About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

196 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. xi (1938)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0196 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD THE evolution of the debt pattern of life in America during the last three or four decades has established credit for consumption as a structural factor in the economic system. Seen in its sociological setting, the economic phenomenon of consumer credit is a groping effort by society to adjust itself to the logic of the capitalistic system. It has its roots in the need for mitigating the problems that arise from the precarious margin of security, which is the lot of the individual and the family under existing conditions. It is also an outgrowth of the demands of the masses for the enjoyment of the products of industry, mobilized for mass production. The magnitude of this type of credit is in fact the articulation, in terms of dollars and cents and debt, of the human problems and the human wishes which spring from the insecurity and the meager supply of material comforts under which millions live. The expansion of installment selling indicates the de- termination of the masses to enjoy the material blessings of life. Industry, mobilized for mass production, has found it necessary for the stabilization of production to break open mass markets with the tool of debt and the ideal of paying-as-you-use. At first not very respectable but now conventional, the debt pattern of life for consumers has revolutionized the Puritan idea of thrift as a moral virtue and has modified the ideal of abstinence and frugality. Even ideas about usury are now being rethought as the state is forced to redefine the rates which are adequate for lending agencies dealing with the peculiar problems of their field. Credit for consumers has therefore expanded beyond the stage where it can be condemned or justified. Its existence is an almost universal reality in the life of the individual and the family. It must be studied for purposes of social control. PAUL F. DOUGLASS Xi

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most