The lack of fiscal responsibility on the part of those living in the United States is not news. Whether it is the total lack of savings (the current rate of personal savings of disposable income is negative and has been strongly declining for many years) or credit card debt, as a whole we have a large appetite for consuming.

In reading the details of my new credit-card rewards program–I switched cards because of Bank of America’s terrible customer service for my former-MBNA card–I realized this spending is no longer limited to money. You can now borrow reward points from credit-card companies to have enough points to “own” that new grill, “pay for” plane tickets for your vacation, or receive Blockbuster gift cards for “free”. But if you do not borrow enough using your rewards-program credit card, thereby properly “earning” those points, you will be billed at an exchange rate determined by the credit-card company.