This is the Age Of ....

What Age do we live in?  I have thought about this.  We are told we live in the Age of Information, but is that really true?  Yes we live in a time where we are connected, more and more, through the Internet, through our Smart Phones etc, it has probably never been easier to stay in touch with someone on the other side of the world than at any other point in History.  More-so it has probably never been easier to meet someone living on the other side of the World.

We have an extensive media presence, which although billed as a source of information and as an extension of our awareness, it is often inaccurate, biased and in many cases it can be out and out wrong.  The point here is yes we live in an information age but is Information the greatest commodity of our era?

I would pose that it is perhaps not, in my eyes I would describe this era as the Age of Credit.  I would say this because no matter who you are and no matter how rich or poor you are, somehow somewhere Credit will be involved in your life.  We live with our smart phones almost permanently attached to our hands but those phones are expensive, the majority of people who use them got them 'free' when they signed up to a contract, that contract phone is a credit account.  Your phone bill credited to the balance each month before being paid off by you.  Students entire academic life are for the most part based in credit, those student loans that will be repaid when they are earning are also a form of credit.

In the world of consumerism we are conditioned to believe that credit is the path to consuming things which you could not afford to buy right now but can pay for over longer terms.  The population of the USA is approx 310 million people.  In the USA at present there are an estimated 1 billion credit cards currently in circulation that's on average 3 cards per person for every man woman child and baby in the USA. We are surrounded by information but a lot of it isn't free and we have to pay for it somehow, it seems the answer for many people is credit.