Since the moment Shard formed in 1998, its members have possessed no credit cards, having cut up any and all plastic they previously owned in open rejection of the cycle of debt popularized, even borderline-worshipped, in our culture. Tab A had only ever carried one such card, having been the recipient of endless streams of credit applications since the beginning of his college career. Slot B, having no funds for her education, was forced to take on several cards to afford even the most basic books and charges for her classes, but these proved to be too little and carried too high a price...

T&S watched as their younger siblings were sent even more applications than they had ever received themselves, and to make matters worse, these companies were targeting high school students. Indeed, one now had the chance to take on Herculean shares of debt before he or she even left the comfort of their parents' homes.

The cult of the credit rating grows ever larger, with people defining alarmingly large portions of their lives by their spending limits. Many people do not comprehend, however, that to have an excellent rating does not mean paying down card balances to zero-- it means carrying balances on one's cards, paying them down and building them up in an endless cycle of commerce. Unfortunately, the exchange of monetary units for goods and services is difficult to bypass, especially in the Western world; however, blind obediance to the credit rating game encourages extra and often absolutely frivolous spending in order to perpetuate the cycle of credit debt.

(to be continued)