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USING CREDIT WISELY
Article 1 - Part 1
Provided by Aquila Business Services, LLC
PATH TO OPPORTUNITY
As Americans, we enjoy a standard of living unmatched anywhere else in the world. We have available to us countless items and products to bring comfort and convenience into our lives. When we want to buy food, we can usually go to one of the several nearby grocery stores and choose from numerous brands. If we want to buy a new car, a computer, or clothing, we shop in a variety of stores to find the best buy. When we want to enjoy ourselves, we can usually choose from many kinds of entertainment, for example, movies, videos, music, sporting events and amusement parks. We can usually hire someone to provide services we can't, or would rather not, do ourselves, such as repairing our cars, dry cleaning our clothes, and grooming our pets. No matter what we need or want, it is available and, if we do not have the cash to pay for it, most of the time we can charge it through one of the many types of credit offered by credit granting companies...
Things were not always this way. A hundred years ago or more, most Americans lived almost entirely off what they produced themselves. Living mostly on farms in small farming communities, families raised what they needed in way of food, clothing and necessities. They sold their surplus and services to obtain what they could not produce for themselves. The ability to make large purchases or buy luxury items often depended on a plentiful harvest. In the years when the harvest was not good, families made do with just the basics. It was an independent way of life, but measured by today's standards of living it was very limited. The only kind of credit available then was extended to people the bankers and local merchants knew personally.
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