You Are Stupid and We'll Take All Your Money.

Such is the sentiment of the credit card industry regarding the proles (i.e. us) in Lowell Bergmann's incredible New York Times/Frontline piece, "The Card Game".

Seriously, they're not even pretending they're not ripping us off in every possible instance. Congress legislates a strong consumer advocacy law to protect the public? They use the money from late fees, overdraft fees, inactivity fees, and any of the other industry 'resources' to pay lobbyists to water down said legislation until there is little that could be called teeth included. And that's just the beginning of it... This program is worth 55 minutes of your time, and you can see it here (embedded below) or at the Frontline page.

The sheer audacity of those in and representing the industry is both incredible and incredibly infuriating. I am not anti-capitalist, nor am I a protectionist, in the general sense. But what this shows is a level of dishonesty and greed that touches nearly every American's life. If you are one of these people, you deserve to know about it.

The essence, as paraphrased from Shailesh Mehta, the founder of credit card giant Providian (which he sold to Washington Mutual in 2005 for $6.5 billion), is that (in reference to the credit industry) 'you (the US Government) make the laws, and we'll outsmart you and take your money every time'.

And darn if that hasn't proven to be true. In fact, as Senator Dick Durbin (D, Ill.) said, regarding the United States' governing legislative body "the banks, even as unpopular as they are right now in this crisis, still own this place."