When I talk about economy, what do you think it comprises of? It is an overall behavior of the total population or consumers. And you cannot deny when I say that much of this consumer behavior is based on the reports (or rather propaganda) of the media.

You would definitely not have a bit of confidence in the state’s economy when you see the crashing stock market, increasing food prices, number of employees laid off each day, or every penny rise in the gas prices. Oh, it’s so horrifying. Or you have to be so damn rich that these major changes just don’t seem to affect you. However, I am talking about the majority of population that’s facing the consequences.

But is it right to blame the media just because they give you price updates? Is it ethical to hold the media responsible because we cannot talk about the blunders of George Bush or Bill Clinton?

How am I supposed to know the ethics? But I definitely blame the media for one irresponsible thing they repeatedly do. And that’s the manner in which they represent the credit card debts.

Look around and you will find every individual or a family buried to their nose in credit card debts. However, not anyone of us is trying to dig our way out of these debts or even act as if we are trying.

Why? Because Obama said so? No, because the media has paralyzed us.

How?

They have been informing us the startling trend of credit card liabilities with decorative graphs and colorful pie charts since many years. These graphs and charts tell us the average debt owed by each family in United States. What else? The average amount of debt per family, how many families failed to repay the amount on time, and blah, blah, blah.

And if you are a slipshod college guy (or that damn rich guy) and doesn’t know about these graphs, let me tell you the amount of debts is quite vast. However, instead of consumers being horror-struck or guilty, it seems to be having a reverse effect.

Such numbers and graphs are displayed every hour by a newsreader which people are observing since many months. And you know what? We feel better. We feel better because there are people like us all over the country laden with debts. We feel better because the average debt per family is more than our debt.

Sounds weird? Think again. This is how we all (as consumers) love to feel.

For instance, I am an overweight guy trying hard to lose some pounds every month. I go to gym every evening, jog every morning, and have cut down intake of calories considerably.

One day, I come across a magazine that has an article on the cover page saying an average citizen in America is 30 pounds overweight. According to the article, I am just 15 pounds overweight i.e. less than an average citizen. What a relief? I feel better and stop all the unnecessary efforts of dieting, work-out, etc. I buy the magazine which is a proof that I am not overweight (at least when compared to an average citizen). And after reading the article regularly for a month, I actually start believing that I am slim.

Whom should I blame? My foolishness or the magazine? Probably both. However, in the above case it would be more of my foolishness because I read the article everyday. But what’s with these media people? Why do they keep showing the trends every hour making that ‘average citizen’ feel better about himself?

Let me tell you this feeling better won’t last long, because the credit card providers are feeling much better. You watch the news, feel better, and spend the remaining balance of your credit card; the provider smiles and laughs.

However, we don’t feel so awful because we are not alone, isn’t it? We are not alone who is drowning, it’s the nation. We saw it on the news. The media reported something like this an hour ago.

And how can we blame some one who is helping us to feel better?