Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders

I am a huge documentary nut, and I saw this movie on Netflix and I had to watch it. There is a small part of me that has always wondered why Americans are in so much debt all the time. And this movie does shed some light on their conditions and who we can blame, if we really can blame anyone besides the people actually in debt. The interesting part of this movie is that it tells more than just why the consumers are in debt, but also shows why the government is in debt also. Click more for the full details.

I'll said it once and I will say it again: credit cards are the devil. And this documentary further confirms my hatred for credit cards. It is explained in the documentary, that it is not always the card holders fault that they are in debt. The system is flawed; it is to easy to get a credit card, credit card companies pray on the vulnerable and misuse of information confuses and masks the truth from the potential card holder. Yeah, I get it that it is always the users fault for being stupid enough to be only paying minimums every month, but the promise that you can pay off your credit card debt by just minimums is silly. I think the one thing that angers me the most is that these companies are targeting younger people, especially the ones that have just entered post secondary schooling. These young people think they have all the power and that credit cards are just free money. Without any further education they just sign what they will and posses these dangerous plastic cards. Some even rack up up to thousands of dollars of debt.

But enough about the card holders, the government isn't so amazing themselves. The documentary claims that, since the Regan administration that USA has owed foreigners more than foreigners owed them back. And that they have been using loans from banks to pay off interest from the loans from the other countries! Like COME ON! Really, you are the leader of one of the wealthiest countries and you can't even pay off your gambling/war debts. I will not get into the politics and start a flame war, but the documentary further explains why the government isn't the greatest at managing their own finances.

What else can I say about this wonderful documentary? Oh the use of death and emotions to further embed their point into you. They use a lot of the worse case scenarios such as; because some folks are in so much debt, the only way to escape is suicide. And they do interview folks who have lost a family member cause they could not keep up with the debt payments. I get it that this happens, but I don't know if it was appropriate for them to show suicide as part of the movie.

Basically, this movie is pretty good. I liked it, it was interesting, informative and funny at times with some stand up routines of C. K. Louis.