‘With defaults on credit card debt spiraling amid a global financial downturn, banks already reeling from the mortgage crisis are losing billions more from unpaid credit card bills,’ Marcy Gordon reports for the Huffington Post.

‘Big banks have formed an unusual alliance with consumer advocates to urge the government to allow huge portions of credit card debt to be forgiven, a turnabout from recent years when the banking industry lobbied strenuously to make it harder for consumers to erase their credit card debts in bankruptcy.’

The new program would ‘involve as many as 50,000 people struggling with credit card debt. On an individual basis, the amount of debt to be forgiven would rise according to the severity of the borrower’s financial situation, up to a maximum of 40 percent.’

Credit card companies have long resisted similar proposals, but have changed course due to the economic crisis. Increasingly more Americans are unable to pay off their credit cards, resulting in the companies suffering huge losses. If they would, together with the government, eliminate part of the debts, customers would probably be able to pay off the remainder, resulting the credit card companies at least seeing some of their money back.

I have often said it: credit cards are a curse. They are a true symbol of the times, with people buying products they can either not afford, or products they can afford by simply using the money they already earned.

These days, hundreds of millions of people buy products with money not yet earned. There is a reason our forefathers first worked to earn their money, then spent it. As a society we should learn from them.