Back when charge cards were the norm, financial discipline was baked in—you settled your tab monthly, period. Access wasn't universal; these were luxury instruments for the affluent. Credit cards? They didn't exist yet. And here's the thing: society functioned just fine without them.

Think about it. We didn't need endless credit facilities to build economies, infrastructure, or wealth. Fast forward to today, and we're normalizing a parade of financial instruments that operate on completely different principles. Online sports betting is a perfect parallel—a "new vice" marketed as entertainment, not a foundational financial mechanism. Same energy with credit availability on tap.

The distinction matters. There's a difference between tools that support legitimate economic activity and mechanisms engineered to extract behavior change. Historical precedent suggests we should be cautious about treating modern innovations—especially those built on friction-free access and psychological triggers—as inevitable progress. The country adapted just fine to different financial architecture before. Worth remembering.