A Horror Movie For Our Times

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· The Commerce Department reported that the nation's personal savings rate for all of 2006 was negative 1 percent, the worst since the Great Depression.

· From July 1, 2005, to last June 30, there were almost 1.5 million personal bankruptcy filings.

· Credit card issuers have increased the number of mailed credit card offerings sixfold since 1990, from just over 1.1 billion to a record 6 billion in 2005.

· Revolving credit card debt, the amount you don't pay off every month, increased 6 percent from $827 billion to $876 billion in 2006.

· Low- and middle-income households have, on average, $8,650 in credit card debt.

"There is an even greater misconception at work," Scurlock writes and presents in his film. "A misconception that debt is not what it used to be. That there is 'good' debt, for example, and 'bad' debt. The idea that one should stay out of debt, period, is now considered unrealistic. Even more frightening is the notion that debt is our friend -- a magical tool that allows us, in the words of Napster's new ads, to 'own nothing, have everything.' "

That definitely deserves an "Amen."

Scurlock said his goal for the book and the movie was to "paint the story of our debt-fueled culture in broad strokes." He says he wants to challenge the assumptions about the way we live our lives and shift the debate.

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