U.S. than in other western nations. Nevertheless, most economists and sociologists do not see this as the sinister state Manning makes it out to be. Rather, a given individual often moves between these "income bands" during his or her income-earning years; one is not trapped in a given income bracket. Manning's use of individual case studies is very useful in illustrating the many avenues to financial distress that the profligate use of consumer credit can lead. But he consistently points the finger at the Credit Industry rather than the undisciplined consumers whose cause he champions. Note to all: if you can't afford it, don't buy it. I am surprised that some reviewers of this book responded positively to it because it seems to absolve them of their own sloppy use of consumer credit.
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Summary: Just a question of free will? NOT!
Review: Several reviewers here of Manning's *Credit Card Nation* take him to task for proposing sweeping regulatory reforms to get Americans out from under the stupendous national credit card debt. These regulations would include reining in the frenzy with which banks, savings and loans, and retailers offer their high-interest cards to everybody under the sun (from young students, to aged indigents, to already over-stretched middle class types). Critical reviewers argue that the regulations are unnecessary and, worse, intrusive. All we consumers need do, they say, is exercise some old-fashioned self-restraint. When the pre-approved credit card arrives in the mail, toss it into the dustbin. In the best of all possible worlds, this would be the most likely strategy. But this isn't the best of all possible worlds. The consumerist culture in which we live encourages us to spend, spend, spend. It teaches us to measure our individual worth by how many possessions we own and how much buying power we control. Marketing experts study our psychological profiles and target us. Television and radio bombard us with near nonstop ads. Television sitcoms teach us that the average family ought to have hundreds of gizmos and gadgets to make life comfortable. Individuals living in poverty who are painfully aware of the disparity between their lifestyle and the "Great American Dream" are promised as easy piece of the pie by credit card merchants. To his credit, Manning goes out of his way to document and discuss these and some of the hundreds of other ways in which our consumer culture encourages us to spend money we don't have. So it just won't do to casually say the problem will go away when we toss away the credit cards. Given the marketing saturation of everyday life, this wouldn't be an exercise of free will so much as an act of near-omnipotence. To claim that credit card debt is just the consequence of lack of personal discipline is to ignore the consumerist culture that increasingly fashions us. We should exercise more personal discipline. But we should also be increasingly aware of the high payoff for bankers and retailers if they can manipulate and encourage our addiction for buying on credit. This is a social problem, not just an individual, psychological one. Readers tempted to take an exclusive "it's a matter of personal responsibility" position might want to supplement Manning's very carefully argued book with others such as *Culture Jam* or *Affluenza*.
Rating:
Summary: not worth reading
Review: The basic thesis of this book, in case you need to be told, is that evil credit card companies are fleecing America and getting away with it, and that those "revolvers" who carry interest from month to month on their credit cards are, well, idiots.
Alas, after having waded through the whole of the book, I would not recommend it to others, even those who are passionate about the issue. While the material is well-written and well-researched, the author seems incapable of making his subject matter come alive, or writing efficiently or effectively. The whole performance is more or less forgettable.
Sure, it's an important issue, but after the first twenty pages or so, you pretty much "get it," and all the anecdotes and graphs after that are essentially superfluous.
Manning, furthermore, certainly has a bone to pick. And while agree with pretty much his entire position, I couldn't help feeling this makes him less than trustworthy.
To wit: subscribing, as he obviously does, to the Puritan notions of saving, paying-as-you-go, the shame of bankruptcy, etc., he reveals nothing but disdain for the outrageous way the world seems to work these days. In the end I felt this book was much more effective as a lament for the lost virtue of prudence rather than a sober analysis of "the consequences of America's addiction to credit."
Nearly all of his "case histories," for example, are negative. So-and-so was ruined by his improvident use of plastic. So-and-so recklessly lived for the moment.
But what Manning de-emphasizes -- or even ignores -- are the many cases in which credit cards frequently allow members of the underclass to travel, complete their education, change jobs, extricate themselves from some unforeseen difficulty, etc., and then pay dearly for it later, or perhaps even Chapter 10 it away. No, all of that stuff is shunted aside in favor of focusing on how disgraceful everybody's behavior is.
In summation: not as jam-packed with insights and interesting facts as I thought it would be. Further, what "facts" the book does have to offer, unfortunately, are so unremarkable and tendentious that they could probably be sketched out, at least in their general thrust, by one who has simply been apprised of the author's stance, without actually having read the book himself.
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