Credit Nation

In just a few days the Icelandic economy crashed with a bang. Why? There are probably many answers to that question and I am not an economist or an expert of any kind but this is how I see the things.

I got my first credit card when I was 16 years old and my credit limit was much higher than my monthly income, there is something so seriously wrong with that. The bank was always prepared to lend my more money and when I was 25 years old I was almost bankrupt. How could that be? I did not own anything, what happened to all that money? My payday came and I had to make a choice, I was no longer going to take part in this shopping circus, it was time to grow up.

Today I still don’t really own anything but I have everything I need and I owe very little money. I want a lot of stuff like a car or a flat screen TV. I just don’t need it and that’s a guideline I have today, I totally recommend it.

My life has not really changed at all since economy circus began except my rent is a bit higher and for the first time in my life I’m actually quite satisfied with not owning anything.

I believe I’m one of the people here in Iceland who have been wondering for a few years about when this money/shopping madness would explode in our faces and now it has. Who is to blame? We all are. Why? Because we are greedy. There is a reason why GREED is one of the 7 deadly sins.

Iceland is a ridiculously expensive country with so many stores that you could go crazy just deciding where you are going to go when you need to shop and they are always packed with people. We buy things no matter what they cost just because we want them and usually it’s “paid” for with a credit card and if it costs very much you can just split the payments to as many months as you like. (Almost) every family has 1-3 cars, 1 computer each, TV, DVD, i-pod, cell phone and a wardrobe that could pay my rent for a whole year and it’s all credit.

About 320.000 people live in Iceland and about 180.000 of them live in the capital area. We don’t have enough people for this to add up, this was always going to explode, it was just a matter of time, sad but true.

Icelandic people were not always like this. As I remember it I think this began around the year 2000.

However there is another part of this story concerning the government and the business suit guys with a personality bypass who have been gambling with money like it’s a sport. The root of the problem is there. Their responsibility is bigger than I really want to know.

When the state sold the banks to private parties our whole attitude towards money totally changed and we lost the respect we had for money.

We have slided on our credit cards in to very hard times and hopefully it will teach us the value of money. The hardest thing about this all is the people who do know the value of money and have even been saving for their retirement and now have nothing. That makes me furious.