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Page 5 • Monday, June 21, 1999
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V V is $535.57. Your next payment of $15
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Sept. 1:
Hy a
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The plastic problem
Should credit card companies be regulated to protect consumers?
T
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YES
IThe temptation is great.
|Why not mail a check for $15 to the friendly
credit card company, make
the minimum payment and
postpone the day of reckon
ing with one’s spending
habits until some day far in
the future?
Millions of Americans,
utter a nd probably hundreds of Aggies, succumb to this
rett temptation every month.
ndtot |A11 the while, the most profitable “product” of the
banking industry rakes in
its usurious interest.
Unfortunately for Ameri
cans, it also results in the
greatest single source of
waste in personal budgets.
Credit cards in America
represent exploitation of
consumer stupidity by
bankers. They generally
serve little useful purpose,
and their strict regulation
is necessary to prevent
mass transfers of wealth to
non-producers who prey
on the lack of consumer
foresight.
The banking industry
has always been a neces
sary evil in the capitalist
system.
Banking is necessary to
help entrepreneurs, com
panies and consumers
overcome cumbersome ini
tial startup costs necessary
for starting a business,
opening a new plant or
building a home.
Since the variables af
fecting these needs are in
numerable, it is beyond
the abilities of any central agency to provide such a
service.
■ To meet these needs, capitalism, not surprisingly,
chooses to employ the nearly infallible system of
human self-interest.
1 In exchange for interest, bankers provide needed
loans to consumers.
K Though banking income does represent an eco
nomical impurity where an entity gets paid for do
ing nothing, the generally low interest charged on
home and business loans can be viewed as a neces
sary lubricant to oil the economic machine, an un-
.redit card
restrictions
needed to
curb user
temptations
to be
irresponsible
€
fortunate financial necessity.
The exorbitant interest charged for credit cards,
however, represents an enormous excess of profit
for those who produce nothing.
Since consumers have shown little restraint in
their buying habits, it is necessary for the govern
ment to intervene and regulate the industry.
The best way to prevent fu
ture credit card abuse is to
enforce maximum values
for interest rates and
balance limits.
A modest pro
posal might
limit credit
card interest
rates to a 10
percent annual
percentage rate
(APR), and the
maximum bal
ance across all
credit cards to
20 percent of a
cardholder’s
annual income.
This is a
workable solu
tion. Already,
credit cards are
being offered to
select groups of
consumers at a
low 9.99 per
cent APR.
However,
the most vul
nerable of
clients — stu
dents and the
working poor
— are still
charged up to
21 percent
(APR) on their
balances.
Also, by limiting
the maximum balance,
many Americans would
be prevented from finding
themselves in thousands of dol
lars of credit card debt for which
they have nothing to show but im
pulse purchases from Wal-Mart.
Credit cards are a temptation too strong for many
Americans.
Their regulation would save consumers from
their own materialistic addictions.
Tom Owens is a senior
chemical engineering major.
Mark McPherson/The Battalion
hey are everywhere. Everyday mailboxes
overflow with them. Each semester purveyors
lure students to them with offers of free gifts
like T-shirts and frisbees. Their advertisements fall
out of newly bought textbooks.
They are credit cards.
It is annoying. Everyone who receives credit card
companies’ ads in the mail wishes
their addresses had never been
given to the god of junk
mail.
But are credit card
advertisements really
a problem? At least
one group seems
to think so.
The Consumer
Federation of
America (CFA) re
cently issued a re
port authored by
Georgetown Uni
versity sociologist
Robert Manning
detailing alleged
misdeeds of credit
card marketers.
These horrible
practices include
setting up booths
V at schools, market-
| ing credit cards af
filiated with the
schools (such as
the Texas A&M
MasterCard) and
giving out free
gifts.
Manning even
states that the “un
restricted market
ing of credit cards
on college campus
es is so aggressive
that it now poses a
greater threat than al
cohol or sexually trans
mitted diseases.”
