Matters of life and debt
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Tuesday November 13 2007
Without enquiring too closely about how such sweeping crystal-ball information can be gleaned, it is easy to believe that, at a time when consumer confidence is on the wane, the Irish intend to party on.
For many people, the majority perhaps, no harm will be done. The financial hangover will wear off in time. However, many families who simply cannot afford to do so will throw caution to the winds and get themselves into trouble. If you can't treat the kids at Christmas, then when can you . . . ?
One of the dubious benefits of a decade of rapid growth and prosperity has been the easy availability of personal credit.
Credit card offers seem to drop through the letterbox faster than Lidl leaflets. Credit card holders in Ireland owe €2.6bn and show every intention of adding substantially to that figure in four or five weeks time.
Young people with galactic mortgages will risk all, cast prudence aside, and spend, spend, spend.
On another level, some people will turn to the moneylender.
All this is inevitable. For many, excess is the true meaning of Christmas.
Headlines in the new year about bumper retail sales, motor sales, food, drink and tobacco consumption, spending in the sales, Christmas in the sun, and so on will simply distort the insidiously creeping threat of increasing personal indebtedness.
