Jim, Jim, and James, and Their Idea for Paying off Credit Card Debt

   Jim Sturgis, Jim Burgess, and James Stengel -- as fine of men as you'll ever meet -- except for one thing: credit card debt.
   These three men were so deeply in debt, I can't imagine them ever getting out. Then, one day, James Stengel had an idea, and he pitched it to his buddies. They were being billed monthly, of course, and it was James's idea that they shouldn't be paying so much.
   "We are Americans, you know, and by virtue of that, I don't think we should be taxed -- I mean, billed -- this way," he said. "Jim and Jim, you know for yourselves that we've friends in Poland, and Scotland, and Iceland and Icelbeckia who don't pay this heavy of taxes -- I mean, don't have this heavy of credit card payments."
   Jim and Jim looked back at him, thought for a moment, and then nodded their heads in agreement.
   "Doesn't seem fair to me," Jim said.
   "Doesn't seem right to me, either," Jim echoed.
    That's when Rawson Wilson came walking in. "I hear you boys talking," Rawson said. "I'm just going to suggest it is a little late for this. You spent the money, and you continue to spend it. You spend as if money grows on trees or comes off a printing press. You buy this and you buy that and you buy a little bit of everything. Then, when the bills come due, you suggest you deserve a tax break -- I mean, a break on paying your bills. It doesn't work that way. You run up the bill, you better pay it. Don't be whining about how nobody else pays so high of a tax rate -- I mean so high of a monthly credit card bill. Don't be telling me it isn't fair. Fair is paying for what you buy. You want a break, you think about that before you buy something."
   He looked them straight in the eyes, but I couldn't tell if what he had said was sinking in.

(Indexes: Stories, national deficit, tax reform)