This just in from TMV’s favorite poet Wallstreet Poet Michael Silverstein:
In the old Soviet Union, the secret police had dossiers that chronicled everyone’s political lives so dissidents could be quickly identified and punished. In today’s America, credit bureaus have very detailed records of everyone’s economic lives, and one false spending move brings out the dunners. Barbed wire kept dissidents from escaping Soviet political bondage. A newly “reformed” bankruptcy law does the same for American debtors. Here’s a seasonal ditty, sung to the tune of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” that sums up this new reality.
The Credit Card Holiday Song
Oh, you better take care
What these days you buy,
You gotta beware
Or you’re gonna cry,
Credit cards may soon make you frown.Now you can’t get away
In bankruptcy court,
From card debt excess
Old spending has wrought,
In dunning calls you’re soon gonna drown.They know where you are working,
Where you bank, how much you make;
In all purchases they’re lurking
Waiting for just one mistake.So…you better take care
What these days you buy,
You gotta beware
Or you’re gonna cry,
Credit cards could well bring you down.
©2005 Michael Silverstein
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.