Debt and Consumption

Abstract

In capitalist economy and consumer culture, people have more opportunities and choices especially on buying goods and services. Hence, those opportunities and choices are dominated by a small number of manufacturers, imperfect competition, marketing, advertising and public relations. It seems like consumers have the best products and services at the cheapest price. Consumers who have already had the financial burden fall on the consumer culture that they have to pay more in spite of they cannot afford them. In addition, the society of materialistic values which urged people to consume more leads them to the state of indebtedness in both formal and informal. Many debtors were being in debt the informal debt first and then they were in debt the formal debt because they could not handle their interest and principal of loan. Some of debtors were in debt with several financial institutions. Moreover, people from some occupations are accepted by society can raise a loan easily. For customer convenience, bank clerks come to give many offers and loan details at the work places. In these situations, debtors remain in the state of indebtedness repetitiously with no way out. This article aims to present the state of debt of teachers by means of in-depth interview.