I like to think that one of the advantages of age is a better perspective... being better able to judge our "current condition". We've created a complex world, filled with marvelous tools, opportunities, and capabilities, and we work pretty hard at taking advantage of that complexity. We adopt laborsaving devices, and use the time saved to do still more things rather than adding to our leisure time. We're inventors, innovators, entrepreneurs, risk-takers, investors, and above all, supreme consumers. Americans push pretty hard to do more, earn more, spend more, and own more.

We look pretty successful at doing all that, don't we? America is the "big dog", and most Americans live extremely high off the hog in comparison to the rest of the world. When I look around, I'm impressed with what I see on the surface. Home-ownership is widespread, and most of us who rent believe that we will soon be owners instead. The homes have gotten considerably larger at the same time, with extra bedrooms, bathrooms, and many of what used to be considered luxury features. Getting a big mortgage loan has become a cinch, even for people who would have been refused a few years ago. Despite exorbitant prices, most people seem to drive a late-model car that's bigger, plusher, and better equipped. Everyone seems to have a cellphone now.

Restaurants are full, shopping centers are crowded, supermarkets are populated by people with huge baskets of food of great variety. That a wide variety of specialty stores can sell enough within their little niche market indicates that a lot of people own a great many non-essentials.

All this astounds me, because I'm not part of that population. Even during my prime earning years I wasn't really part of it. Sure, I owned a lot of things... houses, cars, gadgets, etc., but what I owned during my peak years would be modest by today's standards. Even more amazing, I see people with seeming wealth whose incomes just don't match their lifestyle.

How do they do it?

I suspect that most of you know how they do it, and many of you may be doing it yourself. Credit.

You'll know that I'm old when I tell you that I remember when credit cards first became available. Diner's Club was the first (good at just 27 restaurants), then American Express, and it really wasn't that long ago. The first were in 1950, but it wasn't until the later magnetic strip that they really caught on. Before that, consumer credit just wasn't widely available. If you wanted a loan, you went to a bank and convinced them that you were a good risk and that what you wanted was reasonable. If you weren't, they didn't, and you saved to buy something.

My, how that has changed. There are now more than 641 million credit cards in circulation and those cards account for an estimated $1.5 trillion in consumer spending. Our debt has skyrocketed. The average U.S. household carries nearly triple the amount of credit-card debt it did 10 years ago, about $8,700, compared with $3,300 in 1993, and it isn't just credit card debt. The average U.S. household owes about $19,400 on credit cards, auto loans and other forms of consumer debt -- an increase of $5,000, or 35 percent, in the past five years. Mortgage debt also is at all-time highs, with the average homeowner now owing nearly $96,000, up 64 percent in five years.

Median household income is 4 percent lower than it was five years ago, and the nation's savings rate, which was more than 11 percent as recently as 20 years ago, now stands at 2 percent, a figure that includes retirement savings accounts.

The average interest rate on credit cards is 18.9 percent. A typical American family today pays about $1,200 annually in credit card interest. Last year the credit card industry took in $43 billion just in card fees.

Americans are in debt up to their ears, but some of you may well be saying "So?" It's not difficult to think that if everybody is doing it, it must be safe. We couldn't all be mad, could we? I'm sorry to tell you that the answer to that question is YES.

Debt of that magnitude IS mad, both personally and for us as a society. It's marvelous that we can borrow easily. It offers us opportunities for growth, if we use credit frugally and wisely. Unfortunately, our understanding of the risk involved with debt has not grown nearly as quickly as our ability to borrow.

As a libertarian, I will not blame the credit card companies, mortgage lenders, and auto financiers who tempt us with easy credit even when it's unlikely we can handle it. They can, and do, charge enough interest to still make a profit even with a large number of bad debts.

The responsibility for America's huge consumer debt lies with each individual consumer. It is up to each of us to simply say NO to most of the offers of easy credit. It is us who will be harmed if we take on more than we can handle, not the lenders. What Americans seem to have lost track of is that things DO go wrong occasionally... yes, shit happens. When it does, a debt load can begin to collapse around you. People do lose jobs they thought were rock-solid. People do get sick and miss work, or become disabled and unable to work. Recessions do occur. Missed payments increase fees and interest, which worsens the debt problem, usually leading to more missed payments.

Even though it is our individual responsibility to manage our own affairs sensibly, I won't let our government off the hook. We are consistently led to believe that we will be "taken care of", protected from all sorts of dangers, and that we have elaborate "safety nets" to rescue us when we have a problem. It amounts to a dangerously false sense of security that simply doesn't exist when we really need it.

There is NO substitute for individual responsibility, but that is precisely what diminishes in a society that accepts an overbearing government and social welfare programs. Every time a society provides something that was not earned, the recipient loses sight of the relationship between personal responsibility and rewards. Like a thief who believes that he'll never get caught, the beneficiary of unearned results develops a false belief that it will always be that easy.

As a closing piece of advice for those of you who depend on credit cards, here's a rather shocking statement you may not be aware of, from a PBS Frontline program on credit cards:

Even if you make your credit card payments on time, the credit card bank can raise your interest rate automatically if you're late on payments elsewhere -- such as on another credit card or on a phone, car, or house payment -- or simply because the bank feels you have taken on too much debt. This practice is called the "universal default" clause and increasingly is becoming a standard clause in credit card agreements.

Think you can even find the contracts for your credit cards?