Consumer debt is a problem that has plagued America since credit cards were invented in the 1950s, and it has sharply risen over the past 15 years. With a simple signature, and some sort of income, American’s every day are able to add new credit cards to their name and increase their risk of compiling debt. How does consumer debt relate to rhetoric though? Consumer debt activists, as well as the credit card market as a whole, are both controlled by media outlets trying to force their opinions on those reading or watching. This can be seen when a MasterCard commercial advertises their classic “priceless” slogan, which takes an emotional view into family values that will promote spending. Rhetoric can also be shown on the opposite side when people publish works bad-mouthing the credit card companies and blaming them for increasing consumer debt. Both sides heavily use propaganda and skew statistics in their favor to try and engender certain emotions or feelings inside the viewer. These rhetoric strategies have seemed to work in favor of the credit card companies so far as the national consumer debt continues to rise, but the opposing side has had a good deal of recent success against the credit card companies. President Obama recently appointed Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren to oversee the creation of a financial agency working to protect consumers from the hidden fees credit cards may carry. This agency will work to regulate the credit card industry as it has become a monopoly controlling the lives of so many Americans. Hopefully this agency can be successful in its conquests, because with American’s consuming habits there is no end in sight to buying on credit.
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Nice post, I like the connection between economics and rhetoric. It’s interesting to know how bad consumer debt has gone.
Interesting post! Great job at incorporating all of the rhetorical devices. I also like how you included a graph, it made the evidence more clear.