The notion of buy now and pay later has been the general consensus of American consumers for decades. Interest rates have been the biggest problem, with U.S. consumers nearly racking up nearly $11 trillion in debt. The introduction of the credit card made shopping and purchasing even easier for Americans, as outstanding credit card balances reached over $800 billion. With the savings rate near historic lows, most consumers have no reserves, leaving them vulnerable. For most of us, it's hard to imagine life without a credit card, as we book movie tickets, rent cars and hotel rooms, pay college tuition, and buy our food, the everything with credit cards. You name an expense and we'll pay for it by credit card if we can. Almost all Americans use credit cards, even if it's to defer paying other bills. The American dream of owning a home also cannot be achieved without having an established line of credit. Without having established credit, there is no way a potential homeowner will be able to qualify for a mortgage loan. The American dream of owning a home has also led Americans to take out more than $8.8 trillion in mortgages, a staggering 42% increase since the 2001 recession. Rapidly rising prices in recent years have allowed many homeowners feel rich, which allows them to increase their daily expenses. Millions of Americans have taken advantage of low rates in recent years to refinance their mortgages, resulting in borrowing $715 billion (2005) against their home equity. It seems that in America and many other developed countries, living a life without credit seems impossible. TO DO. Without having credit, for example in America, it would be almost impossible to qualify for a car loan or even a home loan. In times of economic difficulty, when all good ideas fail, when businesses cannot afford new investments due to the high cost of borrowing, when mortgage rates have risen so much that it becomes difficult to maintain a standard of living decent, many small savers still believe that high interest rates at least allow them to get the most out of their savings. The truth is that they pay more than they receive. According to our trusted government movements, the only way to control a deficit is to raise taxes or cut government spending. However, since the deficit continues to grow simply due to the amounts of compound interest added to the original debt, one of the most effective ways to reduce the deficit would be to reduce interest rates. Lower interest rates = smaller deficit..