There once was a terribly irresponsible gambler who spent money like a drunken sailor and managed to get hold of his family’s credit cards. Naturally, in only three years he maxed out those credit cards and ran up a debt so large all of his family together could not possibly repay it. He suddenly became aware that the money would actually have to be repaid and just as the creditors were about to come knocking, felt the heat of the crisis. He knew his family would rightly blame him for the mess and end his gambling career—at least with their money. He had never held a productive job in his entire life so income was a real problem. He desperately needed other people’s money to continue.
So he began to lecture them on shared sacrifice and did all he could to make them all feel guilty. It kind of worked because they had foolishly given him their credit cards. Somehow he tried to manage the crises without ever acknowledging he was the one who had single-handedly tripled the family’s debt. He had the audacity to ask them for another credit card while somehow convincing some of them that more spending and credit was THE only viable answer. The family was sharply divided; some of them said “stop the madness” while the other two-thirds demanded another credit card with a still higher line of credit. The estranged family members tried to cobble together a solution to their problem—for it had truly become everyone’s by this point.
The real shock came a little later when they arrived at the bank assuming they were pre-approved because of the sterling credit rating they had always enjoyed. However, the banker informed them they could apply for credit cards all day long—that was not the real issue. Sadly, he had to break the news to them that their credit rating had been lowered while they squabbled over the new credit card—the real issue he told them was that they were spending far more money than they could repay and until they addressed that issue they need not apply for any more credit! Somehow this fact had eluded the majority of them, at least until this point. I will give you three guesses who the gambler in the story is—no just one guess. Anxiously awaiting your replies.
