"I do think new cars — maybe even more than homes — are causing people problems," Anderson said. "It still surprises me how many people are in bankruptcy with $30,000 cars."

The gap between today's fast-and-loose approach to credit and the predominant attitude of a generation ago is wide.

Greenman, a life insurance salesman who sells mainly to senior citizens, said the greatest fear of older people today is running out of money before they die. Today's young people, he said, don't give a second thought to going into thousands of dollars of debt.

"We're violating the economic principles that we knew built this country," Greenman said. "We're leveraging our tomorrows for our todays. And whenever you do that, somebody has to catch up somewhere. You can't just keep putting it off. I think we've got to get back to what we really need as opposed to what we want."

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