I just finished reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Bait and Switch (Owl Books 2005). Ehrenreich chronicles her undercover job search as a middle-aged public relations consultant. Credit Slips readers will find plenty to interest them. In addition to disparaging the expensive but almost worthless pop psychology that passes for advice in the career counseling industry, Ehrenreich explores the messages sent to job seekers. One particular passage (p. 85) makes a point that carries over to issues of credit policy:
But from the point of view of the economic "winners" — those who occupy powerful and high-paying jobs — the view that one’s fate depends entirely on oneself must be remarkably convenient. It explains the winners’ success in the most flattering terms while invalidating the complaints of the losers. [Participants in a job advice "boot camp"], for example, came to the boot camp prepared to blame their predicament on the economy, or the real estate market, or the inhuman corporate demands on their time. But these culprits were summarily dismissed in favor of alleged individual failings: depression, hestitation, lack of focus. It’s not the world that needs changing, is the message it’s you. No need, then, to band together to work for a saner economy or a more human-friendly corporate environment, or to band together at all. As one of my fellow campers put it, we are our own enemies.
In this passage, the "predicament" is the loss of a job, but the same words could be written about a person who has problems with credit. How convenient it is for those of us in well-paying jobs to blame someone else’s financial problems on their poor choices. My success in life is due to my good choices and not because I have been lucky enough to avoid major illness or a natural disaster. Such judgments have to affect one’s views on credit and bankruptcy policy. I just posted about a class full of international students who had a widely varying willingness to blame financial problems on a person’s individual failings instead of circumstances beyond their control and how that willingness drove the class discussion. The same dynamic happens with those who make decisions about bankruptcy and credit in our executive, judiciary, and legislative branches.
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One response to “Winners Win”
While I’m not sure I’d agree that the personal-power movement is “almost worthless,” Professor Lawless, I do agree that taken to the extreme it can produce the judgmental attitude you describe. I’m not sure what the answer is except compassion education. I think we’re failing our kids when it comes to compassion for others, and it’s evident in a society that finds entertainment in others’ misfortunes, going beyond mere schadenfreude to actual laugh-out-loud humor. Case in point: on one message board I no longer frequent, some close friends commented gleefully on a popular video showing a TV news reporter taking an obviously painful tumble off of a wooden platform. I was stunned by the reaction of these people, whom I knew “in real life,” which was so lacking in any compassion for the woman. When I pressed them about why they found her injury to be funny, given that it was obviously a “real person” and not a fictional character in a movie or TV show, they made mumbling noises about how she seemed “like a jerk.” How they got that out of the video was beyond me. I think it’s all part and parcel of the same mentality, and I do find it very disturbing. More than that: since I think it’s the same attitude that led to the passage of such a hateful piece of legislation as BAPCPA, I find it dangerous.