I Heart Economic Populism

This is a great time to be alive. During the eight years of the Bush administration I was going insane over the political debates that were going on in our country. Gay marriage? Why do people care? I say let 'em get married and be as miserable as the rest of us. They won't be so "gay" and fancy-free when their spouses nag them about the goddamn lawn for a few years straight. The term "gay" might have to be replaced with something more appropriate -- "in a rut"? "Marking time"? Widespread marriage will certainly make gayness a lot less fun to watch. Their TV shows will have to be less "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and more "According to Jim." "Steve, I think we should have more sex." "Well Trent, maybe you shouldn't have sold my favorite cock rings at the garage sale!" "It's not my fault the kids thought they were bracelets!" Wa-ha-ha-ha! Cut to commercial.

Anyway, forget that -- the point is that gay marriage is not a debate that a country of grown-ups should be obsessing over. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it and saying it until everyone agrees with me -- straight people, your lives and marriages are and will be completely unaffected by the fact that some homosexual people you don't know and probably will never meet decide to get married. No one is being hurt here, folks.

There were some important debates in the Bush years. Iraq -- yeah, OK, that was an important debate. Foreign policy in general is big. But as for all the social issues that people were in a tizzy over -- who gives a shit? Does it honestly affect my family whether scientists use stem cells to cure diseases? Maybe it would if I had a disease, but fuck that because I am strong like bull. Right now my main concern is to make a few bucks before I get a crippling disease so that I can suffer extreme, heart-wrenching pain that slowly progresses into early death without going bankrupt in the process. It just makes it more fun that way.

So while people worked themselves into a lather over things that didn't affect them, I was always a bit obsessed over economic issues, and even more obsessed over why other people weren't obsessed with them. There was a book called "What the Matter with Kansas" (which I didn't read, by the way) that wondered why states like Kansas, full of salt-of-the-earth types who were struggling mightily under an income disparity between rich and poor that was approaching Third-World levels -- why would these people be Republicans? Why would they support a party whose primary policy seemed to be "whatever my baby Big Business wants, my baby gets"? When the government was Republican-controlled, they refused to enforce regulations on businesses, gave massive tax cuts to the wealthy Americans, etc., etc., and after a while it didn't even seem to be based on some sort of principle, as Reaganomics admittedly was -- it was just based on "How much can we get?" There was no real ideology beyond kleptocracy, basically.

The "What's the Matter with Kansas" book was basically saying that Republicans were cynically using wedge issues such as gay marriage and stem cells to get a lot of well-meaning religious folks to vote for them, so that when in power, the Republicans could then do absolutely nothing concrete about those wedge issues, but instead enact a lot of punishing economic legislation. Look at the record -- what did Bush do after gaining his alleged mandate in 2004? Did he try to ban gay-married abortion doctors from burning flags made of stem cells? No, he tried to privatize Social Security. (Imagine if he had succeeded on that one, by the way. Euch!) What did he do after garnering a 150% approval rating after 9/11? Did he declare the United States a Christian nation and require school prayer and creationist classes and school lunches made of nothing but holy water and eucharist? Nope, he cut taxes on the rich. Meanwhile, abortions kept on keepin' on unchecked. Y'all Kansans is gettin' played.

But now financial issues are in vogue because the economic shit has hit the fan, and I'm eating it up. (That is a rather disgusting combination of metaphors there. My apologies.) Of course, people are still doing it stupidly -- witness the frenzied teabaggers who are revolting against tax hikes that haven't even happened yet, and that would likely only bring us back to Clinton-era levels, as per a "sunset" clause that Republicans worked into the original tax cut bill. I saw a bunch of the teabaggers on TV and they were all salt-of-the-earth types. Guys, have you checked your paychecks recently? You just got tax CUTS that are giving you more money each two weeks. You're still acting as puppets of the fatcats that you're supposedly so angry with. You think those AIG folks were Democrats?

Anywhoozle, this is all a long prelude to my own tiny little moment of action for economic populism. See, I've been using a Working Assets Visa card for about 7 years now. I've never missed a payment and often carry a balance of around 30% of the limit, which is right in the sweet spot of where they want. I'm a model customer. And then I get a letter saying that my APR is being tripled. For no reason. But you can always cancel, right? Yeah, and you know that doesn't look good on credit reports. And I'd rather stick it to them anyway. So I wrote this letter:

To Whom It May Concern,

I am transferring all of my money from my Working Assets Visa to another card because you recently raised my APR for no reason at all. I have never had a late payment and have carried a reasonable balance for years. It is clear that my APR was raised only because you thought it could get you a tiny amount of more money, with no consideration for what it might do to me, or what it might do to my perception of your company.

I do not wish to cancel, because that would hurt my credit rating, so instead I will pay the card off in full and never use it except in case of emergency. I’m doing this for is not only economic reasons, but also as a matter of principle. I am lucky in that I have other options besides succumbing to your tactics – meanwhile many people, especially in the current struggling economy, do not. It seems that you are blatantly exploiting the financial dire straits of ordinary people. What could mean a miniscule raise in profits for your company could cripple a family living on the edge of bankruptcy. This is unconscionable.

You probably know that Congress is debating legislation that will ban APR raises for no reason, a measure I fully support. Do you really want the same kind of populist backlash currently directed towards banks to be directed to credit card companies? Do you want people to continue the current trend of saving more instead of spending? “Penny wise, pound foolish” practices such as raising APRs for no reason will only encourage such activity. Your salad days of people charging much more than they can pay are over, and through your cruel, myopic policies you are only making it worse for yourselves.

I am cynical enough to expect the philosophy of “a slight rise in profits for us is worth any amount of human suffering – hey it’s a business” to be evident in many businesses. I thought, however, that a company like Working Assets, which spends so much money on progressive causes, would not be so short-sighted. Previously I used my Working Assets Visa with pride, and recommended it to everyone. Now I will tell everyone I can that your company is a sham, and that they should avoid it all costs.

Thank you for your time,

Chris E. Keedei

Now here's my question. Who do I actually send this to? I'm not naive enough to think that Visa president, CEO and Grand Wizard Visa von Visaheimer will read my letter, experience a revelation, and suddenly change all his policies and buy the world a Coke to keep it company. But I would like it to get into the hands of someone besides the poor minimum-wage shlubs who process my payments. Any ideas?