Cause and Effects Paper

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As the years have recently progressed, there has been an increasing rise in credit card debt throughout the United States. The first major cause of the rising credit card debt among Americans is many college students getting credit cards with little (or no) money, while also being unemployed. Another major cause of the increase in credit card debt is people losing jobs or having to deal with going through a divorce. While these are not the only reasons for the rising credit card debt, these are two of the biggest reasons we have seen debt rise all over the United States because of credit cards.

One of the biggest reasons for the rising credit card debt among Americans is many college students getting credit cards with little (or no) money, while also being unemployed. As seen with a college student that was reported on in “Regulating Credit Cards” by Marcia Clemmitt, “… he faced some big purchases- a laptop computer, for example, and about $500 for books each semester- that changed his mind quickly. Quickly, Lindo found himself with three cards — only one of which he actually intended to apply for — and rising debts” (Clemmitt 1-4)This information is showing that college students are finding themselves very susceptible to major credit debt that they will not be able to pay off until after graduation. This affects college students in wondering how much their college education is actually worth since they can end up spending years trying to pay off the credit debts they obtain while in college. Something needs to be done to fix this problem because the amount of debt obtained in the four years of college can sometimes take many more years than it is worth to pay off for the better life one had hoped to gain from a college education.

Another major cause of the rising credit card debt for Americans is from people losing jobs or having to go through a divorce. We see throughout “The Working Poor” by Mary H. Cooper that the loss of jobs is a constant...