[1] http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/dont-buy-stuff/...
For companies, debt is even more interesting, because in corporate finance you'll find that debt is subsidised through tax rates. It sounds a bit weird but it's true, and so there is an incentive to take on debt. In some countries due to the tax systems, this applies to individuals too, e.g. for mortgages, the cost of debt reduces effective income and thereby reduces tax liabilities further than if you saved up first and then bought the house without debt, such that in some countries people did not pay off their mortgages because deductible interest payments were attractive.
Debt sucks, I know, I hate the debt culture as much as anyone and as a European the American creditcard industry is something I pity, but the discussion on debt today is extremely one-sided.
"I do not speak of merchants buying and selling on credit, or of those who buy on credit in order to turn the purchase to a profit. The old Quaker said to his farmer son, "John, never get trusted; but if thee gets trusted for anything, let it be for `manure,' because that will help thee pay it back again.""
work-averse or income-challenged maybe. Or underpaid or poor.
While I don't think it's true that "most westerners can't imagine not having a credit card", I don't have a sense of how much other Western countries use credit cards as compared to debit-based systems. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5380718.stm from 2006 says that UK has the most credit card debt of any European country. "The average British resident owes £3,175") while "The average European owed just £1,558 in unsecured debt."
The more recent http://www.thepennyhoarder.com/how-does-our-credit-card-debt... from 2012 says:
> Most other countries tend to be more cautious with their credit, opting instead to use debit cards (like in the UK and France) or online bank transfers (like in Germany) rather than to charge up a card. And when it comes to charges calculated per year, Europe makes us look like we spend with abandon; French people charge less than $300 each on their credit cards each year, on average. And Germans seem to eschew the “buy now, pay later” mentality as well, only charging an average of $158 per person per year to their credit cards.
That makes it seem like credit card use and debt more a US issue than a more generally Western issue.
Rather, that's one of the biggest differences I can think of between those two regions, with respect to personal finance.
But I can't figure out what the mechanism might be, so it's more an idle conjecture than something substantial.
I can see how it all appears to be a silly game if you never actually need credit, however there are material benefits (cash-back, rental car insurance, etc) of playing the game. In some cases the benefits you receive are nonsensical until you realize they are subsidized by irresponsible individuals paying huge sums of interest. There's a special kind of smug pleasure reserved for those who are financially responsible in America.
Personally I have enough practice that I treat my credit cards no different than I would treat my checkbook—it's not that hard to avoid trouble if you just have the mentality of only spending money you already have. In other words, I personally don't think cancelling the credit card is necessary, but YMMV.