Whatever.
People die from drunken
driving crashes, alcohol poison
ing and STDs, but credit cards
cannot do more than help a person
acquire debt.
Though this is certainly a problem for many of
the estimated 70 percent of students who have
credit cards, there are benefits that go along with
having a credit card.
First, credit cards are one of the easiest sources
for students to gain a good credit rating.
Without good credit many people would not be
NO
able to get loans to buy cars, houses or start new
businesses.
Secondly, as most college students are aware,
credit cards are an easy way to hide purchases from
parents.
Everything from beer and cigarettes to surrepti
tious trips can be paid for
without parents ever find
ing out about it.
This is another problem
the CFA has with credit
cards. They have urged
Congress to pass a law re
quiring parental approval for many students under
the age of 21 to receive a credit card. The CFA
seems to resent that students are given the respon
sibility of handling their
own personal finances.
Learning responsibility
and self discipline are sup
posed to be some of the
most important qualities
learned in college. However,
without the ability to make
mistakes, neither quality can
be learned.
Credit card marketing also
benefits students by provid
ing an easy source of funds
for many student organiza
tions. Campus marketers at
A&M are required to have a
student group sponsor and
man their tables or booths.
In return, the students re
ceive a considerable amount
of money for each new per
son they sign up.
Along with benefits to
students, credit card compa
nies are hoping to find re
sponsible cardholders for life
by marketing to college stu
dents. The companies have
no interest in signing up peo
ple who are never going to
pay them back. Reckless
marketing campaigns are
therefore counterproductive.
Further, credit card companies should have the
same rights as any other company to market its
wares. Credit cards are not dangerous, addictive or
socially irresponsible.
Those who responsibly use their credit cards de
serve to be allowed to continue to do so. Those who
misuse their cards deserve the opportunity to do so
as well. The busybodies at the CFA need to stop stick
ing their noses into everyone else’s business.
Marc Grether is a mathematics
graduate student.
MARC
GRETHER
Responsible
credit card
users should
not be
punished
with
restrictions
JJsers should fight evil computer
iruses by using common sense
AARON
MEIER
few
months
ago, I
got a call
every son
dreads.
I. “Aaron,
this is Mom. I
have the dis
ease.”
Instantly
my throat tied itself in a knot,
and I sat down in dismay trying
to determine which life-threaten
ing illness my mother might
have. Cancer? Lou Gehrig’s? Thr-
ret’s?
But before I had the opportu
nity to say anything. Mom asked,
“All the screen says is that it can
not find the operating system.
What does that mean?”
f Now I was really confused.
It took me a minute to realize
my technologically inept mother
was talking about a computer
virus, not some disease that
would leave her uttering more
profanities than normal. With a
sigh of relief and a roll of my
IU). 1 eyes, I tried to figure out what
exactly was going on with the id-
' iot box of the next generation.
LVaPj ^ Computer viruses have be-
q, , come an inevitable part of the In-
ter net revolution.
mplof They are technological torna-
. . does, leaving one family in tears
Ol'tP while standing in line at Best
• n H'Buy and another happily surfing
the World Wide Web (WWW),
1th Ciwhich really should be the DDD,
^ if “Dorks Destroying Data.”
:!§i* With the advent of computers,
another level of hell should be
added to Dante’s Inferno and re-
i served for virus writers and
those idiots who send e-mail
chain letters.
It is understandable why some
1
ts
ofSHA
of these hackers try and break
into places like the FBI’s or the
CIA’s computer systems.
It is like running into the
teacher’s lounge in elementary
school.
It is forbidden, but the mys
tery of it all is just too tempting.
On the other hand, though,
virus writers are like serial killers
who have an Oedipus complex
for their mother boards.
Computer viruses might be a
federal offense punishable by
prison, but if the founding fa
thers had written the Constitu
tion on a laptop and a virus
wiped out their hard drive, you
could bet there would be an ex
ception to the “cruel and unusu
al punishment” clause.
