In America, we all take great pride in our freedom; freedom is a fundamental right for all citizens. We will not give up this freedom at any cost, that this the American way of life.

So why is it that we do not consider being at the mercy of large corporations all our lives? And placing our finances in the hands of these lenders as giving up our freedom? Of course, these companies did not take our freedom. We gave it to them willingly, when we signed up for car finance that we could not afford. In addition, used the credit cards without a thought of how we would repay the money that we spent.

Our own actions have taken away our personal financial freedom, and placed us at the mercy of big business. However, why would we do this when a bad debt situation can potentially, control our entire lives?

There are several reasons why we allow this situation to occur, without even giving it much thought. The biggest problem is our desires, we crave items and a lifestyle, that we simply have not yet earned enough to support.

Our culture does not see why we should wait to purchase that new sofa and love seat. We want it now and we feel that we have a right as Americans to have the things we want, immediately. The old idea of saving up for an item until you have sufficient cash seems to have disappeared from American society, almost completely.

Moreover, companies offer us solutions for our desires; we want that furniture right now. So we can pull out the credit card get ourselves some easy credit that will allow us to haul the furniture away with us, right now.

Our grandparents considered that we should not buy what we can not afford. We think the opposite that we are actually entitled to the things that we want, and there is no reason why we should have to wait to have these things in our homes.

If you are honest with yourself, is your car a means of getting to work, and going down the supermarket for your groceries? Realistically, is it just as much a status symbol that we like to flaunt, by having it sat in our driveway?

We purchased homes in a good neighborhood because we like to feel that we are in a safe and pleasant environment. We also purchased homes that are in the right neighborhood that will impress our friends and family.

We buy houses that are bigger than we actually need to live in, and we fill them with every appliance imaginable, and set them up with the very best in quality fittings.

We all desire these things that most of us simply cannot afford. We fool ourselves into believing that we can afford all these items by simply paying with credit.

We use the credit so we didn't have to wait to acquire everything we want. This credit and easily turn and bite us, very hard indeed. We can easily fall into the situation of having all the trappings of life and in reality; we are so stressed, trying to pay for all this luxury, that we cannot actually enjoy it.

We need to step back and consider if it is worthwhile to give up financial freedom for what we perceive as essential trappings of life. Alternatively, would it be better to forego some of the trappings and not suffer stress and strain of working large amounts of hours to pay for all these things that in theory make our lives so much better.