Politicians and various other wags have been complaining about consumer debt for just about as long as there’ve been consumers and wags, Virginia Postrel reminds us in a very nice article in the November’s issue of of the Atlantic Monthly. Dick Schmalensee and I made a similar point in the 2nd edition of Paying with Plastic. One of Ben Franklin’s famous phrases was “He who goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing” and the 19th century was replete with morality tales about the evils of debt. Buying on time was a “woman’s disease” some said resulting from defective brains. My guess is there’s going to be an outpouring of stories on the evils of credit cards and other sordid devices that take us a sorrowing.

For sure, debt has a black eye today and no one who wants to get out of Dodge without being tarred and feathered would suggest that what consumers need now is more debt. But we should remember a couple of things.

For one, credit has been a strong force behind consumer and business prosperity for a long time in the United States. The real problem now is that people who should be getting credit can’t and that grinds the economy to a screeching halt.

And for another, it is in times of distress that many people actually need a little bit of credit. Anyone who has lost their job, or whose small business is having trouble collecting receivables, is thanking the inventors of plastic that they have a way to make ends meet this month.

Like many things, credit can be a vice but when you need it, it can be awful nice.