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Consumer Culture and Personal Finance: Money Goes to Market PDF

262 Pages·2010·1.42 MB·English
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Consumer Culture and Personal Finance 9780230_008670_01_previ.indd i 10/29/2009 6:33:56 PM Consumption and Public Life Series Editors: Frank Trentmann and Richard Wilk Titles include: Mark Bevir and Frank Trentmann (editors) GOVERNANCE, CITIZENS AND CONSUMERS Agency and Resistance in Contemporary Politics Magnus Boström and Mikael Klintman ECO-STANDARDS, PRODUCT LABELLING AND GREEN CONSUMERISM Jacqueline Botterill CONSUMER CULTURE AND PERSONAL FINANCE Money Goes to Market Daniel Thomas Cook (editor) LIVED EXPERIENCES OF PUBLIC CONSUMPTION Encounters with Value in Marketplaces on Five Continents Nick Couldry, Sonia Livingstone and Tim Markham MEDIA CONSUMPTION AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT Beyond the Presumption of Attention Amy E. Randall THE SOVIET DREAM WORLD OF RETAIL TRADE AND CONSUMPTION IN THE 1930S Kate Soper, Martin Ryle and Lyn Thomas (editors) THE POLITICS AND PLEASURES OF SHOPPING DIFFERENTLY Better Than Shopping Kate Soper and Frank Trentman (editors) CITIZENSHIP AND CONSUMPTION Harold Wilhite CONSUMPTION AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE A View from South India Forthcoming: Roberta Sassatelli FITNESS CULTURE Gyms and the Commercialisation of Discipline and Fun Consumption and Public Life Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–4039–9983–2 Hardback 978–1–4039–9984–9 Paperback (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England 9780230_008670_01_previ.indd i 10/29/2009 6:33:56 PM Consumer Culture and Personal Finance Money Goes to Market Jacqueline Botterill Brock University, Canada 9780230_008670_01_previii.indd iii 9780230_008670_01_previii.indd iii 10/29/2009 6:33:56 PM 10/29/2009 6:33:56 PM © Jacqueline Botterill 2010 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identifi ed as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. 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 978-0-230-00867-0 hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne 9780230_008670_01_previii.indd iv 9780230_008670_01_previii.indd iv 10/29/2009 6:33:57 PM 10/29/2009 6:33:57 PM Contents List of Illustrations and Table vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 1 Prudent Investment and Modest Consumption 23 2 Women, Home, Consumption, Lending, & Ill Repute 44 3 Hire Purchase, Home Furnishings, and the Cult of Domesticity 75 4 Gentlemanly Bankers Adopt a New Set of Manners 100 5 Big Bang Banking 132 6 The Press Takes on Personal Debt 157 7 Three Personal Finance Discourses 170 8 Personal Financial Identities in Psychology and Popular Literature 197 Conclusion 216 Bibliography 225 Index 246 v 9780230_008670_01_previ.indd v 10/29/2009 6:33:57 PM List of Illustrations and Table Illustrations 3.1 Whiteley’s Furniture Advertisement, London Times 78 3.2 Buick Automobile Advertisement, London Times 92 Table 4.1 Growth of Barclaycard 129 vi 9780230_008670_01_previ.indd vi 10/29/2009 6:33:57 PM Acknowledgements I acquired many social debts during the writing of this manuscript that I would like to acknowledge. The University of East London provided a sabbatical that allowed me to undertake much of the initial research, as well as a stimulating intellectual environment in which many of the ideas in this book took shape. Helen Powell and Iain MacRury gave invaluable collegial succor. I owe a special debt to Mica Nava who provided just the right mix of rigorous criticism and friendly support. I am indebted to Kayla Foster for her bibliographical work and beholden to Soya Felix and Alan McEwen who kept me going in the final phases of completing this book, while they diligently tidied my mistakes and clarified my prose. I own all errors that remain. Finally, the intellectual and personal support generously given by Stephen Kline, quite simply, bankrupts me. I dedicate this book to my father, Stanley Botterill. vii 9780230_008670_01_previ.indd vi 10/29/2009 6:33:57 PM This page intentionally left blank Introduction In 2005, Richard Cullen of Bath, England was found behind the wheel of his car, asphyxiated by carbon monoxide from the running engine. Although the coroner’s report called it suicide, the press coverage implied a kind of foul play, depicting Mr Cullen as the victim of an emerging cultural pathology they dubbed ‘debt related suicide’ (Ronson, 16 July 2005). They explained that Mr Cullen was an ordinary man in every way; his troubles started with an innocent loan to pay for a pri- vate hospital operation for his wife. As the illness progressed, Mr Cullen had to take time off work to care for her. This loss of income quickly drained his savings and made him dependent on his credit cards. He began to miss bill payments, discovering he could only pay for his wife’s treatment by juggling a mountain of debt, which grew to £130,000 by the time he sought to escape the only way he knew how. Looking for motives, journalists found the banks guilty, submitting the smoking gun in Richard Cullen’s mail pile as evidence: among the aggressive collection letters from the banks they found seductive flyers inviting Mr Cullen to assume even more easy credit through debt trans- fer to manage his mounting financial worries (BBC One, 2003; Morgan, 16 April 2004). Mr. Cullen’s death, journalists implied, was at the hands of heartless debt-promoting bankers. In 2005, as bankers counted up their large bonuses, their insensitivity towards the plight of the ill- starred debtor became increasingly egregious. When he fell victim to fate, he had no alternative to the financial institutions’ easy credit schemes, aggressive marketing, high interest rates, service charges, and heartless collection strategies. Journalists asked: is not the bank’s aggressive advertising of easy credit as hypocritical as the church’s sale of papal bulls (Dunn, 24 October 2004, p. 31). They labelled the banks ‘uncaring fat cats’ and modern day loan sharks. The banks responded 1 9780230_008670_02_intro.indd 1 10/28/2009 6:49:01 PM

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