> >Personally, I think that this country is a lot poorer than we give ourselves credit for. The average person has thousands of dollars just in unsecured credit card debt. That's not counting secured debt, like a car or a house. Most people own almost nothing outright. And what they do own is probably outweighed by what the things they've financed. I know that there are less fortunate people in this world, but the U.S. of A. really isn't the land of milk and honey it's made out to be. I would like to see us fix our current problems before we open the doors wider.
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> I think your definition of poor is a little skewed. Having major (or even minor) purchases financed and carrying some credit card debt is hardly poor, when you consider that in order to do that you probably have a roof over your head and are getting enough to eat every day.
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> On the contrary, I think we're really *not* as poor as some people make us out to be. We hear all about how we have to wipe out poverty and fix the "gap between the rich and the poor," but I'd venture that the "poor" in our country have a better standard of living than the majority of the rest of the world's population.

Perhaps our standard of living is nice in this country, but eventually someone is going to have to pay the price for the things we finance. When we die with debt our kids end up having to foot the bill or it gets written off and all the other consumers have to pick it up. Insurance might pay some, but who is paying for that? The people who currently have policies, not those people who have been paying for years already. That money has long been spent. This country, despite not acting as if our debt--both national and consumer--is a problem, is headed for some serious accountability at some point. I don't want to have to pay it, but I would rather pay than pass it on to my kids. Living well on a borrowed dime seems to me to be just as poor as starving on an honest dollar, only the consequences get passed to someone else. At least that's what I think.