It's not surprising that people get into debts like the ones described in the article. Credit card companies want you to be terribly indebted to them.

I had an uncle who suffered brain damage from an aneurism that left him unable to handle money- memory issues, disorganization, etc. He was never going to be able to pay back credit cards and my mother (his PoA and lawyer) informed the credit card companies of this. They sent the cards anyways. They wanted him to go into debt, hoping that his family would bail him out.

There's more profit in taking advantage of people than there is in being a decent person. Unregulated free markets cannot account for that reality. We in Canada have some regulations, but clearly not strong enough ones to prevent this kind of predatory lending.