In this day and age of the world where an individual's everyday life heavily revolves around the usage of the plastics(credit cards) in lieu of cash for purchasing merchandises and other needs, people often forget the fact that they are actually incurring debts, sometimes to an enormous amount.
What people do not realize is that they are trapping themselves into the money-pit and only regret when the debts add up to an exorbitant amount.
The plastics can easily come back to haunt the users and potentially turn into rather destructive forms.
Day in and day out, I come across the tragic news about the people deciding to resolve the dilemmas with suicidal deaths, crimes, and other inadequate methods.
Because of its convenience, the usage of credit cards may well be imminent but it serves its originally intended good purposes when only accompanied by financial responsibilities and sufficient management.
I see that a significant number of people in Korea are currently in a danger of losing their social priviliges because of inability to repay the debts especially after all those financially blossomy days and a few economically auspicious years after the IMF were gone out of sight.
As far as I understand, the penalties or the consequences of non-repayment of the debts are far harsher in Korea than in the United States due to different social and political policies regarding the credit card incurred debts and bank loans. I guess the main difference is that the credit card debt is non-collateral basis in the states making the the bad debts virtually uncollectible unlike the similar debts in Korea are guaranteed by some types of collaterals so that the loss can be covered by confiscation of the collaterals. For this reason, one's life can potentially ruined for the rest of his/her life leaving not much means of escape to let one's feet back on the right track.
The way I see it, what needs to be done in Korea to improve the situation and possibly prevent more tragedies involving the debts is the change of the law governing the related financial industries.
An individual here in the United States is given three chances in a lifetime, by means of personal bankruptsies, to wash off the existing debts so that person can get back on his/her feet again.
Of course, one has to be reprimanded for non-compliance with the agreement but not in the ways that completely demolishes one's lifelong accomplishment. When it comes to the effort to collect debts by financial institutes, these beasts are no philanthropists by any means. The only way to control them is with the adequate law and system change.
There need to be responsible bureaus keeping individual's credit records and responsible parties reporting the personal profiles for various financing needs. Although not all systems currently adopted in the US excel in their efficiency than the current systems practiced in Korea, the policies and laws governing financing fields are definitely superior than that of Korea.
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" and there's nothing wrong to emulate someone or something that's proven to be superior.
*** I got interrupted several times by customers while writing this and now, I forgot what I wanted to say. All of a sudden, my ideas are turning vague and my brain is much in void. I'll probably need to do this at home at late night so that no one bothers me. Hmmm, not that I blame the members who wanted to exchange a few words with me amidst posting this scant opinion of mine.**