Why are credit card companies allowed to raise their rates, but ...

[ColbertWatcher]

... people are limited by how much they can sue corporations for their defective products?

Does that make sense to anyone?

[Fresh_Start]

1. You have to remember the context

we are merely a captive market for the US corporations. We have no value other than that.
So our rights are curtailed and their rights are supreme.
Got it?

[Delphinus]

3. Wonderfully succinct!

Unfortunately true, but great job of summing it up for us.

[ThomCat]

5. I wonder if that is becoming offical under legal doctrine yet.

It certainly seems that soon we will officially be merely consumers instead of citizens. :(

[Fresh_Start]

7. consumers as customers

and slaves as employees
and sometimes guinea pigs when they sell us dangerous crap.

[ThomCat]

2. Because credit card companies paid a lot of money to write the laws

that way. x(

They want the ability to charge you outrageous amounts, and to increase rates and fees as will, so they pay politicians to give them that right.

They don't want you being able to sue them for any significant amount of money, and they want it to be difficult for you to sue them, so they pay politicians to protect them from lawsuits.

x(

It is the inevitable consequence of the court decision that says that money = free speech. Those with more money have more speech. Those with less money aren't heard at all.

:(

[NC_Nurse]

4. Why can't we cancel a card without taking a hit to our credit? Then they can do

whatever they want and I can tell them to fuck off without lowering my stupid credit score. They have gamed the system in every possible way.

[nykym]

6. One simple fact

the doctrine of "corporate personhood" -- the claim that corporations were intended to fully enjoy the legal status and protections created for human beings.

[Fresh_Start]

8. if they are our equals as persons?

why do they have a different tax rate?
why can they deduct their living expenses from their income?

[ThomCat]

11. They get all the benefits of personhood but none of the liabilities.

We get all the restrictions of personhood but have to fight for any of the benefits. x(

Equal protection under the law has never existed with regard to rich and poor. The rich have always had many rights, and the poor have always had none, with most of us somewhere in the middle. Now corporations have far more rights than even the rich.

Though, the rich are often the corporate executives so they get those corporate rights by proxy, so they share in the extra rights of corporations.

[LooseWilly]

9. It's really just to protect the public.

Credit card companies are allowed to raise their rates, but the public is limited in how much they can sue corporations for for one simple reason.

To protect the public...

You see, if we weren't limited in how much we could sue companies for, for their defective products... then we'd just be forced to bail those companies out with the proceeds of our lawsuits... and that would be an unfair burden on those whose lawsuits are still pending in court.

I hope that clears it up for you. ;)

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. Quit buying stuff

You won't have to use a credit card and you won't purchase a defictive product from a multinational corporation.

Seriously, buy from locally owned businesses and buy products made in the US. Skip all the big box stores and chain resturants.

[ThomCat]

12. That is good advice IF

you can find locally owned businesses, and American made products.

Some people cannot live without a credit care. More and more, corporations make it impossible.

If you MUST travel then you can't live without a credit card. You can't travel without one.

I have a disability and must buy durable equipment occasionally that insurance won't cover. I MUST have a credit card to do that. I don't have the choice of doing without.

Many jobs require you to put expenses on your own credit card and then get reimbursed. This is common in sales and some corporate jobs.

Banks are corrupting the way we are allowed to live so that credit cards are becoming mandatory, for example: for identification purposes online.

Some people can live without a credit card, and if you are one of those people then yes you definitely should resist credit cards. Don't get one. But more and more people are finding that they aren't allowed to live without a credit card anymore.

[Coyote_Bandit]

14. Ummmm......

I didn't say "get rid of the frickin credit card." What I said was "quit buying stuff."

If you look for them you will find locally owned businesses and American made products. Those stores probably won't be in the mall and the products likely will cost a bit more than the made in China crap.

If you support Americans who offer goods and services then the money you spend stays in the US economy. It isn't shipped off to pay foreign workers and benefit the economy in another country.

If you support small business rather than big box stores and chain resturants then you encourage their continued existence and possible growth.

A credit card is a financial tool - nothing more nothing less. Just because you have to use one to make a hotel reservation doesn't mean you are required to tender payment at checkout using that card.

There is also a distinction between using credit because one does not have the resources to make a purchase and using a credit card to make a purchase. You can use the credit card because it is convenient and then pay of the balance without ever incurring a single penny in interest charges.

I could care less if big business suffers. I believe our economic recovery is ultimately dependent upon a resurgence in small businesses. Big business is not going to create enough jobs to replace the ones that have gone away. Neither is government. But the unemployed just might recreate those jobs because their livlihood is dependent upon their efforts at small business self-employment. Too bad our politicians lack the political will to encourage small business creation and growth. And too bad many of our citizens are ignorant or lazy or unwilling to seek out and support small Amercan businesses.

[ColbertWatcher]

13. That doesn't address the disparity. n/t

[Scout]

15. yeah, i didn't really need that new exhaust system for my car that i had to charge

i'll just quit going to work!

[onethatcares]

16. did you ask what they would have taken in cash?

I use that a lot. An exhaust system for a basic auto shouldn't be more than 300.00 american, including the muffler.

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Friday morning kick! n/t

[JVS]

18. Because capitalism must be smashed and the capitalists with it.

[Echo In Light]

19. Oligarchy

Incidentally, love that Zoolander pic!