Some advice for would-be borrowers: Make do

I've been thinking about declaring myself a bank. My children treat my wallet in that fashion. They're constantly helping themselves to no-interest, low-interest loans, if not grants.

I, too, could use a federal bailout.

Would I, then, be wiser about the loans I make? I'd like to think so. After all, the government is practically encouraging banks to get back in the game. "Lend all that very low-interest money we've provided you. Go, go, go," Uncle Sam has told the banks.

Now hold on a minute. Isn't this what got us to this point, all this feckless lending and borrowing? And what is to give us any confidence that the bailout recipients are going to be any more cautious with our $700 billion than they were their own?

If you live long enough, you get to experience a few rides on the nation's economic roller coaster. You may live through a Depression, a few recessions and some salad days, too. You develop your own means of coping in lean times and saving for a rainy day in times of plenty. Or you don't.

I don't profess to have all the answers, but I do believe we've seen the chickens come home to roost in this recent mortgage lending collapse. Many folks, with no more discernible means than the rest of us, were living pretty high on the hog. They had the lavishly furnished trophy home, the boat, the RV and some other toys.

And we marveled how they were able to do that.

No surprise, really. They were mortgaged to the gills. Now they're upside down in their houses. They're not living so comfortably now.

In some respects, it's sad. Who wouldn't want all of those things if someone could make it possible? It's mighty tempting.

I come from a generation where credit was not easy to obtain. No one was handing out credit cards on college campuses. No one received a steady stream of credit card offers in the mail. You had to start small and work your way up to a major credit card.

Starting out, that's what I did. I had a gas credit card and I paid it off each month without fail. Some time later, I got a department store credit card. Again, I used it judiciously. I will always have an affinity for that store for taking a chance on me. In time, I obtained a major credit card, but it had a relatively modest limit.

I can remember people being turned down for credit cards. It's hard to reconcile that with later experiences of being offered credit cards as if they were growing on trees.

When credit was tight, it was hard for nontraditional consumers (lower income, sometimes people of color living in difficult conditions) to have any hope of obtaining credit. If you don't have access to credit, it's difficult to develop a "credit history." So it made sense for banks to make credit more available.

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