{"id":522,"date":"2009-05-20T22:59:05","date_gmt":"2009-05-21T02:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/?p=522"},"modified":"2009-05-20T22:59:05","modified_gmt":"2009-05-21T02:59:05","slug":"guns-booze-kids-and-credit-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/2009\/05\/guns-booze-kids-and-credit-cards\/","title":{"rendered":"Guns, Booze, Kids, and Credit Cards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine for a moment that you&#8217;re an 18-year-old US citizen. \u00c2\u00a0By law, you can:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>buy a gun<\/li>\n<li>get married<\/li>\n<li>have kids<\/li>\n<li>join the military<\/li>\n<li>go to war<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You cannot:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>buy a beer<\/li>\n<li>get a credit card<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That latest entry is a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/05\/20\/your-money\/20money.html?em\">new one<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0It&#8217;s one of the not-very-publicized sections of the credit card reform act that sailed through the house today, 361-64. \u00c2\u00a0When the law goes into effect, the average young adult, having reached the age of majority, will not be legally permitted to get a credit card. \u00c2\u00a0But it will be perfectly OK for him\/her to have a few children while they wait for their application to clear!<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot to hate about the credit card reform bill, but this particular section has a special place in my heart. \u00c2\u00a0It&#8217;s an unambiguous example of the dumbing of America. \u00c2\u00a0Can&#8217;t pay your bills on time? \u00c2\u00a0Don&#8217;t worry, the government will help you. \u00c2\u00a0You&#8217;re entering into agreements that you can&#8217;t fulfill? Uncle Sam will make the bad men go away. \u00c2\u00a0You want to be treated like a child? OK, your nanny-state will protect you from your own free will.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not the only one who thinks that a credit card engenders less responsibility than a gun or a child. \u00c2\u00a0Maybe we should start our own political party. \u00c2\u00a0 I can&#8217;t think of a name, but I have a slogan: &#8220;The Party for Adults.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine for a moment that you&#8217;re an 18-year-old US citizen. \u00c2\u00a0By law, you can: buy a gun get married have kids join the military go to war You cannot: buy a beer get a credit card That latest entry is a new one. \u00c2\u00a0It&#8217;s one of the not-very-publicized sections of the credit card reform act [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}