Calling Over-Consumers Debt Slaves is an Insult to Slaves - They're Addicts and Need Medical Intervention

Over-consumption and uncontrollable consumer debt are addictions. They follow the same behavioral sequence as any other addictions. Neither the junkie nor the bankrupted consumer became an addict the first time he/she tried drugs or whipped out a credit card. But they both got a huge endorphin boost, especially the first time, which made the decision to do it again easier. Each time, each boost gets a bit smaller, but the craving for those endorphins doesn't. Of course, riding the endorphin highway long enough inevitably leads downhill.

Recently per-capita consumer debt has risen to such nose-bleeding heights that hundreds of articles from 'experts' have been published. Many incorrectly use the term debt slave  to describe the millions of folks worldwide who are really debt addicts. Calling them slaves is both a cop-out by and for the over-consumers and an insult to real slaves, past and present, who have been bought, sold, tortured, chained and forced into bondage. Debt addicts, like all addicts have a choice. The choice gets more difficult with every pull on the crack pipe or every new big screen TV, but it's still a choice.

Consumer debt addicts live in almost every country, even though Britain is #1, Canada#2, and the US [post 2008] #3, Communist China is way up there, so is laid-back Spain. Debt enabled over-consumption has now risen to an all time high up here in the Great White North and the various 'experts' are intoning the debt addicts to 'just say no'. They have been for awhile actually but obviously Nancy Reagan's infamous line doesn't work any better for the debt addicted than it did for the drug addicted or than it does for the  porn addicted or the video game addicted or ?

Addicts are addicts, they aren't evil, they aren't sub-human, they are us and they/we all are susceptible to the rush of neuro-transmitter induced endorphin addictions be they to a substance or a process. Debt addicts need help, just like any other addict. They need medical help. If the 'war on drugs' [another Reagan era mistake] proved anything it proved that only loving, non-judgemental, consistent, medical help offers any long-term hope for the addicted.

So, my plan would mandate that every bank, every store offering in-house credit cards, every payday loan outlet, every auto dealership, etc. everywhere must have a professional addiction counselor onhand and that every consumer credit transaction can only be carried out after a 24hr. waiting period. Maybe in time this type of intervention could scale up so that every credit card terminal had a delay of at least an hour built in. If debt addicts couldn't get immediate gratification, if they had to endure 'councilling' before every transaction it would a least put a governor on the flow/speed of consumption and hopefully the amount of crap we import from countries employing actual slaves to produce it.