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In the media

Debt Sentences

Frontline

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Students go into debt not only through college loans but also through the use of their credit card to finance their education. No longer is the credit card only a convenience for purchases. It is now the “plastic safety net”. A 2012 study by Demos, a public policy organisation, showed that 40 per cent of U.S. households used their credit cards to pay for basic living expenses (including food, rent, medical care and insurance). As Demos’ Amy Traub put it, “Americans are using credit cards to make up for the inadequacy of the public safety net, and to give themselves a raise at a time when unemployment remains high and real wages are in decline”. This is, as Strike Debt puts it, “history in reverse”.

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