Before the 1920s consumer credit was considered okay for housing or for "moral" consumption such as pianos or encyclopedias. Stores would give credit on the books people they knew. I could go to the nearby grocery store, pick up some things for my mother, and clerk would merely note down the price. The automobile industry first popularized massive credit in the 1920s.
On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 12:58:31PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote: > > On Jul 16, 2008, at 12:23 PM, Gernot Koehler quoted: > >> And so the financial system has begun to target the personal income of >> private individuals - workers and broader strata of the population - as a >> source of profit. >> This is a new departure in capitalism. > > New? It's growing, for sure, but mortgage lending and consumer credit are > very old in the U.S. Less old elsewhere, but we're still talking decades. > > And if you want to go back, there's the company store. > > Doug > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
