You know how marketers shove sample packets of mints at people as they emerge from the underground or subway. A recent news report from China makes it sound like credit cards are being given out there in a similar way.

Of course, any news story from China that begins with "Young going crazy for credit" is going to get my attention.

From the story "Young people living in urban areas are increasingly using credit cards to pay for goods instead of cash."

I'm shocked (web based sarcasm). People are always in love with credit cards. They love and lust to have a plastic wafer in their pocket that can let them buy a television at will or let lonely and drunken business men pay for anonymous sex.

From the story "A survey conducted by Daily Business News showed that by the end of this year, China will have 60 million credit cards, 80 percent issued after 2005."

Holy crap! You've got to work overtime to pass out that many cards. I suspect that a couple of those slipped through without much regard to the card holder's ability to pay. Call me crazy but it sure sounds like the goal is to get the cards out as quickly as possible.

I've got this mental picture of an old DC-3 flying over China filed with credit cards standing up and snapped to the line ready to bail out. There is a banker at the door shouting "Go, Go, Go!" as they dive out the door.

From the story "Banks try to attract more customers by offering various perks, cooperation with stores, airliners, hotels and even universities."

Yeah, it's called marketing.

I have to admit that it is interesting watching new countries assimilating credit cards into their culture while watching the wave of credit card use go from gleeful embrace to the "oh crap what have we done we can't pay our bills.", mentality.