Consumer Credit in the United States A Sociological Perspective from
It is commonly imagined that in recent years the rampant growth of consumer credit has lured American consumers into a crippling state of indebtedness, a state that has upended old cultural values of Puritan thrift and stimulated a frenzy of consumption.
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Consumer Credit in the United States A Sociological Perspective from the 19th Century to the Present Donncha Marron
CONSUMER CREDIT IN THE UNITED STATES
Copyright © Donncha Marron, 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 All rights reserved. An earlier version of chapter 7 appeared as an article in Volume 36 of Economy & Society entitled “Lending by numbers: credit scoring and the constitution of risk within the United States.” I am very grateful to the two anonymous referees for useful advice and criticisms. Illustrations in chapters 10 and 11 are Copyright © Fair Isaac Corporation. Used with permission. Fair Isaac, FICO, myFICO, the Fair Isaac logos, and the Fair Isaac product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-37889-0 ISBN 978-0-230-10151-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230101517 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marron, Donncha. Consumer credit in the United States : a sociological perspective from the 19th century to the present / Donncha Marron. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–230–61518–2 1. Consumer credit—Social aspects—United States. 2. Consumer credit—United States. I. Title. HG3756.U54M27 2009 332.7⬘43—dc22 First edition: December 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
2009013907
For my parents, Sean and Mary Marron
Contents
List of Figures
ix
Acknowledgments
xi
Introduction
1
1 Fishing for Sharks and Governing Small Loans
17
2 Consuming by Installments: The Rise of Retail Credit
37
3 Assembling the Automobile, Reassembling Thrift
51
4 Mass Credit, Mass Society, and Their Discontents
67
5 Plastic Credit, Plastic Lifestyles
79
6 Credit Reporting and Consumer Surveillance
99
7 Risk and Technologies of Credit Scoring
115
8 Borrowing on the Fringe: The Fate of the Risky
141
9 Risk, Identity, and the Consumer
161
10
“See How Lenders See You”: From Actuarial to Subjective Governance
175
11 Securing the Self
193
Conclusion: Taking Life
211
Notes
219
References
229
Index
251
Figures
3.1 5.1 5.2 10.1 10.2 10.3 11.1 11.2
Outstanding U.S. consumer installment debt, 1919–1939 Prevalence of credit cards within United States by income quintiles, 1970–1998 U.S. credit card debt as percentage of total consumer debt, 1968–2003 FICO components National distribution of FICO scores FICO scores and risk pricing FICO ranking FICO risk
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