"Do not share
floppy disks. You
do not know where
they have been”
The entire country could have
been left in a shambles.
(“We were supposed to have
the final draft ready today, but
Madison here didn’t download
the latest version of McAffee, so
we’re just going to forget the en
tire thing. ”)
The latest virus to threaten
netizens everywhere was called
Worm.Explore.zip.
It came in the form of an e-
mail attachment that fried the
system when it was launched.
News spread like wildfire to
warn the public about the virus,
but proving once again that tech
nology is only as effective as the
moron at the keyboard, the virus
affected a number of personal
systems.
It even managed to infect
computer networks at Microsoft,
General Electric and Compaq.
But Viruses like Worm.Ex
plore.zip — for the most part —
are easily avoidable.
The rules to avoid them are
based in common sense.
And for those of us who lack
common sense, the rules have
been drilled into our heads since
we were old enough to run with
scissors.
First, do not open e-mail from
strange addresses. It is like tak
ing candy from strangers.
Just because the subject line
says, “Free trip” or “XXX HOT!
HOT! HOT!” does not mean that
it is going to offer a cruise or an
interactive orgy.
Second, do not share floppy
disks. You do not know where
they have been.
No matter how many times a
guy says it is the first time he has
stuck his diskette in a computer,
do not believe him. Always prac
tice safe computing.
In the era where computers
are many people’s links to the
outside world, a virus can be fa
tal. Records might be lost, and
files might forever be erased.
But remember: Things could
be worse.
After all, a computer virus de
stroyed the alien army in Inde
pendence Day, so not being able
to play Minesweeper is not the
end of the world.
Aaron Meier is a senior
political science major.
Racist hate groups
cannot be ignored
In response to Chris Huffines’ June
17 column.
While I do not agree with need
lessly violent demonstration,
broad generalizations, such as
those employed by Huffines, are
equally ruinous.
If the Klan is allowed to operate
in peace, how does one get rid of
them? By ignoring them? They
were ignored for years, during
which time they visited untold dam
age on the psyche of a people.
Huffines writes, “‘Smash the
KKK’ became no different, and
just as bad, as that which they de
spise most."
This kind of objectivity is detri
mental to the continuing search
for equilibrium in human relations.
It suggests the racial status quo
has been sufficiently reversed,
which it has not.
By lumping race relations is
sues with other interest group is
sues, such as abortion, he makes
MAIL CALL
a mistake common to many social
thinkers in this country.
He confuses the clear waters
of racial politics with the crude oil
of political insensitivity.
Ayokunle Ogunshola
Graduate Student
Student: Think
before you write
In response to Mark Passwa-
ters’June 16 column.
Although I don not completely
subscribe to your view about the
subject discussed, my npurpose
here is to point to another thing.
Toward the end of your column,
you included a paragraph which I
quote, “Censorship is a real issue
in places like China, Iran and Ser
bia, where people can be shot for
speaking their mind.”
All right, first of all, what does
that have to do with a course
about pornography in Connecti
cut?
Second, I don’t know China
and Serbia, but I just wondered
how you know this fact about
Iran? Do you read Farsi? Have you
ever read anything in Farsi? A
newspaper, journal or book?
Where does your knowledge abou
the subject come from?
When making a statement,
please do not just throw words
around.
Khodadad Rezakhani
Class of ’99
The Battalion encourages letters to the ed
itor. Letters must be 300 words or less and In
clude the author’s name, class and phone
number.
The opinion editor reserves the right to edit
letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters
may be submitted in person at 013 Reed Mc
Donald with a valid student ID. Letters may also
be mailed to:
The Battalion - Mail Call
013 Reed McDonald
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
77843-1111
Campus Mail: 1111
Fax: (409) 845-2647
E-mail: batt@tamvml.tamu.edu
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ifir away m\
THAT, it could
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THANK' Goodness!
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